Manifesto for a Fairer,
Greener Country
RealChangeReal Change
2024
RealHope.Real Hope.
RealChange.Real Change.
RealHope.Real Hope.
RealChange.Real Change.
REALHOPE.REALCHANGE.
The Green Party's Manifesto for a Fairer, Greener Country
This general election is taking place during an
ongoing cost of living crisis, in an increasingly
volatile world. No wonder so many of us feel anxious
and are losing hope in the future.
We live in one of the richest countries on the
planet, and yet nurses are using food banks, our
children's schools are crumbling, a roof over our
heads is all too often unaffordable, and a hospital
appointment or a dentist is like gold dust.
Our promise to you is that all this can change. We
can create a greener, fairer country together - one
in which we are all safer, happier and more fulfilled.
It will take MPs prepared to make brave, principled
choices on your behalf. And it will take the kinds
of policies set out in this manifesto, and for which
elected Green MPs will fight hard every single day
for you.
The election is also taking place against the
background of a climate emergency. Since the last
election, there have been an increasing number
of days and months in which global temperature
increases have breached 1.5oC, an increase that
would make human life on earth unliveable.
Despite commitments from the United Nations,
national and local governments, corporations
and individuals, greenhouse gas emissions are
still rising. And our understanding of what this
means is increasing too: we know that the social
and economic impacts of climate breakdown are
already being felt and will continue to be far worse
than previously imagined.
As a political party, we believe in offering hope. And
we believe in following the science and speaking
the truth, too.
This manifesto sets out what we think is achievable
given the failure of successive governments
to prepare with anything like the urgency and
ambition that climate scientists have been telling
us is needed for decades.
The current UK commitment to net zero by 2050
fails to reflect that we can - and must - do so
much more. That we can and must make the right
political choices in order to transition at speed to
a decarbonised economy. One that's no longer in
hock to the fossil fuel giants, but instead runs on
clean, green and cheap renewables. An economy
in which it's cheaper to heat our homes, to get out
and about and to run a business.
And this manifesto sets out too how fairness can
and must run through every part of the change
that's coming - from training the new workforce
that will be needed to transform our economy, to
investing in our vital public services, to lifting all of
us up through a compassionate welfare system.
The solutions to the climate crisis are the same as
those needed to end the cost of living and inequality
crises, making the future not just more liveable but
fairer for us all too. Throughout this manifesto,
you'll find examples of how climate action means
better public services, warmer homes, stronger
communities and a restored natural world.
Voting Green on 4th July is your way of showing
you believe in our shared future. We believe the
ambitious plans we are outlining here are not just
possible but essential.
A Green vote is the only vote that counts if you
want a secure and happy future on a safe planet.
A Green vote means choosing real change and real
hope.
Carla Denyer & Adrian Ramsay
Green Party Co-leaders
green party co-leaders
This manifesto is about the UK general election 2024, so references to 'country' refer to the UK
as a whole, as do data cited, except where identified as relating to England only. However, where
policy areas are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru, and the Northern Irish
Assembly, we recognise the democratic right for these bodies to set their own policy agendas,
and that these are decided upon at devolved elections. Wales Green Party will be publishing its
own manifesto with more detail about its proposals in these areas. The Scottish Green Party is a
distinct political party and its general election manifesto will reflect the devolved settlement.
Contents
Building a Fairer, Healthier Country 2
Caring with Fairness, Compassion and Dignity 5
Providing Fairer, Greener Homes for All 7
Powering Up Fairer, Greener Energy 10
Creating a Fairer, Greener Economy 13
Making Work Fair 17
Giving Everyone a Fairer, Greener Deal 19
A Fairer and Greener Approach to Public Finances 20
Bringing Nature Back to Life 23
Protecting Animals 25
A Greener and Fairer Food and Farming System 27
Creating a Fairer, Greener Education System 29
Investing in Fairer, Greener Transport 31
A Fairer, Greener Democracy 33
Sharing a Fairer, Greener Welcome 35
Access to Art, Sport and Culture for All 37
Bringing Justice to Crime and Policing 39
Building a Fairer, Greener, Safer World 42
Statistical Appendix 45
Notes 46
Vote Hope. Vote Change. Vote Green. 48
Building a Fairer,
Healthier Country
The NHS is facing the most serious crisis in its
80-year history. Our most precious national
institution is at serious risk, with patients dying in
ambulances, record waiting lists for surgery, and
cancer survival rates amongst the worst in higher-
income countries.
It doesn't have to be like this. Greens would do
things differently. We would choose to treat and
pay nurses, doctors and NHS staff fairly, so we
don't lose them overseas. We would increase
taxes on the super-rich to fund our national health
service properly. And we would fix the broken care
system that's a major cause of problems for the
NHS.
The NHS crisis is not an accident: it is the result
of deliberate Conservative under-funding that's
seen the NHS undermined and at risk of collapse,
paving the way for further privatisation. The
Green Party has always proudly defended the NHS
against creeping privatisation and we always will.
We are committed to a fully public health service
and to keeping the profit motive well away from
our NHS.
The Green Party is clear that NHS budgets should
recognise the increasing demands of an ageing
population and improving treatment options.
Elected Greens will push for:
• A steady reduction in waiting lists.
• We would guarantee rapid access to a GP and
same day access in case of urgent need.
• Guaranteed access to an NHS dentist for
everybody.
• Boosting the pay of NHS staff.
• Restoring local council budgets for
public health.
Building a Fairer, Healthier Country
We estimate that to meet these commitments,
the NHS in England would require additional
annual expenditure of £8bn in the first full year
of the next parliament, rising to a total of £28bn
in 2030.
We also estimate that additional capital spending
of at least £20bn is needed in total over the next
five years.
A Green Plan to reduce
hospital waiting lists
The long-term under funding of the NHS has left
6.3 million of us on hospital waiting lists.. We would
bring down hospital waiting lists by giving Hospital
Trusts clear, long-term, funding commitments, so
that they can better plan to deliver better care for
us all.
NHS staff have taken unprecedented strike action
to raise the alarm about the crisis in our health
service. We will prioritise supporting NHS workers,
including by providing an immediate one-off
budget increase to cover fair wage settlements.
We would invest £20bn in NHS budgets over the
life of the parliament for hospital building and
repair.
Elected Greens will choose to restore the NHS to
health and will ensure that everybody has access
to the healthcare they need, when they need it.
Protect our NHS from
privatisation - keep our
NHS public
Green MPs will back the NHS Reinstatement Bill to
abolish wasteful competition within the NHS, reestablish
public bodies and public accountability,
and restrict the role of commercial companies.
This blueprint is designed to reverse the damage
caused by previous governments that have
pursued an agenda that the market could make
the NHS better. By contrast, Greens will always
stand against the marketisation and privatisation
of our precious health service and will choose
instead to protect our NHS and keep it in public
hands.
A Green Plan for increased
investment in primary care
and public health
We think it's vital to invest in primary care: General
Practitioners (GPs) are key to both prevention
and early diagnosis. The contact GPs have with
patients can make a real difference - helping
maximise public investment and ensure we all
stay healthier for longer, through timely access
to diagnosis and to the best and latest treatment.
Choosing to invest in primary care and public
health will improve everyone's quality of life, while
also reducing the demand on the rest of the NHS.
Elected Greens will push for:
• Increasing the allocation of funding to
primary medical care, with additional annual
spending reaching £1.5bn by 2030, targeted
at areas of greatest need.
• Reducing the administrative burden on
GPs, giving them more time face to face
with patients. Steps could include allowing
hospital doctors to make onward referrals
without needing to go back to a patient's GP.
• A £2bn capital investment in primary care
over the next five years.
We would also seek to expand diagnostic capacity
in communities. This would help to ensure people
are diagnosed early and have more chance of a
positive outcome.
Elected Greens will push for:
• Public health to be a cross-government
priority.
• Restoring public health budgets to 2015/16
levels with an immediate increase of £1.5bn.
Smoking cessation, drug and alcohol
treatment and sexual health services all need
to be properly funded.
• A cross-governmental approach to health.
There are a range of interventions across
this Manifesto that support healthier lives,
from improved food labelling, free school
meals, active travel and local government
investment in sport.
• A National Commission to agree an
evidenced based approach to reform of
the UK's counterproductive drug laws. This
will allow the UK to move towards a legally
regulated market that stops criminal supply
and profiteering, and that reduces harm
including by preventing children accessing
drugs.
NHS Dentistry
Successive governments have failed to properly
fund NHS dentistry, expecting dentists to treat
patients at a loss. This choice is one of the
reasons for the scandals of patients pulling out
their own teeth and of so many children being
unable to access a dentist that tooth decay is now
the top reason for child hospital admissions.
Elected Greens will push for a new contract for
NHS dentists that ensures everybody who needs
an NHS dentist has access to one.
Additional investment in NHS dentistry, reaching
£3bn a year by 2030, would transform the
availability of appointments and end the scandal
of dental treatment deserts.
Elected Greens will campaign for funding to allow
community hubs and primary care to provide a
roll-out of free dental nursing for children and
those on low incomes. This model would deliver
preventative work and make referrals into NHS
care pathways following oral health checks.
Building a Fairer, Healthier Country
Investing in and supporting
our health workers
We will tackle the crisis in staff retention through
pushing for an immediate and additional increase
to the budgets for NHS staff costs, to ensure
salaries are fair and reflect the essential skills and
dedication of the NHS workforce.
