LABOUR’S MANIFESTO FOR THE EAST MIDLANDS FOREWORD Britain needs a government that works The wealthy and powerful who have the for the whole country. When Labour system rigged in their favour will tell you says we stand for the many not the that real change isn’t possible. They’ll few, we mean we will build a fairer say it’s unrealistic. They’ll say we cannot country, where no one is held back and afford decent housing, free education, every community has its fair share of or well-paid, secure jobs. wealth and power. But we know change is not only The harmful inequality that scars our possible, but necessary. This election society is not an act of God or a law is our last chance to tackle the climate of physics. It is the result of deliberate and environmental emergency and Conservative government policy that a once in a generation chance to has made us one of the most unequal transform our country, take on the countries in Europe – both between vested interests and ensure that no the billionaires at the very top and community is left behind everybody else, and between the So the next Labour government will different parts of the UK. rebuild our economy and bring our It’s time to bring a divided country country back together by kick-starting together so we can get on with a Green Industrial Revolution that will delivering the real change Britain needs. make every region a world-leader in To drive that change we will unleash green industries - the cutting edge a record investment blitz, getting the industries of the future. economy moving in every corner of our Labour will put wealth and power in country. the hands of the many. Boris Johnson’s This is about the jobs at the end of your Conservatives, who think they’re born to road. It’s about breathing new life into rule, will only look after the privileged few. your area; reviving your high street; So we’re going after the tax dodgers. restoring the pride to your community. We’re going after the dodgy landlords. Our investment blitz will upgrade We’re going after the bad bosses. We’re our infrastructure in every town, going after the big polluters. Because we city and region, and rebuild our schools, know whose side we’re on - your side. hospitals, care homes and housing. And when Labour wins, the nurse wins, This is investment on a scale our the pensioner wins, the student wins, country has never known. the office worker wins, the engineer Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives wins. Every region wins. We all win. tried to wipe out British industry in the 1980s. This Conservative government is continuing that legacy. Over the last decade almost half a million Jeremy Corbyn, manufacturing jobs have been lost. Leader of the Labour Party 2 ON YOUR SIDE 1. INTRODUCTION Labour will unlock the potential of We will kick start a Green Industrial everyone by building a fairer Britain. Revolution that will tackle the climate A Britain in which we care for each crisis while creating 60,000 good jobs other, in which wealth and power in the East Midlands and expanding are shared, and in which every part the steel, automotive and renewable of the country gets its fair share of energy industries. investment and its say in shaping our future. We will make sure everyone has enough to live on and eradicate Years of under-investment and neglect in-work poverty in our first term by by Westminster have left too many tackling the causes of poverty and parts of the East Midlands stuck with inequality, such as low pay and high underpaid jobs, low productivity and living costs, while raising the floor slow growth. provided by our social safety net. Under the Tories, too many people in We will rebuild our public services the East Midlands are struggling to and make them the best and most make ends meet or finding that work extensive in the world, paid for by is no longer a way out of poverty. creating a fairer taxation system Across the UK pay has stagnated in which those with the broadest while insecurity and inequality have shoulders pay a little more and risen. Wages are still lower than before everyone pays what they owe. the financial crisis, while across the country dividends paid to shareholders Labour is on the East Midlands’ side. are up 85%. A decade of Tory cuts has pushed public services in the East Midlands to breaking point. Labour has a plan to deliver real change for the East Midlands. EAST MIDLANDS 3 2. Top commitments for the East Midlands • £9 billion new investment from Labour’s Green Transformation Fund including electric vehicles, a steel recycling plant in Corby and the Midlands Mainline • Connect 1.9 million households and businesses to full-fibre Broadband • 60,000 new high skilled green jobs • 9,000 new council and social homes a year by the end of the parliament • An immediate pay rise for 604,000 workers aged 16 and over 4 ON YOUR SIDE 3. Transforming the East Midlands 3.1 Labour’s Green Industrial • Investing in the offshore and onshore Revolution wind supply chain. Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution • Investing in the electric vehicle supply will make the East Midlands wealthier chain and the electric vehicle charging and healthier, putting our economy network, protecting 11,000 workers and climate on a stable footing to directly employed in the automotive thrive in the 21st century. sector in the East Midlands while reducing emissions and improving air From the world’s first water-powered quality. cotton spinning mill, to the coalfields of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, to the • New plastic recycling facilities, match development of the jet engine, the East funded by the private sector, so that Midlands is renowned for its industry the UK no longer relies on exporting its and inventiveness. plastic waste to the rest of world. But the absence of a coherent industrial • Small-scale, community-level and strategy and the threat of a Tory no- large-scale solar power, creating over deal Brexit threatens that legacy. 1,800 jobs locally. Labour will kickstart a Green Industrial • Upgrading the internet connection of Revolution to transform the prospects 1.9 million households and businesses of the East Midlands and its people, to Full-Fibre Broadband – the highest investing £9 billion out of Labour’s possible standard of connectivity. Green Transformation Fund. This • Planting more than 49 million new includes: trees across the East Midlands by • Upgrading almost all of the 2 million 2024, creating 16,600 hectares of households across the East Midlands, new forest in areas such as Sherwood reducing bills, eliminating the vast Forest. majority of fuel poverty, and making If you live, work or do business in the our homes healthier and more East Midlands you will benefit from comfortable. Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution. • A strategy for UK steel, including It will mean 60,000 new skilled, well- investing to build a scrap steel paid jobs in the East Midlands that will recycling plant in Corby, safeguarding last long into the future. Labour’s new 4,000 existing steel jobs and creating climate apprenticeships will ensure a further 1,100 new jobs. EAST MIDLANDS 5 local people can access these jobs and Labour will end this unfairness by become the engineers, technicians and investing to improve public transport construction workers of tomorrow. across the East Midlands, including electrification of the Midland Main Line It will mean new opportunities for north of Market Harborough and west businesses working across the region, of Nottingham to improve connectivity such as those specialising in renovation between Leicester and Leeds. and home maintenance and a growing local economy, with new wealth rippling out across all sectors. 3.3 Devolving Spending And because Labour will take a public Labour will make sure that investment is stake in new projects, we will improve spread evenly across the whole country towns and cities across the East by giving powers and funding to the Midlands by reinvesting profits in our East Midlands. We will bring about a public spaces. radical shift of power in Britain away from Westminster so that local people and communities have more control 3.2 Local transport over their own lives and prospects. For these new green industries to We will create an Office of Government flourish and grow, and for the hundreds in the East Midlands to co-ordinate of thousands of new green jobs to be policies at the regional level, and accessible to communities across the ensure the East Midlands has a voice East Midlands, they must be connected in Whitehall. A Local Transformation to the wider economy. This requires Fund will be used exclusively to fund decent public transport. infrastructure projects decided at a local The East Midlands has seen years of level by people in the East Midlands. underfunding in all forms of transport. Labour will create an East Midlands Spending per person was £773 lower Development Bank to make sure than in London last year. the East Midlands gets its share of If the Tories win the General Election, investment for small businesses, transport funding to the East Midlands infrastructure projects and funding for will continue to be £2,895 per head new growth industries. Priorities for lower than in London over the years lending will be set by boards made up ahead. of key local stakeholders such as local chambers of commerce, trade unions Over the last decade we’ve seen the and councillors giving the East Midlands number of bus journeys reduce by 12% a new and powerful lever to rebuild its in the East Midlands.