Housing

Conservative

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Welsh assembly, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Build more houses so people throughout Wales have the chance to own or rent an affordable home of their own
  • Extend the Right to Buy to all tenants of Registered Social Landlords

Economy and taxes

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Achieve a balanced budget by 2025
  • Rule out increases to VAT
  • Stick with current plans to raise personal tax allowances and cut corporation tax
  • Review the business rates system

Key priorities

Conservative

Main pledges

  • The need for a strong economy to guarantee security, personal prosperity, public services,
  • Leading the UK through Brexit and getting a deal that works for everyone
  • Resisting calls for a second independence referendum until their is "public consent"
  • Make sure that everyone opportunity to make the most of their talents and hard work

Brexit

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Leave the single market and customs union, while seeking a “deep and special partnership” with the EU
  • Secure a "smooth and orderly Brexit" while maintaining that "no deal is better than a bad deal for the UK"
  • Determine a "fair settlement of the UK’s rights and obligations" in our withdrawal from the EU
  • Pass a Great Repeal Bill to convert EU law into UK law

Education and family

Conservative

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Review the Curriculum for Excellence and reset general education so its main focus is on traditional subjects and core knowledge
  • Continue arguing for schemes like TeachFirst or new postgraduate bursaries to attract the best graduates into Scottish schools
  • Make the case for a range of reforms to the one-size-fits-all model with a broader range of government-funded but autonomous schools
  • Support new tests for trainee teachers to identify weaknesses and areas for improvement

Welfare and pensions

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Replace pensions triple lock with guarantee that increases after 2020 will at least match inflation and average wages
  • Means-test Winter Fuel Payments "focusing assistance on the least well-off pensioners"
  • Keep other pensioner benefits, including free bus passes and TV licences
  • Give more power to the Pensions Regulator to protect private pensions

Future of the UK

Conservative

Main pledges

  • A Scottish independence referendum cannot take place until the Brexit process has played out
  • It should not take place unless there is "public consent" for it to happen
  • No decision-making powers that have been devolved will be taken back to Westminster
  • Start moving significant numbers of UK government civil servants and other public servants out of London and the south-east to cities around the UK

Housing

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Build "fixed-term council houses", sold privately after 10-15 years with automatic Right to Buy for tenants
  • Build one million homes by end of 2020 and 500,000 more by end of 2022
  • Build 160,000 houses on government-owned land
  • Implement the 91ȱlessness Reduction Act to halve rough sleeping

Housing

Conservative

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • A housebuilding target for Scotland to build 100,000 homes over the next five years
  • Brownfield development should always be prioritised over greenfield development
  • Local authorities should develop serviced plots to encourage self-build and make them available under plot passports
  • A concerted effort to bring the estimated 34,000 empty homes back into use

Immigration

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Reduce net migration to tens of thousands
  • Double the Immigration Skills Charge on companies employing migrant workers
  • Increase minimum earnings threshold for family visa sponsorship
  • Toughen requirements for student visas and rules allowing them to stay and work

Health and care

Conservative

Main pledges

  • £8bn increase to NHS England budget compared to current level by 2022/23
  • Include value of family home in means test for people receiving social care at home
  • Cost of care to be capped and people guaranteed to keep £100,000 of assets once care bill paid
  • Allow deferral of care bills until after death to ensure no-one is forced to sell family home

Key priorities

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Deliver a smooth and orderly departure from the EU
  • Restating commitment to bring net migration down to tens of thousands
  • Balance budget by 2025
  • Replacement of triple-lock pension pledge after 2020 with double lock

Education and family

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Increase the overall schools budget in England by £4bn by 2022
  • No school will have its budget cut as a result of the new funding formula
  • End the ban on new selective schools
  • Introduce T-Levels

Health and care

Conservative

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Increasing the NHS budget by whichever is highest: 2%, inflation or Barnett consequentials from extra cash spent on UK health
  • A greater focus on mental health with significantly faster interventions for acute problems
  • Keep up the pressure on the Scottish government to introduce Frank's Law and improve support for dementia sufferers under 65
  • A new entitlement to child bereavement leave

