Green party leader Zack Polanski delivered his first economic speech to the New Economics Foundation on 19 March. Polanski’s diagnosis of the issues with the UK were privatisation, deregulation and the excesses of the rentier class. His solutions included nationalisation of water, rent controls and wealth taxes.

Zack Polanski — End ‘rip off Britain’

He began by highlighting the ‘extreme economic inequality’ in the UK:

We live in Rip Off Britain. Sky high bills, stagnating wages – extreme inequality. It can’t go on like this. But we have a plan to change it.

He then spoke of how green energy not only addresses the climate crisis, but also delivers cheaper bills and shields the UK from volatile international oil markets:

Spain… has doubled its wind and solar capacities since 2019, taking it from having some of the highest energy bills in Europe to some of the lowest. Other countries have been able to learn the lessons from previous crises and prepare – why is our response so weak when disaster strikes? The answer, put simply, is that we live in rip-off Britain: an economy built to reward the few off the work of the many. A country where people work so hard and try to do the right thing but still struggle to afford the basics, and people find themselves constantly cutting back.

Polanski stopped short of offering a publicly owned Green New Deal in his speech, simply saying that we should speed up the transition to renewables. Currently the market is moving towards renewables, but it isn’t happening fast enough to avert the risk of climate catastrophe. It’s worth noting that the esssential of energy was once in public ownership and would deliver even cheaper running costs.

That said, he did state the problem:

A bonfire sale of our water, our energy, our railways – and so many other fundamental services – meant UK Public Wealth went from the Highest in the G7 to the Lowest… over… two decades.

End Right to Buy

Polanski began with an analysis of Right to Buy, but then concluded that it should be replaced with state landlordism:

Over two million houses have now been sold under right to buy since it was introduced. In the first place, those houses went to people who had worked hard and saved up to own the home they lived in and loved – but now they’re increasingly owned by private landlords, property developers and investment firms who treat those homes – and their tenants – as cash cows.

So we need to end right to buy completely.

Instead, why not replace the social homes that are bought up and make provisions against them being used for private rent?

Billionaire Britain

Polanski continued:

In 1990, when I was going through primary school**,** and there were 15 billionaires in the UK. By last year, that number had risen to 154. And let’s look at how those people are making their money: today, more than 1 in 4 billionaires draw some or all of their wealth from property and inheritance.

Unearned wealth is a huge issue because it undermines the economy. Inheritance tax should be progressive rather than flat.

Zack Polanski on public investment

The Green leader then spoke of an issue with government planning:

UK fiscal forecasting currently relies on rigid fiscal multiplier assumptions that constrain effective government policy. By assuming that spending multipliers expire after 5 years, the current model is prioritising short-term fiscal targets over the longer-term economic and social gains that targeted government spending could achieve. Right now we can’t plan major infrastructure projects. We can’t invest properly in a healthy, educated population. Right now, we can’t build our future.

To be sure, Polanski’s speech was an inspiring and accurate diagnosis of the issues with Britain.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

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