WHAT THE MANIFESTOS SAY 2015 INVESTING IN OUR NATION’S FUTURE: THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE NEXT GOVERNMENT

This document sets out the key devolution policy detail for local government from the 2015 party manifestos. As part of our 100 days campaign, the LGA calls for the next government to:

• Enable everyone to contribute to and benefit • Let councils retain 100 per cent of business from local growth by devolving economic rates growth without a corresponding cut in powers through councils to Local Enterprise revenue support grant, further incentivising Partnerships (LEPs) so they can coordinate councils to grow local economies. and boost the delivery of jobs, housing and • Replace the with a system of growth in all areas. distribution for the countries of the UK based • Give all councils in the same traffic on need and more appropriate and relevant management powers as and incentives. to reduce the costs, emissions and disruption • Devolve all funding for local growth, from congestion. regeneration, skills and employment support • Allow councils to set locally appropriate fees, through councils to LEPs, replacing the charges and subsidies (including public current system of more than 100 funding transport subsidies and planning fees) streams so investment decisions can be enabling councils to support those who need based directly on what businesses need it most. to create jobs. • Let councils set rates and discounts for • Announce the establishment of an council tax and business rates so they can independent body for the distribution better respond to local circumstances. of funding to councils.

2 CONTENTS

Devolution deals 4 Constitutional reform 6 Devolved nations 8 Working with communities 9

CONSERVATIVE PARTY MANIFESTO LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARTY GREEN PARTY MANIFESTO https://www.conservatives.com/ MANIFESTO https://www.greenparty.org.uk/ manifesto http://www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto 2015-manifesto.html

LABOUR PARTY MANIFESTO UKIP MANIFESTO http://www.labour.org.uk/manifesto http://www.ukip.org/manifesto2015

3 MANIFESTO POLICY PROPOSALS

Devolution deals joined up in ways that make sense to the people who use them. (p33) Conservatives • Commission a replacement for the Work • Rebalance our economy, build a Northern Programme at a more local level, working Powerhouse and back elected metro mayors. with local authorities to join up support for (p7) the long-term unemployed. (p48) • Devolve far-reaching powers over economic • Establish an English Regional Cabinet development, transport and social care to Committee chaired by the Prime Minister. large cities which choose to have elected (p64) mayors. (p13) • Enable city and county regions to retain 100 • Legislate to deliver the historic deal for per cent of additional business rates raised Greater Manchester, which will devolve from growth in their area. (p64) powers and budgets and lead to the creation • Restore fair funding across England, of a directly elected Mayor for Greater alongside longer term multi-year budgets, so Manchester. (p13) that local authorities can plan ahead on the • In Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester and basis of need in their area and protect vital Cheshire East, allow local councils to retain services. (p64) 100 per cent of growth in business rates, so • Establish local Public Accounts Committees, so they reap the benefit of decisions that boost that every pound spent by local bodies creates growth locally. (p13) value for money for local taxpayers. (p64) • Devolve further powers over skills spending • Abolish Police and Crime Commissioners, end and planning to the . (p13) the subsidy of firearms licenses, and mandate • Deliver more bespoke Growth Deals with local police forces to work closer together. (p51) councils, where locally supported, and back • Ensure drug treatment services focus on Local Enterprise Partnerships to promote jobs the root causes of addiction, with proper and growth. (p13) integration between health, police and local Labour authorities in the commissioning of treatment. (p52) • Give city and county regions more power over the way buses are operated in their area. They Liberal Democrats will be able to decide routes, bear down on • Establish a Government process to deliver fares, drive improvements in services, and greater devolution of financial responsibility bring together trains, buses and trams into a to English local authorities, and any new single network with smart ticketing. (p26) devolved bodies in England, building on the • Save money and create more responsive work of the Independent Commission on services by building co-operation between Local Government Finance. Any changes public services and organisations. Pooling must balance the objectives of more local funds across local areas reduces inefficiency autonomy and fair equalisation between and avoids duplication. Services must be communities. (p136)