Elected Greens will support the junior doctors' call
for pay restoration. It's foolish and irresponsible
to continue to invest hundreds of thousands of
pounds in training and then pay them so poorly.
We need to value junior doctors, so they stay in
the NHS and make it stronger.
We cannot allow NHS salaries to decline further:
NHS professionals are vital to a healthy and happy
society, and we should value them with pay and
conditions to reflect this.
National Cancer Plan
We will commit to a National Cancer Control Plan
to include:
• Reducing cases through investment in public
health measures, such as interventions on
food, alcohol and tobacco.
• Meet the existing NHS target of 75%
of cases diagnosed at stage 1 or stage 2
by 2028 though investment in primary care
and enhanced screening.
• Using the unique information the NHS has,
as a public health system that cares for us
from cradle to the grave, to deliver treatment
through publicly funded research.
Mental health
Elected Greens will ensure that the rights of those
struggling with their mental health are respected
and that a legal framework supports all people to
live fulfilling lives.
Elected Greens will focus on enabling major
improvements to mental health care to put it on a
truly equal footing with physical health care. This
will include ensuring that everyone who needs
Building a Fairer, Healthier Country
it can access evidence-based mental health
therapies within 28 days.
We will ensure that tailored and specific provision
is readily available for the particular needs of
communities of colour, children and adolescents,
older people and Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Trans,
Intersex, Queer and Asexual (LGBTIQA+)
communities.
We will also push for more accessible and prompt
mental health needs assessments for children
and adolescents. The investment in primary care
set out above will create easier access to these
services in all communities.
We will ensure that neurodivergent children
and those with special needs are adequately
supported, including in the school system, to live
rich and fulfilling lives.
We will provide a trained and paid counsellor in
every primary and secondary school, and every
sixth-form college. This work will be supported
through bursaries to train counsellors from
underrepresented backgrounds to ensure we
have sufficient culturally aware counsellors for our
diverse population.
Assisted dying
Elected Greens will back changing the law on
assisted dying. We support a humane and
dignified approach to terminal illness, allowing
people to choose to end their lives to avoid
prolonging unnecessary suffering, if this is their
clear and settled will. Proper safeguards would
need to be put in place.
End new cases of HIV by 2030
Elected Greens will work towards no more HIV
transmissions by 2030, advocating for a joined-up
approach using proven actions, including access
to the HIV prevention pill online, in pharmacies and
from GP services. We will renew successful opt-
out HIV testing programmes in A&Es in all areas
with a high prevalence of HIV.
Caring with Fairness,
Compassion and Dignity
There is a crisis in social care, with over 400,000
people awaiting care, reviews, payments or
assessments. There are 150,000 staff vacancies in
the care sector. In England there are estimated to
be 4.7 million unpaid carers.
The failure by successive governments to
address this crisis has created problems for our
health service more widely. Greens believe that
health and care services go hand in hand. We
would choose to invest in both, as part of our
commitment to a country where everybody can
look forward to compassion and dignity at any
stage in their lives when they need extra support.
To address the social care crisis elected Greens
will push for:
• Free personal care to ensure dignity in
old age and for disabled people.
• Increased pay rates and a career structure
for carers to rebuild the care workforce.
• Investment of £20bn per year.
Free personal care
The Green Party believes free social care is
fundamental to a functioning welfare state.
Elected Greens will push for the introduction of
free personal care along the lines successfully
brought in by the Scottish Government.
For those still living at home, access to free
personal care will enable earlier intervention and
access to help to maintain independence and
wellbeing. For those living in residential settings,
the personal care elements will be fully funded,
alongside a tapered approach to other costs
based on the level of their income. For those
struggling to afford the accommodation element
of residential care, local authorities need to
be properly funded to provide the right level of
financial support.
Better care for all
Elected Greens will bring together local
authorities, trade unions and private providers to
establish a career structure for carers, ensuring
there is a pathway to progression that includes
training and qualifications. This would have
national pay, terms and conditions for all care
workers and a proper workforce plan.
Elected Greens will also change the working
visa system to end the exploitation of overseas
workers in the care sector. This would make it
illegal for agents to charge commission and would
ensure that carers are free to change employer in
the UK.
Elected Greens will campaign for 'Gloria's Law',
giving everybody the right to at least one
essential Care Supporter (a person important to
them such as a relative or friend) when they are
using health or care services.
Disabled people
Consecutive Conservative governments have
undermined the limited progress made by disabled
people to live dignified lives as valued members
of society. Benefits have been cut, and access
to education, work and parliamentary access
schemes designed to improve the inclusion of
disabled people have been decimated.
We need to ensure that everybody can lead full,
meaningful lives, can work if they choose, and
Caring with Fairness, Compassion and Dignity
access the help and support they need. Disabled
people have as much of a right to control their
day-to-day lives and their long-term futures as
non-disabled people.
Elected Greens will:
• Restore the value of disability benefits
with an immediate uplift of 5%.
• End the unfair targeting of carers and
disabled people on benefits.
• Oppose plans to replace Personal
Independence Payments (PIP) cash
payments with 'vouchers', and in the long
term reform intrusive eligibility tests like PIP.
• Make it mandatory for councils to provide
free transport for 16-18-year-old pupils with
Special Educational Needs and Disability.
• Ensure disabled workers have the in-job
support they need, as well as proper pay and
conditions.
• Champion the right to inclusive welfare
support, and housing under the principles
of universal design.
Children's social care
The scandal of inadequate and under-funded
care for looked-after children cannot be allowed
to continue. Elected Greens will push for an
additional £3bn to be provided to local authorities
to enable them to provide high-quality children's
social care.
Elected Greens will also push for children in
foster care or who have been adopted to have
consistent access to a trained counsellor until it
is no longer required. We would fund councils to
extend staying put arrangements, so fostered
young people can choose to stay with foster
parents until they are 21.
Caring with Fairness, Compassion and Dignity
Providing Fairer,
Greener Homes for All
There are over a million households on council
waiting lists. In England you could expect to spend
around 8.3 times annual average earnings to buy
a home. Over 130,000 children are growing up in
temporary accommodation. This national housing
crisis is the result of 40 years of governments
choosing to treat houses simply as assets rather
than as homes, and of neglecting to build new
social housing.
Building thousands of unaffordable homes
isn't the answer though - the priority should be
providing everybody with a safe, warm affordable
home. This means genuinely affordable homes,
built to the right standards and in the right place,
as part of flourishing communities. It means
that we need to make sure all homes are fit for a
climate-changed world. And it means protecting
the rights of the millions of people who rent their
homes.
Elected Greens will push to:
• Provide 150,000 new social homes a year and
end the so-called 'right to buy', so that these
homes can belong to communities for ever.
• Empower local authorities to introduce
rent controls.
• End no-fault evictions.
• Introduce a Fairer, Greener Homes
Guarantee to ensure warm, safe homes
that are well insulated.
• Transform the planning system so new
developments come with access to public
services and green spaces are protected.
Right Homes, Right Place,
Right Price Charter
Our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter
will simultaneously protect valuable green space
for communities, reduce climate emissions, tackle
fuel poverty and provide genuinely affordable
housing.
Councils and national governments should be
working together to deliver the homes people
need, where they need them and at rents and
prices they can afford. Yet speculators and
developers are currently allowed to chase the
biggest profits and ignore local communities.
Greens will support local councils to provide good
quality, affordable social housing in places where
people live and work. And we will ensure large-
scale developments are always supported by new
infrastructure such as GP surgeries, bus services,
cycling and walking networks, and extra places
at nurseries and schools. All new developments
should be accompanied by the extra investment
needed to enhance local services too, and so that
residents don't have to rely on cars to live a full life.
We will transform the planning system to reduce
the environmental impact of new construction
and to require local authorities to spread
small developments across their areas, where
appropriate, rather than building huge new
estates. Greens are also committed to protecting
the Green Belt and ensuring everybody has easy
access to a green space.
Elected Greens will campaign to change building
regulations so all new homes meet Passivhaus
or equivalent standards and to require house
builders to include solar panels and low carbon
Providing Fairer, Greener Homes for All
heating systems such as heat pumps for all new
homes. We will upgrade the Minimum Energy
Efficiency Standard to EPC C.
Our Fairer, Greener Homes
Guarantee
Most people's energy bills are unnecessarily high
because the UK has the worst insulated homes in
Europe. By investing in energy efficiency to reduce
the loss of heat, we can help everyone live in a
warmer home and lower their bills: the cheapest
bill is the one you don't have to pay.
Elected Greens will invest:
• £29bn over the next five years to insulate
homes to EPC B standard or above, as part of
a ten-year programme. £12bn of this will be to
retrofit the social housing stock and £17bn as
grants to retrofit privately owned homes to a
similar standard.
• £4bn over the next five years to insulate
other public buildings to a high standard. This
is primarily for schools and hospitals, as part
of a ten-year programme. £1bn will be made
available as grants to retrofit private sector
buildings to a similarly high standard.
• £9bn over the next five years for heating
systems (e.g. heat pumps) for homes and
other buildings.
• £7bn over the next five years to adapt homes
to avoid over-heating in the hotter summers.
The Green Party will introduce a local-authorityled,
street-by-street or area-based retrofit
programme to insulate our homes, to provide non-
fossil-fuel heat and start to adapt our buildings to
the more extreme weather.
To achieve this, we will put in place the finance
and foster the community buy-in needed for this
national effort.
