Laura Sharman 13 December 2019

In a nutshell: What the election result means for local government

With the Conservative party securing its biggest majority since the 1980s, what does this mean for local government? Here are the key pledges from the party’s manifesto:

Devolution

• An English Devolution White Paper promised next year
• Pledge to bring ‘full devolution’ across England

Infrastructure and transport

• Extra infrastructure spending of £100bn, with £4bn new funding for flood defences
• A £28.8bn investment in strategic and local roads, with the biggest ever pothole-filling programme
• Northern Powerhouse Rail, initially between Leeds and Manchester
• A new £350m Cycling Infrastructure Fund with mandatory design standards for new routes
• Funding for city regions to upgrade bus, tram and train services
• Restoration of the Beeching lines to reconnect smaller towns
• Roll-out of new rapid electric vehicle charging stations backed by £1bn investment

Social care and health

• An extra £1bn investment every year for more social care staff and improved infrastructure and facilities
• A cross-party consensus on social care
• Pledge that nobody will be forced to sell their home to pay for care
• Extra funding for the NHS to a record £34bn per year with a pledge to recruit 50,000 more nurses and build 40 hospitals

Towns and cities

• A new Towns Fund to help 100 towns improve their local economy and a new safer Streets Fund to pay for preventive measures
• A £500m investment in new youth clubs and services
• A £250m cultural capital programme to support local libraries and regional museums
• Tax cuts for small retail businesses and for local music venues, pubs and cinemas
• A £150, Community Ownership Fund to encourage local takeovers of community assets

Housing

• Right to Buy for all council tenants
• Councils to use developers’ contributions to create cheaper homes for local people
• A Social Housing White Paper to provide better regulation and improve the quality of social housing
• Renewal of the Affordable Homes Programme
• Expansion of Rough Sleeping Initiative and Housing First pilots to tackle homelessness
• Banning of ‘no fault’ evictions and introduction of a ‘lifetime’ deposit which moves with the tenant

Children

• Review of care system
• Improvements to the Troubled Families programme

Environment

• A new £500m Blue Planet Fund to protect oceans from plastic pollution
• Commitment to become Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
• Improve energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals with £9.2bn funding

Immigration

• Ending freedom of movement with the introduction of an Australian-style points-based immigration system
• A new NHS Visa to fast-track entry for qualified doctors, nurses and allied health professionals

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