4 • Devolve more economic decision-making • Develop the Community Budgets model to local areas, building on the success of for use in rural areas to combine services, City Deals and Growth Deals, prioritising encouraging the breaking down of the transfer of transport, housing and boundaries between different services. (p89) infrastructure funding, skills training and back- • Enable local authorities to levy up to 200% to-work support. (p26) Council Tax on second homes where they • Use central government public procurement judge this to be appropriate. (p97) policy as a tool of local growth and community • Allow local authorities more flexibility to development, for example by purchasing from borrow to build affordable housing, including diverse sources and using local labour, goods traditional council housing, and devolve full and services, and encourage local government control of the Right to Buy. (p99) to do the same. (p26) • Remove the requirement to hold local • Complete the ongoing review of Business referenda for Council Tax changes, ensuring Rates, prioritising reforms that lessen the Councillors are properly accountable for their burden on smaller businesses, ensure high decisions by introducing fair votes. (p136) streets remain competitive and promote more efficient use of land. Liberal Democrats Green remain committed to introducing Land Value • Make preparations to replace the uniform Tax (LVT), which would replace Business business rate by a system of Land Value Tax, Rates in the longer term and could enable where the level of taxation depends on the the reduction or abolition of other taxes. rental value of the land concerned. The rates Extend the Business Rates review to ensure it would be decided locally with no caps, and considers the implementation of LVT, as well subject to a degree of equalisation between as interim reforms like Site Value Rating that richer and poorer areas, and would be kept and could be completed within five years. Charge spent locally. Transition to Land Value Tax could the Land Registry with completing registration begin by the last year of the Parliament and then of all substantial land and property holdings extend over the following 10 years. (p42) in England and Wales by 2020. (p28) • Invest £2 billion in a network of community • Build on successful Tourism North and banks, mutually owned and serving local Tourism South West initiatives to devolve more areas or particular groups. (p47) power, resources and decision-making to • Work for the abolition of the City of London local areas to promote their unique tourism Corporation and the special statuses it enjoys. propositions in the UK and globally. (p35) (p47) • Deliver a reformed and improved Work • Remove cap on what local authorities are Programme in partnership with English local allowed to raise in Council Tax, allow local government, and governments councils to conduct revaluations and to set of Wales, and to their own multiplier rates, provided they are ensure help and training are more tailored more progressive, and not require a Council to local employment markets and better Tax referendum when they do so. (p59) integrated with other services. (p43)

5 MANIFESTO POLICY PROPOSALS

• Allow local authorities to levy new local taxes, Constitutional reform such as local tourist taxes, empty homes levies, supermarket taxes or workplace Conservatives parking levies, and to set rates for and keep • Strengthen and improve devolution for each part or all of some taxes collected locally, part of our United Kingdom in a way that such as income tax and VAT, and distribute accepts that there is no one-size-fits-all them. (p59) solution. Implement the Smith Commission • Allow local authorities freedom to set local and St David’s Day Agreement or equivalent fines, fees and charges. (p59) changes in the rest of the UK, including • Ensure that grant funding is sufficient to pay English votes for English laws. (p70) for all statutory services that councils are • Change parliamentary procedures so that required to provide. To fund discretionary the detail of legislation affecting only England activities, allow local authorities to set local or England and Wales will be considered by business rates, and then distribute the whole a Committee drawn in proportion to party of Council Tax receipts and Business Rate strength in England or England and Wales. receipts between local authorities on a basis (p70) decided by a Commission independent of • Add a new stage to how English legislation central government set up by local authorities is passed; no bill or part of a bill relating themselves. (p59) only to England would be able to pass to its Third Reading and become law without being approved through a legislative consent motion by a made up of all English MPs, or all English and Welsh MPs. (p70) • Extend the principle of English consent to financial matters such as how spending is distributed within England and to taxation – including an English rate of Income Tax – when the equivalent decisions have been devolved to Scotland. (p70)

Labour • Replace the House of Lords with an elected Senate of the Nations and Regions, to represent every part of the United Kingdom, and to improve the democratic legitimacy of the second chamber. (p64) • Pass an English Devolution Act, handing £30

6 billion of resources, and powers over skills, UKIP transport, and economic development to city • Every two years, allow a national referendum and county regions. (p69) on the issues of greatest importance to the • Set up a people-led Constitutional Convention British public, gathered via an approved to determine the future of UK’s governance. petition, provided the petition has more than (p69) two million signatures. (p56) • Put matters gathering over 100,000 signatures Liberal Democrats on the Commons’ Order Paper, to make sure • Introduce the Single Transferable Vote for they are genuinely debated and voted upon. local government elections in England and for (p56) electing MPs across the UK. (p132) • Extend the Right of Recall to all elected • Establish a UK Constitutional Convention, politicians, e.g. councillors. (p56) made up from representatives of the political • Undertake a full review of all the many parties, academia, civic society and members statutory duties national government places of the public, tasked with producing a full on local government, with a view to reducing written constitution for the UK, to report within the burden on councils. (p56) two years. (p133) • Consider an English-only stage in legislation Green affecting England, so English MPs can have a • Support a Constitutional Convention led by separate say on laws that only affect England. citizens. Parts of England, based on groups (p135) of local authorities, could come together to • Introduce Devolution on Demand, enabling exercise greater powers; these might amount even greater devolution of powers from to existing regions, or possibly city regions. Westminster to Councils or groups of Councils The process must be driven by bottom up working together – for example to a Cornish decisions of local authorities, not by top down Assembly. (p136) direction. The Convention would also consider • Reduce the powers of Ministers to interfere further devolution to Scotland, Northern in democratically elected local government. Ireland and Wales. Any constitutional changes (p136) should be subject to referenda. (p60) • Establish a Government process to deliver • Introduce referenda on local government greater devolution of financial responsibility decisions if called for by 20% of the local to English local authorities, and any new electorate. (p58) devolved bodies in England, building on the • Formal constitutional protection to local work of the Independent Commission on democracy and tax-raising powers. (p59) Local Government Finance. Any changes • Create an Assembly for , with similar must balance the objectives of more local powers to the Welsh Assembly. (p59) autonomy and fair equalisation between communities. (p136)

