Harry Rodd sets out the key promises affecting the local government sector in the Green Party manifesto, which was published on Thursday (13 June).
On governance:
- Push for an increase in local government funding of £5bn per year to tackle the current under-funding crisis.
- Fair Politics Act to be introduced: repeal the Elections Act 2022, ending the need to provide voter-ID; replace the ‘first-past-the-post’ system for parliamentary and council elections with a fair and proportional voting system.
- Replace the House of Lords with an elected second chamber.
- Votes for 16-year-olds and residence-based voting rights.
On social care:
- Implementing a National Cancer Plan, Reducing cases through investment in public health measures, such as interventions on food, alcohol and tobacco. Meet the existing NHS target of 75% of cases diagnosed at stage 1 or stage 2 by 2028
- Push for an additional £3bn to be provided to local authorities to enable them to provide high-quality children’s social care.
- Fund councils to extend staying put arrangements, so fostered young people can choose to stay with foster parents until they are 21.
On housing:
- Provide 150,000 new social homes a year and end ‘right to buy’, so that these homes can belong to communities for ever.
- Empower local authorities to introduce rent controls.
- End no-fault evictions – end Section 21 no-fault evictions and introduce long-term leases. Renters will also be given a new right to demand energy efficiency improvements.
- Introduce a Fairer, Greener Homes Guarantee to ensure warm, safe homes that are well insulated.
- Transform the planning system so new developments come with access to public services and green spaces are protected.
- Introduce legislation to give local authorities, registered social landlords and community housing groups the first option to buy certain properties at reasonable rates, for example private rental property that hasn’t been insulated to EPC rating C or that fails to meet the decent homes standard, or any property that is left empty for more than six months.
- To enhance the role of local authorities, local decisions about planning will be informed by a land use planning policy framework that seeks to balance various needs, such as to meet the challenge of the climate emergency, protect nature, grow enough food, and provide homes and energy.
- Minimise climate impact of new homes: demolition will require a full planning application or inclusion in a local development order; all planning applications will be required to include whole-life carbon and energy calculations, covering construction, maintenance and operational use; building design needs to be future-proofed. New builds and home renovations will meet the standards needed to mitigate climate change; new developments need to ensure that residents are not car dependent
On energy:
- Energy sector to be under local democratic control as far as is possible. “There is no reason why communities cannot be investors in everything from local area heat networks to offshore wind. Government will have failed if the infrastructure for sustainable energy generation is primarily in private hands.”
- A minimum threshold of community ownership in all sustainable energy infrastructure.
- The removal of regulatory barriers to community energy.
- Investment in community energy by regional investment banks.
On employment practices:
- Introduce a maximum 10:1 pay ratios for all private and public-sector organisations.
- Campaign to repeal current anti-union legislation introduced since 1979 and replace it with a comprehensive Charter of Workers’ Rights.
- Introduce a minimum wage of £15 an hour for all, no matter your age, with the costs to small businesses offset by increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,000.
- Support reduced working hours and moving towards a four-day working week.
On the public finances:
- Tax wealth fairly and tax investment income at the same rate as earned income. Tax the wealth of individual taxpayers with assets above £10 million at 1% and assets above £1bn at 2% annually.
- Commit to no increases in the basic rate of income tax during this cost-of-living crisis.
- Borrow to invest and "reject the self-imposed straitjacket of conventional fiscal rules".
- Re-evaluation of Council Tax bands to reflect big changes in value since 1990s.
On environmental:
- Taking the water companies back into public ownership.
On education:
- Better funded support for special educational needs and all children provided with a free school meal.
- Support every higher education student with the restoration of grants and the end of tuition fees.
- £1.4bn per year to be invested by local authorities in Sure Start Centres.
- Advocate for an increase in school funding, with an £8bn investment in schools.
- Move academies and free schools into local authority control, removing charitable status from private schools and charging full VAT on fees.
On transport:
- Increase annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel to £10bn by the end of the next parliament to make public transport reliable, frequent, accessible and affordable, including free bus travel for under-18s.
- Invest an additional £19bn over five years to improve public transport, support electrification and invest in new cycleways and footpaths.
- Bring the railways back into public ownership.
- Give local authorities control over and funding for improved bus services.
Harry Rodd