UK Bank Tax Cuts Have Cost Public Purse £6bn, TUC Finds
The TUC says Jeremy Hunt's 2023 bank surcharge cuts drained £6bn from UK revenues, urging Chancellor Healey to reverse the policy.
Tax reductions granted to major British banks under the previous Conservative government have cost the UK public purse an estimated £6 billion in lost revenue, according to new calculations from the Trades Union Congress, the umbrella body representing unions with more than 5.3 million members across England and Wales.
The TUC is pressing Chancellor John Healey to reverse the cuts introduced by former Conservative Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in 2023, arguing that lenders should be required to pay what it describes as their "fair share" ahead of an upcoming budget. The demand adds pressure on the Labour government to identify additional revenue streams as it navigates a constrained fiscal environment.
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The bank surcharge is a supplementary levy applied to financial institutions on top of standard corporate tax rates. Hunt's 2023 changes reduced that surcharge, a move the TUC contends disproportionately benefited large lenders at the expense of public finances and the services they support.
The intervention reflects broader union frustration with what organized labor views as preferential treatment for the financial sector. By framing the issue around foregone revenue rather than a new tax, the TUC is effectively arguing the government need only restore a prior policy to recoup billions — a political calculation that may carry more weight than proposing an entirely fresh levy on banks.
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