Welsh Lib Dem Cardiff Manifesto 2015

Cardiff Manifesto 2015 £400 Income Tax cut for 168,500 Cardiff workers Fight to clean up Cardiff’s streets Campaign to keep local libraries open

Eliminate broadband ‘not-spots’

Deliver £16million extra for Cardiff’s poorest pupils

A City Deal to kick-start Cardiff’s economy

Introduction

Introduction by Kirsty Williams AM and Jenny Willott Dear friend, When we launched our 2010 General Election manifesto, few people expected that many of the policies it contained would be implemented by the next Government. But that's what happened: three quarters of those policies formed the backbone of the Coalition's programme.

Front-page commitments like raising the Income Tax threshold and investing in the poorest schoolchildren through the Pupil Premium became flagship achievements.

With Liberal Democrats in Government in Westminster to deliver them, our policies have started the work of building a stronger economy and a fairer society, with opportunity spread across the whole United Kingdom.

Despite tough economic circumstances, those policies are making a difference to people’s lives and helping make Britain a freer, greener, more liberal country.

But our mission to build a stronger economy and a fairer society has only just begun. We have made a good start over the last five years but want to go much, much further.

In Government for the next five years, Liberal Democrats will continue to build a stronger economy and a fairer society with opportunity for everyone.

This manifesto sets out how, building on our UK and Wales-wide manifestos with policies that will benefit people all across Cardiff.

Yours,

Kirsty Williams AM Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats AM for Brecon and Radnorshire

Jenny Willott Liberal Democrat Candidate for Cardiff Central

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Our record of delivery

We can say we will finish the job of balancing the books, but do so fairly, because we have started that job in this Parliament. We brought stability at a time of crisis and are now beginning to see the fruits of those decisions: the fastest growing economy in the G7; record numbers of people in work; wages pulling ahead of inflation and a more balanced economy emerging.

We can say we will cut taxes for working people by raising the tax-free allowance to £12,500 because we have raised the tax-free allowance every year since 2010. We have cut taxes for 136,240 people across Cardiff.

We can say we will invest in education for our most deprived schoolchildren because we have already invested £282 million in the Pupil Premium, meaning over £1000 of extra money for every child from a deprived background in Wales. Cardiff has seen an extra £16,161,840 in funding because of Welsh Liberal Democrats’ Pupil Premium.

We can say we will help young people get ahead in life because we have already created 2,000,000 apprenticeships in the last five years, and secured £15 million for all 16-18 year olds in Wales to get a discount on their bus travel from September this year.

We can say we will invest in the NHS, secure a safe level of nurses on Welsh wards, and ensure parity between mental and physical health because we have already secured investment in new technology for the NHS, proposed legislation to require more nurses on wards and because our party in Government in Westminster has protected the NHS budget in England.

We can say we will protect our environment because we have nearly trebled the amount of electricity from renewable energy in this Parliament, and insulated a million homes in England.

And we can say that we will deliver home rule and fair funding for Wales, because we have been the driving force of devolution in this Parliament.

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Our promise of more

We will: 1. Complete the job of balancing the budget – on time, in full, and fairly. Our objective is to eradicate the structural current budget deficit by 2017/18 and have debt falling as a percentage of national income, so it is back to sustainable levels by the middle of the next decade. The government will be able to borrow for capital spending that enhances economic growth or financial stability, enabling us to increase this productive investment. We will cut £50bn less than the Tories and borrow £70bn less than Labour, making our plan the fairest of the lot. According to independent analysis from the IFS, the Welsh budget will be larger under the Liberal Democrats than under Labour or Tory spending plans.

2. Raise the tax-free Personal Allowance to at least £12,500 by the end of the next Parliament, putting around £400 back in your pockets. 168,500 people in Cardiff will have a £1,200 tax cut under our policy. By 2017-18, someone earning the National Minimum Wage working up to 30 hours a week will not pay any income tax.

3. Invest in the NHS with up to £450 million more for Wales which we can use to ensure more nurses on Welsh wards, ending the scandal of Welsh nurses having to care for more patients than in any other part of the UK, and invest in mental health.

4. Continue to expand the pupil premium until we reach our target of £2,500. We have already secured £282 million for the most deprived school children in Wales, including £33,774,940 for schools in Cardiff, helping schools narrow the gap between them and their wealthier peers.

5. Ensure home rule for Wales, by providing for a Welsh Parliament and devolve a raft of new powers over energy, transport, broadcasting and more, and deliver fair funding for Wales by immediately entrenching a Barnett floor set at a level that reflects the need for Wales to be funded fairly, and seek over a Parliament to increase the Welsh block grant to an equitable level.

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6. Legislate for the Liberal Democrat ‘triple lock’ of increasing the State Pension each year by the highest of earnings growth, prices growth or by 2.5%. This ‘triple lock’ has already reversed decades of decline in pensioner incomes. The basic state pension is now £950 higher in cash terms than in 2010, benefiting 54,500 people in Cardiff.

7. Abolish the economically distorting tolls on the Severn Bridge once the debts are paid off. These tolls cost the South Wales economy £107 million every year.

8. Secure a City Deal for Cardiff - City Deals are a Liberal Democrat policy championed

by Jenny Willott that give city regions the powers and investment they need to kick start their economies. The potential for such a deal for Cardiff and its City Region is immense. Millions of pounds could be ploughed straight into our creaking transport infrastructure, improving rail links into and across our city.

9. Support the emerging Cardiff Capital City Region, exploring giving it real powers and statutory status to make it more than just a talking shop.

