2015 General Election – Manifesto Update
A briefing paper prepared by FleishmanHillard for ALMR 14.4.15
Overview
The week commencing 13th April is ‘Manifesto Week’ in the 2015 General Election campaign. Many of
the parties’ key policies have already been trailed but the formal publication of the manifesto allows a
‘moment in the sunshine’ for each party to set out their stall on their own terms to voters. This paper
itemises the key pledges of interest to ALMR members contained in the Labour and Conservative
manifesto’s published on Monday and Tuesday respectively
Macro-Economic Policy
Labour
Conservative
Cut the deficit every year and balance the books as
soon as possible in the next Parliament
Keep our economy secure by running a surplus so that
we start paying down our debts
Reverse the 50p tax cut so that the top one per cent
pay a little more to help get the deficit down
Cap structural social security spending in each spending
review and reduce waste through our Zero-Based
Review of spending.
Not increase the basic or higher rates of Income Tax,
National Insurance or VAT
Cut and then freeze business rates and maintain the
most competitive corporate tax rates in the G7
Introduce a lower 10p starting rate of tax, paid for by
ending the Conservatives’ Marriage Tax Allowance.
Increase the tax-free Personal Allowance to £12,500
and the 40p Income Tax threshold to £50,000
Commit to no increases in VAT, National Insurance
contributions or Income Tax
Crack down on tax evasion and aggressive tax
avoidance and ensure those who can afford to pay the
most do rebalance our economy,
Cap overall welfare spending, lower the amount of
benefits that any household can receiveto £23,000 and
continue to roll out Universal Credit, to make work pay
Pursue our ambition to become the most prosperous
major economy in the world by the 2030s
Abolish non dom status
Unlocking growth and investment in our people and communities – via an extension of the NIC
allowance to under 25s, alignment of PAYE and NICs and extension of direct funding through the tax
regime for accredited training.
Labour
Conservative
Increase the National Minimum Wage to “more than”
£8 an hour by October 2019 and introduce Make Work
Pay contracts to provide tax rebates to firms becoming
Living Wage employers
We have abolished the jobs tax – employers'
National Insurance contributions (NICs) – for the under
21s and next year we will do the same for young
apprentices under 25.
Ban zero hours contracts, giving those who work 12
hours or more per week the right to a regular contract
A Compulsory Jobs Guarantee will provide a paid starter
job for every young person unemployed for over a year
Guarantee every school leaver that “gets the grades” an
apprenticeship
Give employers more control over apprenticeships
funding and standards. In return, we will ask them to
increase the number of high quality apprenticeships in
their sectors and supply chains. We will also give them
the powers to deal with any free-riding employers who
do not train.
Labour’s apprenticeships will be gold-standard
qualifications. We will re-focus existing spending away
from low-level apprenticeships for older people, and
towards a system where apprenticeships are focused on
new job entrants,lasting at least two years, and
providing level three qualifications or above.
the labour party manifesto to 2015
We will continue to help smaller businesses take
on new workers through the Employment Allowance,
which frees businesses from the first £2,000 of
employers’ NICs so that a third of employers pay no
jobs tax.
We accept the recommendations of the Low Pay
Commission that the National Minimum Wage should
rise to £6.70 this autumn, on course for a Minimum
Wage that will be over £8 by the end of the decade.
We also support the Living Wage and will continue to
encourage businesses and other organisations to pay it
whenever they can afford it.
We will also take further steps to eradicate abuses of
workers, such as non-payment of the Minimum Wage,
exclusivity in zerohours contracts and exploitation of
migrant workers.
We will cut income tax for 30 million people, taking
everyone who earns less than £12,500 out of Income
Tax altogether
We will make sure that apprenticeships can lead to
higher level qualifications by creating new Technical
Degrees and supporting part-time study. They will
be co-funded, co-designed and co-delivered by
employers and they will be the priority for expansion
within our university system.
