Windfall taxes have been applied on several occasions since 1997 by United Kingdom governments, in response to company profits that were considered to be excessive or unexpected.
[3] The tax produced an estimated one-off income to the government of £5 billion, which was used to fund the New Deal, a welfare-to-work program that sought to tackle long-term unemployment, as well as providing capital investment for schools and the University for Industry (Learndirect).
[10][11] Despite the BBC later reporting in early September that such a windfall tax was "still an option",[12] then Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed at the Labour Party conference later that month that the idea had been scrapped.
[13] The issue was raised again in 2013, led by former Prime Minister John Major, who described the recent energy price rises of more than 10% as "unacceptable", and called for a one-off emergency tax.
[16] In May 2022, Boris Johnson's government announced a windfall tax for energy companies, to help fund a package to relieve the UK cost of living crisis.