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Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:47:46 -0400

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Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:34:27 -0400

Housing

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:26:40 -0400

Right now Britain has a shortage of affordable and good quality housing to buy or rent. At the same time many home-owners are in danger of losing their properties in the recession and homelessness is still affecting thousands of people.

The Green Party will fight for a fair housing deal for all. We want to make it easier for people to get on the property ladder, to protect home-owners and to eradicate homelessness for good. Our comprehensive proposal includes:

Building a new generation of quality council homes
Supporting the development of housing co-ops
Bringing back into use Britain’s 300,000 long-term empty private sector homes
Renovating Britain’s 37,000 empty council homes to help cut waiting lists
Giving social housing tenants greater control over the management of their homes and neighbourhoods
Improving the quality of housing stock to help reduce household bills
Helping people at risk of repossession keep their homes via a Right to Rent scheme.

Resume direct investment in council and other social housing and allow local authorities to use receipts from sales to fund new affordable accommodation. In particular, while the building trade remains depressed because of the recession we would provide £2bn in 2010 rising to £4bn in 2011 to local authorities to expand social housing, mainly through conversion and renovation, and create 80,000 jobs.
There are about one million empty homes. Halve this number through empty property use orders.
Provide more rights for homeless people, giving local authorities the same duties with regard to single people and childless couples as to families, and ending the practice of declaring people ‘intentionally homeless’.
Take steps to ensure that development is more evenly distributed across the whole of the country, so reducing pressure on housing in the South East in particular.
Minimise encroachment onto undeveloped ‘greenfield sites’ wherever possible by reusing previously developed sites that have fallen into disuse.
End the right to buy and introduce the right to rent. People facing severe difficulties with paying their mortgage and facing repossession should have a right to rent their existing home as council housing, analogous but opposite to the Tory ‘right to buy’. We would make up to £2bn per annum available to local authorities to support ‘right to rent.’
Introduce a free home insulation programme for all homes that need it, with priority for pensioners and those living in fuel poverty, aiming to insulate 4 million homes every year. Such a programme would cost £2bn in 2010 rising to £4bn a year and create 80,000 jobs.
Introduce incentives totalling £2bn per annum to encourage homes to become more energy self-sufficient by aiming for 1,000,000 solar roofs, and support generous feed-in tariffs for micro-generation, creating 40,000 jobs in the installation industries.
Abolish standing charges on fuel bills and set tariffs to favour smaller consumers.
Set building regulations to require excellent energy standards on a points-based system, which will cover embodied energy of building materials, energy used in construction, energy consumption in use, on-site energy generation and use of heat distribution networks.
Increase the tax-free amount on the ‘Rent a Room’ scheme from £4,250 to £9,000 a year. This would reduce repossessions, provide more affordable housing and make better use of the existing housing stock.
Support self-build social co-operatives.
Accept that climate change will mean that some housing cannot be protected from flooding in a sustainable way, and assist financially those whose homes become uninhabitable. Also invest £1bn in sustainable flood defences and sustainable drainage systems, creating 20,000 jobs, and ensure that insurance is available for flooding.
Oppose new arm’s length management organisations and ensure genuine tenant participation in existing ones.
Ensure that new housing proposals are based on independent housing needs surveys. Commercial house builders and their representatives should not be involved in the process.

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Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:24:43 -0400

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Pensions

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:18:30 -0400

The present pension system is a disgrace. We think it’s unfair that people who have worked hard all their lives are eventually denied the pension they were promised, leaving many facing poverty and hardship.

The Green Party in Parliament will fight for a fair deal for older people. We would ensure all pensioners receive a basic non-means tested £170 a week. We would also ensure they receive free care and support for those living independently, at home, in sheltered and extra-care housing or in residential care.

The Green Party would introduce a free home insulation programme for all homes that need it, with priority for pensioners and those living in fuel poverty. We aim to insulate 4 million homes every year.

Let’s start with decent pensions

After 13 years of Labour rule we still have unacceptable levels of poverty. It is particularly offensive that 25% of pensioners and 20% of children still live in poverty. Our creaking welfare system gets ever more complex as it attempts to fill the gaps, yet it often fails to reach those entitled to benefits but who do not claim them.

In the longer run a fundamental reform is needed, where most of the complicated benefits, means tests and qualifying contributions are swept away, and all citizens receive as of right a basic income – a Citizen’s Income. The cost of this would be recovered through a more progressive income tax system.