Financing our Fairer, Greener Homes Guarantee
will come from common sense changes in each
housing sector:
Social housing: We want to see an end to
competitive bidding for the social housing
Providing Fairer, Greener Homes for All
decarbonisation fund, so funding is there for
all local authorities.
Owner occupiers: We will push for homeowners
(freeholders and leaseholders) to more easily
access property-linked finance to pay for the work
needed on their property.
Private rental sector: We will push for tenants to
have the right to insist that their landlords access
property-linked finance on their behalf. Landlords
will not need to provide any up-front finance, but
they would have to repay the debt and will benefit
from the improved value of the property. Rent
controls would prevent them passing repayments
straight on to tenants.
Social housing
Our priority would be to increase Council and
Housing Association provision of homes offered
at low 'social rents' to 150,000 new homes a
year, as soon as possible. We will end the 'right
to buy' so that homes continue to belong to the
communities who funded them and available to
those who need a warm, secure home. Elected
Greens will push for these new homes to be
delivered through various measures, including
new build and refurbishment.
There are estimated to be around a million
empty homes across all tenures in the United
Kingdom. We would empower local authorities to
bring empty homes back into use.
The failure to maintain social housing properly is a
national scandal.
Green MPs will push Ministers to ensure all social
housing stock is brought up to and kept at a
decent standard, with fair funding for Councils
and Housing Associations to get this done.
Local authorities should be expected and funded
to assess social housing needs, the availability
and suitability of existing housing stock, and the
sites suitable for new social housing.
We would ensure that the needs of the elderly,
families with children, people living with a
disability or requiring support through sheltered
housing are adequately catered for.
A fair deal for renters
Rent controls: Elected Greens will give the power
to local authorities to control rents if the local
rental market is overheated. Allowances would be
made for maintenance.
A new stable rental tenancy and the ending of
no-fault evictions: Elected Greens will push to end
Section 21 no-fault evictions and introduce longterm
leases. Private tenants need to be secure in
their homes. Renters will also be given a new right
to demand energy efficiency improvements.
Private Residential Tenancy Boards: Elected
Greens will introduce Private Residential Tenancy
Boards. These would provide an informal, cheap
and speedy forum for resolving disputes before
they reach a tribunal. Local authorities will be
funded to meet a new statutory duty of tenancy
relations.
Buy the supply
Some local authorities have already been buying
existing homes to increase their stock of social
housing. This is currently being done on the open
market with no enhanced leverage to reflect the
wider social and economic benefits that can come
from an increase in the supply of social housing.
Elected Greens will introduce legislation to give
local authorities, registered social landlords and
community housing groups the first option to
buy certain properties at reasonable rates, for
example private rental property that hasn't been
insulated to EPC rating C or that fails to meet the
decent homes standard, or any property that is
left empty for more than six months.
Planning
Greens want communities to have the funding
and the powers to make the planning decisions
that are right for them. Local authorities need to
be given the resources to act as guardians of the
land and the built environment. They need to be
able exercise a place-making and place-shaping
role.
To enhance the role of local authorities, elected
Greens will push for local decisions about planning
to be informed by a land use planning policy
framework that seeks to balance various needs,
such as to meet the challenge of the climate
emergency, protect nature, grow enough food,
and provide homes and energy.
Each area's local plan will set viability levels for
development and there will be no subsequent
negotiation with developers. And Greens will
take back the power of building control from
developers and invest in publicly accountable
building inspectors and building control officers.
We cannot allow the continued provision of
dangerous and substandard homes.
Minimising the climate impact
of new homes and buildings
Elected Greens will push for these steps to lower
the carbon emissions from the built environment:
• Demolition will require a full planning
application or inclusion in a local
development order.
• All new-built homes will be required to
maximise the use of solar panels and
heat pumps, or equivalent low carbon
technologies.
• All planning applications will be required
to include whole-life carbon and energy
calculations, covering construction,
maintenance and operational use.
• All materials from demolished buildings will
need to be considered for reuse. Rates for
disposal of builders' waste will be increased
to ensure that the economic driver for reuse
is firmly in place.
• Building design needs to be future-proofed.
The government is still allowing homes to
be built with obsolescent gas boilers and
insufficient insulation. New builds and home
renovations will meet the standards needed
to mitigate climate change.
• New developments need to ensure that
residents are not car dependent.
Providing Fairer, Greener Homes for All
Powering up Fairer,
Greener Energy
It's a scandal that, in one of the richest countries
in the world, millions of people cannot afford to
heat their homes or cook a meal. This is because
of political mismanagement and a failure to invest
in reliable renewable energy or to upgrade the
UK's homes so that they're comfortable and warm.
Elected Greens know we can ensure secure
energy and affordable bills by moving over to a
range of renewable energy technologies, from
wind to solar. We will also make it easier for
communities to have ownership of their
energy supply.
Making our homes more energy efficient and
changing how we travel is crucial to reducing the
cost of energy for everyone.
In addition, Green MPs will push for:
• Wind to provide around 70% of the UK's
electricity by 2030.
• No new oil and gas licences and the ending of
all subsidies to the oil and gas industries.
• Communities to own their energy sources,
ensuring they can use any profit from selling
excess energy to reduce their bills or benefit
their communities.
Phasing out fossil fuels
It is dangerous and reckless to extract more fossil
fuels in an accelerating climate emergency. Green
MPs will push the next government to stop all
new fossil fuel extraction projects in the United
Kingdom and to cancel recently issued fossil fuel
licences, such as for Rosebank. We will also end all
subsidies to the oil and gas industries.
Powering up Fairer, Greener Energy
We will introduce a carbon tax on all fossil fuels,
whether produced here or imported. The tax
would be proportional to the greenhouse gas
emissions produced when fuel is burnt. We would
raise the carbon tax rate progressively over a
decade, reflecting the cost to the planet of coal,
oil and gas and driving their rapid replacement
with cheaper, renewable sources of energy.
Accelerating clean energy
investment and delivery
The UK's current climate targets do not reflect the
urgency of the climate crisis or what is required
by global justice. We would push the government
to transition to a zero-carbon society as soon as
possible, and more than a decade ahead of 2050.
By diverting investment away from renewables,
nuclear power is a distraction and a waste of
time and money. Instead with investment in
interconnectors and grid level storage, it's
possible to decarbonise the energy system
before 2030.
Acting with more ambition will deliver: a zero-
carbon electricity supply; security of supply
over short and long periods of low generation;
sufficient electricity for all cars and vans to be
electric, for all homes and buildings to stop using
fossil fuels, and for most industry to transition to
clean energy.
Greens will also prioritise investing in innovation
to eliminate residual uses of fossil fuels in the
economy, such as for HGVs and mobile machinery.
Community Energy
We are committed to the energy sector being
under local democratic control as far as is
possible. There is no reason why communities
cannot be investors in everything from local area
heat networks to offshore wind. Government will
have failed if the infrastructure for sustainable
energy generation is primarily in private hands.
We will push for:
• A minimum threshold of community
ownership in all sustainable energy
infrastructure.
• The removal of regulatory barriers to
community energy.
• Investment in community energy by
regional investment banks.
A just transition to a
zero-carbon economy
Moving towards a green economy is inevitable
if we want a liveable future. The big questions
are: how smoothly we get there, how fast, who
pays and who benefits? Greens are clear that
the transition must benefit communities and not
leave anyone stranded without jobs, as carbon-
intensive industries shut down and we end fossil
fuel extraction.
We need to learn the lessons of the 1980s when
coal mining and other heavy industries were shut
down. There needs to be a just transition, led
by workers and unions, that sees communities
reap the rewards of the shift to green energy. As
part of this, we will push the next government to
establish an Offshore Energy and Skills Passport
so that workers can transition more easily
between offshore energy industries.
Elected Greens will push for:
• Investment in skills and training (including
retrofitting) reaching £4bn per year, allowing
workers to be prepared for the transition and
the new roles they can take on.
• A minimum threshold of community
ownership in all onshore sustainable energy
infrastructure in the locality.
• A regional strategy building on industrial
strengths across the country to maximise
the contribution to the transition from
existing jobs and businesses.
Sourcing renewable energy
We are in the middle of an exciting revolution
in the way we produce and use energy. Green
MPs will aim to introduce new support and
incentives to directly accelerate wind energy
development, consulting with the sector on
the best mechanisms, including increasing the
maximum contracts for difference strike price so
that it more accurately reflects supply chain costs
and leads to the contracting of new capacity,
and equipping ports and supply chains to better
support floating offshore wind. This will pave the
way for wind to provide around 70% of the UK's
electricity by 2030. Our targets are to achieve
80GW of offshore wind, 53 GW of onshore wind,
and 100 GW of solar by 2035.
We would introduce new support for solar and
other renewable energies, including marine,
hydro-power and geothermal, to provide much
of the remainder of the UK's energy supply by
2030 and support the solar roof top revolution
by mandating the use of solar panels on all new
homes, where possible and appropriate. This will
help generate the conditions for a regulatory
sandbox, with the industry working alongside
house builders to trial new innovations, and we will
further incentivise the growth of solar and other
renewables with mechanisms that could include
installation grants and green mortgages, as well
as reducing VAT.
Crucially, our approach will give the sector the
confidence to invest and innovate that comes
from long-term predictability.
We will end the de-facto ban on onshore wind.
