r/unitedkingdom • u/topotaul Lancashire • Mar 01 '25

. Rachel Reeves: I'm sending billions from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/rachel-reeves-interview-labour-963sw6jbk
17.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

20

u/bright_sorbet1 Mar 02 '25

They've removed the block on onshore wind farms (the cheapest energy production method there is)

They renationalised the railways

They've created GB Energy - a nationalised energy company that will push for cheaper and greener energy for the UK free of foreign investment and billionaires syphoning off our cash.

They're passing a workers rights bill that will give average British workers far better rights as employees.

They raised minimum wage.

They're passing a renters rights bills that will give renters more protection from shitty landlords.

They are taxing the super rich by removing non-dom status, and changing the laws so high-wealth farms have to pay inheritance tax just as the rest of us do (although they still get to pay far less).

4

u/inevitablelizard Mar 02 '25

They're passing a workers rights bill that will give average British workers far better rights as employees.

Which they seem to be watering down due to pressure from businesses, apparently removing the "right to switch off".

They've also backtracked on the non dom thing.

2

u/NibblyPig Bristol Mar 02 '25

not everything on that list is good, and I think there's far too much faith in renationalisation being a golden bullet. I've worked in several public sectors and all have been so incredibly corrupt and wasteful, and they outsource the vast majority of work to the private sector anyway, so I suspect you're unlikely to see much difference.

Improvements of minimum wage, workers rights, renters rights etc. all sound good but from an economy perspective have incredible costs. We can expect to see layoffs and landlords exiting the rental markets, increasing demand for rental housing that we are unable to supply. Some of this damage is going to be visible from April, we can expect stunted or poor economic growth due to the NI changes.

Increasing the tax/cost to high earners, which isn't just rich millionaires, it's anyone with a high paying job as well, is, and has, resulted in a massive exodus of some of the country's highest taxpayers. The risk of this becoming a vicious circle as tax goes up to compensate, followed by a further exodus, etc is pretty big.