ROSS Greer has said Scotland must pivot towards wealth taxation as he launched his bid to become co-leader of the Greens.
The West Scotland MSP launched his bid to head up the party in Glasgow on Thursday where he insisted it was time for Scotland to go beyond progressive income tax policies and go after the super-rich via different means.
He highlighted how, despite efforts put into progressive taxation in Scotland, some of the richest people in the country still do not pay much income tax because of how they arrange their finances.
Instead, he argued Scotland needs to look at abolishing the tax breaks from which some of the country’s biggest landowners benefit.
Greer also argued for the idea of an emissions tax on landowners who are polluting the atmosphere by not looking after their property.
Asked what taxing the super-rich looked like for him with the powers Scotland has, he told journalists: “One of the first examples is simply ending the tax breaks the super-rich already have under devolution.
“There are Tory MSPs in Parliament who are some of Scotland’s biggest landowners who get tax breaks for their shooting estates, tax breaks that are designed for small businesses.
“The government has a quarter of a billion pound business tax break scheme that their own review found no positive benefits from.
“Imagine if we had spent a quarter of a billion pounds on tackling child poverty or tackling the climate emergency instead? I can’t think of anyone in Scotland outside the Tory party who thinks some of their MSPs deserve tax breaks for their shooting estates.
“That’s money we could be investing in delivering the policies I’m advocating for like universal free bus travel.”
Greer is the third Green MSP to throw their hat in the ring for co-leadership of the party alongside Gillian Mackay and Lorna Slater. Party rules state that at least one of the co-leaders must be a woman.
Scottish Green members will elect their co-leaders over the summer.
Asked if he would advocate for higher income tax levels for higher earners, Greer said there was room for the tax system to be more progressive, but Scotland needed to pivot towards going after wealth and taxing big polluters.
He said: “There is a little bit more progress we can make on income tax, but what we need to pivot towards now in Scotland is taxing the wealth of those extremely wealthy people, particularly in relation to property.
“Some of the richest people in this country pay very little income tax because that’s not how they arrange their finances, that’s why we need to look at wealth taxation and also emissions related taxes, we need to tax big polluters.
“Some of the biggest landowners in this country have allowed their land to get into such a state where it’s actually omitting huge amounts of pollution into the atmosphere.
“We can tax that both to raise money and to force them to look after their land.”
Elsewhere at his campaign launch, Greer tore into a decision by the UK Government to ditch plans for overhauling the energy market.
Ed Miliband has abandoned proposals to bring in zonal pricing which would have given Scots cheaper electricity.
Zonal pricing splits the country into different zones based on proximity to energy generation, meaning Scots who live close to windfarms would have benefitted enormously.
Greer said he would like to see the UK Government take bolder action to ensure people in Scotland pay a fair price for where their electricity is sourced from.
He said: “The easiest thing the UK Government could do right now is separate the price for gas and renewables.
“Gas is one of the most expensive ways to generate energy right now but people’s fuel bills – even if they their energy is supplied by renewables – are far higher than they need to be because it’s tied to the price of gas.
“If we separate energy prices for gas from prices for renewables, the vast majority of people in Scotland would see an immediate cut in their bills.”
Greer also argued public utilities like energy should be in the hands of the public.
“I think it is outrageous we have tens of thousands of people across Scotland who are in extreme fuel poverty despite this being one of the most energy rich countries on earth," he said.
“That is partly because of a total failure of a privatised energy market and because of opportunities that have been missed over the last 40 years.
“What I want to see is all public utilities like energy that are natural monopolies in the hands of the public, not necessarily all through state ownership – though there is a role for government-owned energy production – but there is an opportunity here for local councils and communities. Communities can own their own wind turbines, they can put solar panels on the roof of a school or town hall.
“We have the opportunities in Scotland to secure our own energy independence.”
