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Introduction
Who knows what the 2017 election will be remembered for! In order to assist you, in this report we go behind the soundbites and analyse what the manifesto promises of the four main political parties may mean for our clients.
We have reviewed the manifesto documents published by the Conservatives, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP. Organised by practice areas and sectors, you will find the main points summarised for you in this manifesto tracker. As we saw, following the Spring Budget earlier this year, manifesto commitments are supposed to be binding. So, the manifestos provide a useful pointer to the direction of travel in the areas that are of interest to our clients. We hope you will find this report helpful in setting out the legislative proposals that we may expect from whichever party forms the next Government. Best wishes, Nick Page Chairman
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Contents
Please click on the links below to view each area:
Banking and financial services............................................................................4 Brexit.............................................................................................................6 Commercial...................................................................................................11 Construction..................................................................................................16 Corporate.....................................................................................................21 Corporate immigration.....................................................................................25 Corporate tax ...............................................................................................28 Employment ................................................................................................33 Energy....................................................................................................... ..42 Environment ................................................................................................47 Pensions .....................................................................................................53 Planning and infrastructure..............................................................................56 Private wealth ..............................................................................................63 Real estate...................................................................................................66 Transport.....................................................................................................72
This communication is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal or other professional advice. You should consult a suitably qualified lawyer on any specific legal problem or matter.
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Banking and financial services
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Work with the Post Office to extend provision of banking services to SMEs and consumers in rural areas.
Create a single means of online verification to be used for all Government online services by 2020, which can also be used for non-government services such as online banking.
Establish a National Investment Bank to provide 250bn of debt finance to small business, cooperatives and innovative projects in the community.
Overhaul regulation of the financial system, including placing a ring-fence between investment and retail banking.
Consult on breaking up RBS to create new local public banks.
Legislate to prevent bank branch closures.
End closure of Post Office branches. Set up a commission to establish a Post bank providing a full range of banking services in every community.
Expand the activities of the state-owned British Business Bank, enabling it to perform a more central role in the economy by tackling the shortage of equity capital for growing firms and providing long-term capital for medium sized businesses.
Take forward the recommendations of the House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion by expanding the Financial Conduct Authority's remit to include a statutory duty to promote financial inclusion as one of its key objectives.
Require the major banks to fund the creation of a local banking sector dedicated to meeting the needs of local SMEs.
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Support the creation of a robust regulatory framework to ensure that the UK economy is not vulnerable to a re-run of the 2008 financial crisis, including the reinstatement of the reverse burden of proof which required senior bank managers to demonstrate they had done the right thing where wrongdoing had emerged on their watch.
Support a comprehensive investigation into LIBOR rigging. Call for protection for whistle-blowers in the banking and financial services sector. Press for the public interest to be fully protected in any future disposal of RBS shares, including decisions
on how any windfall revenues should be used, to ensure that taxpayers get their money back. Press the UK government to compel the banking industry and LINK members to sign up to the Universal
Cash Deposit Transaction, which means that ATMs which take deposits can be used by customers of any bank, to protect convenient access to cash deposit and withdrawal facilities for both the public and businesses. Seek to expand banking services in rural communities. Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Contact us
Rebecca Jones
Associate (Practice Development Lawyer) T: +44 (0)207 788 2430 E: [email protected]
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Brexit
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Leave the single market and customs union.
Seek a comprehensive free trade and customs agreement.
Agree the terms of our future partnership alongside our withdrawal, reaching agreement on both within the two year notice period.
No deal is better than a bad deal for the UK.
The final agreement will be subject to a vote in both Houses of Parliament.
Maintain the Common Travel Area.
Maintain as frictionless a border as possible for people, goods and services between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Protect the democratic freedom of the people of Gibraltar to remain British.
No independence referendum for Scotland until after the UK leaves the EU. It should only take place if there is public consent for it to happen.
Labour accepts the referendum result.
Scrap the Brexit white paper and replace it with fresh negotiating priorities, with an emphasis on retaining the benefits of the single market and the customs union.
Leaving the EU with no deal is the worst possible deal for Britain. If necessary, negotiate transitional arrangements to avoid a cliff-edge for the UK economy.
Guarantee that Parliament will have a meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal.
Ensure there is no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and no change in the status or sovereignty of Gibraltar.
Drop the Great Repeal Bill and replace it with an EU Rights and Protections Bill.
Make sure that all EU-derived laws that are of benefit are fully protected.
Liberal Democrats acknowledge the result of the referendum.
Fight to prevent a hard Brexit.
Ensure that trade can continue without customs controls at the border and maintain membership of the single market.
There is no deal as good for the UK outside the EU as the one it already has as a member.
Hold a referendum on the terms of our future relationship with the EU when a deal is reached. The alternative option on the ballot paper will be to stay in the EU.
Support the principle of freedom of movement.
Oppose any moves that threaten the political stability of Northern Ireland, and campaign to protect the rights of the people of Gibraltar.
Fight to ensure that EU-derived employment rights and environmental standards are not undermined.
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The Great Repeal Bill will convert EU law into UK law and create the power to correct the laws that
do not operate appropriately once we have left the EU.
Seek to maintain membership of European organisations that offer benefits to the UK, such
as Eurojust, Europol, Euratom and the European Medicines Agency.
Fight to maintain co-operation with Europol. Protect Erasmus+ to give young people
opportunities to work and study abroad.
Workers' rights conferred on British citizens from Seek to ensure that Britain remains part of the
our membership of the EU will remain.
Erasmus scheme.
Maintain the rights of the City of London in EU financial markets.
Participate in specific European programmes.
Ensure there is no drop in EU Structural Funding Retain traveller and tourist benefits, such as the
as a result of Brexit until the end of the current EU
EHIC.
funding round in 2019/20.
General
Commitment to independence referendum at end of Brexit process. The SNP believes that if Scotland chooses to become independent, Scotland should be a member state of the EU.
SNP calls on UK government to guarantee EU Nationals' right to remain in UK.
SNP MPs will hold the government to account to ensure that the rights and protections currently safeguarded by EU membership are not diminished after the UK leaves.
Committed to the Council of Europe, the ECHR and their institutions. SNP MPs will oppose any attempts by the UK government to scrap the Human Rights Act and withdraw the UK from the ECHR.
Seek a 'cast-iron' guarantee from the UK government that they will seek the consent of the Scottish Parliament under the Sewel Convention to the terms of the Brexit Bill.
SNP will fight for Single Market membership.
SNP MPs will work to protect Scotland's place in Europe's energy markets and funding programmes ensuring continued funding and cooperation with the EU for Scotland's renewable energy sector
SNP MPs will seek additional powers. These will include new powers, beyond those being repatriated, including, but not limited to powers to conclude international agreements in areas of the Scottish Parliament's responsibility, and powers that would allow Scotland to meet the regulatory and administrative requirements of continued European Single Market membership.
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SNP MPs will press the UK government to ensure border checks are as seamless as possible after the UK leaves the EU.
SNP will continue, in all circumstances, to demand the scrapping or fundamental reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and support Scottish control of Scottish fisheries.
Oppose any attempt by the UK government to treat the fishing industry as a bargaining chip. Commitment to Open Skies Agreement. SNP will press UK government for assurances that the oil and gas industry is always treated as a high
priority in Brexit negotiations. SNP MPs will demand urgent clarity from the UK government on long-term funding arrangements after the
UK leaves the EU, and ensure that current funding levels are matched. SNP MPs will call for continued co-operation on detecting, disrupting and detaining criminals across
borders through Europol. We will seek assurances that our law enforcement agencies will continue to have the same level of access to Europol as they currently enjoy. Brexit and trade An SNP "win" would give a mandate to demand a place for Scotland at the Brexit negotiating table and the inclusion of the case for Scotland's place in the EU Single Market in the UK's negotiating remit. The Scottish parliament should have a say in any post-Brexit trade deals. The SNP will call for greater transparency in any proposed international trade deals following Brexit, with the UK and Scottish Parliaments being given a say. The SNP will press the UK government to adopt an ethical and responsible trade policy, promoting international development and human rights. SNP will work to safeguard the Scottish food and drink sector. SNP MPs will also seek to ensure that any future trade deals secure geographical indications for key Scottish food and drink products like Scotch Whisky, Arbroath smokies and Stornoway black pudding. Support efforts to maintain animal and plant health and environmental and food safety regulations.
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European Medicines Agency
The SNP will call on the UK government to stay part of the EMA so that access to vital drugs is maintained, and so that we can continue to participate in Europe-wide clinical trials and data sharing. Will also call on the UK government to devolve responsibility for medicine and medical product regulation to the Scottish Parliament.
Cross-border health insurance arrangements
SNP MPs will press the UK government to ensure continuity in cross-border health insurance arrangements including the European Health Insurance Card. Costs will be increased for UK citizens living in, and travelling to, other parts of the EU if the UK government fails to agree reciprocal insurance arrangements with our European partners.
Horizon 2020 funding
Scotland's universities receive vital research funding from the EU, through programmes like Horizon 2020. SNP MPs will continue to work with Scotland's universities and institutions to seek clarity from the UK government on what will replace this funding. The SNP will also call for a Scottish representative to be a standing member of the UK Research and Innovation Board, which decides on allocation of UK research funding to UK universities.
ERASMUS+
The SNP believes that our students should be able to seamlessly travel to Europe for study and we will support the continuation of programmes like ERASMUS+ and other arrangements such as those being worked on by the AURORA group of universities including Aberdeen.
Rural policies and fisheries
Call for all powers over agriculture and rural policy to be repatriated to Scotland, and full control of EU agricultural funding following Brexit.
Call for Favoured Areas grant scheme in 2019 a vital support for our most fragile farmers and crofters to be met in full.
In the next parliamentary term SNP MPs will call for the Universal Service Obligation to cover up to 30Mbps with an appropriate update mechanism to ensure that rural areas are not left behind.
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Call for all powers over policy to be repatriated to Scotland when the UK leaves the EU. SNP MPs will press for EU fisheries funding to be matched and transferred to Scotland in full.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Karen Plumbley-Jones
Managing Associate (Practice Development Lawyer)
T: +44 (0)175 267 7903 E: [email protected]
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Commercial
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Brexit and trade
Seek to replicate all existing EU free trade agreements and support ratification of trade agreements entered into during EU membership. Continue to support the global multilateral rules based trade system, and introduce a new Trade Bill in the next parliament. Also seek to adopt UK schedules to the WTO agreement to replicate existing EU schedules as the basis for future trade with WTO member states.
Late payments
Require big contractors to comply with the Prompt Payment Code, on government contracts and in their work with others. Where contractors fail to comply, they would lose the right to bid.
Modern Slavery
Review the Modern Slavery Act, to strengthen the ability to stop modern slavery.
Brexit and trade
Propose an International Trade White paper to lead a national debate on the future of Britain's trade policy. A key objective would be to ensure that the UK retains unrestricted access for goods and services. Labour would adhere to WTO rules and would seek to re-join the Government Procurement Agreement, while safeguarding the capacity for public bodies to make procurement decisions in keeping with public policy objectives.
Late payments
Propose to use government procurement to ensure that public sector suppliers pay their own supply chain within 30 days and would seek to develop a UK version of the Australian system of binding arbitration and fines for persistent latepayers for both the public and private sectors.
Modern Slavery
Extend the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator beyond direct suppliers to ensure fair treatment for all those producing goods for the UK's largest supermarkets.
Brexit and Trade
Seek to retain membership of the single market and customs union, arguing that any deal negotiated outside the EU must ensure that trade can continue without customs controls at the border. A second referendum to be held once a deal has been negotiated with the EU, which would allow the public to vote on the deal, with an alternative option of staying in the EU on the ballot.
Modern Slavery
Increase the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator and its remit to include businesses further up the supply chain. Other elements of Liberal Democrat policy include a focus on good practice in tackling modern slavery and extended requirements on companies to strengthen responsibility for supply chains.
Digital economy
Aim to double the number of SMEs participating in the digital economy by supporting ICT capital expenditure by businesses in non-digital sectors.
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Digital economy
Develop a digital charter with a new sanctions regime giving regulators the ability to fine or prosecute companies failing in their legal duties and to order the removal of content where it clearly breaches UK law. Give businesses the right to insist on a digital signature and the right to digital cancellation of contracts; obliging digital companies to provide digital receipts and clearer terms and conditions when selling goods and services online.
Consumer regulation
Strengthen consumer enforcement body powers to order fines against companies breaking consumer law and deliver redress for wronged consumers. In addition:
- explore how to give consumers a greater voice in the regulation of business;
- investigate how switching sites can better serve competition;
- strengthen online consumers, act to make terms and conditions clearer and end the abusive use of subscription services, including by making it clearer when free trials come to an end;
- consider a ban on companies cold calling people encouraging them to make false personal injury claims; and
- tackle rogue private parking operators.
Food advertising and labelling
Promote efforts to reduce unhealthy ingredients and provide clearer food information for the consumer. The manifesto refers to the decision to leave the EU as giving greater flexibility over the presentation of information on packaged food.