10. Guarantee public sector workers' pay rises by at least inflation, as public sector workers deserve to see light at the end of the tunnel after five years of pay restraint and to feel the benefits of economic recovery. This means a minimum pay rise of £350 for a nurse on £25,000, £420 for a police office on £30,000 and nearly £500 for a teacher on £35,000 over the next two years.

11. Help younger people afford their first home through an innovative “Rent to Own” programme, where young people will be able to buy their own home without needing a deposit. Rent to Own will see first-time buyers steadily build up a share in their home through monthly payments equivalent to rent until they own the property outright after 30 years, just like a normal mortgage.

12. Introduce a new Help to Rent scheme to provide government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all first time renters under 30.

13. Aim to double the number of businesses which hire apprentices, including by extending them to new sectors of our economy, and promoting them in careers guidance in schools.

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14. Support carers by introducing an annual Carer’s Bonus of £250 for carers looking after someone for more than 35 hours or more each week, benefiting 5,450 people in Cardiff.

15. Cut red tape to allow small businesses in Cardiff to thrive and continue the plan for businesses who hire apprentices not to pay National Insurance Contributions for the whole of the next Parliament.

16. Launch a radical and systematic review of the way that business rates are run in Wales. While we could just tinker around the edges, it would be better to totally overhaul the entire system. This could include policies like a 50% relief on bills for new occupants of empty properties, an additional levy on edge-of-town retail unit car parks, and a 100% business rate discount for Enterprise Zones.

17. Complete the rollout of high-speed broadband, to reach almost every household (99.9%) in the UK as well as small businesses.

18. Cut people’s Council Tax by £100 per year for 10 years if they improve the insulation in their homes by at least two bands.

19. Extend our Youth Concessionary Fare Scheme – that will give a discount on fares for Welsh 16-18 year olds starting from September 2015 – to more young people, for example full-time students. This will help young people get to school and assist all bus users by helping to maintain the viability of existing routes and making it easier to open new ones.

20. Enshrine parity of esteem between mental and physical health on the face of future legislation, expand liaison psychiatry services to ensure immediate access to specialist mental health support for people being treated in hospitals for physical health problems, and revolutionise children’s mental health services by training GPs, teachers, youth club workers and other professionals with a high degree of contact with children in basic mental health support for children.

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21. Reform the policy to remove the spare room subsidy. Existing social tenants will not be subject to any housing benefit reduction unless they have been offered reasonable alternative accommodation and rejected it.

22. Introduce a Student Living Support Grant for students, to help them meet the cost of living while at university, and support access to higher education by requiring universities to adopt a ‘Fair Access Agreement’.

23. Tackle discrimination faced by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people by enacting the remaining unimplemented clauses of the Equality Act 2010, including the outlawing of caste discrimination, moving to ‘name blank’ recruitment in the public sector to ensure people are judged on their abilities not their name; and requiring police to wear body cameras in Section 60 areas.

24. Develop a comprehensive plan to electrify the overwhelming majority of the UK rail network, building on the investments in connectivity to Wales we have made in government, including electrifying the South Wales Valleys line and committing £500m for a rail link to Heathrow, cutting journey times by up to 30 minutes for travellers from South Wales.

25. Rule out regional pay, which if introduced by the Tories would mean 52,300 public sector workers in Cardiff being paid less and take £196,125,000 out of the local economy.

26. Make Wales a greener place by investing in renewable energy, establishing Wales as a world leader in marine renewables by supporting projects like tidal range power in the Severn estuary and the Bristol Channel. In Wales, our aim is to produce enough renewable and low-carbon energy to cover our own needs and provide export potential by 2050.

27. Introduce a new Freedoms Bill, to protect citizens from excessive state powers; a Digital Bill of Rights, to define and enshrine the digital rights of the citizen; and a Victims’ Bill of Rights.

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28. Require all schools in Wales to teach the importance of sexual consent as part of age-appropriate sex and relationships education, and tackle homophobic and transphobic bullying and discrimination.

29. Tackle broadband not-spots as a priority, in places such as Penylan. Broadband opens up a wide range of goods and services to people, from domestic customers who simply want to be able to pay for things online, to businesses who are ambitious to grow and flourish. We will increase digital inclusion to reduce isolation experienced by people, including many older people, who cannot access the internet.

30. Develop an NHS ‘student guarantee’, making it easier for students to get care and support while at university, in partnership with Local Authorities, particularly those with long term health conditions or caring responsibilities.

31. Continue to campaign against the Labour-run Cardiff Council cuts to waste services and closures of waste sites like Waungron Road with a five-point plan to clean up Cardiff by: Ÿ Safeguarding fortnightly black bin bag collections Ÿ Bringing back community street sweepers Ÿ Tougher enforcement on people who put out bags on the wrong day Ÿ Introducing more regular street cleaning, especially after bins have been collected Ÿ Scrapping the £15 fee for collecting bulky waste 32. Provide sufficient enforcement to ensure that To Let Boards are not left up all year round. They make the area look untidy and make houses twice as likely to be burgled.

33. Campaign to ensure that Labour-run Cardiff Council keeps its promise to keep open Roath, Cathays, Rhydypennau, Rhiwbina, Whitchurch, Rumney and Radyr libraries.

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Support community campaigns to retain play centres across Cardiff.

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Printed, published and promoted by Matt Hemsley on behalf of Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrats), by Paul Harding on behalf of Cadan ap Tomos (Liberal Democrats), by Jamie Matthews on behalf of Nigel Howells (Liberal Democrats) and by John Dixon on behalf of Elizabeth Clark (Liberal Democrats), all at 38 The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AD; and by Tim Gordon on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, all at 8-10 Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AE.