The Equality Trust is a UK registered charity that campaigns against economic and social inequality. Founded as a campaigning organisation in 2009 by Bill Kerry,

Richard G. Wilkinson Richard Gerald Wilkinson (born 1943) is a British social epidemiologist, author, advocate, and left-wing political activist. He is Professor Emeritus of social epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, having retired in 2008. He is also Hon ...

and

Kate Pickett Kate Elizabeth Pickett (born 1965) is a British epidemiologist and political activist who is Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, and was a National Institute for Health and Care Research Car ...

after the publication of Wilkinson and Pickett's book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, it became a registered charity in 2015. The Trust's Co-Executive Directors are Jo Wittams and Priya Sahni-Nicholas.

Work

The Equality Trust argues that there is a strong association between low economic growth and inequality. The Trust campaigns for governments to take action on inequality, starting in the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

UK general elections. The Trust was cited by

Caroline Lucas Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2003 to 2006, 2007 to 2012, and 2016 to 2018. She was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parli ...

as demonstrating "a clear and demonstrable correlation between drug misuse and inequality" and that drug abuse is more common in more unequal countries such as the UK in her campaign for review of the

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (c. 38) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It represents action in line with treaty commitments under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the ...

. Wilkinson and Pickett published a second book, The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everybody's Wellbeing in 2018.

Billionaire Britain

The Trust's research on the rapid growth of billionaire wealth in the UK found that billionaire wealth had increased by over 1000% from 1990-2022, and argued that wealth accumulation by the richest was harming the UK's society and economic stability. Their call for

wealth taxes A wealth tax (also called a capital tax or equity tax) is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets or an entity's net worth. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and ...

to tackle widening wealth inequality was echoed by other organisations.

Cost of Inequality

Research published by the Equality Trust in 2023 argued that inequality's impact on different areas of society were coming with large financial costs compared to more equal countries. They argued inequalities across society cost at least £106.2bn yearly compared to the average OECD country's level of equality, making the UK's top 1% the most expensive in Europe.

The Spirit Level at 15

The Equality Trust released an update to the original Spirit Level book, written with Wilkinson and Pickett, that provided updates to the original research in The Spirit Level and expanded on its arguments with new research into inequality's impact on climate, democracy and society. Pickett and Wilkinson argued that the evidence for their argument that inequality caused poorer outcomes across society had grown stronger in the 15 years since the original publication, and said that inequality had gotten worse.

References

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External links

Equality Trust
Organizations established in 2009 Political advocacy groups in England Political and economic think tanks based in the United Kingdom Social economy in the United Kingdom Political and economic research foundations