POLICY PLEDGES:
- Natural monopolies such as railways, gas transportation and electricity distribution will be returned to public ownership. Capital will be raised for this via a British sovereign wealth fund and investors will be compensated at fair value. Productivity and customer service incentives will be applied across these enterprises.
- We will establish a state-run National Development Bank (NDB). It will give all UK citizens and businesses a right to basic bank account with guaranteed deposits, fair returns on savings and a no-frills ultra-low-cost superannuation and investment service. It will also lend to large UK infrastructure projects and a portfolio of UK start-up businesses in key strategic sectors. NDB profits will be returned to the Treasury.
- We will pursue an active industrial policy centred on productivity and investment and provide a long-term planning framework for the skills, technologies, energy resources and transport infrastructure required for economic growth.
- We will specifically target an increase in manufacturing as a proportion of GDP, a reduction in the UK’s trade deficit and new industrial development in the UK regions.
- We will target further increases in the National Living Wage so that it exceeds the OECD definition of low pay (two thirds of median income) within a single parliamentary cycle.
- We shall maintain public expenditure at the affordable level of approximately 40% of GDP, investing strategically across the cycle in frontline public services. We shall avoid unsustainable increases above this level and target a reduction in government debt as a percentage of GDP across the business cycle.
- A British Sovereign Wealth Fund will ensure the efficient and accountable management of national assets.