Transport and environment

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Continue strategic national investments including High Speed 2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and the expansion of Heathrow Airport
  • Support a Road Maintenance Fund in Scotland, inviting local authorities to bid for money to fix potholes etc
  • Do not believe that more large-scale onshore wind power is right for Scotland
  • Support the shale gas industry in Scotland, including by using powers devolved in the 2016 Scotland Act

Future of the UK

Conservative

Main pledges

  • No decision-making that has been devolved will be taken back to Westminster
  • No Scottish independence referendum before the Brexit process has played out, after that only if there is public consent
  • Move significant numbers of civil servants outside London and the south east
  • Create a United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund

Welfare and pensions

Conservative

Main pledges

  • No plans for further radical welfare reform in this parliament
  • Continue the rollout of Universal Credit
  • Protect universal Winter Fuel Payments for all older people. No means-testing in Scotland, unlike the policy for England.
  • Move from triple to double lock on state pensions, meaning they rise in line with earnings or inflation - whichever is highest

Education and family

Conservative

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Welsh assembly, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • More than 30 hours free childcare for three to four-year-olds
  • Introduce modern foreign language learning in primary schools

Foreign and defence

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Give strong support to international institutions including the UN, Nato, Commonwealth, G20, G7 and WTO
  • Become a global champion for free trade, signing new trade deals around the world
  • Continue to spend 0.7% of national income on international aid
  • Meet the Nato target to spend at least 2% of national income on defence, with above inflation increases each year

Brexit

Conservative

Main pledges

  • We will no longer be members of the single market or customs union but will seek a deep and special partnership with the EU
  • Envisage that the powers of the devolved administrations will increase as we leave the EU
  • Commit the same cash total in funds for farm support as currently received from EU until the end of the parliament
  • A new regime for commercial fishing that will preserve and increase fish stocks after leaving the EU

Immigration

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Reduce immigration to annual net migration in the tens of thousands, rather than the hundreds of thousands
  • Independent committee to make recommendations about how the visa system can become better aligned with industrial strategy
  • Double the Immigration Skills Charge levied on companies employing migrant workers, to £2,000 a year by the end of the parliament
  • Use the revenue generated to invest in higher level skills training for workers in the UK

Transport and environment

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Investing £40bn across the rest of this decade on transport improvements
  • Work with train companies and employees to agree to minimum service levels during industrial disputes
  • Expand Heathrow airport
  • Remove the "complexity and perverse pricing" of rail tickets

Economy and taxes

Conservative

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Set up a United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund, specifically designed to reduce inequalities between communities in the UK's four nations
  • By 2020 the personal allowance for income tax will increase to £12,500
  • Press the Scottish government to raise the threshold for the higher rate of income tax to £50,000
  • Abolish the long-haul rate of Air Passenger Duty and freeze the short-haul rate

Health and care

Conservative

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Welsh assembly, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Cost of care to be capped and people guaranteed to keep £100,000 of assets once care bill paid
  • Statutory entitlement to carer's leave for working people
  • Increase funding for the Welsh NHS, prioritising patient care

Key priorities

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Deliver a smooth and orderly departure from the EU
  • Increase NHS budget in England by £8bn a year by 2022/23
  • An extra £4bn on schools in England by 2022
  • Restating commitment to bring net migration down to tens of thousands
  • Balance budget by 2025
  • Replacement of triple-lock pension pledge after 2020 with double lock

Foreign and defence

Conservative

Main pledges

  • Meeting Nato's target of at least 2% of GDP on defence and increasing spending by at least 0.5% more than inflation every year
  • Retain the Trident continuous-at-sea nuclear missile system, based at Faslane on the Clyde
  • Plan to invest £178bn in new military equipment over the next decade
  • Introduce better compensation for injured armed forces personnel and the families of those killed in combat

Transport and environment

Conservative

This issue is devolved/partly devolved to the Welsh assembly, which is next up for election in 2021

Key campaign points

  • Scrap tolls for all vehicles using the Severn Crossings
  • Road improvements throughout Wales and continued modernisation of railway infrastructure