In 2019, the UN reported that one in five people in the UK were living in poverty – that’s 14 million people. Meanwhile, the number of billionaires in the UK has risen sixfold in the last decade. This is indicative of the relatively high levels of economic inequality in the UK.

Austerity measures introduced in the wake of the financial crisis cut £30 billion off welfare provision, yet tax decreased for the richest people and companies. Corporation tax fell from 28% to 19%, and Income tax for the highest bracket fell from 50% to 45% in 2020.

It’s the young and the poorest who have felt the pinch and, around the world, this has led to increased dissatisfaction with democracy in countries with high levels of inequality. 55% of millennials around the world are dissatisfied with what democracy has to offer, and alternative political solutions are bringing with it greater instability and unrest.

That said, in the UK, there has been a significant increase in philanthropic giving – the £4 billion given in 2020 was a 36% rise on the previous year. So, is the answer to improving lives more taxation, or is there still a role for philanthropy?

Join us for a timely discussion that will focus on the benefits of taxation versus the role of philanthropy. 

Chaired by the FT’s Money & Wealth Editor Stefan Wagstyl, panellists include Arun Advani, founding member of the Wealth Tax Commission; Stephanie Brobbey, Founder & CEO of the Good Ancestry Project and Gary Stevenson, inequality economist, former trader and member of Patriotic Millionaires UK: Partners In Progress.

Presented in partnership with the Financial Times and Patriotic Millionaires UK: Partners In Progress.

Meet the panel:

Arun Advani is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick and a Commissioner at the Wealth Tax Commission. He is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a Visiting Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute, Research Associate of the CAGE Research Centre, Inequalities theme leader at the Warwick Brain Behaviour and Society GRP, and a member of the Skills and Productivity Boar. He studies issues of inequality, tax compliance, and tax design, with a focus on those with high incomes or wealth. He also works on issues of environmental taxation, economic development, migration, and tax in low- and middle-income countries. Arun is co-chair of the Discover Economics campaign, aiming to increase the diversity of people who study and work in economics. He is also on the Editorial Board of the Economics Observatory.

Gary Stevenson is an Inequality Economist, former interest rate trader and member of Patriotic Millionaires UK: Partners In Progress. In 2011 he became Citibank’s most profitable trader globally by correctly predicting that the aftereffects of the 2008 crisis would lead to a long term stagnation in interest rates and a rapid rise in asset values. In 2014 he retired, at 27, to study economics and inequality at Oxford University. He is currently working on economic models of inequality, wages and asset prices.

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