Green Party Launches 2024 Manifesto - ‘Real Hope, Real Change’

Speaking near Brighton Pavilion, which the erstwhile MP Caroline Lucas won in a historic victory in 2010, and surrounded by awkward student sign-holders, the co-leaders finished each other’s sentences as they tried to establish Clear Green Water between their Party and Labour, committing to higher taxes, nationalisation of utilities, and boosting the NHS budget. This could be a sensible strategy for those that want to see Labour go further, but whether that really translates to votes at the ballot box is yet to be seen.

Unusually for a Party founded to promote environmentalism, there was little in the manifesto launch on just that beyond a predictable comment that “protecting our climate and nature lies at the heart of our policies" and the usual attack line that other parties are “running away” from solutions to the climate crisis – an easy line if you are literally called the Green Party.

Click on any part of the Green’s manifesto and it is spend, spend, spend. This, they see as the solution to fixing “broken Britain”. But politics is about priorities and over-promising is easy if you know you won’t be in power. Even they admit that.

The full Green Party manifesto can be found here. Key pledges include:

Economy, Work and Pensions   

• A Wealth Tax of 1% annually on assets above £10 million and of 2% on assets above £1bn. Only a tiny minority of people would pay this tax.
• Reform of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to align the rates paid by taxpayers on income and taxable gains. This would affect less than 2% of all income taxpayers.
• Aligning the tax rates on investment income with the tax and National Insurance Contribution rates on employment income.
• Removing the Upper Earnings Limit that restricts the amount of National Insurance paid by high earners.
• 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.
• Bringing the railways, water companies and the Big 5 retail energy companies into public ownership.
• Increase Universal Credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week.
• Abolish the two-child benefit cap, lifting 250,000 children out of poverty.
• End the ‘bedroom tax’.
• In the long term, introduce a universal basic income to give everybody the security to start a business, study, train and live their life in dignity.

Health

• A year-on-year reduction in waiting lists.
• Guaranteed access to an NHS dentist.
• Guaranteed rapid access to a GP and same day access in case of urgent need.
• An immediate boost to the pay of NHS staff, including the restoration of junior doctors’ pay, to help with staff retention.

Energy and Environment

• 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.

Education and Early Years

• An increase in school funding of £8bn, to include £2bn for a pay uplift for teachers.
• Supporting every higher education student, with the restoration of grants and the end of tuition fees.
• Ending high stakes testing at primary and secondary schools and abolishing OFSTED.
• 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.

Levelling Up, Housing and Communities 

• New build and the purchase/refurbishment of older housing stock.
• A community right to buy for local authorities for several categories of property.
• Ending the individual ‘right to buy’, to keep social homes for local communities in perpetuity.
• 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 so tenants are secure in their homes and don’t have their lives turned upside down on the whim of their landlords.
• Introduction of a tenants’ right to demand energy efficiency improvements.
• Private residential tenancy boards to provide an informal, cheap and speedy forum for resolving disputes before they reach a tribunal.
• Require local authorities to spread small developments across their areas.
• 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 and house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes, where appropriate.

Rural Policy

• 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.
• Policies that ensure that good quality surplus food is not wasted.

Foreign Affairs and Defence

• An immediate bilateral ceasefire.
• An end to arms sales to Israel.
• Redoubled efforts to secure the release of hostages taken on 7th October 2023.
• An urgent international effort to end the illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
• A durable political solution that ensures security and equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.
• The reinstatement of funding for UNRWA and support for South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice.
• Push for the UK to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and following this to immediately begin the process of dismantling our nuclear weapons, cancelling the Trident programme and removing all foreign nuclear weapons from UK soil.
• Work with international partners to enlarge membership of the TPNW and ensure that all states meet their commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Transport

• Increase annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel to £10bn by the end of the next Parliament, with free bus travel for under-18s.
• Invest in an additional £19bn over five years to improve public transport, support electrification and create new cycleways and footpaths.
• Bring the railways back into public ownership.
• Give local authorities control over and funding for improved bus services.

Home Affairs

• Campaign to end violence against women and girls.
• Scrap the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act, the Public Order Act and other legislation that erodes the right to protest and free expression.
• Scrap the Prevent programme and tackle hate crime, misogyny, Islamophobia and antisemitism. Seek to restore trust and confidence in the police.
• Repair and renew our crumbling court system with a £2.5bn investment.

Culture, Media and Sport

• A £5bn investment to support community sports, arts and culture.
• Keeping local sports facilities, museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries open and thriving.
• An end to VAT on cultural activities, lowering the prices of everything from museum tickets to gigs in local pubs and making these more accessible.