Teachers demand action as austerity lives on and inequality deepens - NASUWT

NASUWT – The Teachers' Union has today warned that the Government is failing to deliver the change voters demanded in 2024, with austerity continuing to devastate schools, communities, and public services.

Speaking at TUC Congress, NASUWT General Secretary Matt Wrack said:

“In 2024, people voted for change. After 14 years of Conservative-led government - 14 years of austerity, falling wages, and crumbling services - people expected something different. But a year on, they do not see the change they were promised.”

He condemned the continued impact of austerity policies, including the retention of the two-child benefit cap, attacks on pensioners' winter fuel payments, and unfunded teacher pay awards that force schools to make cuts.

“When teachers win a pay rise, but schools are forced to cut elsewhere to fund it - that is not the end of austerity. It's the same failed model, repackaged,” Mr Wrack said.

Mr Wrack highlighted to delegates at the gathering in Brighton the growing inequality in the UK, where fewer than 50 families hold more wealth than almost half the population. He added: “For the wealthy - the billionaires, there is a completely different reality -  a different country, a different world. Huge profits can be made while the majority struggle.”

Urgent action was required to tackle profiteering in education: “While public services suffer, profiteering continues - in private special needs provision, multi-academy trusts, and supply agencies. Executives and providers are fleecing the system, taking resources from schools, teachers, and students.”

And he called for fair taxation of extreme wealth and investment in infrastructure that rebuilds communities and restores opportunity: “Taxing assets above £10 million could raise significant resources for public services. In reality, it would only begin to scratch the surface.

“We urgently need investment in public services - and in infrastructure - that rebuilds communities and offers decent jobs.

“Just as investment in transport transforms connectivity, investment in education can transform opportunity. Every child deserves a school that is properly funded, properly staffed, and fit for the future.”

Leading the debate on funding for public services, including ensuring wealth and the highest incomes are taxed more fairly, NASUWT is calling for:

Fully funded, inflation-proof pay awards for teachers

Capital investment in school buildings and digital infrastructure

Urgent action to tackle child poverty and restore dignity to public services

Regulation of private profiteering in education and SEND provision

Me Wrack concluded: “Teachers voted for change. NASUWT demands delivery. No more delays. No more broken promises. It's time to rebuild our public services and restore hope to our communities.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The text of the motion at TUC Congress is below:

