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UK General Election 2015

General Election 2015: Manifesto Pledges

Our Democratic Process – The Green Party

The headline of the Green Party’s 84-page manifesto is ‘Vote for what you believe in’ and that the a vote for them is helping to build a society for the ‘common good’. Below are the main policies contained within the document launched on 14 April 2015 by party leader Natalie Bennett and MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas.

Major policies

  • Plans to renationalise the railways; curb emissions
  • Reverse what the party sees as the “creeping privatisation” of the NHS
  • Raise the top rate of income tax to 60p
  • Increase the minimum wage to a living wage of at least £10
  • Decommission Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons
  • A plan for a free nationwide home insulation programme to help tackle nine million cold homes, and lift two million homes out of fuel poverty

The economy

  • Increase public spending to almost half of national income
  • Close taxation loopholes and crack down on tax avoidance
  • Introduce a wealth tax of 1-2% on people worth £3m or more
  • Salaries above £150,000 a year to incur a 60% income tax rate
  • Introduce a financial transaction tax (a “Robin Hood” tax) on banks
  • Increase the National Minimum Wage to a living wage for all, of £10 per hour by 2020
  • Create one million well-paid new public sector jobs
  • Reduce National Insurance contributions
  • Ensure the highest wage in any business is no more than ten times the lowest wage

The environment and transport

  • Ban fracking for shale gas
  • Phase out coal fired power and stop new nuclear reactors
  • A public programme of renewables, flood defences and home insulation
  • Invest £45bn in a free nationwide retrofit insulation programme to make nine million homes warmer, and lift two million households out of fuel poverty
  • £35bn in public investment in renewable power over the next parliament
  • All schools, hospitals and public buildings would have solar panels by 2020
  • An extra £1bn invested in flood defences annually
  • Tackle emissions by scrapping the government’s national roads building programme
  • Subsidise public transport and return the railways to national ownership
  • Stop airport expansion
  • Invest in electric vehicle charging points

Housing

  • Abolish the “bedroom tax”
  • Provide 500,000 social rented homes by 2020
  • Bring empty homes back into us
  • Cap rents, introduce longer tenancies and licence landlords to provide greater protection to renters.

Health

  • End the “creeping privatisation” of the NHS and repeal the government’s Health and Social Care Act 2012
  • Increase the overall NHS budget by £12bn a year to overcome the current “funding crisis”
  • Thereafter, increase the budget in real terms by 1.2%
  • Raise alcohol and tobacco taxes to help fund this
  • Provide free social care for people at the end of life
  • Require NHS staff to declare financial interests that conflict with their role
  • Stop further private financial initiative (PFIs) contracts and sale of NHS assets
    Increase resources for mental health to make it a greater priority

Education

  • Scrap university tuition fees and invest £1.5bn extra a year in further education
  • Promote a “comprehensive system” of local schools staffed by qualified teachers
  • Bring academies and free schools into the local authority system
  • Introduce a free but voluntary universal early education and childcare service from birth to seven years old
  • Restore the education maintenance allowance for 16 and 17-year-olds
  • Oppose privatisation of further education