This, along with transforming the planning system,
would support a massive increase in wind power
and other renewable generation, whilst balancing
our energy needs with our priorities, protecting
biodiversity and our food supply.
We will advocate for community renewables
and champion the Local Electricity Bill to make it
Powering up Fairer, Greener Energy
easier and cheaper for local renewable projects to
become suppliers to their local communities.
The Crown Estate will be brought into public
ownership and should open more coastal waters
for offshore wind and marine energy. Control over
its assets within the jurisdiction of Wales should
be devolved to the Welsh Government, as it is in
Scotland. We will ensure that communities see the
long-term profits from these vital energy assets.
Elected Greens will seek to properly regulate
biofuels to end greenwashing and ensure
they provide genuine net carbon savings. Only
biofuels sustainably sourced within the UK will be
permitted. We would end the practice of importing
wood for burning at the Drax power station and
end subsidies for biomass.
Distributing, sharing
and storing energy
To reduce our reliance on gas, we need to move
renewable energy to where it is needed, and to
invest in the capacity to store energy for when the
wind is still, or it is cloudy.
Elected Greens will seek to significantly expand
and improve the efficiency of the electricity grid,
increasing its capacity so that it can distribute
the increased electricity the UK will need as it
transitions away from fossil fuels We support
the extensive use of offshore power distribution
networks to reduce the amount of onshore
connection infrastructure needed along our
coastlines, an approach being applied by our
European neighbours.
We would connect our electricity supply more
closely to that of our neighbours in Europe to
provide a broader-based supply we can call on
when needed and to allow us to export electricity
when we have a surplus. We would rapidly expand
the capacity for energy storage, so that there is
security of electricity supply for short-term peaks
in demand and periods of low supply from variable
renewables.
We would support and rapidly increase the use of
green hydrogen for necessary industrial use and
energy storage technologies, seeking investment
opportunities through academic-industry
partnership.
We think there is value in a vaccine style task force
approach to clean power and Greens will ensure
priority is given to ongoing research into the best
technologies and processes to address energy
distribution, sharing and storing considering cost,
timescale, governance and function.
Nuclear power
We would cease development of new nuclear
power stations, as nuclear energy is much more
expensive and slower to develop than renewables.
We are clear that nuclear is a distraction from
developing renewable energy and the risk to
nuclear power stations from extreme climate
events is rising fast.
Nuclear power stations carry an unacceptable risk
for the communities living close to facilities and
create unmanageable quantities of radioactive
waste. They are also inextricably linked with the
production of nuclear weapons. Green MPs will
campaign to phase out existing nuclear power
stations.
Powering up Fairer, Greener Energy
Creating A Fairer,
Greener Economy
Our country is one of the richest in the world, yet
millions of people are struggling to put food on the
table and pay their bills.
The government has failed to invest in rapidly
transitioning to a zero-carbon society, to create
decent, secure jobs or to make our economy
resilient to future climate shocks. It has put
lifeline services for our communities at risk by
more than a decade of savage funding cuts. It
has let a small number of people hoard obscene
wealth whilst our nurses are using food banks.
And shareholders have got ever richer while our
privatised public services are run into the ground,
sewage is dumped into our rivers and seas, and
our trains don't run on time.
We know that we can do better than this. With
the right political choices, the UK can have a fairer
and greener economy. An economy that delivers
security, well-being and a better quality of life for
everyone, as well protecting our environment and
enabling us to tackle the climate crisis with the
ambition and speed it demands.
Elected Greens would push for significant
investment in a green economic transformation,
alongside the private sector. This programme to
include:
• An average of £40bn per year over the
course of the next parliament, including £7bn
annually on climate adaptation.
• A carbon tax to make polluters pay and
provide money to invest in the green
transition.
• Bringing privatised utilities back into public
hands.
• Taxing multi-millionaires and billionaires to
fund our public services.
A Green Economic
Transformation
Our economy is on the brink of some really
exciting changes. The green economy means
cleaner, cheaper energy and millions of rewarding
and well-paid jobs. But we can't get there while
we are also feeding money to the very sectors
that are causing the climate and ecological
emergencies, whether this is fossil fuels or new
roads. And we won't get there without a large-
scale, long-term programme of investment. The
Green Party is committed to investing in a green
economic transformation.
We estimate that this green investment will
require an average investment of £40bn per year
over the course of the parliament to be spent as
follows:
Creating A Fairer, Greener Economy
Electricity generation, transmission £50bn
and storage
Retrofitting buildings, installing £50bn
non-fossil fuel heating systems,
and adapting homes for a
climate changed world
Investing in a modern, £30bn
electrified railway
Public transport infrastructure £7bn
Active travel £6bn
Reducing the climate impact £4bn
of road transport
Reducing emissions from industry £11bn
Water and sewage infrastructure £12bn
Nationalisation of water companies £30bn
and Big 5 retail energy companies
Resource use
Elected Greens will push forward the
recommendations from the Climate Change
Committee to reduce emissions of polluting
fluorinated gases in all manufactured goods. We
will also increase the scope of bans on the
production of single-use plastics for use in
packaging and disposable products such as baby
wipes, as in many cases alternatives already exist.
Green MPs will increase investment into research
and development by over £30bn across five years.
Bringing privatised utilities
back into public ownership
Privatisation has failed. Dividends are paid to
shareholders while infrastructure is run into the
ground. We need huge investment in our utilities
and the government can borrow to invest much
more cheaply - rather than these costs falling to
bill-payers.
Creating A Fairer, Greener Economy
We commit to immediately bringing the railways,
the water companies and the Big 5 retail
energy companies back into public ownership.
Public investment would buy equity in these
public utilities, ensuring they are run to serve
us all, rather than to increase the wealth of
shareholders.
Financial services
Financial services have a crucial part to play
in achieving a rapid transition to a zero-
carbon economy and ensuring that nature is
protected. Green MPs would work to make this
industry a force for good - directing finance
towards the businesses that are critical to
creating a better future for all.
Any company holding a UK banking licence will
be required to present an investment strategy
outlining a clear pathway to divestment of its
current fossil fuel assets as soon as possible, and
at least by 2030.
The Bank of England's mandate will be changed so
that funding the sustainability transition becomes
a central objective, alongside the maintenance
of price stability. The Bank would also be required
to mainstream the climate crisis into its strategic
thinking and to produce a carbon-neutrality
roadmap for the financial system, including
forward planning scenarios consistent with a 1.5oC
warming limit and the equity obligations of the
Glasgow Accord.
The Bank of England should adopt a policy of
credit guidance that will direct lending towards
a just and urgent sustainability transition. There
will be credit bans/ceilings for unsustainable
activities. These targets will be mandatory for all
banks relying on the central bank as a lender of
last resort.
Non-bank financial institutions, such as UK
pension funds, investment funds, mutual funds,
brokers and insurance companies that sell
policies in the UK, will need to remove fossil fuel
assets from their investment portfolios, securities
transactions and balance sheets by 2030.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will develop
targets to eliminate all equities relating to fossil
fuel exploitation from the UK stock market and will
immediately prohibit the issuing of any new shares
for those purposes.
SME and community
sector support
Small and medium-sized business are the
lifeblood of our economy and our communities.
We want to see them supported to play a key role
in the green economy of the future, and to create
new, quality jobs and training opportunities.
Green MPs will back the setting up of
regional mutual banks to drive investment in
decarbonisation and local economic sustainability
by supporting investment in SMEs and
community-owned enterprises and cooperatives.
These banks will be capitalised through a Cooperative
Development Fund using some of
the funds made available through the United
Kingdom Infrastructure Bank (UKIB), along with an
additional £10bn of public money. We will give local
authorities £2bn per year to provide grants to help
businesses decarbonise.
We will explore legal ways for companies to be
transformed into mutual organisations, especially
at the point of succession from one owner to
another.
Community ownership can be encouraged
through greater access to government funding
in the transition to a zero-carbon economy.
We want to change markets where customers,
suppliers and workers are open to exploitation
through market dominance. We also want to
ensure that structures exist in markets that allow
for a competitively fair transition to a zero-carbon
economy.
Late payment remains a problem for many
businesses and sole traders. It is not acceptable
that large companies or public bodies rely on
unarranged credit from smaller enterprises to
manage their cash flow or simply fail to process
invoices promptly.
Elected Greens will campaign to bring the Prompt
Payment Code into law and bar late payers from
public-procurement contracts. We would mandate
the Small Business Commissioner to investigate
potential instances of poor payment proactively,
instead of only when a complaint has been made.
Research, development
and skills
Green MPs will seek to increase investment into
research and development by over £30bn in the
lifetime of the five-year parliament. Additional
spending will be primarily focused on tackling the
climate and environmental crisis through funding
research into sectors including: energy storage;
agroecological agriculture and soil health; re-use,
repair, recycling and designing out waste; carbon
neutral construction; carbon-neutral production
and carbon capture technology.
Elected Greens will push the UK government
to partner with universities, other research
institutions and business to assess the most
economically and environmentally significant
areas for research and development. International
collaboration and supporting the research efforts
of the Global South will be important aspects of
international solidarity.
Respecting the limits
of the planet
Despite the other political parties continuing
to argue that endless economic growth is the
solution to all our problems, there is a growing
consensus it is actively undermining our
wellbeing. We can no longer continue to exploit
oil, gas, forests and oceans for economic growth
- their overuse is already threatening our future
survival, as well as the future of our economy and
society.
