Tax breaks for private equity managers would be scrapped amid a wider review of taxation under a Labour government, the shadow chancellor has said.
Speaking at the party’s annual conference in Brighton today (September 27), Rachel Reeves said the Labour Party had a “clear mission to recognise and release Britain’s real wealth” and would look at “every single tax break” offered in the UK as part of a wide review if it were voted into power at the next general election.
Reeves said she would scrap the tax breaks for private equity managers immediately, ensuring “those at the top pay their fair share too", and abolish the current system of business rates.
Reeves said the new rate would include a lowering of the threshold for firms to qualify for business rates relief, as well as a tax system based on property value.
In earlier newspaper reports it was suggested Labour would target buy-to-let investors with tax rises but there was no explicit mention of that in her speech.
“With inflation rocketing, people are feeling the squeeze at the supermarket checkout, at the petrol pump and when their energy bill arrives,” she said.
“I will not balance the books on the backs of working people...there are too many loopholes for those who can afford the best advice."
On business rates she said: “Here is our guarantee: the system we replace [business rates] with will incentivise investment, feature more frequent revaluations, and instant reduction in bills where property values fall, reward businesses that move into empty premises, encourage, not penalise, green improvements to business, and no public services or local authorities will lose out from these changes.”
She added: “Most of all it will make our system of business taxation fair for the 20th century.”
The shadow chancellor highlighted the Labour Party would eschew excess borrowing, instead balancing the current budget by matching day-to-day public spending with tax revenues.
She added the party would also seek to reduce the deficit and create a new Office for Value for Money to check how public money is spent.
sally.hickey@ft.com
