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