Green MPs will change the way success is
measured in our economy, with new indicators
that take account of the wellbeing of people
and planet and that track our progress towards
building a greener - and fairer - future.
Creating A Fairer, Greener Economy
Central to achieving an economy that sits
comfortably within planetary boundaries will be
more domestic production of a much wider range
of goods and services. Increased self-sufficiency
builds resilience, both nationally and within
communities, as well as strengthening
local economies.
Green MPs will advocate for a circular economy
that reduces the waste of resources. We
will require manufacturers to offer ten-year
warranties on white goods, to encourage repair
and reuse. We will introduce a comprehensive
'right to repair', so manufacturers keep goods
operational years after purchase and to
eliminate built-in obsolescence. We will require
manufacturers to produce only the most energy
efficient white goods, TVs, lighting and electric
cookers. We will encourage a shift from an
ownership to a usership model, for instance
through car-sharing platforms and neighbourhood
libraries for tools and equipment.
Elected Greens will campaign to amend the
Companies Act 2006 so that company directors
must prioritise the well-being of all living entities
(including all nations, all species and future
generations, as well as all people alive today)
and avoid negative environmental and social
consequences.
Creating A Fairer, Greener Economy
Making
Work Fair
The Green Party believes that workers' and trade
union rights need to be restored after decades of
decline under successive governments. Too many
people are being exploited and underpaid, with
too little protection from the law.
This outgoing government has dedicated itself
to attacking the democratic right of workers
to organise to defend themselves, while
simultaneously failing to negotiate fair pay and
conditions in the public sector. The Green Party
believes trade unions are a vital partner in
building a fairer, greener economy.
Elected Greens would campaign to:
• Repeal current anti-union legislation
and replace this with a positive
Charter of Workers' Rights.
• Introduce a maximum 10:1 pay ratios for
all private and public-sector organisations.
• Deliver equal rights for all workers currently
excluded from protections, including
'gig economy' workers and those on
'zero hours' contracts.
All workers should be able to choose to organise
with their colleagues to improve their conditions,
get the pay they deserve, and withdraw their
labour if necessary: we would restore legal
protection for these basic rights. Elected Greens
will campaign to repeal current anti-union
legislation introduced since 1979 and replace it
with a comprehensive Charter of Workers' Rights.
We will restore the right to strike, remove arbitrary
ballot thresholds and outdated requirements for
postal ballots for strike action, and overturn bans
on secondary picketing and industrial action for
political objectives.
Wages and working conditions
Decades of Conservative, Labour and Coalition
rule have created a poverty economy, with
stagnant wages and millions earning less than a
living wage. We will seek to introduce a minimum
wage of £15 an hour for all, no matter your age,
with the costs to small businesses offset by
increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,000.
The ever-expanding gap between companies'
highest earners and their lowest paid is
damaging for our society, so Green MPs will
campaign for a maximum 10:1 pay ratio for all
private and public-sector organisations. No worker
should see their CEO getting paid more in a day
than they do in an entire year.
We will legislate for workers to have full
employment rights from day one of their
employment. We will properly fund the
enforcement of workers' rights and abolish
tribunal fees, to ensure that bad employers have
nowhere to hide. We will require all large and
medium-size companies to carry out equal pay
audits and redress any inequality uncovered both
in terms of equal pay for equal work, and unfair
recruitment and retention practices. And we will
campaign for safe sick pay, because it's good
for workers, good for employers and good for
public health.
'Gig economy' workers - like those working
for Uber and Deliveroo - are excluded from
fundamental workers' rights. Every worker
deserves equal protection. We will bring platform
workers under a single legal status of 'worker',
with full and equal rights from the first day of
employment. Every worker will have a right to
Making Work Fair
access their data and to appeal management
decisions. Gig employers that repeatedly breach
data protection, employment or tax law will be
denied licences to operate.
Green MPs will push for pay-gap protections
to be extended to all protected characteristics
including ethnicity, disability and sexual
orientation. We believe in equal pay for equal work
and in the right to flexible working arrangements
that will benefit women, carers and disabled
people in particular.
Reducing working time can make us all happier,
healthier and more productive. Elected Greens
will support reduced working hours and moving
towards a four-day working week.
Giving Everyone a
Fairer, Greener Deal
Most of us want to live in a country where
everyone is treated with dignity - not one in which
record numbers of children are in poverty, older
people can't keep warm or disabled people are
being badly let down. A combination of austerity,
poor choices in response to the Covid pandemic
and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis has left
too many people reliant on foodbanks and
going hungry. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
estimate that 3.8 million people experienced
destitution in 2022, including one million children.
With the right political choices, we can do so
much better - lifting everyone up and making sure
all of us can access extra help if we need it.
Elected Greens will campaign to:
• Increase Universal Credit and legacy benefits
by £40 a week.
• End the unfair five-week wait for benefits
which is pushing people into debt.
• Abolish the two-child benefit cap and lift
250,000 children out of poverty.
• Increase all disability benefits by 5%.
• Ensure that pensions are always uprated in
line with inflation and keep pace with wage
rises across the economy.
• Increase carer's allowance by at least
10% a month.
• Scrap the bedroom tax.
In the long term, Green MPs will push for the
introduction of a Universal Basic Income that will
give everybody the security to start a business,
study, train or just live their life in dignity. This
major change to our tax and social security
system is the work of more than one parliament.
In the meantime, we will end benefit sanctions
and challenge the punitive approach to welfare
claimants, instead recognising that that all of
us might need extra support or a safety net at
different points in our lives. Elected Greens will
take every opportunity to advocate for the most
disadvantaged in society.
Throughout this Manifesto there are further
measures aimed at helping people struggling with
the cost of living including free home insulation,
subsidised public transport, and investment in the
public services.
Making Work Fair
Giving Everyone a Fairer, Greener Deal
A Fairer and Greener
Approach to Public Finances
Our country is crying out for investment. Too few
buses in rural areas, crumbling flood defences
and the high cost of our energy bills are all
consequences of the government choosing not to
invest. And when small businesses lose workers to
long hospital waiting lists or when children need
time off school because of asthma caused by air
pollution, it's clear the price of this failure is high.
We can make different choices though, by taxing
wealth fairly and by taxing pollution to generate
enough money to rescue our public services and
in protecting our climate.
Green MPs will take a positive approach to public
investment by:
• Taxing wealth fairly and taxing investment
income at the same rate as earned income.
• Committing to no increases in the basic rate
of income tax during this cost-of-living crisis.
• Borrowing to invest and rejecting the
self-imposed straitjacket of conventional
fiscal rules.
Taxing wealth fairly
In 2020 the wealthiest 10% of households held
43% of all the wealth in Great Britain. Greens
think a fairer future for us all means tackling
this imbalance and the damage it's doing to our
economy and the planet. Wealth held in assets
doesn't circulate, so its benefits aren't shared,
whilst lifestyles that consume vast amounts
of energy contribute disproportionately to the
climate crisis.
Rather than taxing wealth fairly, the other political
parties are refusing to rule out further cuts and
are instead bending to pressure from excessively
A Fairer and Greener Approach to Public Finances
high earners, the City and the newspaper barons -
all at the expense of the future of the country.
We don't think that's fair, and neither do the 64%
of people who support maintaining or increasing
taxes rather than cutting public services.
Elected Greens will push for a wealth tax. This will
tax the wealth of individual taxpayers with assets
above £10 million at 1% and assets above £1bn at
2% annually. Only a very small minority of people
would be subject to the wealth tax, while the
overwhelming majority would benefit.
Elected Greens will push too for the reform
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) by aligning the rates
paid by taxpayers on income and taxable gains.
This would affect less than 2% of all income-tax
payers.
Elected Greens will also call for the reform of tax
rates on investment income, by aligning them with
the tax and NIC rates on employment income.
Ensuring that all income is taxed at the same rates
irrespective of source is both fair and works to
avoid tax avoidance by the unscrupulous.
We would remove the Upper Earnings Limit that
restricts the amount of National Insurance paid by
high earners. Tax rates should not fall as income
increases.
We would equate the rate of pension tax relief
with the basic rate of income tax to help fund the
social care that will allow elderly and disabled
people on low incomes to live in dignity.
We would reform inheritance tax, ensuring that
intergenerational transfers of wealth are taxed
more fairly.
The tax reforms set out above are designed to
simplify and align the rates of tax paid on income
and investment gains, whatever their source,
and to introduce a wealth tax on very high
concentrations of wealth. Without access to the
full modelling capability available to the Treasury
we can only estimate the additional revenue that
would be raised from our proposals. Overall, we
estimate that by the end of the next parliament
they could add raise between £50 and £70bn per
year in 2024 prices. To put this into perspective,
our reforms would increase direct tax raised from
individual taxpayers from 19% of GDP to 21%. And
because of the approach we have adopted, this
would fall on those most able to pay.
Property taxes
The UK has one of the most concentrated land
ownership systems in the world: half of England is
owned by less than 1% of the population, although
we have no proper information on who owns vast
swathes of the land that is our most valuable
resource.
The Green Party has always opposed the Council
Tax, which is a regressive tax, that shifts the
emphasis away from a local tax on property. As
part of shifting taxation away from employment
and towards wealth, elected Greens will champion
a fair system for taxing landowners. Our long-term
policy aim is a Land Value Tax so that those with
the most valuable and largest land holdings would
contribute the most.
In the next parliament, elected Greens will take
steps towards this by pushing for:
• Re-evaluation of Council Tax bands to reflect
big changes in value since 1990s.