We recognise that with the public finances in their present state this is not the time to introduce such a scheme. However, we can make a start by helping the two vulnerable groups above, with a decent Citizen’s Pension scheme and a major increase in Child Benefit.

Free insulation

We would also introduce a free home insulation programme for all homes that need it, with priority for pensioners and those living in fuel poverty, aiming to insulate 4 million homes every year.

Such a programme would cost £2bn in 2010 rising to £4bn a year and create 80,000 jobs.

Our present pension system is a disgrace. We pay an inadequate state pension (only £97.65 per week for a full state pension for a single person), the level of which is still not linked to average earnings (and which is not up-rated at all for UK pensioners living abroad in certain countries).

It depends on an individual’s contribution record, discriminating in particular against women,but also against others with poor contribution records such as those with poor health or a broken work record, or who have been carers.

This is in theory topped up by means-tested Pension Credits, which discriminate against anyone with very modest savings, creating a massive disincentive to save to provide for yourself.

As many as one in four pensioners live in poverty.

Introducing a Citizen’s Pension

We need a new system of Citizen’s Pensions.

The Citizen’s Pension would be paid unconditionally to all pensioners in the UK (independent of contribution record) at the rate of the official poverty line (currently £170pw for someone living alone, and the rate would be £300pw for couples), and would be linked to average earnings.

It would also be paid to, and up-rated for, the one million pensioners living abroad.

Housing Benefit and disability benefits would continue to be paid. The demeaning Pension Credits would be abolished.

How would we pay for Citizen’s Pensions?

There are about 12 million pensioners living in the UK and a further 1 million living abroad. Paying a single rate of £170 per week and a couples rate of £300 per week will cost £110 billion a year.

But the basic state pension already costs £56 billion, and when certain other specific pensioner benefits like the Pensions Credits paid to those of pension age are abolished the total saving will be almost £70 billion. That leaves £40 billion to find.

Abolishing tax relief on pension contributions raises £20 billion, and a further £19 billion would come from abolishing employer national insurance contributions and employee National Insurance rebates associated with pension schemes.

The final £1 billion will come from increased income tax receipts from pensioners.

Because the number of pensioners is gradually rising, and we would link the pension level to average earnings, Citizen’s Pension will cost a further £0.8 billion by 2013–14. This figure is included in our figures for general taxation.

There will also be savings (not quantified here) on Council Tax Benefits and Housing Benefits.

The Banking System

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:15:43 -0400

When it comes to the banking system The Green Party believe the government has acted completely irresponsibly.

They have forced us, the tax-payer, to bail out the bankers. Yet they have failed to ensure that the same banks give desperately needed credit to families and independent businesses.

We will fight for a fair financial deal, with community banks, credit unions and mutuals. This will ensure those who need financial help are given realistic loans, so they can survive the current economic hardship that we are facing today.

We also believe it’s unfair that these irresponsible bankers continue to earn extortionate salaries and bonuses, while 330,000 hard working people still earn less than the low minimum wage.

Which is why we will fight to introduce a High Pay Commission to ensure bankers and other highly paid executives in the private and public sectors are not rewarded for their failure.

Regulate the financial sector more strictly, preferably at the international or EU level, but if necessary just in the UK. In particular, separate retail from investment banking.
Support new institutions like a green investment bank and local community banks in the financial sector, and new ways of investing in the green economy, such as green national savings bonds.
We support a special tax on bankers’ bonuses, though we would make it permanent.
Also, no one in one of the wholly or partly state-owned banks should get a bonus of more than £25,000.
Crack down on tax havens and other methods of tax evasion and avoidance, raising £10bn in 2010 rising to £13bn by 2013.
In particular press for a transparent international accounting standard that requires companies to report on a country-by-country basis so that their profits can be located and taxed.
Our programme has to be paid for, and we accept that the Government borrowing of 12% of GDP is unsustainable. Like the Government, we would aim to more than halve the deficit by 2013, and the programme of taxation and spending in this manifesto is designed to achieve that.
Raise taxation from its current very low level of only 36% of GDP – for example it exceeded 40% in all Mrs Thatcher’s years in office. The fiscal gap is not caused by too much public spending but by taxation dropping to unacceptably low levels.
Abolish the upper limit for National Insurance contributions, raising £9.1bn in 2010.
Help lower earners by raising the lower National Insurance limit to the personal allowance rate (which is £6,475 a year, or £124.52 a week), costing £3.9bn.
Help lower earners by reintroducing the 10% tax band and the 22p basic rate, costing £14.9bn.
Increase the main rate of Corporation Tax from 28% back to 30% and reduce the small firms rate back to 20%, altogether raising £1.4bn.
Raise the Capital Gains Tax rate from 18% to the recipient’s highest income tax rate (that is 22%, 40% or 50%), raising £1bn.
Reform inheritance tax, so that the level of taxation depends on the wealth of the recipient rather than that of the deceased, raising £3bn by 2013. This will encourage people to distribute their property widely.