Digital economy
Enforce anti-bot legislation in relation to the secondary ticketing market by making regulations under the Digital Economy Act 2017 making it an offence to use "bots" to purchase tickets in excess of the maximum number permitted in the conditions of sale.
Discrimination
Make terminal illness a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, affording protection in relation to the supply of goods and services.
Food advertising and labelling
Publish a childhood obesity strategy within the first 100 days, to include proposals on advertising and food labelling.
Food advertising and labelling
Seek to restrict the marketing of junk food to children. They would also close the loopholes in sugary drinks tax and introduce mandatory targets to reduce sugar in food and drinks and encourage a traffic light labelling system for food and drink products and publication of information on calories, fat sugar and salt content in restaurants and takeaways.
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General SNP MPs will seek presumptions against the closure of rural post offices. SNP MPs will call on the UK government to ensure that future mobile spectrum licensing meets key tests
on geographical and population coverage, with a `rural areas first' policy for new spectrum deployments. Press the UK government to provide appropriate support and resources for Scotland's Mobile Action Plan
and also to ensure that Scotland does not miss out on access to EU wide regulation in future, including plans to improve and increase fixed and mobile connectivity throughout the EU. SNP MPs will continue to call for the publication of the long-overdue National Shipbuilding Strategy. Delivery charges SNP MPs will call on the UK government to step in to regulate for fair delivery charges for rural communities. Brexit and trade An SNP "win" would give a mandate to demand a place for Scotland at the Brexit negotiating table and the inclusion of the case for Scotland's place in the EU Single Market in the UK's negotiating remit. The Scottish parliament should have a say in any post-Brexit trade deals. The SNP will call for greater transparency in any proposed international trade deals following Brexit, with the UK and Scottish Parliaments being given a say. The SNP will press the UK government to adopt an ethical and responsible trade policy, promoting international development and human rights. SNP will work to safeguard the Scottish food and drink sector. SNP MPs will also seek to ensure that any future trade deals secure geographical indications for key Scottish food and drink products like Scotch Whisky, Arbroath smokies and Stornoway black pudding.
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Public procurement Firms that win contracts from the public sector are expected to pay the Living Wage. Firms found to have 'blacklisted' individuals would be excluded from public sector contracts. Consumers SNP MPs will press the UK government to re-commit to key policies which can only currently be
implemented at Westminster such as closing the loopholes in the sugary drinks tax, tightening regulation of broadcast and digital junk food advertising seen by children, and introducing clearer food labelling. Call for all powers over consumer protection to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Call for the introduction of a fuel duty regulator which delivers more stability to the cost of filling up your car. Call for a freeze in further IPT tax hikes. SNP MPs will seek to ensure that Scotland does not lose out on the EU commitment to abolish mobile roaming charges. SNP MPs, backed by the Scottish Government, will press the UK government for stronger consumer protection against ticket touting, and will seek a ban on software used by ticket touters which instantly purchases large volumes of tickets. Call for legislative powers to control the growth and impact of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals cause and the SNP will call for full devolution of powers to control these. Consumers and energy Press UK government to put energy price cap on standard variable tariffs. Ensure energy companies reduce number of people on pre-payment meters. Immediately implement Competition and Markets Authority's recommendations on metering. Require energy companies to prioritise smart meters for risk of fuel poverty households.
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Support individuals switching tariff by introducing financial health check.
Ensure those at risk from fuel poverty on lowest tariff possible.
Defence
SNP MPs will hold the UK government to its promise on building the new Type-26 Frigates in Scotland.
SNP MPs will continue to campaign to protect Scotland's bases and press the UK government to engage fully with the Scottish Government, local authorities and local communities as a matter of urgency.
SNP MPs will support a new Strategic Defence and Security Review, in order to assess the need, as a matter of priority, for permanent basing of ocean-going conventional patrol vessels in Scotland.
Press to ensure that the nine multi-role Maritime Patrol Aircraft on order reach full operational capacity at the earliest possible stage, and support a review into the need for additional aircraft.
The SNP will call for greater transparency in UK defence spending with a full breakdown of spending by nation and region in the UK, including all procurement and small and medium sized enterprise (SME) expenditure and a full breakdown of component costs of all major projects by location.
SNP MPs will press for more Scottish SMEs in Scotland to benefit from the manufacturing supply chain for major defence projects.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Contact us
Malcolm Dowden
Legal Director
T: +44 (0)238 020 8428 E: [email protected]
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Construction
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The Conservatives have launched a new 23bn National Productivity Investment Fund to target at housing, R&D, economic infrastructure and skills. This will include 740m for digital infrastructure investment, investment in railways, 1.1bn to improve local transport and 250m to invest in skills by the end of 2020.
Housebuilding
Improve the energy efficiency of existing homes by upgrading all fuel poor homes to EPC Band C by 2030.
Meet the Conservatives' 2015 commitment to deliver 1m homes by the end of 2020 and deliver 0.5m more by the end of 2022.
Free up more land for new homes, speed up build-out by encouraging modern methods of construction.
Give councils powers to intervene where developers do not act on their planning permissions, and diversify who builds homes.
To create a National Transformation Fund that will invest 250bn over ten years in upgrading the economy. To rebuild and transform the economy so that it works for the many, not the few. To put in place tight rules to ensure that investment is fairly shared around every region and nation of the UK.
Housebuilding
Invest to build over 1m new homes. By the end of the next Parliament, to be building at least 100k council and housing association homes a year.
Establish a new Department for Housing, to improve the number, standards and affordability of homes.
Overhaul the Homes and Communities Agency to be Labour's housing delivery body, and give councils new powers to build homes.
Prioritise brownfield sites and protect the green belt. To start work on a new generation of New Towns to build homes and avoid urban sprawl.
A 100bn package of additional infrastructure investment, where priorities will include housebuilding to help build 300,000 homes a year by 2022, fibreoptic broadband across the UK, capital investment in schools and hospitals, significant investment in road and rail infrastructure, additional funding to bring more private investment into renewable energy, and a new British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank.
Housebuilding
Build homes to reach a housebuilding target of 300,000 homes a year. To ensure that 0.5m affordable, energy-efficient homes are built by the end of Parliament.
Ensure that 4m properties receive insulation retrofits by 2022.
Create ten new garden cities in England, providing zero carbon homes, gardens, shared green space, jobs, schools and public transport.
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Build better houses - by supporting high-quality and density housing e.g. mansion blocks; maintaining protections on designated land e.g. Green Belt; rebalancing housing growth across the country; Government building of 160k of houses on its own land; supporting specialist housing, e.g. multigenerational homes and housing for older people.
Help councils to build to enter into new deals with local authorities to build more social housing; to help them improve their capability and capacity to develop good homes; to provide them with low-cost capital funding.
Reform Compulsory Purchase Orders to make them easier and less expensive for councils to use and to make it easier to determine the true market value of sites.
Give greater flexibility to housing associations to increase their housing stock.
Capture the increase in land value created when housebuilders build (for reinvestment in local infrastructure, essential services and more housing).
Continue the 2.5bn flood defence programme to protect 300,000 homes by 2021.
Infrastructure
Deliver the infrastructure the road, rail, airports and broadband that businesses need.
Make the building of new homes a priority through the new National Transformation Fund, as part of a joined-up industrial and skills strategy that ensures a vibrant construction sector with a skilled workforce and rights at work.
Build better. To insulate more homes. To consult on new rules on minimum space standards to prevent "rabbit hutch" properties and on new modern standards for building "zero carbon homes".
Ensure that local plans address the need for older people's housing, ensuring choice and downsizing options are readily available.
Build the new homes first-time buyers need.
Remove government restrictions that stop councils building homes.
Infrastructure
Use the new 250bn National Transformation Fund to invest in upgrading the economy, including rail, road and broadband.
Energy
Ensure that 60% of the UK's energy comes from zero-carbon or renewable sources by 2030, and be committed to renewable energy projects which can help create manufacturing and energy jobs.
Schools
Invest in new school buildings, including the phased removal of asbestos from existing schools.
Use the new British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank (initial capital of 5bn) to provide long-term capital for major new settlements and attract finance for major housebuilding projects.
Lift the borrowing cap on local authorities and increase the borrowing capacity of housing associations so they can build council and social housing.
Scrap exemptions on smaller housing development schemes from their obligation to provide affordable homes, and strengthen the hand of local Government to prevent large developers reneging on their commitments.
Enable local authorities to enforce housebuilding on unwanted public sector land and penalise excessive land-banking when builders with planning permission fail to build after three years.
Infrastructure
Invest capital in major transport improvements and infrastructure. Commit to a responsible and realistic 100bn package of additional infrastructure investment.
Energy
Expand renewable energy, to generate 60% of electricity from renewables by 2030, and to restore Government support for solar PV and onshore wind.
Support investment in cutting-edge technologies (e.g. energy storage, hydrogen technologies, offshore wind, and tidal power) and support an ambitious CCS programme.
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Energy
Skills
Schools
The Conservatives do not believe that more large-scale onshore wind power is right for England, but will maintain the UK's position as a global leader in offshore wind and support wind projects in the remote Scottish islands.
Schools
Build at least 100 new free schools a year.
Skills
Replace 13,000 existing technical qualifications with a new T-level including in construction, creative & design, engineering & manufacturing. To create 3m apprenticeships by 2020.
Health
Build and upgrade primary care facilities, mental health clinics and hospitals.
Government procurement
Use government buying power to ensure that big contractors comply with the Prompt Payment Code both on government contracts and in their work with others.
Increase investment to equip colleges to deliver T-levels and an official pre-apprenticeship trainee programme. To double the number of apprenticeships at NVQ level 3 by 2022.
Health
Commit to over 30bn in extra funding over the next Parliament.
Government procurement
Require the best standards on government contracts; and require firms supplying national or local government to meet high standards including (inter alia) protecting the environment, providing training, and paying suppliers on time.
Use government procurement to ensure that anyone bidding for a government contract pays its own suppliers within 30 days.
Capital investment in schools to support capacity increases and modernisation.
Skills
Solve skills gaps by expanding higher vocational training e.g. foundation degrees, Higher National Diplomas, Higher National Certificates, and Higher Apprenticeships. To double the number of businesses which hire apprentices.
Health One pence rise on income tax to raise 6bn per
year to be spent only on the NHS and social care services.
Government procurement
Use central government public procurement policy as a tool of local growth and community development by, e.g. purchasing from diverse sources and using local labour, goods and services, and encouraging local government to do the same.
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The SNP states that in government it has prioritised investment in infrastructure to improve public services, enhance connectivity, create jobs and grow our economy; and is committed to creating sustainable rural communities, where young people can live, work and prosper including building more homes and delivering broadband to all.
Housebuilding
Over the current term of the Scottish Parliament, the SNP says it is investing over 3bn to deliver at least 50,000 new affordable homes - at least 35,000 of which will be for social rent.
The SNP says it is building new homes and refurbishing existing properties through the 25m Rural Housing Fund, and delivering 100 affordable homes in island communities through a dedicated 5m fund.
Infrastructure
Support the Institute of Directors' calls for the further extension of the Annual Investment Allowance, which encourages firms to invest in plant and machinery, from the current 200,000 per year to 1m per year.
Ensure that 100 per cent of premises across Scotland have access to super-fast broadband by 2021.
Energy
Press the UK government to deliver a strong deal for the oil and gas sector; and urge the UK government to provide incentives for oil and gas companies diversifying into renewables.
Press the UK government to include onshore wind in its industrial strategy and demand an increased focus on offshore wind, tidal energy and wave power.
Seek a regulatory environment which supports investment in new energy storage schemes, including pumped hydro and batteries; and lead in the development of carbon capture and storage technology.
Schools
Continue to invest in and reform school education, with the new National Improvement Framework, the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the 120m Pupil Equity Fund.
Skills
The SNP says it has been reforming vocational education and increased the number of Modern Apprenticeships, with a target of 30,000 new starts by the end of this parliament.
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Establish a new enterprise agency to address the enterprise and skills needs of the South of Scotland.
The rate paid to 16 to 18 year olds and apprentices should increase in line with changes to the rate of the real Living wage.
Health
The SNP says that over 5bn has been invested in Scotland's health infrastructure since 2007 and nearly 500m of new hospitals and healthcare facilities are due to open in Scotland in 2017-18.
Commit to an increase in the NHS Scotland revenue budget of 500m more than inflation by the end of the current term of the Scottish Parliament which means the budget will increase by 2bn in total.
SNP MPs will oppose further privatisation of the NHS in England and support any moves to restore it to a fully public service.
Government Procurement
Support the continued use of procurement processes to ensure the Scottish Government can continue to seek the Living Wage for workers in firms who win contracts from the public sector.
The Scottish Government has introduced regulations to exclude businesses which have been found to be involved in blacklisting from bidding for public contracts - similar measures should be introduced to ensure blacklisters do not benefit from UK government procurement.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
For information on Energy, Environment, Planning and Infrastructure, Real Estate, and Transport, please also see the specific pages relating to these areas and/or sectors in this document.
