The Liberal Democrats manifesto: key promises

June 13, 2024

The Liberal Democrats have promised to introduce proportional representation for councillors in England, give local authorities with responsibility for education the powers and resources to act as Strategic Education Authorities, allow councils to end the Right to Buy in their areas, and scrap Police and Crime Commissioners.

Philip Hoult sums up the key policy pledges made in the Liberal Democrat manifesto affecting the sector.

On communities and local government:

Decentralise decision-making from Whitehall and Westminster “by inviting local areas to take control of the services that matter to them most”.
Introduce proportional representation for electing councillors in England.
Scrap the Conservatives’ voter ID scheme.
Enhance powers over community assets "to help local authorities protect pubs, community farms, and other vital infrastructure".
Give local authorities the powers they need to restore bus routes and add new ones where there is local need, especially in rural areas

On planning and the environment:

Properly fund local planning departments "to improve planning outcomes and ensure housing is not built in areas of high flood risk without adequate mitigation, by allowing local authorities to set their own fees".
Expand Neighbourhood Planning across England.
Build ten new garden cities.
Introduce ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ planning permission for developers who refuse to build.
Make planning "work for the natural environment and ensure that developers pay their fair share" by: ensuring new developments result in significant net gain for biodiversity, with up to a 100% net gain for large developments; introducing a strategic Land and Sea Use Framework to effectively balance competing demands on the land and oceans; empowering Local Nature Recovery Strategies to identify a new Wild Belt for nature’s recovery.
Tackle the "national scandal" of sewage-polluted rivers, waterways and beaches, and make water companies work for people including by strengthening the powers of local authorities to monitor the health of rivers, lakes and coastlines, restore our natural environment and tackle climate change.
Make sure everyone has access to a healthy natural environment, "regardless of where they live", including by significantly increasing the amount of accessible green space, including protecting up to a million acres, completing the coastal path, exploring a ‘right to roam’ for waterways and creating a new designation of National Nature Parks; and passing a new Environmental Rights Act, “recognising everyone’s human right to a healthy environment and guaranteeing access to environmental justice”.

On housing:

Give local authorities new powers to control second homes and short-term lets in their areas by: allowing them to increase council tax by up to 500% where homes are being bought as second homes, with a stamp duty surcharge on overseas residents purchasing such properties; creating a new planning class for these properties.
Give local authorities the powers to end Right to Buy in their areas.
Allow councils to buy land for housing based on current use value rather than on a hope-value basis by reforming the Land Compensation Act 1961.
Trial Community Land Auctions “to ensure that local communities receive a fair share of the benefits of new development in their areas and to help fund vital local services”.
Introduce a new Rent to Own model for social housing where rent payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property, owning it outright after 30 years.
End rough sleeping within the next Parliament by: urgently publishing a cross-Whitehall plan to end all forms of homelessness; exempting groups of homeless people, and those at risk of homelessness, from the Shared Accommodation Rate; introducing a ‘somewhere safe to stay’ legal duty to ensure that everyone who is at risk of sleeping rough is provided with emergency accommodation and an assessment of their needs; ensuring sufficient financial resources for local authorities to deliver the Homelessness Reduction Act and provide accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse.
Protect the rights of social renters by: proactively enforcing clear standards for homes that are socially rented, including strict time limits for repairs; fully recognising tenant panels so that renters have a voice in landlord governance.

On education:

Tackle persistent absence by setting up a register of children who are not in school, and working to understand and remove underlying barriers to attendance.
Tackle the crisis in special educational needs provision, "and help to end the postcode lottery in provision", by: giving local authorities extra funding to reduce the amount that schools pay towards the cost of a child’s Education, Health and Care Plan; establishing a new National Body for SEND to fund support for children with very high needs.
Give local authorities with responsibility for education the powers and resources to act as Strategic Education Authorities for their area, including responsibility for places planning, exclusions, administering admissions including in-year admissions, and SEND functions.
Redirect capital funding for “unnecessary” new free schools to help clear the backlog of school repairs.
Introduce a Young People’s Premium, extending Pupil Premium funding to disadvantaged young people aged 16-18.
Support the education of children in care, extend Pupil Premium Plus funding to children in kinship care, and guarantee any child taken into care a school place within three weeks, if required to move schools.

