Stroud MP Dr Simon Opher has called on the government to take bold and creative steps in the upcoming Autumn Budget to strengthen the economy, tackle inequality, and ease pressure on working families.
With around a month to go until the Budget, Dr Opher urged ministers to “take stock of the economy over the last year and focus on how we can keep building for the next,” stressing the need for measures that “genuinely improve life for working people.”
He welcomed recent signs of economic stability, noting that inflation remained steady at 3.8% in September—lower than predicted—and that food price rises are slowing for the first time since March. Retail sales have also increased by 0.5%, which Dr Opher says reflects that “people are beginning to feel the benefits of measures such as the rise in the National Living Wage.”
“Measures like the Living Wage increase mean that people can spend more in their local communities, supporting small businesses and contributing to the revitalisation of our high streets,” he said. “On average, people on lower wages spend a larger share of their income locally rather than hoarding wealth through investment or saving. We must make life easier for lower-income families and ensure that those with the broadest shoulders carry a fairer share of the burden.”
Dr Opher is calling for the introduction of a wealth tax to help address systemic inequality. A 2% tax on wealth above £10 million, affecting only 0.04% of the population, could raise around £24 billion a year—enough, he says, to fund universal free school meals for all state school pupils in England and abolish the two-child benefit cap, with billions to spare.
“Raising this money through a wealth tax would mean we can stick to our pledge of freezing income tax, employee national insurance and VAT – protecting the payslips of working people,” he said.
Dr Opher also called for a fairer tax system that focuses on unproductive wealth rather than earnings, suggesting that capital gains tax should be aligned with income tax rates, ensuring that high earners no longer pay lower rates on investment income than on wages.
“The economic fallout from Brexit and years of austerity has hit families extremely hard,” Dr Opher added. “We must do all we can to lift households out of poverty, improve lives, and strengthen our local economy.”