7 MANIFESTO POLICY PROPOSALS

Devolved nations • Put Welsh devolution on the same statutory basis as Scottish devolution, with a clear Conservatives principle that powers are devolved unless • Strengthen and improve devolution for each specifically reserved, and that a Welsh part of our United Kingdom in a way that legislature is a permanent feature of our accepts that there is no one-size-fits-all constitutional arrangements. (p66) solution. Implement the Smith Commission Liberal Democrats and St David’s Day Agreement or equivalent changes in the rest of the UK, including • Deliver on our promises to Scotland in full, English votes for English laws. (p70) devolve more powers to Wales, and work for a shared future in Northern Ireland. (p 131) • A new Scotland Bill will be in our first Queen’s Speech and will be introduced in the first • Implement the remaining Silk Part 1 proposals session of a new Parliament. (p70) on financial powers for Wales. (p 134) • Retain the Barnett Formula as the basis for • Keep under review the prospect of further determining the grant to cover that part of the devolution of fiscal powers to the Northern ’s budget not funded by Ireland Assembly and other powers that tax revenues raised in Scotland. (p70) would improve the financial accountability of the Assembly. (p135) • Devolve to the Welsh Assembly control over its own affairs – including the Assembly name, • Retain the Barnett Formula as the basis for size and electoral system, Assembly elections future spending allocations for Scotland and and voting age. (p70) Northern Ireland. (p136) • Introduce a new Wales Bill if these changes UKIP require legislation. (p70) • Reduce spending by £5.5 billion by replacing • Make the responsible for the Barnett Formula. UKIP will implement raising more of the money it spends so the this change through a transitional period of Welsh people can hold their politicians to between three and five years, preferably no account. (p71) more than seven. (p8)

Labour Green • Maintain the Barnett formula, and Scotland will • Increase powers at all levels in Wales, with continue to benefit from pooling and sharing more elected Assembly members and push resources across the UK. (p65) for the Assembly to become a Parliament. • Implement the Smith Agreement in full. (p65) (p60) • Introduce a Home Rule Bill to give extra powers to Scotland over tax, welfare and jobs. (p65)

8 Working with communities • Strengthen community rights to run local public services, and protect community Conservatives assets like pubs by bringing forward a • Strengthen the Community Right to Bid. Community Right to Buy. We will ensure Extend the length of time communities have planning permission is required to convert to purchase these assets, and require owners a pub into alternative uses. (p138) to set a clear ‘reserve’ price for the community UKIP to aim for when bidding. Set up a Pub Loan Fund to enable community groups to obtain • Give local people control over planning, by small loans to pay for feasibility work, lawyers’ giving them the final say on major planning fees, or materials for refurbishment, where decisions, such as out-of-town large-scale they have bid to run the pub as part of our supermarket developments, wind turbines, reforms to the Community Asset Register. incinerators, solar farms and major housing (p21) developments, through the use of binding local referenda. (p59) Labour Green • Promote and encourage a model of citizenship based on participation and shared • Strengthening local authorities’ powers responsibility. (p62) to prevent changes of use for important community facilities such as local shops, • Begin the process of giving individuals and pubs and meeting halls. (p60) communities more power and control over how they are governed and over the design of their public services. (p64)

Liberal Democrats • Introduce a ‘community trigger’ mechanism to enable the public to require a review of the provision of a particular service being delivered consistently poorly. (p51) • Work with local authorities to bring services together at a local level to provide a better service to citizens, and support users in pooling their personal budgets into mutual support arrangements. (p51) • Increase the number of Neighbourhood, Community and Parish Councils and promote tenant management in social housing. (p137)

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NOTES

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