Weekly Action - 8 March 2024 - Budget
Budget
This week on Wednesday 6 March, Jeremy Hunt, the UK Chancellor and head of the Treasury, delivered his latest budget. The budget contained a wide range of measures such as cutting national insurance contributions from 10 – 8%, or abolishing non-dom tax status (so foreign nationals living in the UK but legally resident elsewhere would no longer be exempt from tax). More tax was also applied on tobacco and for the first time on vapes, and an extra £5,000 in tax free savings in ISAs is to be allowed, provided it is invested in British businesses. Whilst there are some good ideas, and some not so good ones, in the wide range of financial policies announced, overall the budget was a huge missed opportunity. It didn’t deliver the kind of ambitious action that is needed at scale to rapidly transform the UK economy to be thriving, green and dynamic, or to ensure crucial but crumbling public services are reinvigorated.
4 Shifts economics
So what should the Chancellor have done instead? Well, if we turn back to the teaching of the Bible, and examine the lessons from history, we find there is much we can learn to help the UK, and indeed the world, build an economy in the twenty-first century that is green and fair, and fit for the future. Arise’s 4 Shifts Report attempts to capture these key lessons. It finds that 4 essential shifts are needed. 1) Nations need to develop strong and fair national economies to create jobs and wealth. 2) They can then tax these to provide social spending and basic services like healthcare and education, to ensure all benefit, not just the richest in society. 3) Going forward these economies need to be powered by 100% clean renewable energy to avoid global climate change. 4) They also need to be circular economies that reuse precious natural resources rather than overconsume and dump them. The 4 Shifts Report sets out detailed policy proposals for the UK and for the world under these 4 crucial shifts. Through 4 Shifts the economic challenges that the Chancellor is wrestling with can be answered, based on Biblical principles. Our economy can be rewired to be green and fair and thriving, so it still creates the jobs and wealth that lift people out of poverty, but does so without relying on fossil fuels and overconsumption which is wrecking our planet. Indeed doing so rapidly is good for the health of the planet, but also essential to reinvigorate the UK and the global economy, creating better jobs, decent public services for all, and a healthier environment.
Will you take action as part of Arise’s 4 Shifts campaign this week, and tell the Chancellor that the answers he is searching for in the budget, can be found in approaches like 4 Shifts economics?
Take Action
Speak out in advocacy
Contact the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt via social media. Share the link to the 4 Shifts Report with him. Ask him to promote 4 Shifts economic policies in all his actions as Chancellor, and to urge the government to do the same in its international negotiations. Contact him on Twitter at: @Jeremy_Hunt, on Facebook at: Jeremy Hunt, on Instagram at: @jeremyhuntmp, or search for him on your favourite social media platform.
Pray
Pray for the UK government, and the other governments of the world as they face turbulent economic and environmental challenges. Pray that they will adopt approaches like 4 Shifts economics as they respond to these challenges, both in their policies at home and in international agreements.
Give
Give to Christian organisations like CAP or the Trussel Trust who are supporting those living in poverty in the UK who are being failed by our current broken economic system, and to organisations like Christian Aid, Cafod, Tearfund or World Vision who are doing the same for the poorest communities in countries all around the world.
Practical Action
If you are from outside of the UK, help spread the message further by getting in touch with us at info@ariseuk.org and letting us know if you would be interested in helping set up a branch of Arise in your country.
Ethical Consumption
Buy products and services from companies that are already modelling 4 Shifts principles of care for the environment, supporting the poorest and reducing inequality, like those with the Fairtrade or Living Wage marks.
Encourage us and others by letting us know what actions you have taken – message us at info@ariseuk.org, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Find out more
It’s great to take this action as individual Christians, but even better to come together with others to pray, discuss, worship, learn, have fun and take action together. Contact Arise if you are interested in joining or starting a local Arise group in your church or area. If you are already in an Arise group, take this action to your wider church, and get them all to do it too.
Find out more about why the world needs 4 Shifts to transition to a green and fair global economy in Arise’s 4 Shifts Report, and how this forms part of God’s bigger vision for our world in the Arise Manifesto.
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