Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader in England and Wales, set out a wide-ranging economic vision on Wednesday, positioning it as a radical alternative to Labour's approach under Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Speaking at a garden centre in north London, he called for a fundamental shift away from GDP targets towards wellbeing, and proposed a series of reforms to tackle what he termed 'rip-off Britain'.
Polanski argued that the UK economy had been transformed 'from a place which made things people need, to a place which made money for people who own the place', blaming Thatcher's privatisations, deindustrialisation and 14 years of Tory austerity. He warned that 'people feel like they're running every day just to stay in the exact same place', in contrast to Reeves's optimistic promises of growth led by AI and a northern renaissance.
His proposals included three main pillars: rent controls, renationalisation of the water industry, and major tax reform. Polanski emphasised that rent controls were already in place in 16 European countries, and argued that his party would protect rivers for wildlife, unlike what he described as Labour's irritation with 'bats and newts' holding up development.
On tax, he advocated a wealth tax as a 'day one priority', with a 1% levy on assets above £10 million and 2% above £1 billion, alongside equalising capital gains and income taxes. He also called for an overhaul of fiscal rules, scrapping the Office for Budget Responsibility in favour of 'fiscal referees' who would judge sustainability broadly, rather than a strict pass or fail against narrow rules. This stop short of modern monetary theory, which Polanski has previously been accused of flirting with.