Health

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:13:02 -0400

The Green Party think it’s unfair that public money is wasted on botched privatisation schemes.

The yearly cost of these privatisation schemes is over £1billion pounds and we are the ones left to foot the bill.

The government tells us that the schemes will provide us with choice. In reality it does nothing to ensure that efficient and effective health care is provided and it actually reduces some of the many health benefits we currently enjoy.

It’s unfair that quality of care suffers when hospitals and surgeries are treated like profit-driven businesses rather than public services.

We will fight for a fair deal for those needing health care by opposing cuts, closures and privatisation and by demanding a full programme of locally accessible services.

In particular, we will maintain the principle of a free NHS by implementing in England and Wales the scheme that provides free social care to the elderly in Scotland.

We believe in keeping the health service free – we would abolish prescription charges, re-introduce free eye tests and ensure NHS chiropody is widely available.

We will also fight to restore free dental care and provide everyone with the choice of an NHS dentist.

Compassion in healthcare and the prevention of illness should be at the forefront of our healthcare service. We would:

Maintain a publicly funded, publicly provided health service, and oppose NHS privatisation and treating healthcare as a market.
Decentralise healthcare responsibility to local government, ensure that minimum service levels and national guidelines are provided to prevent a postcode lottery, and oppose further health service centralisation.
Keep the health service free – abolish prescription charges, reintroduce free eye tests and NHS dental treatment for all, and ensure NHS chiropody is widely available.
In particular, maintain the principle of a free NHS by implementing in England and Wales the scheme that provides free social care to the elderly in Scotland. If the Scots can do it, so can the rest of us. This would be phased in, costing about £3bn in 2010 rising to £8bn pa, and could create 120,000 jobs.
Ensure that all cost-effective treatments are available to all patients who need them.
Patient safety is essential – to improve this we will regulate all healthcare practitioners and therapists.
Ensure that all medicines meet safety standards, are properly labelled with ingredients and have information on side-effects.
Provide accessible, local community health centres that provide a wide range of services, including out-of-hours care, and are an additional tier of healthcare rather than a replacement for your GP.
End phony patient choice. For most of us patient choice is much less important than getting good treatment at our local hospital or health centre – which is often, for many, the only practical choice.
End mixed-sex accommodation in hospitals.
Oppose a two-tier health service. The quality of your care should not depend on the depth of your pocket.
Treat patients with dignity. Patients have both rights and responsibilities – they are not customers who can come and go. Their dignity should be recognised, but they should also treat NHS staff with respect.
Use increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco to fund overall real growth in the medium term of at least 1.2% per annum in the NHS budget.

Jobs and a Living Wage

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 05:04:03 -0400

Right now unemployment is skyrocketing and the government is doing little about it. Our policy is to fight for a fair, stable and sustainable economy.

Top bankers continue to pocket your money in the form of unearned bonuses, while factories, firms and farms are forced to lay off more and more workers by the day, week and month.

This must end. Our major and immediate priority is the creation of an extra million jobs and training places. An immediate £44bn package of measures would include workforce training, investment in renewables, public transport, insulation, social housing and waste management.

These jobs will provide our country with the vital 21st century infrastructure it needs, including an efficient public transport system, homes that are warm and cheaper to run and much lower energy costs for businesses.

The gap between rich and poor in the UK has never been wider and it continues to get worse. We think it’s unfair that the Government has failed to do anything about it.

We are demanding the introduction of a ‘Living Wage’. This will help ensure low paid workers earn enough to provide for themselves and their families and eradicate poverty in Britain for good. The Green Party will fight for a National Minimum Wage of 60% of net national average earnings (currently this would mean a minimum wage of £8.10 per hour).

