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Not necessarily. The Green Party of England and Wales said its personal-tax changes could raise £50–£70 billion a year in 2024 prices by the end of the next parliament. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thought some measures could raise substantial sums, but doubted that the package could deliver the sums claimed without economic costs. The title’s “striking a chord” framing is not backed here by polling evidence; this is an assessment of the party’s 2024 general-election manifesto, not a claim about its current 2026 policies.
What did the Greens propose?
The 2024 manifesto from the Green Party of England and Wales set out a broad shift in taxation away from employment and towards wealth and pollution. It combined changes to personal taxes with measures affecting consumption, assets and property. That is more complicated than a simple promise to “tax the rich”: some proposals could affect higher-paid workers and others could reach people across a much wider range of incomes.
The party’s June 2024 launch statement put its estimate for personal-tax changes at £50–£70 billion a year in 2024 prices by the end of the next parliament. That is the party’s forecast, not an independently confirmed costing in the sources assessed here. It should also be kept separate from the IFS’s figures for the scale of the overall manifesto package.
Main tax measures
| Measure | What was proposed | Key question for the revenue estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Annual wealth tax | The party’s background document described a tax on wealth in all forms, valued at current market value, for UK-resident taxpayers, collected through an extension of self-assessment. | How assets would be valued each year, and how the tax would be administered and avoidance limited. |
| National Insurance | Increase contributions on earnings above £50,270. A CIOT summary of the manifesto reported a proposed 1% rate on earnings above that threshold, with the rate on that band raised to 8%. | How much the change would raise after people and employers respond, and how its burden would fall on higher-paid workers. |
| Investment income and capital gains | Align the treatment of income from investment and work, including capital-gains taxation. | The amount raised would depend on the detailed design and on changes in investment and other behaviour. |
| Carbon taxation | Use carbon taxation as a major source of revenue. | A successful tax could reduce emissions and therefore shrink the taxable base; the IFS doubted the forecast yield of more than £90 billion. |
| VAT and other taxes | Reduce VAT in areas such as hospitality and culture, while increasing it for financial services and private education. Other proposals affected inheritance, pensions, land and council tax. | The overall effect depends on the details of each measure; the manifesto’s tax mix cannot be summarised as a single levy on wealthy households. |
How large was the overall spending and tax plan?
In its June 2024 reaction, the IFS described the manifesto as proposing more than £170 billion a year in tax increases by the end of the next parliament. It said those increases would fund a £160 billion increase in day-to-day public spending, alongside £90 billion a year in additional capital spending. These are the IFS’s descriptions of the overall manifesto package, not figures that should be attributed to the party’s estimate for personal-tax changes.
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The distinction matters: the party’s £50–£70 billion figure covered its personal-tax changes, while the IFS figures describe the much larger package of tax increases and planned spending. They answer different questions and should not be compared as if one were a revised version of the other.
What did the IFS think could raise money?
The IFS did not dismiss every tax proposal. It said higher National Insurance on earnings above £50,000 and restricting pension tax relief could raise substantial sums. But it warned that pension-relief changes could reach workers on “not terribly high salaries”, including nurses and teachers. That makes the distribution of the burden an important part of judging the plan, not a side issue.
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The IFS also said a wealth tax could raise revenue, while warning that it would be tough to implement. The manifesto’s stated approach—valuing wealth at current market value and collecting through self-assessment—still leaves practical questions about how different assets would be valued, how often valuations would be updated, and how the system would handle avoidance and administration. The available assessment does not establish a definitive yield for the wealth tax.
Why was the carbon-tax forecast doubtful?
The IFS questioned the prospect of raising more than £90 billion from a carbon tax. The tension is built into the policy: if a tax successfully changes behaviour and reduces emissions, the amount of emissions left to tax falls. A forecast must therefore account for behavioural change rather than assume the original taxable base remains intact.
That does not by itself settle whether a carbon tax is desirable. A policy can be intended to cut pollution as well as raise money. But revenue expected from a shrinking base is less reliable as a long-term way to finance permanent spending than a forecast that incorporates the effect of the tax on the activity being taxed.
Could the revenue come with economic costs?
The IFS’s central concern was that the specific measures were unlikely to raise the sums claimed without real economic cost. Taxes can affect decisions to work, save, invest or change behaviour. The size of those effects depends on policy design; the IFS’s reaction is a warning about the package’s likely trade-offs, not a claim that every tax rise would have the same effect.
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The IFS also cautioned against relying on temporary windfall taxes to fund permanent commitments. A one-off or short-lived receipt may help meet a temporary cost, but it is not a dependable match for spending that continues year after year.
In their 2024 reaction, IFS authors Carl Emmerson and Helen Miller wrote: “It is unlikely that the specific tax-raising measures they propose to help achieve all this would raise the sorts of sums they claim – and certainly not without real economic cost.” That is an assessment of revenue, feasibility and economic effects; it is not, on its own, a verdict on whether the proposed taxes are fair or whether higher public spending is worth the trade-offs.
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How should voters judge the tax pitch?
A useful test is to look beyond the headline revenue estimate and ask how it was built. In particular, scrutinise:
- Yield after behavioural responses: Does the estimate account for changes in work, investment and emissions, rather than treating the taxable base as fixed?
- Recurring versus temporary revenue: Are lasting spending commitments matched by revenue that can be relied on year after year?
- Administration and avoidance: Can assets be valued consistently and the rules enforced in practice, especially for an annual wealth tax?
- Who ultimately pays: Do the effects fall only on the very wealthy, or also on higher-paid workers and people affected by pension and consumption-tax changes?
- Policy purpose versus fiscal yield: If a tax is meant to change behaviour, does the revenue forecast reflect the possibility that successful change will reduce the base?
The evidence considered here concerns the 2024 manifesto and the IFS’s contemporaneous assessment. It does not establish a poll showing that voters supported the tax pitch, that the pitch caused an increase in Green support, or that these proposals remain party policy in 2026.
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