Contact us
Michelle Essen
Managing Associate (Practice Development Lawyer)
T: +44 (0)175 267 7633 E: [email protected]
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Corporate
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Takeovers and mergers
Takeovers and mergers
Corporate governance
Steps to protect critical national infrastructure,
including ensuring that foreign ownership of companies controlling important infrastructure does not undermine British security or essential services, such as telecoms, defence and energy.
Amend the takeover regime to ensure that
businesses identified as being "systematically important" have a clear plan in place to protect workers and pensioners when a company is taken over.
Encourage employers to promote employee
ownership by giving staff in listed companies with more than 250 employees a right to request shares, to be held in trust for the benefit of employees.
Reform the rules on takeovers and mergers:
requiring bidders to be clear about their intentions from the outset of the bid process;
ensuring that all promises and undertakings made in the course of a takeover bid can be legally enforced afterwards; and
granting the Government the right to pause a takeover bid to allow greater scrutiny.
Corporate governance
Consultation on amendments to company law so that directors owe a duty directly not only to shareholders but to employees, customers, the environment and the public.
Co-operative business models
Introduce legislation on co-operative ownership models.
Employee representation on boards of listed companies and remuneration committees, with the potential for a German-style, two-tier board structure to include employee representatives.
Reform company law so that other considerations such as employee welfare, environmental standards, community benefit and ethical practice are taken into consideration in board decisions.
Reduce the reporting requirement for disclosure of shareholdings to 1% (we assume this is a reference to the disclosure obligations under DTR5, which applies to UK companies with shares traded on a regulated market, but the manifesto is not clear).
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Corporate governance
The manifesto confirms existing commitments to reform corporate governance (see our previous article on the Government's Green Paper) and includes proposals such as requiring listed companies to either: nominate a director from the workforce; create a formal employee advisory council; or assign specific responsibility for employee representation to a designated nonexecutive director.
Fairer corporate governance, built on new rules for takeovers, executive pay and worker representation on company boards.
Boards should take account of the interests not just of shareholders but also of employees, suppliers and the wider community.
Right for employees to request information relating to the future direction of the company (subject to sensible safeguards).
Consultation on strengthening the corporate governance of privately-owned businesses.
Executive pay
Measures in respect of executive pay including: executive packages subject to annual votes by shareholders; listed companies will have to publish the ratio of executive pay to broader UK workforce pay; and companies will have to explain their pay policies, particularly complex incentive schemes, better; and
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Executive pay
Greater transparency in company pay policies, including publishing the ratio between top and median pay.
Require binding and public votes of board members on executive pay policies.
Women on boards
Target of 40% female representation on boards by 2025.
Diversity
Implement the recommendations of the Parker review to increase ethnic minority representation on boards.
a review of the use of share buybacks, with a view to ensuring these cannot be used artificially to hit performance targets and inflate executive pay.
Women on boards
Push for an increase in the number of women sitting on boards of companies.
Scottish Limited Partnerships
As a result of SNP pressure, a review into the use of the Scottish Limited Partnerships business model has been initiated by the UK government, given fears that they can be a vehicle for fraud, tax evasion and criminal activity.
Productivity
In support of productivity, the SNP supports the Institute of Directors' calls for the further extension of the Annual Investment Allowance, which encourages firms to invest in plant and machinery, from the current 200,000 per year to 1 million per year.
Small businesses
The SNP will support the introduction of effective legal protections to ensure that small businessesparticularly those attempting to scale up-are paid on time.
The UK government's Draft Industrial Strategy doesn't deliver for our manufacturing industries. The SNP will work with partners to deliver a strategy that takes account of Scotland's economic challenges. Additionally, there should be clear guidance and a mandate for the Small Business Commissioner to play a role in delivering the Industrial Strategy.
Defence spending
Greater transparency in defence spending with a full breakdown of spending by nation and region in the UK, including all procurement and small and medium-sizes enterprise expenditure and a full breakdown of component costs of all major projects by location. The SNP will press for more Scottish SMEs to benefit from the manufacturing supply chain for major defence projects.
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Human rights due diligence
The SNP will demand that the UK government follows the lead of the Scottish Government which has committed to 'always consider the human rights implications of its engagements with counties and business' and ensure that investment agreements should only be signed where appropriate due diligence, including on the human rights record of the companies involved, has been undertaken.
Scottish exports
SNP MPs will work to ensure that UK agencies are working with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to support Scottish businesses to export.
Equality
Support tackling maternity and pregnancy discrimination, the SNP backs the Women and Equalities Committee's recommendation to strengthen the law to protect women from discriminatory redundancies and practices.
The Scottish Government is committed to legislating for gender balance in public sector boardrooms. SNP MPs will call on the UK government to do likewise.
SNP MPs will vote for a change in the Equality Act to strengthen and change the law that currently allows employers to have different dress codes for men and women.
SNP MPs will push the UK government to ensure all workplaces provide information to new parents on their rights when they return to work and to enforce those rights.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Contact us
Suzanne Gado
Associate (Practice Development Lawyer)
T: +44 (0)1752 67 7805 E: [email protected]
David Crone
Associate (Practice Development Lawyer)
T: +44 (0)191 279 9114 E: [email protected]
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Corporate immigration
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Seek recommendations from the independent Migration Advisory Committee to align the visa system with economic strategy.
Reduce immigration to an annual net migration in the tens of thousands.
Reduce and control the number of people who come to Britain from the European Union.
Maintain the Common Travel Area and as frictionless a border as possible for people, goods and services between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Double the Immigration Skills Charge on companies employing migrant workers to 2,000.
Increase the earnings thresholds for people wishing to sponsor migrants for family visas.
Immediately guarantee existing rights for all EU nationals living in Britain and secure reciprocal rights for UK citizens who have chosen to make their lives in EU countries.
Institute a new system which is based on economic need. This may include employer sponsorship, work permits, visa regulations or a tailored mix.
Allow EU workers employed across farming, fishing and food manufacturing to remain in the UK.
Distinguish between migrant labour and family attachment.
Replace income thresholds with a prohibition on recourse to public funds.
Stop overseas only recruitment practices.
End the exploitation of migrant labour undercutting workers' pay and conditions.
Unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU nationals in the UK.
Protect the right to work, travel, study and retire across the EU.
Guarantee the rights of all NHS and social care staff who are EU nationals to stay in the UK.
Develop strict control of borders, including entry and exit checks, and adequately funded Border Force policing of entry by irregular routes.
Establish a centrally funded Migration Impact Fund to help local communities adjust to new migration and meet unexpected pressures on public services and housing.
Provide additional Government funding for English as an additional language classes.
Hold an annual debate in Parliament on skill and labour market shortfalls and surpluses.
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Toughen visa requirements for students and
Reinstate the Migrant Impact Fund and boost it
introduce higher requirements that allow them to
with a contributory element from the investments
work in Britain after their studies have
required for High Net Worth Individual Visas.
concluded.
Restore the rights of migrant domestic workers.
Increase the Immigration Health Surcharge to
600 for migrant workers and 450 for
Reinstate the Seasonal Agricultural Workers
international students.
Scheme.
End indefinite immigration detention by introducing a 28-day limit.
Expect working-age asylum seekers who have waited more than six months for their claim to be processed to seek work like other benefit claimants, and only to receive benefits if they are unable to do so.
Reinstate post-study work visas for graduates in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects who find suitable employment within six months of graduating.
Give the devolved administrations the right to sponsor additional post-study work visas.
Immigration Skills Charge
Oppose the Immigration Skills Charge (a charge for employers of 1,000 per non-EEA worker per year).
Citizenship application process
Support a review of the citizenship application process, with a view to bringing down its cost and reducing its complexity.
Brexit & NHS
SNP MPs will continue to press the UK government to immediately protect the right to live and work in Scotland and the UK for NHS workers from across Europe. Will also press for immigration powers to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so that Scotland can attract EU and EEA nationals to work in Scotland's NHS and care sector in the future.
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Contact us
Cross-border health insurance arrangements
SNP MPs will press the UK government to ensure continuity in cross-border health insurance arrangements including the European Health Insurance Card. Costs will be increased for UK citizens living in, and travelling to, other parts of the EU if the UK government fails to agree reciprocal insurance arrangements with our European partners.
Post-Study Work Visa
SNP MPs will call for the full reinstatement of the Post-Study Work Visa scheme. The Post-Study Work Visa is a vital tool to help attract and retain young talent. The UK government's decision to scrap the scheme, and then run a pilot which does not include a single Scottish university, is unacceptable.
Borders
SNP MPs will press the UK government to ensure border checks are as seamless as possible after the UK leaves the EU.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Rachel Jones
Associate
T: +44 (0)1752 67 7677 E: [email protected]
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Corporate tax
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Personal Tax
Increase the personal allowance to 12,500 by 2020.
Increase the higher rate threshold to 50,000.
One year holiday from Employers' National Insurance for firms employing veterans, people coming from the care system, people with chronic mental health problems, former prison inmates and those who have been unemployed for over 12 months.
Corporation Tax
Retain commitment to lower the rate to 17% by 2020.
Commitment to devolution of corporation tax powers to Northern Ireland.
VAT
Commitment to not raising the rate of VAT.
Personal Tax
Lower the threshold for additional rate tax (45%) to 80,000.
Introduce a new 50% rate for earnings over 123,000.
Introduce an excessive pay levy against employers paying any individual over a defined limit. The starting threshold is 330,000 per individual.
Increase tax on private medical insurance premiums.
Corporation Tax
Increase the headline rate of corporation tax to 21% for 2018/19, increasing to 26% from 2020/21. Small companies rate to be 20% and 21% respectively from those periods.
Personal Tax
Increase the rate of tax on each band by 1% (therefore, 21%, 41% and 46% rates) to be ringfenced for NHS and social care. These rate increases will not apply to Scotland.
Dividend rate income tax will be increased by 1% (to be levied across the UK).
Review of proposal for single rate of tax relief for pensions.
Reverse capital gains tax deduction (reverting to 28%).
Corporation Tax
Examine moving away from profits based taxation to other economic indicators (e.g. turnover).
Cancel corporation tax deductions scheduled in forthcoming fiscal years.
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Anti-Avoidance/Evasion
Legislate for tougher regulation of tax advisory firms.
Further counteractions to the misuse of trusts.
Reduction of online VAT fraud.
Energy Tax
Establishment of a Shale Wealth fund for greater amounts to be put to the benefit of local communities close to shale sources.
Business Rates
Explore introduction of self-assessment for rate revaluation.
Review the sustainability of business rates in light of more retail being conducted online.
Explore more frequent revaluations to prevent large increases.
Land value capture
Work with private and public sector housebuilders to capture the increase in land value created when they build to reinvest in local infrastructure, essential services and further housing.
Stamp taxes
Extend stamp duty reserve tax to include more classes of assets.
Property Taxation
Offshore company property levy.
Consultations and further proposals
Reforming council tax and business rates.
Wealth tax to fund social care.
Anti-Avoidance/Evasion and Tax Transparency
Re-introduce HMRC's preferred creditor status.
Increase the headline rate of corporation tax to act as a disincentive to incorporate a business.
End capital gains treatment for carried interest.
Introduce withholding tax on interest on Eurobonds.
Examination of existing advance thin capitalisation agreements for evidence of potential revenue loss.
Creation of a specialised Tax Enforcement Unit.
Immediate public enquiry into avoidance.
Withholding tax on dividend, interest and "related payments" to listed abusive tax havens.
Public filing of tax returns for large corporates and individuals earning over 1m per annum.
Environmental Tax
Reinstate landfill tax escalator and extend it to the lower rate.
Consult on the introduction of an incineration tax.
Anti-Avoidance/Evasion
New general anti-avoidance rule and increased resources to HMRC.
Business Rates
Review the business rate system, recognising development of digital economy and lessening burdens on small business.
Land value taxation
Consideration of land value taxation.
Further Proposals
Proposing international action to ensure worldwide groups pay "fair" taxes in developing countries.
Expanding large group reporting requirements regarding payments and profits made in each country of operation.
Scotland to raise half its budget from own taxation.
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Public register of trusts and of beneficial owners of shares in companies.
Repatriation of PFI contracts which had been transferred/assigned to overseas entities.
Bidders for public contracts to publicly declare UK source profits and corporation tax paid in prior five years.
New and more extensive general anti-avoidance rules, removing the qualitative measure of an advisory panel.
New minimum standard of transparency for registers of companies/shareholders in crown dependencies and overseas territories.
Business rates
Initiate a review and introduce a package of reforms to business rates and review the entire system in the longer term.
Land value tax
Initiate a review and consider the options such as a land value tax to ensure local government has funding for the long term.
Key Points
Support the reversal of the reductions to the bank levy. Support an increase in the Additional Rate from 45p to 50p across the UK as a whole from 2018/19. Support introduction of tax on bankers' bonuses. Demand action on tax evasion.
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Income Tax Support an increase in the Additional Rate from 45p to 50p across the UK as a whole from 2018/19. Back a freeze on National Insurance contributions. Oppose the cap that restricts Child Tax Credits to the first two children and the removal of the family element of Universal Credit. Support the re-instatement of the work allowance to all benefit claimants. Demand an end to tax on Child Maintenance Service on child support. Support introduction of tax on bankers' bonuses.
