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IFoA Briefing: Conservative Party Manifesto Summary

This briefing summarises the key policy pledges in the Conservative Party’s manifesto released on 11 June 2024 relevant to the work of actuaries.

Overview

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched the Conservative Manifesto, under the slogan ‘Clear Plan, Bold Action, Secure Future’. It majored on the party’s main themes of the campaign so far – economic and national security – with new announcements on personal taxation for the self-employed and support for first time buyers. It contains four key ambitions:

  • To support working people and secure a stronger economy
  • To provide young people with a secure future
  • To safeguard our borders and national security
  • To strengthen our communities

 

Financial Services / Economy

  • Continue to meet the fiscal rules of having public sector net debt falling and for public sector net borrowing to be below 3% of GDP in the fifth year of the forecast. View the full costings document.
  • Building on the policies set out in the Edinburgh Reforms so that the UK continues to be the world’s most innovative and competitive global financial centre.
  • Supporting the City of London’s position as the leading global market through the implementation of the Mansion House reforms.
  • Maintain highest standards of consumer protection and prudential regulation to ensure no repeat of the banking crisis.

 

Pensions and Welfare

  • Introduce ‘Triple Lock Plus’; continuing to uprate the State Pension in line with the highest of prices, earnings or 2.5%. On current forecasts, this will mean the new State Pension increases by a further £430 in April next year to £11,970; and increases by £1,685 a year to £13,200 by the end of the Parliament.
  • From April 2025, increase the personal allowance for pensioners by introducing a new age-related personal allowance.
  • Implement a new Pensions Tax Guarantee, which will not introduce any new taxes on pensions, will maintain the 25% tax free lump sum and maintain tax relief on pension contributions at their marginal rate. There will be no extension of National Insurance to employer pension contributions.
  • Maintain all current pensioner benefits, including free bus passes, Winter Fuel Payments, free prescriptions and TV licences.
  • Consider the Ombudsman report into WASPI women and will work with Parliament to provide an appropriate and swift response.
  • Reform disability benefits so they are better targeted and reflect people’s genuine needs, while delivering a step-change in mental health provision.
  • Improve PIP assessments to provide a more objective consideration of people’s needs and stop the number of claims from rising unsustainably
  • Tighten up how the benefits system assesses capability for work.
  • Overhaul the fit note process so that people are not being signed off sick as a default.
  • Introduce tougher sanctions rules so people who refuse to take up suitable jobs after 12 months on benefits can have their cases closed and their benefits removed entirely.
  • Accelerate the rollout of Universal Credit to ensure it always pays to work.
  • Continue to clamp down on fraudsters.
  • Reform the Child Maintenance Service to prevent noncompliance and new laws to crack down on non-payment.

 

Technology, Skills, Transport and Infrastructure

  • Invest in the digital, transport and energy infrastructure needed for businesses to grow
  • Oversee the roll out of automated vehicles on British roads in the next Parliament
  • Support people to choose electric cars by ensuring our charging infrastructure is truly nationwide, including rapid charging and delivering the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate to support manufacturers
  • Invest £36 billion in local roads, rail and buses to drive regional growth, including £8.3 billion to fill potholes and resurface roads, funded by cancelling the second phase of HS2
  • Introduce a Backing Drivers Bill to stop road pricing, reverse London’s ULEZ expansion and rule out blanket Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and 20mph zones
  • Speed up the average time it takes to sign off major infrastructure projects from four years to one
  • Double digital and AI expertise in the civil service to take advantage of the latest technologies to transform public services.
  • Continue investing over £1.5 billion in large-scale compute clusters, assembling the raw processing power to take advantage of the potential of AI and support research into its safe and responsible use
  • Deliver the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, giving adults the support they need to train, retrain and upskill flexibly throughout their working lives

 

Climate and Sustainability

  • A pragmatic and proportional approach to Net Zero with a vote in the next Parliament on next steps
  • Invest £1.1bn into the Green Industries Growth Accelerator
  • Maintain record flooding funding to protect homes, farms and businesses
  • Invest £6bn for energy efficiency in homes
  • Reduce green levies on household bills
  • Treble offshore wind capacity. Ensure democratic consent for onshore wind
  • Back up renewables with new gas power stations to ‘keep the lights on’
  • Build the first two climate capture & storage clusters
  • Within the first 100 days, approve two new fleets of Small Modular Reactors. Deliver a new gigawatt nuclear power plant at Wylfa in North Wales
  • Deliver 1.6m homes, abolishing nutrient neutrality rules but retaining commitment to protect the Green Belt
  • Hold water companies to account and use fines to invest in river restoration projects.
  • Deliver tree planting and peatland commitments
  • Reform the Climate Change Committee's mandate to consider costs to households and UK energy security
  • Ringfence UK commitment to international climate finance, and work with Commonwealth partners and Small Island Development States vulnerable to climate change loss and environmental degradation
  • Ratify the Global Oceans Treaty
  • Introduce forest risk commodities legislation

 

Health and Social Care

  • Increase NHS spending above inflation every year with 92,000 extra nurses and 28,000 extra doctors
  • Expand Pharmacy First
  • Build or modernise 250 GP surgeries. Build 50 more Community Diagnostic Centres
  • Invest £3.4bn in new NHS technology and NHS App
  • Roll out new digital health checks to 250,000 more people
  • Introduce a Dental Recovery Plan to unlock 2.5m more NHS dental appointments
  • Bring forward the Tobacco & Vapes Bill, prohibiting the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 Jan 2009
  • Improve mental health support and women’s health
  • Legislate to restrict advertising of products high in fat, salt and sugar
  • Implement planned reforms to cap social care costs from October 2025
  • A multi-year funding settlement to local authorities for social care

 

Rights and Equality

  • The Inclusive Britain plan advances opportunity while tackling unfair ethnic disparities across education, employment, health and the justice system
  • Halving the amount of taxpayers’ money spent on external consultants.
  • Introduce controls on all ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ initiatives and spending.

 

Further Information

Read the full manifesto. For more information on the IFoA’s general election work, please contact Charlie Wynne.