We will pass a new law so that nobody working 30
hours on the Minimum Wage pays IncomeTax on what
they earn
Young people who do not have the skills they need
should be in training, not on benefits. We will replace
out of work benefits for 18 to 21-year-olds with a
new Youth Allowance dependent on recipients being in
training and targeted at those who need it most.
We will abolish employers' National Insurance
contributions on earnings up to the upper earnings limit
for apprentices under the age of 25.
Require large companies to publish their gender pay
gap
Double paternity leave from two to four weeks and
increase the level of pay so that dads receive the
equivalent of a full week’s work paid at the National
Minimum Wage.
Support working families by expanding free childcare
from 15 to 25 hours a week for working parents of
three and four year olds.
Ensure that all primary schools guarantee access to
wraparound childcare from 8am to 6pm.
We will back aspiration by raising the 40p tax threshold
– so that no one earning less than £50,000 pays it
And we will roll out many more Degree
Apprenticeships, allowing young people to combine a
world-class degree with a world-class apprenticeship.
We will bring in tax-free childcare to support parents
back into work, and give working parents of 3 and 4year-olds 30 hours of free childcare a week.
The Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition Government has pledged to increase personal allowances
to take more lower paid out of tax altogether and have scrapped NICs for under 21s. There have
been some signals that NIC reform is next on the cards.
The Conservatives have pledged to create 3m apprenticeships. To support this, they will scrap
NICs for apprenticeships up to 25 years old and give employers more control of funding for the
training of apprenticeships, possibly through the PAYE system.
Labour has pledged to introduce an Education Bill within its first 100 days to reform the
provision of vocational training and apprenticeships – no detail is available yet, but the party has
said it wants to raise the ‘standard and quality of apprenticeships so they last a minimum of two
years’. This could impose standards and costs that are not fit for purpose for licensed
hospitality. It will also ensure an apprenticeship is offered to every school leaver.
Labour have committed to increasing the National Minimum Wage to £8.00 per hour. Preelection, this was promised by 2020 (a rate which it would have reached through inflation
increases in any case) and the Party has come under pressure to bring that forward. Labour have
pledged to introduce ‘Make Work Pay’ contracts, giving a tax rebate to those companies that
sign up to become living wage employers in the first year of the next Parliament. The Lib Dems
have also pledged to hold an independent review on setting a fair living wage.
Labour has also pledged to outlaw zero hours contracts, legislating to ban exclusivity clauses
and to require anyone employed for more than 12 weeks to be offered a regular contract with
guaranteed hours.
Promoting a free, fair and flexible property market – by removing tax distortions in the business rate
regime so bills are set fairly, transparently and proportionately
Labour
Conservative
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy.
Their creativity and dynamism are vital for raising
productivity and competing in the global economy.
To support jobs, we cut Corporation Tax from 28 to 20
per cent over the course of the Parliament, reduced
National Insurance bills and capped the rise in business
rates. We have extended 100 per cent Small Business
Rate Relief and are providing extra support for high
street shops by increasing the business rates retail
discount to £1,500. In the next Parliament, we want to
maintain the most competitive business tax regime in
the G20, and oppose Labour’s plans to increase
Corporation Tax.
We will address rising costs for small businesses and
strengthen rules on late payment. Labour will put small
businesses first in line for tax cuts. Instead of
cutting Corporation Tax again for the largest firms, we
will cut, and then freeze business rates for over 1.5
million smaller business properties.
We will strengthen and reform Local Enterprise
Partnerships to give businesses a say over growth
strategies and priorities. And we will create more
Combined Authorities to coordinate regional growth
plans and allow them to retain 100 per cent of
additional business rates raised through growing
businesses in their region.
We will conduct a major review into business rates by
the end of 2015 to ensure that from 2017 they properly
reflect the structure of our modern economy and
provide clearer billing, better information sharing and a
more efficient appeal system.