We will also fight for a fair financial deal with community banks, credit unions and mutuals to provide realistic loans to families and small businesses.

The loss of jobs that has gone with mismanagement of an unsustainable economic model is a criminal waste of talent and aspiration, and has turned life into a daily struggle for survival for millions of our fellow citizens.

As top bankers continue to pocket your money in the form of unearned bonuses, factories, firms and farms are forced to lay off more and more workers by the day, week and month.

This must end. Our major and immediate priority is the creation of an extra millionjobs and training places within a full year of operation of our major investment plan, the Green New Deal. This would address both the employment and the environmental problems.

It would consist of a package of measures, including workforce training, investment in renewables, public transport, insulation, social housing and waste management.

We would also:

Offer Green workforce training and an environmental community programme including training courses for jobs in energy conservation and renewable energy, with grant-funded conversion courses for skilled engineers from other industries. We would spend £5bn in the next year on creating 350,000 training places, offering opportunities to 700,000 unemployed people, in particular the young unemployed.
Work towards a 35-hour working week. Full time UK employees work the longest average hours in Europe: 43.5 hours, as against 38.2 in France and 39.9 in Germany. A 35-hour week will both improve the work/life balance, help to share out work, and be part of a just transition to a low-carbon economy.
Resist any weakening of the Working Time Directive.
Promote gender equality. The pay gap per hour between men and women remains as high as 38% for part-time workers; retired women’s incomes are typically 40% less than men’s. Our policies on Citizen’s Pension, childcare and non-discrimination at work will help to fill these gaps.
Introduce equal pay audits for larger employers
Promote legal changes to make it much easier for women to take equal pay cases to court, and to allow women to take such cases as a group.
Require 40% of board members of larger companies to be female within five years.
Introduce more generous maternity and paternity leave.
Spend £1bn a year on enhancing and expanding Sure Start Children’s Centres, creating 10,000 jobs. Sure Start has been proved to make a real difference to the lives of some of our poorest children.
Support a National Minimum Wage that is a living wage, at 60% of net national average earnings (currently this would mean a minimum wage of £8.10 per hour). This policy will lead to an estimated saving of up to £6bn a year in Tax Credits, and further savings not quantified here on Council Tax and Housing Benefits.
Work towards ensuring that the maximum wage in any organisation is no more than ten times the minimum wage in that organisation.
Ensure that no one is forced to retire before they want to.
Reject workfare and forcing unemployed people into unsuitable jobs by removing benefits.
Radically increase the amounts people on benefits can earn, perhaps to the equivalent of 6 hours work at the minimum wage (‘earnings disregards’), without having their benefits withdrawn. Participating honestly in such part-time work is the best route back into employment.
Uphold the right to join or form a trade union, to obtain union representation and to take industrial action, and repeal anti-trade union laws.
Support unions in their roles as health and safety and environment representatives.
Ensure that workers’ rights apply to part-time, casual workers and the self-employed, and from the first day of employment.
Oppose discrimination in the workplace, whether on the on grounds of sex, race, family status or responsibilities, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief or age.
Value and protect carers, and volunteers.
Support moves towards workplace democracy and ensure that workers and former workers control their pension funds.
Support a greater role for mutuals, like worker co-operatives. In particular, prevent further existing mutuals from being changed into companies, consider returning Northern Rock to the mutual sector and introduce a process whereby in certain circumstances an organisation can be turned into a mutual if its workers or customers wish to do so. A first application for this latter process would be football clubs.

Small business policies:

Simplify PAYE by aligning the lower National Insurance limit with the personal allowance and abolishing the upper limit.
In the long run, aim to merge National Insurance into Income Tax.
Make it illegal for a contract with a selfemployed person to imply a pay rate below the national minimum wage.
Amend planning laws to allow appropriate small businesses to operate in residential areas and ensure all large new retail developments include spaces for small local businesses.
Help small businesses cope with regulation and provide tailored advice on energy efficiency.
Introduce a network of local community banks, which will provide, among other things, a new source of finance for small businesses.
Use our proposals to revitalise the Post Office network, in particular to help small businesses.
Provide special help for small rural businesses.
Introduce legislation to penalise late payment.
Reduce corporation tax for small firms to 20%.