Archbishop Sentamu condemns 'scandalously high' salaries, tax avoidance
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu today has commented on the extremes of wealth and poverty and the urgent task ahead to re-establish a fairer society.
Dr John Sentamu said: “Over the last few decades the gains from economic growth have gone disproportionately to those who have lost the most. Part of our task in creating a more caring and equal society is to change attitudes to excessively high incomes and the accumulation of private wealth.”
The Archbishop explained that there needs to be wider recognition of inequality as an ethical issue, and stressed the need to tackle tax avoidance by rich individuals and multinationals. He said: “Given the government’s attempts to reduce the public spending deficit, each thousand pounds of tax avoided presumably means an additional thousand pounds of cuts to public services on which the least well off are particularly dependent.”
The Archbishop questioned top payments made to Chief Executives for FTSE 100 companies in comparison to the typical British employee, making more CEOs accountable to employees and suggested more employee representatives on company boards. His article also suggested reviewing the Queen’s Honours List so that those
who have already rewarded themselves excessively are ineligible and for this to be extended to the Queens Awards for Industry, so that companies with the largest pay differences between senior and junior staff would be less likely to win such awards.
The Archbishop’s article, published in today's Yorkshire Post, follows in full and is available online at: www.archbishopofyork.org