Tax wealth, fund public services and shift power in favour of working people Conference knows that workers and their families can see every day that the economy is broken. After years of falling living standards working people's family budgets remain under huge pressure. Congress condemns 15 years of Conservative-led Westminster governments' austerity policies. They created a profound crisis affecting all public services and the staff delivering them - from the NHS to local government, education, transport and social care. Years of underinvestment and austerity have left vital services overstretched, understaffed and unable to meet the needs of our communities. Congress notes the harm caused by fourteen years of substantial real-terms cuts which continue to impact adversely on children's life chances and on the living standards, morale and wellbeing of our communities. Congress is dismayed that too many public buildings, including schools and hospitals, are in a dire state of repair. Dozens of local councils are facing bankruptcy. The recruitment and retention crisis in the NHS is deepening, with serious consequences for patient care. 7.4 million people are on hospital waiting lists. Low pay remains a leading factor driving physiotherapists and other health professionals out of the service. Recruitment freezes are worsening the situation. Nearly half of CSP workforce reps are reporting recruitment freezes or delays in filling vacancies. One in ten members are saying their organisation has frozen all clinical recruitment. This impacts the quality, safety, and the sustainability of care. Two-thirds of NHS physiotherapists report unsafe staffing levels – at a time when demand for physiotherapy has never been greater. We urgently need workforce investment. The decision-making that sits upstream from this crisis needs a reset. Congress further asserts that real-terms cuts to spending on our public services and welfare system will reduce opportunity for our children and young people, further damaging life chances and hit the poorest hardest. In 2024, the country voted for real change and to end austerity. Poverty isn't just morally wrong, it's bad for the economy and has considerable economic and social costs. Tackling poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity should be a key government priority. The UK welfare system – both the state pension and working age benefits – is one of the least generous among comparable nations. Congress is dismayed the government has attempted to cut welfare benefits as a direct result of the continued refusal to tax wealth and acceptance of self-imposed fiscal rules. Furthermore, while the government's industrial strategy and Employment Rights Bill are welcome first steps they don't go far enough to tackle the legacy of decades of weak business investment, offshoring, outsourcing, privatisation and austerity. Congress is concerned this approach is leaving the door open to the far-right Reform, who offer no solutions and only sow more division. Trade unions support progressive taxation. We agree with a system that ensures we all contribute to the revenues the government needs to improve our public services, reduce poverty and grow our economy – and where those with higher incomes, who are better able to afford a higher contribution, pay a larger share. But our current system is broken and the UK tax system needs urgent reform. Those at the top have seen their wealth grow – while paying far lower tax rates than many whose incomes come from earnings. Congress notes that we are the sixth richest economy in the world, but our economy has deep inequalities and the way that wealth is divided is increasingly unequal. The UK is home to a record number of billionaires, and the top one per cent hold more wealth than the entire bottom 50 per cent. In 1990, there were just 15 billionaires in the UK, but since then their number has jumped to 156. The wealth of the richest in society continues to soar. The richest 50 families are worth about £500bn, the same as half the entire UK population. The UK has greater wealth inequality than most developed economies. Last year's report by The Fairness Foundation found the UK's wealth gap has grown by 50 per cent in eight years, while the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that destitution had increased by 150 per cent in the last seven years. Yet wealth is taxed at far lower rates than income, and in many cases not taxed at all. Fairer, better taxes can deliver a stronger economy, reduce poverty, fund better public services and national defence. So, there is a choice. Congress believes that the money is there to address this. HMRC estimates the UK tax gap to be £46.8bn, and outside tax experts estimate it to be more than twice that – around £100bn. If we taxed the richest one percent just one percent, that would generate about £25bn. We need a wealth tax now. The government must urgently explore how the UK's tax system could be reformed, including to ensure that wealth and the highest incomes are taxed more fairly. Congress therefore believes that politicians must make the case for redistributive taxation and a more equal society. This is a political choice. Ordinary workers are paying more while the super-rich hoard wealth and benefit from outdated, unfair tax rules. Congress calls on the General Council to press the Labour government to: i. commit to taxing wealth, not just work ii. oppose austerity and promote tax justice as a means to fund public services iii. support a crack-down on tax avoidance and tax evasion iv. restore and expand social security spending for children and families in need, the unemployed, disabled people, and pensioners v. remove the punitive welfare policies introduced during Tory austerity, including the two[1]child benefit cap vi. commit to protecting benefits for disabled and vulnerable people vii. end punitive sanctions and invest in DWP's workforce, to provide essential help and support viii. invest in HMRC's workforce to go after tax avoiders and evaders. Congress is appalled by the recent findings of the Public Accounts Committee that HMRC does not know how many billionaires pay tax in the UK or how much they contribute overall. Congress believes Labour should adopt policies that begin to restructure the economy to improve productivity and investment and bring about a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working people. This is to include devolving power to workers through: • Extending sectoral collective bargaining throughout the economy to enhance cohesion in our communities through improved living standards, job security and embedding trade union values of solidarity and equality • Creating conditions to allow unions to negotiate the delivery of Labour's pledge to oversee the “biggest wave of insourcing in a generation”, to reduce inequality and improve public services: o a new economic strategy which removes restrictive and arbitrary fiscal rules and raises day-to-day public spending o an improved industrial strategy to create a new generation of publicly owned or supported industries, with particular consideration to water, mail, telecommunications, steel and energy industries, ensuring there are stable universal services and utilities across the country. Congress calls on the TUC to press government for a new approach to public sector pay, with the government committing to: • pay restoration across the public sector over the lifetime of the current parliament, with annual pay rounds settled by the start of each financial year from 2026 • funding future pay rises with additional public expenditure, so that public services and the UK's devolved nations are not forced to freeze recruitment or cut access to services • a funding plan for the workforce and service-transformation commitments in the NHS 10-Year Plan. Congress therefore agrees to campaign for: a. an increase in taxes on those with the highest incomes b. the urgent introduction of progressive wealth taxes c. increasing capital gains tax d. reforming pensions tax relief e. a windfall tax on highly profitable banks f. full funding of our public services to ensure that schools, colleges and other frontline services can recruit and retain the staff needed to deliver the high-quality services that the public expects of the welfare state g. the removal of opportunities for CEOs and corporations to exploit our public services for profit and to line their own pockets h. capital budgets to be increased across the whole public sector to ensure buildings are safe and well-maintained. Congress agrees to launch a high-profile and constructive campaign in support of the above and consider a national demonstration against austerity in spring 2026. Mover: Unite Seconder: NASUWT Supporters: PCS RMT CSP Accord NEU CWU FBU