• Removal of business rate relief on Enterprise
Zones, Freeports, petrol stations and most
empty properties.
• A survey of all landholdings to pave the way
for fair taxation of land.
Business taxes
Green MPs will support an increase in the rate
of the windfall tax on oil and gas production and
the closing of existing loopholes and tax-relief
mechanisms. We would introduce a windfall tax on
banks when excessive profits are being made.
We would also propose a range of changes to
VAT, reducing it on hard-pressed areas such
as hospitality and the arts and increasing it on
financial services and private education.
These changes would raise up to an additional
£40bn in business taxes during the five years of
the next parliament.
Carbon Tax
Elected Greens will advocate for a carbon tax
to incentivise businesses to decarbonise their
supply chains and to help raise the money needed
to shift to a zero-carbon economy. There will be
an alignment of all existing taxes on fossil fuels
and carbon emissions to aid compliance.
Elected Greens will propose levying a carbon
tax at an initial rate of £120 per tonne, rising to a
maximum of £500 per tonne of carbon emitted
within ten years. This is deliberately designed to
make it cheaper for the emitter to take steps to
reduce emissions rather than pay the tax.
We estimate we will be raising up to an additional
£80bn by the end of the parliament, then falling
back after that as carbon emissions reduce
across the economy.
Tax avoidance
We will clamp down on tax dodging. When
companies and individuals fail to pay their fair
share, it deprives our vital public services of much
needed investment.
Greens support small businesses that are
currently paying taxes for the services they
use, and will take steps to tackle the global
corporations that are not. It will be a priority
to strengthen global tax agreements to stop
corporate tax avoidance and evasion, and to
ensure a level playing field between UK and
transnational businesses. We will also ensure that
HMRC has the resources it needs to reduce the
gap between taxes due and taxes paid.
A Fairer and Greener Approach to Public Finances
Public sector debt
Choosing to trap us all in a self-imposed fiscal
straitjacket is a false economy. It is clear that
investing in protecting our climate now will save
vast costs in the future. Investing in our public
services and infrastructure is essential to a
flourishing future for us all. As Greens we will
never allow an obsession with fiscal rules to stop
us investing in the public transport, schools and
hospitals we all rely on - nor from taking the steps
necessary to protect the climate for our children
and their children.
Investing in the green economy of the future
will be expensive - the Climate Change (CCC)
Committee has estimated we will need an £50bn
per year - but delaying action will be far more
costly, both in human terms as the climate
breaks down, and in terms of the damage to
infrastructure caused by extreme weather events.
But the savings will be substantial too. The CCC
estimates that by the end of this parliament this
extra investment will be offset by reductions in
day-to-day spending, including due to the extra
efficiency of electric vehicles.
Greens will not allow our country to be held
back by fiscal rules that don't serve us all - we're
prepared to tax wealth and carbon emissions and
prepared to borrow to invest in a fairer future. We
do however acknowledge that public expenditure
can only be expanded as far as the economy
has the capacity to absorb it without triggering
dangerous levels of inflation. This would be our
overriding fiscal rule.
A Fairer and Greener Approach to Public Finances
Bringing Nature
Back to Life
Our environment is our most precious resource;
we depend on it for the air we breathe, the water
we drink and the food we eat. We are one of the
most nature-depleted countries in the world with
about half of our nature lost.
Our commitment to nature is not based solely on
the economic value it can provide; we are part of
nature and unless it flourishes, we cannot flourish
either.
Green MPs will aim to restore the health of soil and
the purity of our water and protect pollinators like
bees and other species that life depends on.
The experiment of water privatisation has been an
unmitigated disaster, with routine discharges of
filth into our water courses while the shareholders
of water companies cream off profits from our
ever-rising bills. Water is a public good which we
would choose to return to public ownership, a
move that would also enable the restoration of
habitats and biodiversity.
Elected Greens will transform and reconnect us
with nature by:
• Introducing a new Rights of Nature Act
giving legal personhood to nature.
• Set aside 30% of our land and seas by 2030 in
which nature will receive the highest priority
and protection.
• Taking the water companies back into
public ownership.
Legal protection for
the natural world
Greens in parliament will make it a priority to pass
a new Rights of Nature Act. For the first time, it
would give Nature legal personhood, meaning that
it could not be exploited for financial gain.
The Act would also set standards for soil quality
and phasing out the most harmful pesticides
immediately (including glyphosate) and, as we
move towards regenerative farming methods,
introduce rigorous tests for all pesticides. Only
pesticides that pass this test, and demonstrably
don't harm bees, butterflies and other wildlife,
would be approved for use in UK and we would
end the emergency authorisation of bee-killing
pesticides.
The Act will work in tandem with our commitment
to a separate Climate and Nature Act. This will
address the full extent of the climate and nature
crisis in line with the most up-to-date science
- and ensure a comprehensive and joined-up
approach to the ecological emergency.
Elected Greens will also push for a Clean Air Act,
which will set new air quality standards for the UK.
We would enshrine the right to breathe clean air in
the law.
Elected Greens would seek to strengthen and
prevent any rollback of existing protections of
the Green Belt, National Landscapes and Sites of
Special Scientific Interest
Bringing Nature Back to Life
Safer waters for us all
We are clear that the only way to end the scandal
of our filthy water is to end the failed experiment
with privatisation and bring the water companies
back into public ownership. Money that is now
being extracted by shareholders would be
invested to fix the leaks and rebuild infrastructure.
Public water companies must also ensure that
abstraction respects nature.
Elected Greens will push to restore rivers and
take a nature-based solutions approach to the
prevention of flooding and storm overflows.
We would increase DEFRA's budget by £1.5bn,
allowing an increase in funding for the
Environment Agency and Natural England, to
support the vital work they do to protect our
environment. This would include developing a
soil health monitoring programme for England,
to match those in Scotland and Wales, to assess
and understand changes in the health of soil over
time. This would end the flow of pollution into
rivers and the sea from fertilisers, agricultural
waste and sewage, through effective monitoring
and enforcement.
Access to Nature
Access to nature is essential for human health
and well-being. Elected Greens will introduce a
new Right to Roam Act for England, that would
enable people to access green space close to
where they live and be a first step to resetting
our relationship with the natural world. This would
be based on the model in Scotland and include
sensible exceptions, such as fields where crops
are growing. The Right to Roam Act would be
accompanied by a renewed and strengthened
Countryside Code which clearly sets out rights
and responsibilities when accessing nature.
Green MPs will also campaign to ensure that
everybody lives within 15 minutes' walking
distance of a nature-rich greenspace. We will
ensure car-free access to the National Parks with
new cycling, walking, wheeling and bus links.
Bringing Nature Back to Life
Giving land and sea
back to nature
Currently only 5% of land in the UK qualifies as
being effectively protected for nature. We need
to bring nature back to life and restore valuable
habitats. We would plan to give 30% of land and
sea back to nature by 2030 ensuring that it is
permanently protected.
A priority would be the re-wetting of all peatland
and increasing unharvested forest and woodland
by over 50%. We should allow natural regeneration
to take place. Increasing areas for scrub,
hedgerows, rough-grazing orchards and creating
new protected spaces in urban settings will also
help meet this target.
Grants of an additional £3bn annually will be made
available to landowners and farmers by the middle
of the next parliament to support returning land to
nature, with generous per hectare payments.
Whilst National Parks, National Landscapes and
Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) will be a
major focus, returning land to nature can happen
everywhere, even on brownfield sites and in towns
and cities where there are important reservoirs
of species that need to be supported, to improve
nature connectivity.
Green MPs will champion reintroducing nature
into our urban environments, with investment
in schemes such as street planting of native
trees, compulsory hedgehog holes in all new
fencing, swift bricks and bee corridors. And we
will prioritise training of conservation workers and
developing a public service professional path for
nature conservation.
Elected Greens also commit to making at least
30% of UK domestic waters into fully protected
marine protected areas by 2030. We will seek to
ban all destructive fishing practices from Marine
Protected Areas (MPAs) and other domestic
waters.
Protecting
Animals
We pride ourselves on being a nation of animal-
lovers, yet animal cruelty is still all around us and
the natural habitats of wild animals are under
serious threat.
It's time for better choices and to better protect
animals. Elected Greens will push for:
• The creation of a new Commission on
Animal Protection.
• A ban on all blood sports, including trail
hunting and strengthening and extending
the 2004 Hunting Act.
• A legal requirement for all British territorial
and overseas waters to offer the highest
protection to marine life.
Commission on
Animal Protection
Elected Greens will seek to create a new
Commission on Animal Protection, responsible for
overseeing all rules designed to protect animals
from cruelty and upholding their rights as sentient
beings not to be subjected to undue suffering.
This Commission will ensure that the highest
standards of animal protection are applied to
companion animals, farm animals and wildlife - and
that these standards underpin decision making by
public bodies too.
We will enhance regulation and controls on the
breeding, sale and import of companion and all
animals, including action to stop cruel practices
such as ear cropping and pet smuggling. There
would be a compulsory licensing of everyone
working with animals. Those convicted of cruelty
will be placed on an animal cruelty register and
prevented from working with animals again.
Elected Greens would push for ending the
exploitation of animals, including horses and
greyhounds in racing.
Green MPs will introduce a licensing scheme for
the ownership of all kept animals and replace
outdated breed-specific legislation for dogs with
an updated dog control law.
