Green Party Manifesto
Following on from the three main parties, the green party released their 2024 election manifesto, we take a look at their proposals..
Housing
Providing Fairer, Greener Homes for all
Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter
The Greens propose that local authorities and the national government must collaborate to provide affordable housing in areas where it is most needed. They have a Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter which aims to achieve this while also preserving essential green spaces for communities, reducing climate emissions, addressing fuel poverty, and ensuring the availability of truly affordable housing. They state they will:
- 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.
Our Fairer, Greener Homes Guarantee
They acknowledge that our energy bills are excessively high due to having the worst-insulated homes in Europe. They aim to lower these bills by minimizing heat loss from homes.
Elected Greens will advocate for a local authority-led, street-by-street retrofit program to insulate our homes, provide clean heating, and adapt our buildings to more extreme climate conditions. This would involve investment in:
- £29bn over the next five years to insulate homes to an EPC B standard or above as part of a ten-year programme.
- £4bn over the next five years to insulate other buildings to a high standard
- £9bn over the next five years for low-carbon heating systems (e.g. heat pumps) for homes and other buildings
150,000 new social homes each year
They pledge to provide 150,000 new social homes every year through:
- 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.
Fair Deal for Renters
Green MPs will push for:
- 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. They will also introduce 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.
Creating a fairer, greener economy
The Greens would push for a Green Economic Transformation which would 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.
- Bringing the railways, water companies and the Big 5 retail energy companies into public ownership.
They pledge that we need to build the sustainability of our communities through the transition
Green MPs will push for:
- A £12.4bn investment in skills and training, equipping workers to play a full role in the green economy.
- A share of community ownership in local sustainable energy infrastructure such as wind farms.
SME and community sector support
The Green party state that small and medium-sized business are the lifeblood of our economy and our communities.
Green MPs will press for:
- 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.
- Community ownership to be encouraged through greater access to government funding in the transition to a zero-carbon economy.
To find out more about The Green Party manifesto, click here…
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