The Green Party has unveiled its manifesto for the 2024 UK general election, which promises to “invest to mend broken Britain.”
Green Party Co-Leader, Adrian Ramsay said, “Labour and the Conservatives would rather hide their plans for cuts to public services than confront the need for a fairer tax system that asks those with the broadest shoulders to pay more – including the very wealthiest in society, who have grown even wealthier over the last 14 years.”
Green Party plans centre on reshaping the UK tax system, addressing the cost of living and funding the “green transition to tackle the climate crisis and create the jobs of tomorrow.”
Fairer, greener food and farming
The Green Party says, “Our food system is failing us all. Poor diets are estimated to cost our NHS £6.5bn a year yet successive governments have failed to take on the unhealthy food lobby. Meanwhile, the way we produce our food is damaging our natural world and our climate. Our food system accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and is the greatest driver of nature loss and pollution in our rivers.
“Green MPs will work with farmers and other stakeholders to transform our food and farming system, so we are producing healthy, nutritious food at fair prices for consumers and with fair wages for growers. We will also aim to increase the amount of food grown and traded in the UK, and as locally as possible.”
Policies include:
- Financial support for farmers to be almost tripled to support their transition to nature-friendly farming
- Biodiversity and soil health to be conserved and improved, leading to cleaner rivers
- Farm payments to be linked to reduced use of pesticides and other agro-chemicals
- All children to have a free school meal each day and free breakfast clubs for children to Year 6
- Schools to involve children in growing, preparing and cooking food, as part of the core curriculum
- Policies that ensure that good quality surplus food is not wasted
Bringing Nature Back to Life
We are part of nature and unless it flourishes, we cannot flourish either, but the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.
Policies include:
- Introduce a new Rights of Nature Act, giving rights to nature itself
- End the scandal of sewage pouring into our rivers and seas by taking the water companies back into public ownership
- Extend people’s access to green space and waterways close to where they live with a new English Right to Roam Act
- Set aside 30% of our land and seas by 2030 in which nature will receive the highest priority and protection
- Protecting Animals – policies include:
- The creation a new Commission on Animal Protection
- A ban on all blood sports, including trail hunting
- An end to badger culling
- An end to factory farming, enforcement of maximum stocking densities, and no routine use of antibiotics in farm animals
- A complete ban on close confinement in cages and the deliberate and unnecessary mutilation of farm animals
Creating a fairer, greener economy
Green MPs will fight for an economy that delivers security, wellbeing and a better quality of life for everyone, as well protecting our environment and enabling us to tackle the climate crisis with the ambition and speed it demands.
Policies include:
- A £40bn investment per year in the shift to a green economy over the course of the next Parliament
- A carbon tax to drive fossil fuels out of our economy and raise money to invest in the green transition
- A Wealth Tax of 1% annually on assets above £10 million and of 2% on assets above £1bn
- Reform of Capital Gains Tax to align the rates paid by taxpayers on income and taxable gains
- Removing the Upper Earnings Limit that restricts the amount of National Insurance paid by high earners
- Regional mutual banks to be set up to drive investment in decarbonisation and local economic sustainability
- £2bn per year in grant funding for local authorities to help businesses decarbonise
The Greens estimate that by the end of the next Parliament these changes could raise additional revenue of between £50 and £70bn per year in 2024 prices, while a carbon tax set initially at £120 per tonne of carbon emitted and rising over ten years to a maximum of £500 per tonne, would raise up to an additional £80bn.
Providing fairer, greener homes for all
Everyone needs a warm, secure and affordable home. Yet millions of people don’t have this most basic building-block for a happy and successful life. Over a million households are on council waiting lists and more than 130,000 children are growing up in temporary accommodation.
Policies include:
- Require all new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local health, transport and other services
- Ensure that all new homes meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards
- £29bn over the next five years to insulate homes to an EPC B standard or above as part of a ten-year programme and £4bn over the next five years to insulate other buildings to a high standard
- Provide 150,000 new social homes every year
- Rent controls so local authorities can control rents if the rental market is unaffordable for many local people
- A new stable rental tenancy and an end to no-fault evictions
- Natural capital (biodiversity net gain, nutrient neutrality, carbon and peatland carbon codes) and commercial forestry are not mentioned in the Green Party manifesto.
Read the Green Party manifesto here