VAT and Indirect Tax Oppose any proposed increases in Value Added Tax. Support the continuation of VAT exemption on essential items like children's clothes. Hold the UK government to a commitment to remove VAT from sanitary products. Continue to push the UK government to extend a VAT exemption to Scottish emergency services. Call for a freeze in further IPT tax hikes.
Corporation Tax Oppose further reductions to corporation tax. Support that beneficial ownership of companies and trusts to be made public. Support measures to improve the transparency of tax paid by major international companies. Support extension of the Annual Investment Allowance to 1million per year.
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Contact us
Business Rates
Push for formal, independent review of Office of Tax Simplification and regulation recommendations that impact small businesses.
Anti-Avoidance and Transparency
Close loopholes in sugary drinks tax. Improve tax collection.
Tougher action on tax avoidance both in the UK and internationally.
Review and suspension of closure of HMRC offices in Scotland and across the UK. Scottish Initiatives
Ensure the UK government continues to work with the Scottish Government to secure an exemption from air passenger taxes on Highlands and Islands flights.
Press for the public interest to be fully protected in any future disposal of RBS shares, including decisions on how any windfall revenues should be used.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Ronan Lowney
Managing Associate
T: +44 (0)117 989 6949 E: [email protected]
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Employment
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Anti-exploitation
Make sure that people working in the gig economy are properly protected.
Review the application of the Modern Slavery Act to strengthen our ability to stop criminals putting people into criminal, dangerous and exploitative working conditions.
Use our power to push the UN and other international bodies to make modern slavery a thing of the past.
Apprenticeships/training
Deliver on a commitment to create three million apprenticeships by 2020.
Allow large firms to pass levy funds to small firms in their supply chain.
Explore teaching apprenticeships sponsored by major companies.
Anti-exploitation
Give all workers equal rights from day one.
Ban zero hours contracts.
Introduce a right for employees on short hours contracts to have a regular contract where they work regular hours for more than 12 weeks.
Ban employers recruiting labour from abroad from undercutting workers at home.
Strengthen safety at work inspections.
Work with trade unions to end workplace exploitation.
Ban unpaid internships.
Shift the burden of proof so the law assumes a worker is an employee unless the employer can prove otherwise.
Ban payroll (or umbrella) companies.
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Anti-exploitation
Set up a 'good employer' kite mark covering areas such as paying a living wage, avoiding unpaid internships and using name-blind recruitment.
Extend transparency requirements on larger employers to include publishing the number of people paid less than the living wage and the ratio between top and median pay.
Modernise employment rights to make them fit for the age of the gig economy, building on the Taylor report.
Stamp out abuse of zero hours contracts. Create the right to request a fixed contract and consult on introducing a right to make regular patterns of work contractual after a period of time.
Extend requirements on companies to strengthen responsibility for supply chains, focus on good practice in tackling modern slavery and implement the Ewins report recommendations on domestic workers.
Introduce discounted bus and train travel for apprentices.
Introduce a new right to request leave for training for all employees.
Introduce a right to lifelong learning in digital skills.
Carers and childcare
Give workers a statutory entitlement to carers' leave.
Take steps to improve take-up of shared parental leave.
Strengthen the entitlement to flexible working to help those with caring responsibilities in the NHS.
Introduce a new entitlement to child bereavement leave.
Enforcement
No proposals.
Equality
Require companies with 250+ employees to publish more data on the pay gap between men and women.
Ask large employers to publish information on the pay gap for people from different ethnic backgrounds.
Strengthen the enforcement of equalities law.
Set up a commission to modernise the law around employment status.
Apprenticeships/training
Maintain the apprenticeship levy.
Set a target to double the number of completed apprenticeships at NVQ level 3 by 2022.
Give employers more flexibility in how the levy is used (e.g. for pre-apprenticeship programmes).
Protect funding for small and medium-sized employers who do not pay the levy.
Set targets to increase apprenticeships for the disabled, care-leavers and veterans.
Consult on introducing incentives for large employers to over-train apprentices to fill skills gaps in the supply chain.
Scrap plans for schools to pay the apprenticeship levy.
Carers and childcare
Double paid paternity leave to four weeks.
Increase paternity pay.
Consult on statutory bereavement leave.
Introduce compulsory workplace risk assessments for pregnant women.
Apprenticeships/training
Aim to double the number of businesses that hire apprentices and extend apprenticeships to new sectors, such as creative and digital industries.
Increase the number of apprentices from BAME backgrounds and ensure gender balance across industry sectors.
Ensure that all receipts from the apprenticeship levy are spent on training.
Identify and seek to solve skills gaps by expanding higher vocational training.
Develop a national skills strategy for key sectors.
Carers and childcare
Provide 15 hours a week of free childcare to the parents of all two year olds and prioritise 15 hours' free childcare for all working parents with children aged between nine months and two years.
Commit to a long term goal of 30 hours' free childcare a week for all parents of children aged two to four years and all working parents from the end of paid parental leave to age two.
Increase paid paternity leave by one month.
Expand shared parental leave with an additional month.
Make paternity and shared parental leave a day one right.
Make flexible working a day one right.
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Human rights
Not bring the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights into UK law.
Not repeal or replace the Human Rights Act while the process of Brexit is underway.
Consider our human rights legal framework when we leave the EU.
Remain signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for the duration of the next Parliament.
Mental health
Amend health and safety regulations so that employers provide first aid training and needsassessment for mental health.
Extend Equalities Act protection against discrimination to mental health conditions that are episodic and fluctuating.
Miscellaneous
Help veterans to start new careers by ensuring their skills and qualifications are recognised by civilian employers.
National living wage/national minimum wage
Continue to increase the NLW to 60% of median earnings by 2020 and then by the rate of median earnings.
Maintain current commitments on free childcare hours and make significant capital investment in the first two years to ensure places exist to meet demand.
Phase in subsidised provision on top of free hours.
Increase staff wages for childcare workers and enhance training opportunities.
Extend the 30 free hours to all two year olds and move towards making some childcare available for one year olds.
Extend maternity pay to 12 months.
Enforcement
Abolish employment tribunal (ET) fees.
Maintain the Acas early conciliation system.
Introduce a civil enforcement system to ensure compliance with gender pay reporting.
Impose punitive fines on employers not meeting their responsibilities.
Involve trade unions in enforcement.
Establish a new Ministry of Labour and give it the resources to enforce all workers' rights.
Give employment agencies and end-users joint responsibility for ensuring the rights of agency workers are enforced.
Make Parliament more family-friendly and establish a review to introduce MP job-sharing arrangements.
Enforcement
Strengthen enforcement of employment rights and scrap employment tribunal (ET) fees.
Equality
Aim to get one million more women in work by 2025.
Require all companies with more than 250 employees to monitor and publish data on gender, BAME and LGBT+ employment levels and pay gaps.
Extend the use of name-blind recruitment in the public sector and encourage its use in the private sector.
Require diversity in public appointments, with a presumption that every shortlist includes at least one BAME candidate.
Guarantee the freedom of people to wear religious or cultural dress.
Extend protection of gender reassignment in equality law to explicitly cover gender identity and expression.
Develop a Government-wide plan to tackle BAME inequalities.
Review the role and funding of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
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Public sector
Equality
Look at ways to make civil service recruitment as Reinstate protection against third party
diverse as possible.
harassment.
Establish the freedom for employees to mutualise in the public sector.
Introduce new services for NHS employees, such as quicker access to mental health and musculoskeletal services.
Act to reduce bullying rates in the NHS.
Give equalities reps statutory rights.
End racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
Introduce equal pay audit requirements on large employers to close the pay gap suffered by ethnic minority workers.
Trade unions No proposals.
Legislate to make terminal illness a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.
Extend the time limit for bringing a claim for maternity discrimination to six months.
Enhance the powers of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Strengthen protection for women against unfair redundancy.
Human rights
Retain the Human Rights Act.
Mental health
No proposals.
Miscellaneous
Propose four new public holidays to mark our four national patron saints' days.
Outlaw caste discrimination.
Human rights
Oppose any attempt to withdraw from the ECHR or abolish or water down the Human Rights Act.
Mental health
Support good practice among employers in promoting wellbeing and ensure people with mental health problems get the help they need to stay in or find work, with a wellbeing premium to reward employers who take action to improve their employees' health.
Miscellaneous
No proposals.
National living wage/national minimum wage
Establish an independent review to consult on how to set a genuine living wage across all sectors.
Pay a genuine living wage in Government departments and their agencies.
Public sector
End the public sector pay freeze and increase wages in line with inflation.
Protect NHS whistleblowers.
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Protect the current compromise on Sunday trading hours.
Abolish the 2014 changes to TUPE.
Abolish the Swedish derogation in the Agency Workers Regulations.
Consult on toughening the law against assaulting workers who have to enforce laws such as agerelated sales.
Reinstate the Agricultural Wages Board.
Consult on reviewing redundancy arrangements to bring workers in Britain more into line with their European counterparts.
National living wage/national minimum wage
Raise the minimum wage to the level of the living wage (expected to be at least 10 per hour by 2020) for all workers aged 18 and over.
Increase prosecutions of employers evading the minimum wage.
Public sector
End the public sector pay cap.
Support NHS whistleblowers.
Make it an aggravated offence to attack NHS staff.
Reinstate the public sector equality duties and seek to extend them to the private sector.
Trade unions Let members choose which political party they
wish to support through the political levy.
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Roll out maximum pay ratios of 20:1 in the public sector and in companies bidding for public contracts.
Trade unions Review the rules on union recognition. Repeal the Trade Union Act and roll out sectoral
collective bargaining. Guarantee trade unions a right to access
workplaces. Enforce workers' rights to trade union
representation at work. Hold a public inquiry into blacklisting. Only award public contracts to companies that
recognise trade unions. Permit secure online and workplace balloting for
industrial action and internal union elections.
General Press for full devolution of employment and employability policy including the Minimum Wage to Scotland, and review workplace leave entitlement.
Brexit and independence Demand a place for Scotland at the Brexit negotiating table. Make the case for keeping Scotland in the Single Market as part of the UK's negotiating remit.
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Guarantee permanent residence for EU citizens who have made UK their home. If the UK will not do this it will seek devolved immigration powers to give Scotland the right to do so.
Hold an independence referendum at the end of the Brexit process, having set out a process for securing EU membership for an independent Scotland.
Seek a guarantee from the UK Government that they will seek the consent of the Scottish Parliament to the terms of the Brexit Bill.
Hold the UK government to account on its promise to maintain employment rights after Brexit.
Trade unions
Support the immediate repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016, and return check-off and workplace support for trade union activities to the public sector. The Scottish Government has introduced regulations to exclude businesses which have been found to be involved in blacklisting from bidding for public contracts the SNP would press for similar measures to be introduced to ensure blacklisting organisations do not benefit from UK government procurement.
Pay
Increase the minimum wage over the course of the next parliament to the level of the real living wage for all adults over 18, and increase the minimum wage for 16-18 year olds and apprentices in line with any increases to the real living wage.
Public sector pay
Submit evidence to the independent NHS pay review body on the impact of pay restraint, and ask it to make fair recommendations which it would implement in full. If the UK continues its policy of NHS pay restraint, the SNP would work with unions to create separate Scottish NHS pay review arrangements. For the wider public sector, it would enter into negotiations for next year's pay settlement in good faith and with a view to agreeing a fair outcome.
Employment tribunal fees
Call for the UK government to follow the Scottish Government's example in abolishing employment tribunal fees. The SNP gained the power to abolish these fees as part of last year's Scotland Act.
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Gig economy
Ban exploitative zero hours contracts and ensure all workers have appropriate rights and protections, including holiday pay and sick pay. This includes casual workers, agency workers, and all other "gig economy" workers.
Equality
Demand full devolution of equality law to the Scottish Parliament.
Tackle maternity and pregnancy discrimination, backing the Women and Equality Committee's recommendation to strengthen EqA to protect pregnant women and new mothers against discriminatory practices including redundancies.
Require equal pay reporting to cover gender, race and disability, lower the threshold from 250 to 150 employees, and introduce fines and other sanctions for non-compliance.
Ask the UK government to follow the Scottish example of ensuring all public authorities with over 20 employees provide gender pay gap reports every two years. It would also call for equal pay statements every four years, providing policies on equal pay and occupational segregation, including reporting on gender, race and disability.
Legislate for gender balance in public sector boardrooms in the Scottish Parliament, and call on the UK government to do likewise.
Call for a change to the Equality Act 2010 to tackle sexist dress codes.
Fight to preserve EU based discrimination rights for pregnant women and new mothers, and increase the availability of free early years education and childcare from 16 to 30 hours a week by 2021.
Push the UK government to ensure all workplaces provide information to new parents on their rights when they return to work and to enforce those rights, and to introduce a legal right to breastfeed in the workplace.
Enact the socioeconomic duty contained in the Equality Act requiring public bodies to evaluate the impact of their policies to reduce inequality.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
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You may also be interested in the following sections of this report: Corporate (in relation to corporate governance, executive pay, women on boards and diversity), Corporate immigration and Pensions.
