CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO | AT A GLANCE
Economy
• Safeguard Britain’s credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a Parliament.
• Cut wasteful government spending to bring the deficit down and restore stability.
• Increase spending on health in real terms every year and honour our commitments on international aid.
Financial regulation
• Enable the independent Bank of England to keep interest rates as low as possible and use its new role in prudential supervision to preserve financial stability.
• Restore the Bank’s historic role in monitoring the overall growth of credit and debt in the economy.
• Pursue international agreement to prevent retail banks from engaging in activities, such as large scale proprietary trading, that put the stability of the system at risk
• Empower the Bank of England to crack down on risky bonus arrangements.
• Introduce a levy on the banking sector
• Increase competition in the banking industry, starting with a study of competition in the sector to inform our strategy for selling the government’s stakes in the banks.
• Reform the regulation and structure of the banking system to ensure lower levels of leverage, less dependence on unstable wholesale funding, and greater availability of credit for small firms.
Tax
• Cut the headline rate of corporation tax from 28p to 25p.
• Scrap Labour’s hike in National Insurance for 70 per cent of employees.
Immigration
• Reduce net immigration by bringing in an annual cap on non-EU skilled migrant workers.
Public sector co-operatives
• Support co-operatives and mutualisation as a way of transferring public assets to communities.
• Support would-be entrepreneurs through a new programme “Work for Yourself” which will give unemployed people direct access advice and loans.
Sack MPs
• Introduce a power of recall to allow electors to kick out MPs, triggered by proven serious wrongdoing.
Ability to run schools
• Break down barriers to entry so that any good education provider can set up an independent, state-funded school.
Home buying
• Permanently raise the stamp duty threshold to £250,000 for first-time buyers.
• Make it easier for social tenants to own or part-own their home.
Council tax
• Give residents the power to instigate local referendums on any local issue if five per cent of the local population sign up, and they will also be able to veto any proposed high council tax increases.
Government
• Create a powerful new right to government data, enabling the public to request government data sets.