Green MPs would recognise the distress caused
when beloved companion animals are stolen and
will champion new laws to comprehensively tackle
this kind of crime.
We would encourage the use of companion
animals in therapy and other treatments, drawing
on evidence showing the beneficial impact of
contact with animals on human psychology.
Greens oppose the importation of monkeys for
use in labs, and will work towards an outright ban
on all animal testing. We would also end the use
of live animals in military training and support the
production, promotion and transition to non-
animal technologies for use in experiments.
A humane approach to
wild and farmed animals
The Green Party is fundamentally opposed to all
blood sports and would campaign to introduce
a ban on all hunting in the first year of a new
parliament. This includes trophy hunting, trail
hunting, where dogs are used to track foxes,
and the commercial shooting of game birds.
Government subsidies will no longer be given to
maintain artificial landscapes designed only for
hunting (such as grouse moors).
Green MPs will campaign against badger culling.
Protecting Animals
The cull has no evidence basis and has failed
to effectively reduce Bovine TB. We will fund
research into a sensitive test to enable cattle
vaccination as part of a meaningful strategy to
control the spread of the disease. We will also
invest in better farm biosecurity and badger
vaccination.
Where necessary for ecological reasons, or for
animals described as pests, humane culling will
be licensed by Natural England and carried out by
trained professionals. Related to this will be the
prohibition of firearms and lethal weapons except
on registered premises. We will also ban the use of
lead ammunition and outlaw all forms of snaring.
Elected Greens will push for an end to factory
farming, enforce maximum stocking densities
and prohibit the routine use of antibiotics in farm
animals. Greens will campaign for a complete
ban on cages and close confinement, and on the
deliberate mutilation of farm animals.
Enhancing protection
for marine creatures
Elected Greens will ensure that all British domestic
and overseas territorial waters offer the highest
protection to marine mammals, sea birds and
marine life.
Green MPs will champion co-operation in
achieving global sanctuary for all cetaceans,
alongside active support for UN Charters and
obligations under The Law of the Sea to protect
against overfishing, pollution, climate impacts and
other threats.
Elected Greens will push for a ban on bottom
trawling and other destructive fishing practices in
Marine Protected Areas and other waters, as well
as for proper implementation and enforcement of
relevant international legislation to protect deep-
sea species.
Protecting Animals
A Greener and Fairer Food
and Farming System
Our food system is failing us all. Ultra-processed
food is exacerbating poor health and is linked to
an increased risk of 32 health problems including
cancer, obesity and diabetes. Poor diets are
estimated to cost our NHS £6.5bn a year yet
successive governments have failed to take on
the unhealthy food lobby.
The impact of climate change means our food
supply is under threat too, along with the
livelihoods of our farmers. At the same time, the
way we produce our food is damaging our natural
world. Agriculture is responsible for about one
tenth of all UK greenhouse gas emissions; it is
the greatest driver of nature loss and is largely
responsible for the scandal of polluted rivers.
Shocks like extreme weather, the war in Ukraine
and leaving the EU impacted our food supply
chains - all of us have experienced empty shelves
and food price rises, with those on lowest incomes
worst hit. Our rural economies are struggling, and
the rural poverty gap is increasing. All whilst one
third of all food produced in the world ends up
wasted.
Bold decisions are needed. Subsidies should fully
support our farmers, including smaller and family
farms, to invest in bringing land back into good
health and making it a carbon sink rather than
a carbon emitter. And the process of claiming
should be made simple and straightforward.
Green MPs would aim to achieve a secure supply
of food produced on these islands and a thriving
rural economy built upon farming. And we can do
this whilst bringing nature back to life, delivering
healthy food, providing employment and support
to hard-pressed farmers and growers.
Elected Greens will choose to do things
differently. We will work with farmers and other
stakeholders, to transform our food and farming
system so it produces healthy, nutritious food at
fair prices for consumers and with fair wages for
growers. We will also aim to increase the amount
of food that is grown and traded in the UK and as
locally as possible.
Elected Greens will:
• Almost triple support to farmers over the
next 5-year parliament to support the
transition to nature-friendly farming.
• Conserve and improve the health of the
soil and the wider environment, which in turn
would lead to cleaner rivers.
• Offer sustainable employment, decent
livelihoods, career opportunities, good
working conditions and ongoing training to
those involved in growing food.
• Better educate the population about food
and health and build links between farms,
schools and the wider community.
• Encourage a move to mixed farming along
with a reduction in meat and dairy production
and implement new horticulture support for
fruit and vegetable production.
• Link farm payments to a reduction in the use
of pesticides and other agro-chemicals.
• End unfair trade deals.
Elected Greens will push for the highest animal
protection standards and to update the Animal
Welfare Act 2006.
A Greener and Fairer Food and Farming System
Food
With 15% of all households experiencing food
insecurity and millions of people struggling to put
food on the table. Elected Greens will push for:
• All children to have a daily free school meal,
made from nutritious ingredients and based
on local and organic or sustainable produce
and free breakfast clubs for children to
Year 6.
• Everyone to have sufficient income to make
healthy sustainable food choices.
• Schools to involve children in growing,
preparing and cooking food, as part of the
core curriculum, so that they recognise and
understand how to use basic fresh produce.
• A food partnership in every area, and for a
Local Food Enterprise Fund to be set up.
• Policies that ensure that good quality surplus
food is not wasted.
Rebuilding national
food security
In a world where supply chains are becoming
less secure and commodity prices more volatile
because of our changing climate and geo-political
risks, greater domestic food security is critical.
Rather than relying on imports of fresh fruit (80%)
and vegetables (50%) we need to build local
fresh food networks and bring horticulture back
into our urban fringe. Such schemes are already
providing a good alternative to processed food
in cities such as Copenhagen. Green MPs would
draw on examples of good practice elsewhere and
campaign for:
• Increasing domestic food production and
expanding local horticulture.
• Incentivising growing a much greater variety
of plant food types to protect sourcing and
enhanced nutrition.
• Rebalancing the power dynamic
between big food manufactures and local
alternatives such as local food networks,
community-supported agriculture and other
co-operatives.
• Tackling the unfairness in the system
through revitalising the abandoned
National Food Strategy.
• Strengthening the powers of the
Grocery Standards Adjudicator and
the Food Standards Agency.
• Reducing the vulnerability of the small-scale
farming suppliers relative to the oligopolies
in retail and food manufacture, by regulating
for fairness in negotiation and new legally
binding codes of practice.
• Putting farmers, including smaller and
family farms, back in the room so they are
part of developing new farming policy,
including a new Fairer Farming Charter.
Forestry
There is scope for the UK to become far more self-
sufficient in wood resources as part of the move
away from products based on fossil fuels.
Elected Greens will advocate for:
• A substantial increase in productive forestry,
in addition to increases in woodland.
• Wood and crop waste to be recycled into
construction materials, paper and fabrics.
(Food and farming policy in Wales is devolved
to the Welsh Government).
A Greener and Fairer Food and Farming System
Creating A Fairer, Greener
Education System
Education should be about inspiring a love of
learning and ensuring that every young person
can reach their potential. Yet too many children
are struggling to achieve in an education system
that operates like a production line rather than
valuing children's unique individual qualities.
Schools play an essential role in ensuring that all
children have an equal chance to thrive. We must
work towards ending child poverty and opening up
opportunities to all. No child should be left behind.
For Greens, education is a common good that
benefits society as a whole so it should be publicly
funded and available to everybody, free of charge,
at every stage of life. We will continue to support
parents in educating children in settings other
than at school.
Green MPs would push for an education system
that:
• Is fully inclusive, with better funded support
for special educational needs and all children
provided with a free school meal.
• Supports every higher education student
with the restoration of grants and the end of
tuition fees.
• Reduces the stress in our education system
by ending high-stakes, formal testing at
primary and secondary schools and by
abolishing OFSTED.
Early years
Pre-school education should be focused on
play and on supporting young children to safely
explore the world around them. It can also assist
families to access work and other opportunities.
Greens MPs will advocate:
• For £1.4bn per year to be invested by local
authorities in Sure Start Centres.
• In negotiation with the sector, to extend the
outgoing government's offer of childcare to
35 hours per week from nine months.
Schools
Over a decade of funding cuts, assessment
targets and a teacher recruitment crisis have
resulted in larger class sizes, fewer educational
visits and arts and vocational subjects dropped
from the curriculum.
Elected Greens will:
• Advocate for an increase in school funding,
with an £8bn investment in schools that
would include £2bn for a pay uplift for
teachers.
• Ensure that every school building is safe for
children by investing £2.5bn a year to tackle
the RAAC concrete scandal and provide
the funding needed for schools to be well-
maintained and fit for purpose.
• Review assessment targets in schools so
that arts and vocational subjects are treated
equally within the curriculum, children are
supported to play and learn outdoors, and
every child can learn about the climate and
biodiversity crisis to equip them for the
challenges ahead.
• Ensure effective delivery of the new Natural
History GCSE.
• Move academies and free schools into local
authority control, removing charitable status
Creating A Fairer, Greener Education System
from private schools and charging full VAT on
fees. Private school places for children with
special education needs will not be subject
to VAT. This will be an interim measure while
public-sector capacity is built.
• Retain a full, evidence-based and age-
appropriate programme of Relationships, Sex
and Health Education, including LGBTIQA+
content and resources.
• Protect provision of free school breakfast
clubs for all primary school pupils.
