Southwark Lib Dems Lead the Way on Fair Tax
Last year the Liberal Democrats successfully campaigned for Southwark to become a Fair Tax Council, passing the Fair Tax Declaration. In June 2022 the Southwark Liberal Democrats published a letter calling on Southwark to sign the ‘Councils for Fair Tax Declaration’. One month later, the council unanimously passed a motion signing up to the declaration.
The declaration commits the council to best practice in its own tax conduct, as well as promoting initiatives such as the Fair Tax Mark accreditation scheme for local businesses.
The declaration should be the first step in meaningful action to stand up for responsible tax conduct. In March this year the Liberal Democrats pushed the council for an update on progress made, with disappointing results. The council confirmed that little had been done to work with local businesses to support them in conducting better practice or becoming Fair Tax Mark accredited.
Commenting, local economy spokesperson Rachel Bentley said:
“We’re proud to be backing fair tax in our local area. It’s great to have Fair Tax Week as a way to draw attention to the need for honesty and transparency when it comes to tax, for the benefit of everyone.
The declaration was passed unanimously one year ago but we are yet to see words translated into meaningful action. A Liberal Democrat administration would use the council powers to engage local businesses in best practice, and lobby the government to make changes to procurement rules.
The Liberal Democrats continue to be leading the way on promoting fair tax, and we will call on the council and the government to do better.”
Mary Patel, Networks Manager at the Fair Tax Foundation, said:
“Tax is so important when considered against the huge array of public services it helps support. Recent research has found that the UK loses an estimated £17bn in corporation tax revenues as a result of profit shifting alone. Backing fair tax and transparent financial reporting should be clear common ground for all parties as we seek to rebuild, level up and drive out dirty money.”
Significantly, recent polling has found that two thirds of people (66%) believe the Government and 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.*
* 2022 ICM Omnibus: a nationally representative omnibus survey of c.2,000 adults across GB between 14th and 16th May 2022.
About the Fair Tax Foundation
The Fair Tax Foundation was launched in 2014 and operates as a not-for-profit social enterprise. The Fair Tax Foundation believes that companies paying tax responsibly should be recognised and celebrated; and any global race to the bottom on tax competition should be resisted. UK Fair Tax Councils have signed up to the Councils for Fair Tax Declaration or otherwise shown significant support for fair tax. The UK Councils for Fair Tax Declaration commits councils to:
- leading by example on their own tax conduct
- demanding to know who owns and profits from businesses the council buys from – UK and overseas – and their full financial reports
- joining calls for UK public procurement rules to change so that councils can do more to tackle tax avoidance and award points to suppliers that demonstrate responsible tax conduct.
The Fair Tax Mark business accreditation scheme is the gold standard of responsible tax conduct. It seeks to encourage and recognise organisations that pay the right amount of corporation tax at the right time and in the right place.
Data on the scale and impact of global tax avoidance is derived from the “Missing Profits” initiative, as provided by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Copenhagen. See https://missingprofits.world/