Huge boost for UK Fair Tax Councils as London Assembly Members call for Mayor’s support
A unanimous cross-party vote by London Assembly Members puts Greater London in pole position as the UK’s number one regional fair tax champion.
Assembly Members of the Greater London Authority (GLA), which oversees an annual budget of nearly £15bn, have come together to ask the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, to back responsible business tax conduct. It makes the GLA the first Mayoral Combined Authority to show a significant commitment to fair tax and paves the way for others to follow.
Mary Patel, Fair Tax Networks Manager, said: “It’s an enormous step forward for fair tax and follows a record-breaking year for Fair Tax Councils in 2022 when supporter numbers grew 170%. London really has thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the UK.”
The motion, put forward by Green Assembly Member (AM) Zack Polanski and seconded by Labour & Co-operative AM Len Duvall, says: “All organisations should pay the right amount of tax in the right place at the right time. Tax is essential to provide vital public services however it has been estimated that £17bn of revenue is lost each year due to multinational profit shifting.”
“This Assembly welcomes the Fair Tax Foundation campaign and calls on the Mayor to commit to the key principles of the Fair Tax Declaration; and to lead by example in the GLA’s own tax conduct, to promote good practice and to support changes to legislation to allow tax conduct by suppliers to be taken into account through procurement policies.”
The cross-party motion met with unanimous support, typifying the way major parties of every persuasion have backed fair tax over the past few years. Responsible tax conduct is largely proving to be a unifying issue in an often-divisive political landscape.
Westminster City Council backed Fair Tax in September 2022
London surge
Support for fair tax in Greater London rocketed last year, going from two to eight Fair Tax Councils in the space of just six months. Brent was the latest Greater London council to vote in support of fair tax practices in December, joining Greenwich, Lambeth, Southwark, Richmond upon Thames, Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Barnet. London now boasts eight Fair Tax Councils making it the UK’s leading region.
Public demand
Individuals want to see councils back ethical procurement and reward businesses paying their fair share of tax.
Last year, IBE data saw ‘corporate tax avoidance’ topping the UK public’s list of concerns for a tenth consecutive year. The Fair Tax Foundation’s most recent UK public polling finds that voters from across the political spectrum believe that local councils should consider a company’s ethics and how they pay their tax, as well as value for money and quality of service provided, when awarding contracts to companies. Which is why we’ve been calling for reform of the UK’s procurement rules.
It is heartening to see so much support for responsible tax conduct in towns and cities across the UK. Visit our Councils for Fair Tax page to find out how to support fair tax in your local area.
Fair Tax Week in London
Leading responsible businesses will gather in London during Fair Tax Week 2023 (8th – 18th June) for an invite-only drinks reception and networking event to celebrate the growing fair tax movement. The reception is sponsored by SSE, a pioneering Fair Tax Mark accredited business.
