Wealth Inequality, Tax & Social Policy

The Social Policy Association's Tax and Social Policy Group is holding a conference on Wealth Inequality, Tax and Social Policy. The conference will take place in person:

on Thursday 16th January 2025, 10.30am to 3.45pm (10.30 arrival for a 10.45m start) at London School of Economics.

The conference will be held in: Room 2.10, Marshall Building, London School of Economics, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY

The event is funded by the Social Policy Association and is free to registered attendees. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Arrival from 10am and tea/coffee

Morning Session: 10.30 – 12.45

Welcome and Introduction

Speakers

Mike Savage - Professorial Research Fellow, International Inequalities Institute, and lead for the Wealth, Elites and Tax Justice theme at the London School of Economics

Mike will speak on why wealth is held unequally by different groups and the role of taxes now and in the past in shaping those unequal holdings

Rajiv Prabhakar - Senior Lecturer in Personal Finance at the Open University. His research has included wealth taxation and financial inclusion and he is author in 2021 of the book Financial Inclusion: Critique and Alternatives (Policy Press).

Rajiv will speak about how tax policies can be used to address inequalities in wealth holdings.

Lunch 12:45-13:45

Afternoon Session: 13.45 – 15.45

Panel and moderated discussion

Moderator: Polly Toynbee – Writer and journalist, The Guardian.

Andy Summers - Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) and Associate Professor in Law, London School of Economics. Andy's research focuses on the evaluation and design of tax policies, particularly those affecting top earners and wealthy individuals

Andy will speak about reactions to the various tax options he has have proposed over the years and what they reveal about perceptions of wealth inequalities and the outstanding barriers to addressing them.

Liz Mann - ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the London School of Economics. Her research interests centre on wealth and wealth inequality in the UK from a policy perspective. She is particularly interested in the gendered allocation of wealth, and how wealth is managed within the household. Liz has an active interest in the taxation of wealth, and attitudes to inequality in the UK.

Liz will speak about attitudes to inequality of relevance to wealth taxation with a particular focus on gender inequality.

Andy Morrison - Director, UK National Audit Office, Newcastle.

Andy will reflect on the hurdles that face attempts to deliver tax and related policies on a broad and politically very sensitive topic such as wealth inequality, including knowledge and data gaps.

Final session

Key issues for future consideration.

Close - 15.45

The conference examines:

• the ways in which taxes in the past and in the present have contributed to unequal wealth holdings
• how taxes could tackle wealth inequality
• why governments of any political persuasion find this a difficult policy area
• and knowledge gaps requiring further research (or what a research agenda in this area must address).

The conference will be held in: Room 2.10, Marshall Building, London School of Economics, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LY