Contact us
Karen Plumbley-Jones
Managing Associate (Practice Development Lawyer) T: +44 (0)175 267 7903 E: [email protected]
41
Energy
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Fracking
Support fracking.
New Shale Environmental Regulator to assume functions of the Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency, and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
North Sea
Support North Sea oil and gas sector.
Use the decommissioning of the North Sea to develop a world leading decommissioning industry.
Create a multi-use yard and UK's first ultra-deep water port to support the oil and gas industry.
Carbon Capture Storage (CCS)
Not mentioned.
Fracking
Ban fracking. North Sea
Protect North Sea assets to support oil and gas industry.
Carbon Capture Storage (CCS)
Support for CCS programmes. Renewables
Ensure 60% of UK energy comes from zerocarbon or renewable sources by 2030.
Invest in renewable electricity production and projects e.g. tidal lagoons.
Pricing
Immediate emergency price cap for average dual fuel household energy bills to remain under 1,000.
Fracking
Oppose fracking.
North Sea
Not mentioned.
Carbon Capture Storage (CCS)
Support for CCS programmes.
Renewables
Aim for 60% of electricity from renewables by 2030.
Support for solar PV, onshore wind in appropriate locations, hydrogen technologies, offshore wind, tidal power (immediate go ahead to Swansea Bay tidal lagoon), energy storage and electricity interconnectors.
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Renewables
No more large-scale onshore wind power in England.
Maintain role as global leader for offshore wind and support for offshore wind projects in the remote islands of Scotland.
Pricing
Safeguard tariff cap to extend price protection currently in place for some vulnerable customers on the poorest tariffs to all domestic tariffs.
Make switching tariffs easier.
Establish an industrial energy efficiency scheme to help large companies install measures to cut energy bills.
Smart meter to be offered to every home by 2020.
Commission an independent review into Cost of Energy.
UK to have lowest energy cost in Europe for households and businesses.
Private/Public investment
Further investment for UK natural resources.
Nuclear
Create national infrastructure police force to improve protection of critical nuclear sites.
At least one publicly owned energy company/cooperative in every region.
Private/Public investment
Reverse privatisation of energy companies and transition to publicly owned decentralised system.
Allow publicly owned companies to purchase regional grid infrastructure; national and regional grid infrastructure eventually to be brought into public ownership.
Nuclear
Create opportunities for nuclear power and decommissioning both internationally and domestically.
Retain access to Euratom.
Decentralising heat supply
No policy other than support for CCS.
Carbon Reduction
Get back on track to meet Paris Agreement targets.
Regulatory
Introduce a new Clean Air Act.
Give priority to maintaining access to the internal energy market.
Pricing
Aim for 30% of household market to be supplied by competitors to the 'Big 6' by 2022.
Reduce energy bills by supporting new local authority renewable schemes and encouraging community energy schemes.
Private/Public investment
Additional funding to bring in private investment to renewable energy.
Nuclear
Accept that nuclear power stations can play a role in electricity supply.
Retain access to Euratom.
Decentralising heat supply
No policy other than support for CCS.
Carbon Reduction
Support Paris Agreement.
Regulatory
Pass a Zero-Carbon Britain Act to set legally binding targets to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2040 and to zero by 2050.
Reform the Regulatory Policy Committee to remove unnecessary regulation, reduce regulatory uncertainty, and support new markets and investment, particularly in low-carbon and resource efficient innovation.
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Decentralising heat supply Not mentioned. Carbon Reduction Aim to meet 2050 target. Regulatory Post Brexit focus on outcomes rather than
source of electricity.
Fracking Fracking banned in Scotland. North Sea Strong support for oil and gas sector including:
- exploration activity; - loan guarantees for critical infrastructure; - targeted incentives to develop small pool discoveries; - action on taxation of late life oil and gas assets; - devolution of ship-to-ship oil transfers. Develop decommissioning industry and ensure supply chain companies are strongly placed to compete for decommissioning. contracts. Ensure development in Scotland of first ultra-deep water decommissioning port and associated facilities. Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) Develop CCS technology on industrial scale.
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Renewables Incentives for oil and gas companies to diversify into renewables. Give priority to onshore and offshore wind, tidal energy and wave power,
- support the development of wind and other renewable projects in Northern and Western Isles; - support clear timescale for delivery of electricity interconnectors needed in Northern and Western Isles. Ensure long term certainty for low cost green energy. Pricing Press UK government to put energy price cap on standard variable tariffs. Ensure energy companies reduce number of people on pre-payment meters. Immediately implement CMA's recommendations on metering. Require energy companies to prioritise smart meters for risk of fuel poverty households. Support individuals switching tariff by introducing financial health check. Ensure those at risk from fuel poverty on lowest tariff possible. Reform the transmission charging regime. Private/Public investment Prioritise energy efficiency with more than 500 million public funding over four years. Nuclear Oppose Hinkley Point C. Decentralising heat supply No policy other than support for CCS.
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Carbon Reduction Prevent Brexit from undermining EU's efforts to fight climate change and protect the environment. Regulatory Create regulatory environment which supports investment in new energy storage schemes, including
pumped hydro and batteries. Protect Scotland's place in Europe's energy market and funding programmes. Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Contact us
Vivien Gregory
Consultant, Oil and Gas T: +44 (0)117 989 6961 E: [email protected]
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Environment
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Brexit
Produce a comprehensive 25 Year Environment Plan.
Enact a Great Repeal Bill to retain EU environmental protections and create powers so the legal system can continue to function correctly outside the EU. Parliament will be able to pass legislation to amend, repeal or improve any piece of EU law it chooses, as will the devolved legislatures, where they have the power to do so.
Use the aid budget in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals to prevent catastrophic environmental degradation.
Lead the world in environmental protection and champion greater conservation co-operation within international bodies, protecting rare species, the polar regions and international waters.
Brexit
Replace the Great Repeal Bill with an EU Rights and Protections Bill that will ensure there is no detrimental change to environmental protections as a result of Brexit.
Establish a science innovation fund to ensure stewardship of the environment is founded on sound principles and based on scientific assessments.
Require firms supplying national or local Government to meet high standards, including protecting the environment.
Defend and extend existing environmental protections.
Agriculture & Countryside
To protect bees, prohibit neonicotinoids as soon as our EU relationship allows us to do so.
Brexit
Pass five green laws: Green Transport Act; ZeroCarbon Britain Act; Nature Act; Green Buildings Act; and Zero-Waste Act to incorporate existing EU environmental protections, maintain product standards such as for energy efficiency and establish a framework for continual improvement.
Ensure that future trade deals require high safety, environmental and animal welfare standards for food imports.
Introduce Sustainable Development Goals audits of new trade, investment and development deals, reviewing the impact of the deal on people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.
Establish a Cabinet Committee on Sustainability.
Introduce a National Wellbeing Strategy covering all aspects of Government policy, including environment.
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Agriculture & Countryside
Devise a new agri-environment system, to be introduced in the following Parliament.
Expand Natural England's provision of technical expertise to farmers to deliver environmental improvements on a landscape scale.
Improve natural flood management.
Ensure that public forests and woodland are kept in trust for the nation, and provide stronger protections for ancient woodland.
Climate Change
Continue to take a lead in global action against climate change.
Energy Efficiency
Work with stakeholders to plant one million trees of native species to promote biodiversity and better flood management.
Keep forests in public hands.
Climate Change
Work constructively with the EU and other European nations on issues such as climate change.
Air Quality
Consult on establishing a less costly environmental tribunal to hear challenges to unlawful Government decisions such as the air quality strategy.
Introduce a new Clean Air Act to deal with illegal air quality.
Step up the programme of support for businesses developing new digital technologies to transform the management of national infrastructure, creating a better environment for them to be tested in the UK.
Water & Floods
Water & Floods
Give the Fire and Rescue Services a statutory duty to coordinate and respond to floods.
Safeguard habitats and species in the `blue belts' of the seas and oceans surrounding the UK.
Continue a 2.5bn flood defence programme that will put in place protection for 300,000 existing homes by 2021.
Continue work to conserve the marine environment off the coast of the United Kingdom.
Waste & Resources
Set guiding targets for plastic bottle deposit schemes, working with food manufacturers and retailers to reduce waste.
Support more `catapult' innovation and technology centres, back private investment in particular in green innovation and develop a national skills strategy for key sectors, including low-carbon technologies.
Agriculture and Countryside
Pass a Nature Act to put the Natural Capital Committee on a statutory footing and set legally binding natural capital targets.
Protect up to one million acres of accessible green space valued by local communities. Plant a tree for every UK citizen over the next ten years and protect remaining ancient woodlands.
Suspend the use of neonicotinoids until proven that their use in agriculture does not harm bees or other pollinators.
Campaign to rebalance agricultural subsidies away from direct subsidy and towards public benefits that come from effective land management and a more localised agricultural policy. Champion different forms of ownership including longer tenancies, share farming and community ownership.
Introduce a national food strategy to promote the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable and affordable food.
Increase the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator and extend its remit up the supply chain, helping to ensure that farmers receive a fair price.
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Create a Blue Belt of marine protection in their precious waters, establishing the largest marine sanctuaries anywhere in the world.
Litter & packaging
Do more to reduce litter, including by supporting comprehensive rubbish collection and recycling, supporting better packaging, taking new powers to force councils to remove roadside litter and prosecuting offenders.
Improve standards of animal health and welfare by updating farm animal welfare codes and promoting the responsible stewardship of antibiotic drugs.
Climate Change & International
Ensure that four million properties receive insulation retrofits by 2022, prioritising fuel-poor households.
Pass a Zero-Carbon Britain Act to set new legally binding targets to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2040 and to zero by 2050.
Set up a British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank to mobilise investment into the low-carbon and sustainable infrastructure the UK needs to remain competitive.
Support the Paris agreement by ensuring the UK meets its own climate commitments and plays a leadership role in international efforts to combat climate change.
Ensure the closest possible co-operation with the EU on climate and energy policy.
Energy Efficiency
Pass a Green Buildings Act to set new energyefficiency targets, aiming for every home in England to reach at least an energy rating of Band C by 2035.
Restore the zero-carbon standard for new homes and extend it to non-domestic buildings by 2022.
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Expand community energy schemes, encourage councils to develop community energy-saving projects and local electricity generation, and promote city-scale demonstration projects in electric vehicles and clean energy.
Air Quality
Introduce an Air Quality Plan to reduce air pollution and include:
A diesel scrappage scheme and a ban on the sale of diesel cars and small vans in the UK by 2025.
Extend ultra-low-emission zones to 10 more towns and cities.
All private hire vehicles and diesel buses licensed to operate in urban areas to run on ultra-low-emission or zero-emission fuels within five years.
Reform vehicle taxation to encourage sales of electric and low emission vehicles and develop electric vehicle infrastructure including universal charging points.
Water & Flooding
Establish a 2bn flood-prevention fund to reduce upstream flooding, improve flood defences and introduce high standards for flood resilience for buildings and infrastructure in flood-risk areas.
Protect and restore England's lakes, rivers and wetlands, including through reform of water management and higher water-efficiency standards.
Establish a `blue belt' of protected marine areas.
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Waste & Resources
Pass a Zero-Waste Act, including legally binding targets for reducing net consumption of key natural resources, and introducing incentives for businesses to improve resource efficiency.
Promote better product design to improve repairability, reuse and recycling.
Establish a statutory waste recycling target of 70% in England and extend separate food waste collections to at least 90% of homes by 2022.
Introduce a 5p charge on disposable coffee cups.
Establish a coherent tax and regulatory framework for landfill, incineration and waste collection, reinstate the landfill tax escalator and extend it to the lower rate. Consult on the introduction of an incineration tax.
Work with local Government to ensure these commitments are fully funded.
Brexit
Maintain all current EU standards and regulations over animal and plant health and environmental and food safety
Oppose any attempt to dismantle Scotland's GM-free status and commitment.
Establishment of a new Independent Aviation Noise Authority.
Seek additional powers including those repatriated from Brussels to the UK that currently sit within the competences of the Scottish Parliament, agriculture, fisheries and environmental protection.
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Contact us
Defend the interests of environmental scientists from across the EU who contribute so much to the success of Scotland's research institutes.
Climate change
Press the UK Government to match Scotland's draft Climate Change Plan, prevent the threat of Brexit being used by the UK to reduce commitments to tackle climate change or to undermine the European Union's efforts to fight climate change and protect the environment.
Be a leader in the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, which has the potential to create thousands of jobs in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and beyond, while fighting climate change. Work to secure the funding needed to develop this vital technology in Scotland.
Build a regulatory environment which supports investment in new energy storage schemes, including pumped hydro and batteries.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament, including energy and some transport powers, and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers, which include environment, agriculture, fisheries and forestry.
Stuart Wardlaw
Partner
T: +44 (0)191 279 9136 E: [email protected]
Sarah Holmes
Legal Director
T: +44 (0)1752 67 7703 E: [email protected]
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Pensions
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Give pension schemes and the Pensions Regulator the right to scrutinise, clear with conditions or (in extreme cases) stop mergers, takeovers or large financial commitments that threaten the solvency of the scheme.
