Thread by @BathLabourParty

Labour #Bath & NE Somerset Manifesto

♦️COUNCIL HOUSING
A Labour Council will start building Council housing again. 🏘️

The failures of the Lib Dems and Tories have resulted in a housing crisis. The provision of genuinely affordable housing is our number one priority.

We will build more homes that are for people, not profit!
We will start building Council housing again and change the priorities of ADL, the Council’s wholly owned development company, so that more homes are built and rented out by the Council, not a housing association.

Labour #Bath & NE Somerset Manifesto

♦️Business Rates on Student Blocks

We will support the introduction of Business Rates on Student Blocks

Since the Lib Dem / Tory Coalition removed the cap on student numbers, #Bath particularly has experienced a growth in the number of Student Blocks on brownfield sites, resulting in a loss of Council Tax.

A Labour Council will campaign for landlords to pay Business Rates.

♦️Address the loss of family homes converted to HMOs

The explosion in student numbers means that many residents feel that their communities are unbalanced and they are losing a sense of neighbourhood.

A Labour Council will join with other councils affected by the growth in HMOs to lobby Government to reintroduce the cap on student numbers abolished by Lib Dem / Tory coalition, and to give B&NES the power to introduce other measures to curb the impact of student accommodation.

♦️Take action to narrow the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children

The Lib Dem / Tory failed academisation programme has taken responsibility for schools away from local authorities. This has led to the closure of two schools serving our most deprived communities.

There is a lack of co-ordination in schools’ admission policies. A Labour Council will seek robust scrutiny of academies, push for the B&NES School Standards Board to have higher status, and support it to narrow the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children.

♦️Lift children out of poverty.

More than one in five children in B&NES live in poverty. As a result of the Government’s austerity programme, they are growing up in inadequate and unaffordable homes where there is insufficient money to ensure they are properly clothed and fed.

A Labour Council will give responsibility for addressing child poverty to the Leader of Council so that the issue gets the highest priority. We will end the use of bailiffs to collect Council Tax debt, work with charities to address holiday hunger and end period poverty.

♦️Introduce bus fares and routes that work for residents. 🚍

Our bus system currently serves the interests of bus companies, not the travelling public. We want control of bus routes, fare levels, frequency and vehicle accessibility put in the hands of transport authorities.

We want integrated ticketing and low emission buses. A Labour government will introduce free bus travel for under 25s.

In the meantime a Labour Council will work to extend the 50% discount on full fares from children aged 5-15 to all under 19 year olds.

♦️Introduce a Clean Air Zone

Successive Lib Dem and Tory administrations have failed to address air quality in #Bath. The result is that we now live in one of the most polluted cities in the country causing premature deaths and health problems for the elderly and children.

A Labour Council will introduce a Clean Air Zone in #Bath with charges for high emission buses, coaches, private hire vehicles, taxis, HGVs and LGVs/vans but not for private cars. #CAZ

♦️A Labour Council will introduce measures to make the Council CARBON NEUTRAL by 2030 at the latest, inc supporting hydroelectric, solar & wind turbine sources of energy, introducing a programme of energy efficiency measures, & banning single use plastics in all Council buildings

♦️Care and support for the most vulnerable in our community

A Labour Council will sign the Ethical Care Charter establishing a minimum baseline for the safety, quality and dignity of care by providing decent employment conditions for staff.

This will lead to the recruitment and retention of a more stable workforce through better pay, conditions and training, in turn leading to better care.

♦️Make our streets safer.

The cuts to policing introduced by the Lib Dem / Tory Coalition Government resulted in the closure of #Bath Police Station and a surge in crime, particularly robbery which is growing at one of the fastest rates in the country.

A Labour Council will continue to lobby for a properly resourced Police Station in #Bath and we will actively tackle hate crime addressing the problem of under-reporting by encouraging victims to come forward.

♦️Put residents first.

Too often residents have felt ignored by the Lib Dems and the Tories who have passed power between them with nothing ever really changing. A Labour Council will be different.

We will hold six ‘People’s Question Time’ events each year with the Leader and Cabinet, consult properly before decisions are made, set up policy groups to which the public are invited and commit Labour councillors to acting in the best interests of their residents.

♦️Protect our libraries

Libraries have been under attack in #Bath & NE Somerset, and in the country as a whole.

We promise no cuts to the library service in the future.

A Labour Council will review the mobile library service with the aim of buying new vehicles, basing new routes on both social need and geography and integrating the mobile library service with a mobile One Stop Shop, taking the council to our communities with outreach work.

♦️Create a thriving local economy.

A Labour Council will put our local community first by adopting a Community Wealth Building approach to our economic policy. We will work with other local ‘anchor institutions’ including the universities, housing associations, the RUH...

... and the police to encourage the purchase of goods and services from local businesses, co-operatives and charities. By doing this we will keep wealth in our local area, grow our local economy and create jobs for local people.

♦️Improve Household Incomes.

A Labour Council will pay its staff a real #LivingWage and end #ZeroHour contracts and insist that those it has contracts with do the same.

We will encourage local businesses to follow our lead by paying the real Living Wage and abolishing zero hours contracts and we will investigate ways that we can incentivise this. We will review the Council’s welfare support for those who are struggling.