The Labour Party manifesto: key promises

The Labour Party has promised to widen devolution to more areas, abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions immediately, restore mandatory housing targets to the planning regime, and introduce a ‘National Care service’ setting minimum standards for quality in its manifesto published Thursday (13 June).

Lottie Winson sums up the key policy pledges made in the Labour manifesto affecting the sector.

On housing:

• 1.5 million new homes – “Get Britain building again, creating jobs across England, with 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament.”
• ‘No fault’ evictions – “Immediately abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, prevent private renters being exploited and discriminated against, empower them to challenge unreasonable rent increases, and take steps to decisively raise standards, including extending ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the private sector.”
• Homelessness – “Develop a new cross-government strategy, working with Mayors and Councils across the country, to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness.”

On planning:

• NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) – “Immediately update the National Policy Planning Framework to undo damaging Conservative changes, including restoring mandatory housing targets.”
• Local plans – “Take tough action to ensure that planning authorities have up-to-date Local Plans and reform and strengthen the presumption in favour of sustainable development.”
• Planning officers – “Support local authorities by funding additional planning officers, through increasing the rate of the stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.”
• Brownfield development – “Take a brownfield first approach, prioritising the development of previously used land wherever possible, and fast-tracking approval of urban brownfield sites.”
• Grey Belt – “The release of lower quality ‘grey belt’ land will be prioritised and we will introduce ‘golden rules’ to ensure development benefits communities and nature.”
• Planning powers – “Labour will require all Combined and Mayoral Authorities to strategically plan for housing growth in their areas. We will give Combined Authorities new planning powers along with new freedoms and flexibilities to make better use of grant funding.”
• First Time Buyers – “Work with local authorities to give first-time buyers the first chance to buy homes and end the farce of entire developments being sold off to international investors before houses are even built.”

On devolution:

• Widening devolution – “Widen devolution to more areas, encouraging local authorities to come together and take on new powers. We will review the governance arrangements for Combined Authorities to unblock decision making. We will provide greater flexibility with integrated settlements for Mayoral Combined Authorities that can show exemplary management of public money.”

On transport and highways:

• Potholes - “Fix an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the next parliament, funded by deferring the A27 bypass, which is poor value for money.”
• Railways – “Put passengers at the heart of the service by reforming the railways and bringing them into public ownership. We will do this as contracts with existing operators expire or are broken through a failure to deliver.”
• Bus routes – “Local communities have lost control over their bus routes. Building on the work of Labour mayors, we will reform the broken system through new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services, and we will lift the ban on municipal ownership. This will give local communities in England control over routes and schedules.”

On education:

• Breakfast clubs - "Support families with children by introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school."
• Teachers – “Recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects.”
• School inspection – “Enhance the inspection regime by replacing a single headline grade with a new report card system telling parents clearly how schools are performing. We will bring Multi-Academy Trusts into the inspection system and introduce a new annual review of safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling.”
• Admissions – “Make sure admissions decisions account for the needs of communities and require all schools to co-operate with their local authority on school admissions, SEND inclusion, and place planning.”
• Mental Health – “Provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.”

On NHS and Social Care:

• Children in care - “Work with local government to support children in care, including through kinship, foster care, and adoption, as well as strengthening regulation of the children’s social care sector.”
• Neighbourhood Health Centres – “Trial Neighbourhood Health Centres, by bringing together existing services such as family doctors, district nurses, care workers, physiotherapists, palliative care, and mental health specialists under one roof.”
• National Care service – “Undertake a programme of reform to create a National Care Service, underpinned by national standards, delivering consistency of care across the country.”
• Local partnership working – “Develop local partnership working between the NHS and social care on hospital discharge.”
• Fair Pay Agreement – “Enhance partnership working across employers, workers, trade unions and government and establish a Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care. This sector collective agreement will set fair pay, terms and conditions, along with training standards.”

On policing and enforcement:

• Neighbourhood crime – “Introduce a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, restoring patrols to our town centres by recruiting thousands of new police officers, police and community support officers, and special constables.”
• Anti-social behaviour – “Introduce "respect orders" - powers to ban persistent adult offenders from town centres, which will stamp out issues such as public drinking and drug use.”
• Strip-searching - “Introduce new legal safeguards around strip-searching children and young people.”
• Legal duty of candour on public authorities – “Introduce a ‘Hillsborough Law’ which will place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities, and provide legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related deaths.”
• Asylum - "Restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly; and the rules are properly enforced. We will hire additional caseworkers to clear the Conservatives’ backlog and end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds."

On clean energy:

• Clean power projects – “Great British Energy will partner with energy companies, local authorities, and co-operatives to install thousands of clean power projects, through a combination of onshore wind, solar, and hydropower projects.”

Lottie Winson