Give the Pensions Regulator powers to issue punitive fines for those found to have wilfully left a pension scheme under-resourced and, if necessary, powers to disqualify the company directors in question.
Amend the takeover regime to require bidders to be clear about their intentions from the outset of the bid process and to ensure that all promises and undertakings made in the course of takeover bids can be legally enforced afterwards.
Consider introducing a criminal offence for company directors who deliberately or recklessly put at risk the ability of a pension scheme to meet its obligations.
Amend the takeover code to ensure every takeover proposal (including those involving businesses identified as being "systemically important") has a clear plan in place to protect workers and pensioners.
End "rip-off hidden fees and charges".
Enable the development of large efficient pension funds.
Reject an increase in the SPA to age 67 but commission a new review of the SPA.
Guarantee state pension increases by the triple lock throughout the next Parliament.
Protect the pensions of UK citizens living overseas in the EU or further afield.
Explore transitional protections for women born in the 1950s who have had their SPA changed "without fair notification".
Establish a review to consider introducing a single rate of tax relief for pensions, which would be simpler, fairer and more generous than the current 20% basic rate relief.
Abolish remaining "marriage inequalities" in areas such as pensions.
Introduce mixed-sex civil partnerships and extend rights to cohabiting couples.
Maintain the triple lock for increasing the state pension for the next Parliament.
Aim to raise the employee national insurance threshold to the income tax threshold, while protecting low earners' ability to accrue pension and benefit entitlements.
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Maintain the triple lock (the higher of average earnings/CPI/2.5%) for increasing state pensions until 2020 and then introduce a double lock (the higher of earnings and inflation).
Ensure that the state pension age (SPA) reflects increases in life expectancy, while protecting each generation fairly.
Make automatic enrolment available to the selfemployed.
Promote long-term savings and pensions products, including the Lifetime ISA.
Create UK sovereign wealth funds (backing British infrastructure and the British economy) and encourage pension funds to join them.
Legislate so that accrued rights to the basic state pension cannot be changed, but future benefits can.
Give members of the Local Government Pension Scheme full trustee status to help control investments and reduce fees and charges.
Commit to an immediate review of the treatment of surpluses in the mineworkers' pension scheme and British Coal superannuation scheme.
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Contact us
Support the retention of the triple lock for increasing state pensions.
Oppose any increase in the SPA beyond age 66.
Extend automatic enrolment to more low-paid workers and to self-employed workers.
Seek equality law reforms to ensure same-sex couples have equal pension rights.
Support the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign in their efforts to "secure fairness for the women affected" by increases to their SPA.
Support establishing an Independent Savings and Pension Commission, to ensure pensions and savings policies are fit for purpose and to consider the demographic needs of different parts of the UK in relation to the SPA.
Seek to ensure that regular, simple and affordable saving schemes are offered to provide for a secure income in retirement and call for an end to the Lifetime ISA.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Gavin Ellison
Managing Associate
T: +44 (0)191 279 9854 E: [email protected]
Tina Norris
Associate (Practice Development Lawyer) T: +44 (0)191 279 9137 E: [email protected]
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Planning and infrastructure
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Development control - information
Development control - `agent of change' principle Affordable housing on small developments
Publish more information about public services online, including on planning applications.
Compulsory purchase
Introduce an `agent of change' principle in
planning law, to ensure that new housing developments can coexist with existing music venues.
Reform Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) to Judicial review
make them easier and less expensive for councils
to use and to make it easier to determine the true Reintroduce funding for the preparation of judicial
market value of sites.
review cases.
Scrap exemptions on smaller housing development schemes from their obligation to provide affordable homes
Local Plans
Require local plans to take into account at least 15 years of future housing need focusing on longterm development and community needs.
Land value capture
Local Plans
Community right of appeal
Work with private and public sector house builders to capture the increase in land value created when they build to reinvest in local infrastructure, essential services and further
housing.
Ensure that local plans address the need for older people's housing.
Brownfield & Green Belt Protect the green belt & prioritise brownfield sites. Compulsory purchase powers
Create a community right of appeal where planning decisions go against the approved local plan.
More powers for local authorities
To enforce housebuilding on unwanted public sector land.
Update compulsory purchase powers (CPO) to
make them more effective as a tool to drive regeneration and unlock planned development.
Penalise 'excessive' land-banking when builders
with planning permission have failed to build after three years.
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INFRASTRUCTURE
Industrial strategy
Industrial Strategy to identify the industries that are of strategic value, including infrastructure, and places for potential economic growth.
United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund
Consult on a United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (using structural fund money returned following Brexit), to help deliver growth based on the industrial strategy.
"Future Britain Funds"
Create a number of UK sovereign wealth funds backing infrastructure and the economy.
Wind Power
Support offshore wind and the development of wind projects in the remote islands of Scotland (no more large-scale onshore wind farms in England).
Shale gas
Develop the shale industry in Britain.
Legislate to change planning law for shale applications. Non-fracking drilling will be treated as permitted development, expert planning functions will be established to support local councils.
When necessary, major shale planning decisions will be made the responsibility of the National Planning Regime.
Give communities more power to shape their town centres, by strengthening powers to protect post offices, community pharmacies, high street banks, sports clubs, pubs and independent shops, and promote measures to decrease high-street vacancies.
'Insource' public and local council services
'Insource' public and local council services as preferred providers.
Local government funding
Give local government extra funding in 2018.
Initiate a review and consider new options such as a land value tax.
Devolve powers over economic development, complete with the necessary funding.
Resource and bolster planning authorities with fuller powers to put people and communities at the heart of planning.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Industrial strategy
For each strategic industry, establish a council to oversee its future security and growth.
National Transformation Fund
Create a fund to invest 250bn over ten years in upgrading the economy and prioritise building of new homes, including council homes through this.
Local communities working together
Aim to increase the number of neighbourhood, community and parish councils.
Grant new powers to local authorities to protect high streets and consumers by reducing the proliferation of betting shops.
INFRASTRUCTURE
National Wellbeing Strategy
Introduce a National Wellbeing Strategy covering all aspects of government policy, including health, housing and the environment.
Spending review
After the election, initiate a spending review.
Infrastructure capital investment programme
Commit to a 100bn package of additional infrastructure investment covering: housebuilding, hyper fast broadband, schools, hospitals, road and rail infrastructure and including 5bn of initial capital for a new British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank.
Invest capital in major transport improvements and infrastructure to, shift more freight from road to rail, deliver the Transport for the North strategy, develop more modern, resilient links to and within the south-west peninsula, complete East West Rail, connecting Oxford and Cambridge, and ensure London's transport infrastructure is improved to withstand the pressure of population and economic growth.
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Rail
Low carbon gas and renewable electricity
Swansea Bay tidal lagoon
Continue the programme of strategic national investments, including High Speed 2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and the expansion of Heathrow
Airport.
Invest in new, state-of-the-art low-carbon gas and renewable electricity production.
Support further nuclear projects.
Give the immediate go-ahead to the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project.
Space industry
Focus on creating extra capacity on the railways, Commitment to tidal lagoons.
including for freight. Increase services on main
lines and commuter routes, and launch new
Fracking
services to places which are poorly served or host
major new housing projects.
Ban fracking.
Airports
Carbon Capture and storage (CCS)
Support the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Support CCS.
Highways
Rail
Continue to develop the strategic road network, providing extra lanes on motorways and improving key routes.
Complete the HS2 high-speed rail line from
London through Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester, and then into Scotland.
Continue to invest in fixing pinch points and opening opportunities for new housing and growth.
Link HS2 with other rail investments, such as
Crossrail of the North tying together the northern cities) and on to the Durham Freight Centre.
Cycling
Build a new Brighton Main Line for the South East.
Continue to support local authorities to expand cycle networks and upgrade facilities for cyclists at railway stations.
Air quality
Take action against poor air quality in urban areas. Plant 1m more trees in towns and cities, and place new duties on councils to consult when they wish to cut down street trees.
Build Crossrail 2 in London.
Deliver electrification and expansion to the whole country, including Wales and the South West.
Consult on re-opening branch lines.
Science Vale transport arc
Complete the Science Vale transport arc, from Oxford to Cambridge through Milton Keynes.
Support innovative technologies including the space industry.
Rail
Pursue the electrification of the rail network, improve stations, reopen smaller stations, restore twin-track lines to major routes and proceed with HS2, HS3 and Crossrail 2, including development of a high-speed network stretching to Scotland.
Airports
Develop a strategic airports policy for the whole of the UK, taking full account of the impacts on climate change and local pollution.
Remain opposed to any expansion of Heathrow, Stansted or Gatwick and any new airport in the Thames Estuary and will focus instead on improving existing regional airports such as Birmingham and Manchester.
Ensure no net increase in runways across the UK.
Local public transport & cycling
Design towns and cities as safe and attractive walking spaces and implement the recommendations of the 'Get Britain Cycling' report.
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Green Belt
Airport capacity
Northern Powerhouse
Maintain the existing strong protections on designated land like the Green Belt, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Housing
Meet the 2015 commitment to deliver a million homes by the end of 2020 and deliver half a million more by the end of 2022.
Deliver the reforms proposed in the Housing White Paper to free up more land for new homes in the right places, speed up build-out by encouraging modern methods of construction.
Give councils powers to intervene where developers do not act on their planning permissions; and diversify who builds homes.
Build better houses and support high-quality, high-density housing like mansion blocks, mews houses and terraced streets.
Rebalance housing growth across the country, in line with the industrial strategy.
Build 160,000 houses on government land.
Free schools
Build at least a hundred new free schools a year.
Design
Encourage the very best practice in the design of buildings and public spaces, including a review of the design of government buildings, to ensure that when the state builds, it makes a positive contribution to a local area.
Recognises the need for additional airport capacity in the South East. Guarantee that any airport expansion adheres to tests that require noise issues to be addressed, air quality to be protected, the UK's climate change obligations met and growth across the country supported.
Port development
Consider the feasibility of UK port development.
Highways
Refocus the roads building and maintenance programmes, feeding public transport hubs and realising untapped economic potential.
Make utility companies return roads to a condition no worse than when they started digging.
Superfast broadband
Instruct the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) to report on how to roll out 'ultrafast' (300bps) across the UK within the next decade.
Cycling
Committed to the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy and invite the NIC to recommend the next stages for developing and upgrading the National Cycle Network.
Housing
Establish a new Department for Housing.
Continue to champion the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine initiatives and invest in infrastructure projects across the north of England and the Midlands.
Regional support
Devolve further revenue-raising powers to regions from Cornwall to the north-east. Ensure that any powers devolved are matched by the funding to deliver on the needs of local people.
Devolve more decision-making power over key levers of economic development including transport, housing and skills.
Local Enterprise Partnerships
Encourage local authorities and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) to work in partnership with existing business, universities and other business hubs to develop plans for building on already established success in a particular area, including the ability to raise money to incentivise clustering by businesses with particular specialisations.
Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank
Set up a new government-backed British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank with a remit including providing long-term capital for major new settlements and helping attract finance for major housebuilding projects.
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Digitising the planning process
Invest to build over a million new homes. By the
end of the next Parliament be building at least
Combine the relevant parts of HM Land Registry,
100,000 council and housing association homes a
Ordnance Survey, the Valuation Office Agency,
year for genuinely affordable rent or sale.
the Hydrographic Office and Geological Survey to
create a comprehensive geospatial data body
Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to
within government, the largest repository of open
become the government's housing delivery body.
land data in the world. It will set the standards to
digitise the planning process and help create the Start work on a new generation of New Towns.
most comprehensive digital map of Britain to
date.
Give councils new powers to build homes.
Housebuilding
Reach a housebuilding target of 300,000 homes a year by 2022, including half a million affordable and energy-efficient homes, with direct government commissioning where the market fails to deliver.
Create at least ten new garden cities in England.
Sustainable rural communities
Support local growth
Support local growth through combined authorities, mayoralties and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs). Make each partnership and combined authority responsible for co-ordinating their own local industrial strategy in alignment with the national industrial strategy, bringing together local businesses, political and public sector leaders to drive growth and economic regeneration. Wherever possible deliver growth funding through these organisations.
Give LEPs greater weight by backing them in law.
England: support the adoption of elected mayors for combined authorities that are based around great cities (do not support them for the rural counties).
Introduce a new cultural development fund to use cultural investment to turn around communities.
Coastal communities
Continue work to conserve the marine environment off the coast of the United Kingdom.
Build thousands more low-cost homes reserved for first-time buyers.
Guarantee Help to Buy funding until 2027.
Give local people buying their first home first refusal on new homes built in their area.
Consult on new rules on minimum space standards and on new standards for 'zero carbon homes'.
Set out a new national plan to end rough sleeping within the next Parliament.
Social tenants
Remove government restrictions that stop councils building homes and begin the biggest council building programme for at least 30 years.
Suspend the right-to-buy policy.
Cultural Capital Fund
Introduce a 1bn Cultural Capital Fund (CCF), and invest in creative clusters across the country, based on a similar model to enterprise zones.
Invest 2bn in innovative solutions to ensure the provision of highspeed broadband across the rural UK.