The Conservatives (and Liberal Democrats) have proposed a complete review of business rates
post election. The ALMR is working closely with the Valuation Office and is engaged with the
Treasury on the longer term review. The promise of root and branch reform as an election
pledge is a key win. The Lib Dems have said the review should include the option of moving to a
Site Value Rating within 5 years and in the longer term Land Value Taxation more broadly.
Labour has promised to cut business rates in 2015 and then freeze them in 2016 for SMEs (RV
less than £50k) – but not formally said so far that they too will review the process. However,
given they have said they will let city and county regions keep all the additional business rates
revenue ‘generated by growth’ some review appears inevitable. The business rate cut is to be
paid for by a reversal of the planned 1% cut in headline corporation tax rates, resulting in higher
corporation tax bills for larger companies.
On planning costs, the coalition government has acknowledged that the current use classes in
hospitality may act as a barrier to investment and Labour wants to reform the use class system
to allow councils to block the spread of types of business they might not like (betting shops /
fast food outlets)
Reducing the costs of doing business responsibly – by implementing the hospitality red tape challenge in
full so that we can chart clear progress on dealing with regulatory burdens
Labour
Conservative
Set limits on the amount of sugar, fat and salt in food
marketed substantially to children
We will cut a further £10 billion of red tape over the
next Parliament through our Red Tape Challenge and
our One-In-Two-Out rule.
Crack down on those high-strength, low-cost alcohol
products that fuel binge drinking and underage drinking
Give local authorities new powers so that local
communities can shape their high streets and manage
the future number of fast food outlets locally
Ensure public health is embedded throughout the
licensing system so that measures promoting public
health can be included in the licensing statement
Abolish Police and Crime Commissioners
Labour will give them a voice at the heart of
government – a Small Business Administration, which
will ensure procurement contracts are accessible and
regulations are designed with small firms in mind.
Ensure proper justice in the workplace by abolishing the
Government’s employment tribunal fee system as
part of wider reforms to create a system that is quicker
for employers and employees and cheaper for the
Our tourism industry already supports three million jobs
and is one of the nation’s leading employers and export
earners. We will set challenging targets for Visit Britain
and Visit England to ensure more visitors travel outside
the capital. We will simplify and speed up visa issuance
for tourists. And because tourism is an industry that
depends more than most on young people, we will step
up efforts to recruit more apprentices into the business.
We will set out a long-term vision for the future of
British farming, working with industry to develop a 25
year plan to grow more, buy more and sell more British
food. We will support a science-led approach on GM
crops and pesticides
We have already helped small businesses by increasing
the Annual Investment Allowance, reducing the burden
of employment law through our successful tribunal
reforms and supporting 27,000 new business mentors.
We will go further by establishing a new Small Business
taxpayer.
Conciliation service to mediate in disputes, especially
over late payment.
Ahead of the General Election, the Government rejected plans to introduce locally set licensing
fees – which would have significantly increased costs for all licensed hospitality businesses but
particularly small independent outlets and late night venues. Fees will be returned to post
election and cost recovery of some form remains likely. In addition, the Conservatives have
promised to legislate to allow companies to nominate a day on which they will pay all their
annual licensing fees, reducing red tape.
Labour proposed Alcohol Strategy is likely to increase costs and regulation for licensed
hospitality businesses. Labour remains in favour of minimum unit pricing and will regulate high
strength low cost products through duty and product size. It will also seek to restrict the siting of
alcohol in supermarkets and alcohol advertising and sponsorship. More significantly, Labour
wants to introduce public health as a licensing objective and encourage closer data sharing
between A&E, councils and public bodies on alcohol. This will inevitably lead to more objections
and we have seen the first signs of this also hitting casual dining applications in Scotland and
Wales where the policy is already in force.
Labour also want to scrap the public health Responsibility Deal on Food and will regulate to set
maximum levels of salt, sugar and fat in food ‘marketed substantially at children’ through
regulation. This will also apply to the out of home market.