At the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this week, the Government has shown how Conservatives will make Brexit work for Britain by delivering on people’s priorities – hospitals, schools and police, the cost of living and infrastructure:
- Launching the largest hospital building programme in a generation, ensuring our hospitals are fit for purpose for both staff and patients on the front line. We are fully funding six brand new hospitals now, and providing seed funding for a further 34.
- Cracking down on criminals by empowering our police and strengthening sentencing. We are tackling county lines drug gangs, allowing Chief Constables to equip more of their officers with Tasers, introducing prevention for theft and burglary, and making sure criminals service more of their sentence in prison.
- Committing to increase the National Living Wage to two thirds of the median by 2024, ending low pay. The National Living Wage is set to be £10.50 in 2024, benefiting over 4 million people with a full-time worker on the National Living Wage seeing an increase in their annual pay of over £4,000.
- Announcing £5 billion for gigabit broadband in the hardest to reach areas, so no community is left behind. This funding will provide faster, more reliable, and more affordable broadband in the hardest to reach 20 per cent of the country.
- Confirming plans to improve England’s roads, setting out which projects will be included in the £25 billion second round of the Road Investment Strategy. Work between 2020 and 2025 will include completing the dualling of the A66 Trans-Pennine to reduce congestion and improving the M60 Simister Island interchange in Manchester to tackle delays.
- Announcing a £500 million Youth Investment Fund to provide high-quality youth services across the country. This will see up to 60 new youth centres, 100 new mobile facilities and 360 youth centres upgraded and provide young people with safe and inspiring places to go outside of school.
- Announced a range of measures to help us achieve Net Zero by 2050. We will build a fusion power plant, plant a new Great Northumberland Forest of up to a million trees, expand pocket parks, open a Gigafactory to develop batteries for electric vehicles, and ensure new homes are energy efficient.
- Launching a new National Bus Strategy, making it easier for everyone to get from A to B. We are launching a £220 million National Bus Strategy, including Britain’s first ever all-electric bus town and new low-fare, high-frequency ‘superbus’ networks, so support local communities.
- Setting out plans to build more homes and help more people onto the housing ladder. We want to build more of the right sorts of homes in the right areas - so we can sensitively meet the housing needs of the next generation, without ignoring thousands of local people who are concerned about the changing character of their area. We do need to build more affordable homes and we are giving housing association tenants the right to purchase a stake in their property and increase it over time.
- Presented a range of plans to help people find a good job. In the West Midland we are piloting apps to help people find better, higher paying jobs in their local area and expanding Youth Employability Coaches to support disadvantaged young people into work.
- Announced a new package of measures to protect animals in our homes, farms and in the wild. We will consult on banning keeping primates as pets, hunting trophies and live exports, as well as microchipping for cats.
- Investing in Growth Deals across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, strengthening our Union. We will invest £25 million in the Argyll and Bute Growth Deal, £55 million in the Mid Wales Growth Deal and £163 million in the Causeway Coast and Glens and the Mid South West Northern Ireland Growth Deals.
