Fairness Foundation
Timing
Tuesday 29th September: 11:00 - 11:45
Chair
Will Snell, Chief Executive, Fairness Foundation
Speakers
Joe Morris MP, Hexham
Caitlin Boswell, Deputy Director, External Affairs, Tax Justice UK
Topic
What's so wrong with wealth inequality?
We all agree that wealth inequality is harmful to our economy, society, democracy and environment, but which aspects of wealth inequality are the main drivers of each of these categories of harm? Should we be more concerned about extreme wealth, the gap between richer and poorer households, or the absence of wealth, and what does this mean for the policy proposals that we should be focusing on to redistribute wealth, share it more broadly at source, or reduce some of its spillover impacts in other ways?
About Fairness Foundation
We work to change the debate around fairness in the UK, and to make the case that high levels of socio-economic inequality are unfair, unpopular (85% of Britons are concerned about inequality), and bad for our society, economy and democracy. We aim to rebalance wealth in the UK, so as to rebuild the social contract and provide everyone with freedom and opportunity.
Speaker bios
Will Snell, Chief Executive, Fairness Foundation
Will Snell is Chief Executive of the Fairness Foundation. He is a non-profit entrepreneur with experience across a range of sectors, both in the UK and overseas, who is now focused on UK public policy related to inequality.;He spent several years on the UK government’s civil service fast stream programme at the Department of Health and then the Department for International Development, before leaving to set up a skills mentoring programme for entrepreneurs in Kenya. He then worked in senior roles for a global health NGO and a global tax reform think tank before setting up Tax Justice UK in 2017.;After a stint as interim Chief Operating Officer at Global Witness, a human rights and climate NGO, Will set up the Fairness Foundation in collaboration with Julian Richer in 2021, becoming its founding Chief Executive. ; At the Fairness Foundation, Will leads a small team, and works with a broad range of partners and experts, to persuade politicians to treat inequality in the UK as a policy priority, making the moral, political and policy arguments for action to tackle inequality in all its forms. ; Will was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in October 2023.
Joe Morris MP, Hexham
Joe Morris is the Labour MP for Hexham and was elected in July 2024. Before Parliament he served as an Associate Director at Hanbury Strategy and External Affairs Manager at Make UK, the manufacturers' organisation. In Parliament he chairs Labour's group of rural MPs, having previously served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Caitlin Boswell, Deputy Director, External Affairs, Tax Justice UK
Caitlin Boswell: Caitlin Boswell is Deputy Director of External Affairs at Tax Justice UK. Caitlin leads the organisation's advocacy, policy and campaigns work, previously serving as its Head of Advocacy and Policy. Caitlin was previously Policy & Advocacy Manager at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and has a background in community work and research.