Set up a 2bn Rural Services Fund of capital investment to enable communities to establish a local base from which to co-locate services such as council offices, post offices, children's centres, libraries and visiting healthcare professionals.
Work with local authorities to significantly increase social and affordable housing in rural areas.
Access to culture and sport
Create creative enterprise zones across the UK.
Examine the available funding and planning rules for live music venues and the grassroots music sector, protecting venues from further closures.
Justice and equalities
Protect the system of judicial review.
Oppose scrapping the Human Rights Act or withdrawing from the ECHR.
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Wales
Extend the Freedom of Information Act
Modernise the railway infrastructure across Wales, including new and improved stations.
Extend the Freedom of Information Act to private companies that run public services.
Explore ways to harness Welsh natural resources Rural infrastructure
for the generation of power.
Introduce a 'rural-proofing' process so that all
Bring forward a North Wales Growth Deal,
laws, policies and programmes consider their
connecting north Wales with northern England,
impact on rural communities.
building on the Cardiff Capital region and
Swansea Bay City region deals.
Introduce regulations to designate and protect
routes of critical community value.
Regional economies and devolved administrations
End the ministerial veto, and take steps to reduce the proportion of FOI requests where information is withheld by government departments.
Reverse the increases in court and tribunal fees and continue modernising court procedures.
'Fix a broken system'
Meeting the needs of England with `devolution on demand', letting local areas take control of the services that matter most to them.
Cancel the boundary review due to report in 2018.
Invest to regenerate the local and regional economies across the whole country, so that every area gets its fair share of transport investment.
Invest in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, working with devolved administrations.
Regional government offices
Restore regional offices in England.
Devolution deals and directly elected mayors
A decentralised United Kingdom
A permanent Scottish Parliament.
Raise the status of the National Assembly to become a Welsh Parliament.
Recognise Wales as a distinct legal jurisdiction.
Devolve funding of Network Rail in relation to the Wales network.
Consult before determining whether to include directly elected mayors in future devolution deals.
Scotland
Establish a Scottish Investment Bank.
Introduce 'devolution on demand', enabling even greater devolution of powers from Westminster to councils or groups of councils working together
for example to a Cornish Assembly or a Yorkshire Parliament.
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No planning control policies. A number of general policy proposals may have an effect on planning and infrastructure more broadly; these are summarised below. Other areas including the following may also be of interest: Construction, Environment, Energy, Real Estate, Transport and Brexit.
SNP MPs will campaign for a UK government funding commitment for an Ayrshire Growth Deal, a Tay City Deal, a Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Deal, an Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Deal, and a Deal for the Islands of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
SNP MPs will also demand a commitment from the UK government to match the Scottish Government's investment in Aberdeen and Inverness.
Press the UK government to provide appropriate support and resources for Scotland's Mobile Action Plan and also to ensure that Scotland does not miss out on access to EU wide regulation in future, including plans to improve and increase fixed and mobile connectivity throughout the EU.
SNP MPs will press for strengthened provisions relating to Equality Impact Assessments which will ensure that legislation is sensitive to the interests of minority communities.
Ensure development in Scotland of first ultra-deep water decommissioning port and associated facilities.
Opposed to Trident; SNP MPs will build a cross-party coalition to 'scrap' Trident.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
You may also be interested in the following sections of this report: Construction, Energy, Environment, Real Estate, and Transport.
Contact us
Victoria Redman
Partner
T: +44 (0)117 989 6861 E: [email protected]
Sara Wex
Associate (Practice Development Lawyer)
T: +44 (0)117 989 6866 E: [email protected]
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Private wealth
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The tax "triple lock", which guaranteed there would be no rise in national insurance, VAT or income tax, will be scrapped in favour of a firm intention to reduce taxes for Britain's working families and a commitment to simplify the tax system.
Confirmation of the previous promise to increase the tax-free personal allowance to 12,500 by 2020.
A commitment to raise the threshold for the 40p income tax rate higher rate to 50,000 by 2020.
Tougher regulation of tax advisory firms and a more proactive approach to transparency and misuse of trusts.
Social obligation to contribute to a fair taxation scheme for the common good.
Lowering the threshold for the 45p additional rate to 80,000 and reintroducing the 50p rate on earnings above 123,000. Scotland has independence over income tax rates so headline figures have been adjusted for this.
Guarantee of no rises in income tax for those earning below 80,000 a year.
No increases in personal National Insurance Contributions.
Reversing tax giveaways on Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, bank levy and scrapping the married persons' tax allowance.
Introduction of VAT on private school fees.
Scrapping quarterly tax reporting for small businesses, which includes self-employed individuals and those with rental property businesses.
Ensure those with the highest incomes and wealth are making a fair contribution.
An immediate 1p rise on the basic, higher and additional rates of Income Tax to be ring-fenced for spending on the NHS and social care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The increase will neither be levied nor spent in Scotland.
A commensurate 1p rise in dividend taxation that applies across the UK and which will also be earmarked for the NHS and social care with Scotland also receiving its share.
The possible introduction after consultation of a dedicated health and care tax, potentially based on a reform of National Insurance contributions.
Longer term aim to raise the employee National Insurance threshold to align with the income tax threshold.
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Introduction of a tax transparency and enforcement programme to counter tax avoidance. Measures include:
Preferred creditor statues for HMRC for insolvent individuals.
A public register of all UK trusts showing their assets and beneficiaries.
A general anti-avoidance rule, which will be stronger than the current general anti-abuse rule, to tackle transactions lacking in economic substance.
Public filing of the tax returns of wealthy individuals earning more than 1m.
Strict standards of transparency for crown dependencies and overseas territories, including a public register of beneficial owners for all trusts held in those territories.
Changes proposed to close "loopholes" and "excessive reliefs" including reforms to Capital Gains Tax and dividend tax relief, and refocusing Entrepreneurs' Relief.
Plans to reverse a number of tax cuts introduced by the Conservatives, including:
Capital Gains Tax cuts.
Capital Gains Tax extended relief.
The Marriage Allowance.
The raising of the Inheritance Tax threshold.
Consider the introduction of a single rate of tax relief for pensions designed to be simpler and fairer and would be set more generously than the current 20% basic rate relief.
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Backing of tax proposals that promote fairness, while raising the revenues required to protect public services.
No proposal to increase the Scottish rate of income tax alone due to the risk that this would lead to a loss of revenue whilst the Scottish Parliament does not control the rules on income tax avoidance.
Backing of an increase in the additional rate of income tax from 45p to 50p across the UK as a whole from 2018/19.
Support for the scrapping of the married persons' tax allowance. Opposition to any proposed increases in VAT or National Insurance Contributions. Backing for improvements to tax collection and tougher action on tax avoidance, including:
- a moratorium and review of the closure of HMRC offices in Scotland and across the UK; - beneficial ownership of trusts to be made public; - further action by the UK government to tackle international tax avoidance. Plans to press the UK government to phase the introduction of the quarterly digital tax reporting over a five-year transition period, and consider industry calls for exemptions to those who are not incorporated or VAT-registered. Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Contact us
Debbie Johnson
Tax Manager T: +44 (0)191 230 8989 E: [email protected]
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Real estate
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General
Simplify the tax system.
National Productivity Fund of 23bn. Spending to be targeted at areas that are critical for productivity including housing. Total spending on housing, economic infrastructure and R&D to hit 170bn during the next Parliament.
Ban letting agent fees (it is unclear whether this is residential only).
Continue to support smaller companies most affected by the recent business rates revaluation.
Business rates
Make longer-term reforms to the system: ensuring revaluations are conducted more frequently; exploring self-assessments; and ensuring it takes into account online retail.
General
Change the law so that banks cannot close a branch where there is a clear local need.
Offer homeowners interest free loans to improve their property.
Strengthen powers to protect post offices, community pharmacies, high street banks, sports clubs, pubs and independent shops, and promote measures to decrease high-street vacancies.
Set up a national review of local pubs to examine the causes of their large-scale demise, as well as establishing a joint taskforce that will consider future sustainability.
Update compulsory purchase powers to drive regeneration and unlock planned development.
Keep HM Land Registry in public hands, and make ownership of land more transparent.
General
Ensure that the National Infrastructure Commission takes fully into account the environmental implications of all national infrastructure decisions.
Devolve significant infrastructure spending to local areas.
Conduct a full scale review into the burden of taxation and spending between generations to ensure that Government policy promotes fairness between generations.
Business rates
Review the business rates system, prioritising reforms that recognise the development of the digital economy, lessening the burden on small businesses, and ensuring high streets remain competitive.
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Housing
Reform and modernise the home-buying process to make it more efficient and less costly.
Crack down on unfair practices in leasehold, such as escalating ground rents.
Improve protections for those who rent including increasing security for good tenants and encouraging landlords to offer longer tenancies as standard.
"Homes for all" including a new generation of fixed-term council housing linked to a new Right to Buy.
Build one million homes by the end of 2020 and 500,000 more by the end of 2022 and 160,000 houses on Government land.
Deliver reforms proposed in the Housing White Paper to free up more land for new homes in the right places, speed up build-out by encouraging modern methods of construction and give councils powers to intervene where developers do not act on their planning permissions.
Diversify those who build homes and encourage housing growth across the country (not just in the south-east).
Support high-quality, high-density housing such as mansion blocks, mews houses and terraced streets.
Protect Green Belt, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Business rates
Introduce a package of reforms to business rates - including switching from RPI to CPI indexation, exempting new investment in plant and machinery from valuations, and ensuring that businesses have access to a proper appeals process.
Land value taxation
Consider new options such as land value tax to ensure local Government has sustainable funding for the long term.
Landlord Energy Saving Allowance
Improve on existing Landlord Energy Efficiency regulations and re-establish the Landlord Energy Saving Allowance to encourage the uptake of efficiency measures.
Housing
Invest to build over a million new homes: by the end of the next Parliament to have built at least 100,000 council and housing association homes a year for genuinely affordable rent or sale including thousands more low-cost homes reserved for first- time buyers.
Remove the ban on long-term council tenancies to give council tenants security in their homes.
Suspend the right-to-buy policy to protect affordable homes for local people, with councils only able to resume sales if they can prove they have a plan to replace homes sold like for like.
Guarantee Help to Buy funding until 2027.
Land value taxation
Consider the implementation of Land Value Taxation.
Housing
Set up a British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank to mobilise investment into the low-carbon and sustainable infrastructure with a remit including providing long term capital for major new settlements and helping attract finance for major housebuilding projects.
A new Green Buildings Act to set new energyefficiency targets, including a long-term ambition for every home in England to reach at least an energy rating of Band C by 2035.
Ensure that at least four million homes are made highly energy efficient (Band C) by 2022, with priority given to fuel-poor households.
Restore the zero-carbon standard for new homes, increasing the standard steadily and extending it to non-domestic buildings by 2022.
Increase Local Housing Allowance (LHA) in line with average rents in an area, ensuring that LHA is enough for a family to pay their housing costs no matter where they live.
Scrap the 'bedroom tax', while seeking to achieve the aim of making best use of the housing supply through incentivising local authorities to help tenants 'downsize'.
Increase the rate of housebuilding to 300,000 a year ensuring that 500,000 affordable, energyefficient homes are built by the end of the Parliament.
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Support specialist housing e.g. multigenerational homes and help housing associations to increase their specialist housing stock.
Council Housing Deals new initiative with ambitious, pro-development, local authorities to help them build more social housing (including significant low-cost capital funding) new fixed term social houses will be sold privately after 1015 years with an automatic Right to Buy for tenants.
Reform compulsory purchase orders to make them easier and less expensive for councils to use and make it easier to determine the true market value of sites.
Give greater flexibility to housing associations to increase their housing stock.
Work with private and public sector house builders to capture the increase in land value created when they build to reinvest in local infrastructure, essential services and further housing. With the aim to make it more certain that public sector landowners and communities will benefit from the increase in land value from urban regeneration and development.
Continue 2.5bn flood defence programme to protect 300,000 existing homes by 2021.
Digital land
Use digital technology to release value from land that is not realised, introducing greater specialisation in the property development industry and far greater transparency for buyers.
Give local people buying their first home first refusal on new homes built in their area.
Back those who own their homes, including home owners who own their home as leaseholders and who are currently unprotected from rises in ground rent from developers or management companies.
End the routine use of leasehold houses in new developments.
Make three-year tenancies the norm with an inflation cap on rent rises with potentially power for the Mayor of London to give London renters additional security.
Introduce new legal minimum standards to ensure properties are fit for human habitation and empower tenants to take action if their rented homes are sub-standard.
Establish a new Department for Housing to focus on tackling the housing crisis.
Overhaul the Homes and Communities Agency to be the housing delivery body and give councils new powers to build the homes local communities need.
Prioritise brownfield sites and protect the green belt.
Start work on a new generation of New Towns to build the homes needed and to avoid urban sprawl.
Make the building of new homes, including council homes, a priority through the National Transformation Fund.
End the Voluntary Right to Buy pilots that sell off housing association homes and the associated high value asset levy.
Lift the borrowing cap on local authorities and increase the borrowing capacity of housing associations so that they can build council and social housing.
Scrap exemptions on smaller housing development schemes from their obligation to provide affordable homes, and strengthen the hand of local government to prevent large developers reneging on their commitments.