On care and health:

Provide “truly personalised care” that empowers individuals by: trialling personal health and social care budgets so that individuals are in control of what care they receive; rolling out digital platforms for care users to develop networks, relationships and opportunities; improving communication standards so carers can support care users to co-produce and monitor care plans; and developing a digital strategy for tech-enabled lives; establishing an Independent Living Taskforce to help people live independently in their own homes.
End the postcode lottery of service provision and provide national, high-quality care for everyone who needs it by: providing predictable, consistent funding for free personal care; increasing transparency and accountability as to how money is spent through local authorities; creating a National Care Agency to set national minimum standards of care; enabling individuals to transfer their care package "so they don’t feel stuck in their current locality due to their care needs".
Give unpaid carers a fair deal including by increasing Carer’s Allowance and expanding eligibility for it, and making caring a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and requiring employers to make reasonable adjustments to enable employees with caring responsibilities to provide that care.
Recruit more staff to the sector with a social care workforce plan, akin to the NHS England workforce plan, that includes ethical international recruitment.
Support children in kinship care and their family carers by: introducing a statutory definition of kinship care; and building on the existing pilot to develop a weekly allowance for all kinship carers.
Make care experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 to strengthen the rights of people who are in or have been in care.
Give everyone the right to see a GP or the most appropriate practice staff member within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to, including by increasing the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 8,000, half by boosting recruitment and half from retaining more experienced GPs.
End “inappropriate and costly” inpatient placements for people with learning disabilities and autism.
Improve early access to mental health services including by modernising the Mental Health Act to strengthen people’s rights, give them more choice and control over their treatment and prevent inappropriate detentions, and creating a statutory, independent Mental Health Commissioner to represent patients, their families and carers.
Help people spend more years of their life in good health including by increasing the Public Health Grant, with a proportion of the extra funding set aside for those experiencing the worst health inequalities to co-produce plans for their communities.

On political reform:

Reform politics to put more power in people’s hands including by giving 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in UK general elections and referendums, and local elections in England; introducing a legal requirement for local authorities to inform citizens of the steps they must take to be successfully registered “with far greater efforts in particular to register underrepresented groups, and ensuring that the UK has an automatic system of inclusion in elections”.
Establishing national and local citizens’ assemblies “to ensure that the public are fully engaged in finding solutions to the greatest challenges we face, such as tackling the climate emergency and the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms by the state”.
Ensure justice for the victims of scandals and prevent future scandals, including by protecting whistleblowers by establishing a new Office of the Whistleblower, creating new legal protections, and promoting greater public awareness of their rights.
Make the role of the Adviser on Ministers’ Interests truly independent by empowering them to initiate their own investigations, determine breaches and publish their report; and putting the role on a statutory basis and giving Parliament the power to appoint them.
Ensure that Ministers receive annual training "to prevent sleaze".
End the “scandal” of ‘Government by WhatsApp’ including by requiring that all Ministers’ instant-messaging conversations involving government business must be placed on the departmental record; ensuring that a record of all lobbying of Ministers via instant messages, emails, letters and phone calls is published as part of quarterly transparency releases.
Make elections fairer and more transparent, and raise the quality of political debate, including by protecting and strengthening the independence of the Electoral Commission.

On climate change and energy:

Support the expansion of community and decentralised energy, including by empowering local authorities to develop local renewable electricity generation and storage strategies.

On the courts:

Tackle the backlogs in the family courts that leave children and families waiting nearly a year for cases to be resolved, by making the legal aid system simpler, fairer and more generous

On crime and policing:

Help rebuild public trust in policing including by scrapping Police and Crime Commissioners and replacing them with local Police Boards made up of councillors and representatives from relevant local groups, while investing the savings in frontline policing.
Introduce new laws to crack down on puppy and kitten smuggling.

On transport:

Devolve greater decision-making powers and resources to local authorities in England to design public transport infrastructure around community needs, including powers to introduce network-wide ticketing as in London.
Work with local authorities to implement light rail schemes for trams and tram-trains where these are appropriate solutions to public transport requirements.