Require local plans to take into account at least 15 years of future housing need - focusing on long-term development and community needs.
Create a community right of appeal in cases where planning decisions go against the approved local plan.
Enable local authorities to:
Levy up to 200% council tax on second homes and 'buy to leave empty' investments from overseas.
Enforce housebuilding on unwanted public sector land.
Penalise excessive land-banking when builders with planning permission have failed to build after three years.
End the Right to Buy if they choose. Help people who cannot afford a deposit by
introducing a new Rent to Own model where rent payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property, owning it outright after 30 years.
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Combine relevant parts of HM Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, the Valuation Office Agency,
the Hydrographic Office and Geological Survey to create a geospatial data body within Government, the largest repository of open land data in the world. The new body will work to digitise the planning process and help create the most comprehensive digital map of Britain to
date.
Use insulation in new homes to help people manage energy bills and meet climate change targets.
Consult on new rules on minimum space standards to prevent "rabbit hutch" properties and on new modern standards for building zero carbon homes.
Ensure that local plans address the need for older people's housing, and that choice and downsizing options are readily available.
Drive up standards in Service Accommodation (for the armed forces) and take action where private companies have failed to deliver; reviewing and improving the Forces Help to Buy scheme.
Roll out a "Homes Fit for Heroes" programme that will insulate the homes of disabled veterans for free.
Rural policies
Introduce a 'rural-proofing' process so that all our laws, policies and programmes consider their impact on rural communities.
Invest in broadband, housing and transport in rural communities to create jobs and ensure that the nation's prosperity is felt beyond large towns and cities.
National investment plans to include coastal protections, better flood management and the broadband and 4G extensions that will underpin the future success of rural small businesses.
Improve renting by banning lettings fees for tenants, capping upfront deposits and increasing minimum standards in rented homes.
Establish a new Help to Rent scheme to provide Government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all first-time renters under 30.
Stop developers advertising homes abroad before they have been advertised in the UK.
Give tenants first refusal to buy the home they are renting from a landlord who decides to sell during the tenancy at the market rate according to an independent valuation.
Promote longer tenancies of three years or more with an inflation-linked annual rent increase built in, to give tenants security and limit rent hikes.
Improve protections against rogue landlords through mandatory licensing and allow access for tenants to the database of rogue landlords and property agents.
Increase support for homelessness prevention.
Improve the quality of service housing by bringing the Ministry of Defence into line with other landlords.
Establish a 2bn flood-prevention fund.
Significantly increase the amount of accessible green space, including completion of the coastal path, and create a new designation of national nature parks to protect up to one million acres of accessible green space valued by local communities.
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Different funding allocation mechanisms for rural councils.
Create at least ten new garden cities in England, providing tens of thousands of high quality, zerocarbon homes with gardens and shared green space, jobs, schools and public transport.
General
Prioritise investment in infrastructure projects. Ensure that 100% of premises across Scotland will have access to super-fast broadband by 2021. Support further extension of the Annual Investment Allowance, which encourages firms to invest in plant
and machinery, from the current 200,000 per year to 1m per year. Oppose any proposed increases in Value Added Tax.
Housing
Over the current term of the Scottish Parliament, the SNP says it is investing over 3bn to deliver at least 50,000 new affordable homes - at least 35,000 of which will be for social rent.
SNP MPs will support restoration of housing support for 18 to 21 year olds across the UK. Scrap the "bedroom tax". Continue to invest in the Council Tax Reduction scheme which helps over half a million households.
Skills The SNP says it has been reforming vocational education and increased the number of Modern Apprenticeships, with a target of 30,000 new starts by the end of this parliament.
Small businesses The SNP will support the introduction of effective legal protections to ensure that small businessesparticularly those attempting to scale up-are paid on time.
Business Rates
Push for formal, independent review of Office of Tax Simplification and regulation recommendations that impact small businesses.
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Energy efficiency
Prioritise and support energy efficiency with more than 500m of funding over four years.
Press the UK Government to match the commitment to reduce emissions evidenced in the Scottish Government's draft Climate Change Plan.
Rural policies
Build new homes and refurbish existing properties through the 25m Rural Housing Fund and deliver 100 affordable homes in island communities through a dedicated 5m fund.
Improve rural broadband connectivity by calling for the Universal Service Obligation to cover up to 30Mbps with an appropriate update mechanism to ensure that rural areas are not left behind.
Improve mobile phone coverage by calling on the UK Government to ensure that mobile spectrum licensing meets key tests on geographical and population coverage with a "rural areas first" policy for new spectrum deployments.
Support around 11,500 farmers and crofters annually to help sustain fragile and remote rural communities.
Support rural and remote communities by e.g. pressing for clarity and certainty over forestry grants for 2019 and beyond to allow investment and planting decisions to go ahead.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
Victoria Duxbury
Managing Associate (Practice Development Lawyer)
T: +44 (0)2380 20 8336 E: [email protected]
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Frances Richards
Associate (Practice Development Lawyer)
T: +44 (0)191 279 9151 E: [email protected]
Transport
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General
General
General
Bringing together of the British Transport Police, the Ministry of Defence Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary under one national infrastructure police force.
Continuing to work through an ongoing investment programme in roads and railways which includes 40bn investment in transport improvements across the UK over the rest of this decade.
Introduction of significantly discounted bus and train travel for apprentices.
Devolved Powers
Prioritising public service over private profit.
Investment in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, working with the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC).
Rail
Bringing the railways back into public ownership as franchises expire, with any new rolling stock being publically owned.
Public ownership of the railway will be built on the platform of Network Rail, working with devolved administrations.
Ensuring that the NIC fully takes into account the environmental implications of all national infrastructure decisions.
Devolved Powers and the Regions
Devolving infrastructure spending to local areas.
Continuing to champion the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine initiatives, investing significant capital resources in infrastructure projects in these areas.
Devolve revenue-raising powers out to regions such as Cornwall and the North East.
City mayors and authorities who wish to
combine to better serve their communities will be supported but no support for mayors in rural counties.
Introducing caps on fares and free Wi-Fi for passengers.
Ensuring that there are safe staffing levels on trains, ending the expansion of driver only operations.
Devolve more decision-making power over key levels of economic development including transport, housing and skills.
Deliver the Transport for the North strategy.
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Rail
The largest investment in railways since Victorian times.
Continuing to support strategic national investments in HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Launching a 23bn National Productivity Investment Fund to address areas of slow productivity growth, including investment in the railways.
Focus on creating extra capacity on the railways to ease overcrowding.
New railway lines and stations, and improvements to existing routes, including freight.
Increase in services on main line and commuter routes.
Modernisation of the railways and infrastructure in Wales, including new and improved stations.
Full and uninterrupted mobile signal and guaranteed Wi-Fi internet service on all mainline trains by 2020.
Review of rail ticketing and the introduction of a passenger ombudsman.
Working with train operating companies to agree minimum service standards during periods of industrial dispute with the power to legislate where no agreement can be met.
Introducing legal duties to improve accessibility for the disabled.
Encourage the expansion of public freight services, facilitating British procurements whenever possible.
Completion of HS2 (from London through to Birmingham, to Leeds and Manchester) and into Scotland.
Linking HS2 with other rail investments, such as Crossrail of the North and the Durham Freight Centre.
Construction of a new Brighton Mainline and Crossrail 2.
Completion of the Science Vale transport arc (running from Oxford to Cambridge through Milton Keynes).
Delivering rail electrification and expansion across the whole country.
Consulting with local communities to re-open branch lines.
Roads
Upgrading and improving roadworks at known bottlenecks (A1 North, A30 and Severn Bridge), additionally working with the Welsh Government to scrap the tolls on the Severn Bridge.
Reset the UK's road safety vision, reintroducing road safety targets and strive for a transport network with zero deaths.
Ensure London's transport infrastructure is improved to withstand population and economic growth.
Develop more modern links to and within the South West peninsula to develop the regional economy.
Rail
Ensuring that new rail franchises include a stronger focus on customers, including a programme of investment for new stations, lines and modern rolling stock.
Allowing public sector bodies and mutual groups involving staff and passengers to bid for franchises.
Establish Government-run companies to take over the running of Southern Rail and Govia Thameslink, with a long term plan to find more effective and sustainable ways of managing these franchises involving greater powers for local Government.
Pursue the electrification of the rail network, improving stations, reopening smaller stations, and restoring twin track lines to major routes.
Proceeding with HS2, HS3 and Crossrail 2.
Developing a high-speed network stretching to Scotland.
Making use of rail freight instead of using the roads.
Complete East West Rail (connecting Oxford and Cambridge).
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Using digital technology to improve the railways and smart grids to make the most efficient use of our electricity infrastructure.
Roads
Development of the strategic road network including extra motorway lanes and improving key routes.
Supporting the investment in low emission vehicles.
Airports
Creating additional airport capacity in the South East.
Negotiating to retain membership of the Common Aviation Area and Open Skies arrangements.
Support the takeover of metro services in London by London Overground.
Introduction of a rail ombudsman to enforce passenger rights and improve the provision of compensation, giving the power to sanction rail companies.
Roads
Continuing investment in fixing pinch points in the road network, opening up opportunities for
Ports
new housing and local growth.
Feasibility study of port development across the
Every car and van to be zero emission by 2050,
UK.
with an investment of 600m by 2020.
Continuing to work with the members of the
Full and uninterrupted mobile phone signal on all major roads by 2020.
European Union's Highways of the Sea programme.
Improving the quality of road surfaces, filling
Local Transport
potholes and reducing road noise, particularly in residential areas.
Retro-fit diesel buses in areas with most severe air quality problems to Euro 6 Standards.
Creation of a diesel scrappage scheme and a ban on the sale of diesel cars and small vans in the UK by 2025.
Ensuring that private hire vehicles and diesel buses are licensed to operate in urban areas to run on ultra-low-emission/zero emission fuels within five years.
Encourage the take-up of electric and driverless vehicles.
Airports
Improving real time information in respect of roadworks online.
Airports
Continuing to support the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Using technology to manage airspace, reduce noise and increase capacity.
Local Transport
1.1bn investment in making improvements to local transport.
Extending the powers to re-regulate local bus services to councils and supporting the creation
Develop a strategic airports policy, taking into account climate change and local pollution.
of municipal bus companies that are publically run.
Focus on improving regional airports rather than expanding London airports, ensuring no net
Introduction of regulations to protect and
increase in runways across the UK.
designate bus routes of critical community value. Local Transport
Investment to regenerate local and regional economies across the whole country.
Continuing the Access for All programme, improving disabled access to public transport.
Introduction of a Young Person's Bus Discount
Card (aged 16-21) giving two thirds discount on bus travel.
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Improving real time information in respect of public transport.
A focus on those areas of the country left behind because of poor transport links.
Cycling
Continuing support for local authorities to expand cycle networks.
Upgrade of facilities for cyclists at railway stations.
Cycling
Working with the NIC to develop and upgrade the National Cycle Network, reaffirming the commitments in the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
Taxis
Reform the legislation governing taxi and private hire services, creating national standards to ensure "a level playing field" and updating regulations to keep up to date with technological change.
Introduction of a 7.5bn investment programme to fund vital infrastructure projects throughout Wales.
Provide local authorities the power to improve transport and ticketing, and ability to introduce smart ticketing systems.
Carry out a review of bus funding and bus policies.
Giving principal local authorities the power to run, commission and regulate the bus network in their area.
Cycling
Implement the recommendations of the Get Britain Cycling Report.
Creation of a Wales-wide transport system,
including re-opening of the CarmarthenAberystwyth railway, improved Valleys line services, improvements to the A55 and the expansion of the Traws Cymru bus network.
Integrating walking and cycling services with bus and rail services
Rail
Full devolution of Network Rail to deliver a more effective and efficient rail service for Scotland.
Ensuring that public sector operators are able to bid for a future rail contract.
Connecting Scotland to HS2 construction beginning in Scotland as well as England.
High Speed Connection between Glasgow, Edinburgh and the north of England as part of any high-speed rail network.
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Begin discussions on the feasibility of improving cross-border rail links (in particular, linking Carlisle to the Borders Railway).
Aviation Press the UK government to commit to the Open Skies Agreement in Brexit negotiations.
Work with the Scottish Government, Visit Scotland, Scottish Development International and the relevant UK departments to expand international flights to and from Scotland.
Protect vital Scottish air connections to other parts of the UK.
Work with local partners as part of City and Regional Deals to deliver improved connectivity.
Creation of an Inverness Airport Rail Hub.
Ensure the UK government continues to work with the Scottish Government to secure an exemption from air passenger taxes on Highlands and Island flights.
Establishment of a new Independent Aviation Noise Authority.
Note: The SNP is the Government in the Scottish Parliament and so its manifesto for the UK General Election is concerned with matters that are reserved by the UK Parliament and matters where the UK Parliament may influence the exercise by the Scottish Parliament of its devolved powers.
David Rewcastle
Partner
T: +44 (0)191 279 9245 E: [email protected]
Joseph Causer
Associate
T: +44 (0)191 230 8373 E: [email protected]
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