Special educational needs
Green MPs will push for £5bn to be invested in
special needs (SEND) provision within mainstream
schools. This means that all schools will have
fully accessible buildings and specially trained
teachers, and local councils will have the funds to
properly support SEND students at school and in
getting to school.
Child health and wellbeing
Green MPs will:
• Fully restore the role of the school nurse,
ensuring that all schools have access to an
on-site medical professional.
• Give children and students at all state-
funded schools and colleges access to a
qualified counsellor.
Post-16 and Further Education
The world of work is changing fast. Fewer young
people will experience only one career and
workplace in their lives. Education and training
must be accessible, and better designed to
support lifelong learning.
Creating A Fairer, Greener Education System
Green MPs will push for:
• A £3bn increase in funding for sixth-form
education over the next parliamentary term,
and a £12bn investment in skills and lifelong
learning for further education.
• The restoration of the Education
Maintenance Allowance to financially support
young people to extend their studies after
the age of 16.
Higher Education
Marketisation has been disastrous for Higher
Education, changing the relationships between
students and academic faculty, pushing
universities into financial crisis, and burdening a
whole generation of students with debts so high
that they are ruining their life chances.
We would fully fund every higher education
student, restoring maintenance grants and
scrapping undergraduate tuition fees. Our longterm
plans also include seeking to cancel the
injustice of graduate debt.
Elected Greens will work with the higher education
sector to tackle the challenges posed by changes
to employer contributions for the Teachers'
Pension Scheme (TPS).
(In Wales, Education is devolved to the Welsh
Government.)
Investing in Fairer,
Greener Transport
Our transport choices account for around a
quarter of UK carbon emissions. Making it easier
to opt for greener choices is key to tackling the
climate emergency, yet public transport provision
continues to decline.
As well as the damage to our climate, vehicle
exhaust and particulates from tyre and brake dust
are major contributors to air pollution, which costs
the UK economy £20bn a year and is associated
with over 40,000 deaths a year.
This is also an equity issue: one in five families
don't have access to a car and the poorest
households are nearly seven times less likely to
have access to a car than the richest.
Elected Greens will champion public transport for
every community to thrive.
Green MPs will push to:
• Increase annual public subsidies for rail
and bus travel to £10bn by the end of the
next parliament to make public transport
reliable, frequent, accessible and affordable,
including free bus travel for under-18s.
• Invest an additional £19bn over five years
to improve public transport, support
electrification and invest in new cycleways
and footpaths; this includes the reallocation
of funding earmarked for road building.
• Bring the railways back into public ownership.
• Give local authorities control over and
funding for improved bus services.
• Ensure £2.5bn a year is invested in new
cycleways and footpaths.
Buses
Urban bus services have dropped by 48% and rural
buses by 52% since 2008. Yet they are vital to our
communities. Every £1 invested in bus services is
estimated to bring an economic return of £4.50.
Elected Greens would push for local authority
control and proper funding for bus services, to
increase these in urban areas, and in rural areas
ensure that there is a bus service to every village.
We will empower local authorities to run bus
services themselves if they see fit and provide
a service that meets their community's needs.
Cities and sparsely populated rural areas will need
different solutions; we need to give them the
flexibility and funding.
Rail
Privatisation of the railways has failed - we have
all experienced the decline in the standard of
services, strikes and growing dissatisfaction. The
railways should be the backbone of a sustainable
transport system. Elected Greens will push for:
• Investment in a modern, efficient, publicly
owned railway, with affordable fares.
• Greater investment in more rapid
electrification so the rail network can be
powered sustainably.
• A national strategic approach to identifying
those lines and stations which could be
re-opened. This should be led by regional
and local government to ensure the most
benefits.
Investing in Fairer, Greener Transport
• Train companies to be gradually brought
back into public ownership, as existing
contracts expire and rolling stock which is
currently owned by leasing companies needs
replacement.
Roads
To address the huge and growing contribution
that private-vehicle transport makes to our
carbon emissions, it's time to shift the transport
system away from cars and roads.
Green MPs will push to restore the fuel-duty
escalator to this end and, as revenue declines, we
favour the introduction of road-pricing, designed
to ensure the protection of users' privacy. Greens
will oppose all new road building plans.
Within a decade we want to see all petrol and
diesel vehicles replaced by Electric Vehicles (EVs).
We would push for an extensive vehicle scrappage
scheme to support this rapid transition to EVs,
with funding rising to £5bn per year by the end of
the parliament, supported by the rapid rollout of
EV charging points.
EVs have a place in our future transport system
but even a wholesale switch would still not deliver
on our ambitious plan to make our roads safer and
greener.
Elected Greens would therefore also push for:
• An end to sales of new petrol and
diesel fuelled vehicles by 2027 and to the
use of petrol and diesel vehicles on the road
by 2035.
• Making road tax proportional to
vehicle weight.
• 20 miles per hour to be the default speed
limit on roads in all built-up areas, allowing
children, the elderly and disabled people to
walk and wheel safely.
• More government support for ordinary car
users and small businesses to replace their
vehicles as diesel and petrol engines are
phased out.
• More support for firms using heavy goods
vehicles to transition away from internal
Investing in Fairer, Greener Transport
combustion engines and make greater use
of rail freight.
Safe streets and active travel
Walking and cycling aren't just good for
reducing carbon emissions and air pollution -
they help make us all happier and healthier.
Elected Greens will:
• Push to spend £2.5bn a year on new
cycleways and footpaths, built using
sustainable materials.
• Reimagine how we use streets in residential
areas to reduce traffic and open them up for
use by the community.
• Adopt Active Travel England's objective for
50% of trips in England's towns and cities to
be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030.
Aviation
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of
global carbon emissions - and it's the wealthiest
driving this trend. The wealthiest people in the UK
use more energy flying than the poorest use in
every aspect of their lives. Just 1% of the world's
population accounts for more than half of the CO2
emissions from passenger air travel. We need to
reduce how much we fly, and we need to do it fairly.
Green MPs will campaign for:
• A frequent-flyer levy to reduce the impact of
the 15% of people who take 70% of flights.
• A ban on domestic flights for a journey that
would take less than three hours by train.
• An end to the implicit subsidy for flying that
results from kerosene being exempt from
fuel duty: the carbon tax would apply to all
kerosene for aviation sold in the UK
• A halt to any expansion of airport capacity.
• Investment in skills so that aviation and airport
workers can move into rewarding alternative
jobs as the number of flights declines.
(In Wales, transport is devolved to the
Welsh Government.)
A Fairer, Greener
Democracy
Green MPs will defend our democratic and civil
rights from the kinds of attacks of recent years
and protect and advance the cornerstones of
our democracy such as human rights law and our
voting rights.
It's clear to us all that the political system is out of
date and badly broken. People strongly support
more investment in health services, cheaper and
more accessible public transport, and the action
necessary to protect people and planet. But
self-interested corporations and vested interests
mean we are not seeing the action we need. The
Green Party understands that the climate crisis
and the crisis in our democracy are linked.
Greens MPs will campaign for a modern,
functional, representative democracy
and measures to make parliament more
representative, particularly of women, people of
colour and disabled people.
Our priorities will be:
• A Fair Politics Act to strengthen our
democracy now.
• Replacing the House of Lords with an
elected second chamber.
• Votes for 16-year-olds and residence-based
voting rights.
• A Constitutional Commission to start a
vital national conversation about a new
constitutional settlement.
Fair Politics Act
Elected Greens will introduce a Fair Politics Act to
strengthen our democracy now. This legislation
would do the following:
• Repeal the anti-democratic Elections Act
2022, ending the need to provide voter-ID.
• Restore the Electoral Commission's power to
prosecute, and abolish the barriers to third-
party campaigning so that all groups can
be transparently involved in the democratic
process.
• Replace the first-past-the-post system for
parliamentary and council elections with a
fair and proportional voting system.
• Introduce a fair system of state funding for
political parties to eliminate dependence on
large private donations.
• Remove the cap on fines that can be
imposed by the Electoral Commission on
political parties that have been found to have
breached electoral law.
• Strengthen the transparency rules on
recording political lobbying.
• Make the work of think tanks transparent,
including by establishing a distinct legal
entity for political foundations which conduct
policy research and political education, with a
requirement to be transparent about sources
of funding.
• Give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote and
to stand for parliament and other elected
offices.
• Amend the Online Safety Act to protect
democracy, and prevent political debate from
being manipulated by falsehoods, fakes and
half-truths.
A Fairer, Greener Democracy
Elected Greens will also advocate for ways
to make politics more accessible to underrepresented
groups including women and
disabled people. These could include proposals
such as job sharing for MPs and a permanent
access to elected office fund to help with the
costs of standing for election.
Devolution
Greens believe in national self-determination.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should be
free to make their own decisions about how much
or how little they are part of the United Kingdom.
The Scottish people should be free to decide
whether they want to remain part of the United
Kingdom. Elected Greens at Westminster would
support Scotland making decisions for itself.
Greens believe all communities should make their
own decisions. Local authorities need to be given
the powers and the resources to do the things
their communities need them to do.
Elected Greens would give the Welsh Government
the same devolved powers as the Scottish
Government in advance of a new constitutional
settlement.
Elected Greens will support the Senedd if it
decides to hold an independence referendum.
English local government
Elected Greens will ensure that local authorities
across England are given the powers and
resources they need. They will push for an
increase in local government funding of £5bn per
year to tackle the current under-funding crisis
and enable local authorities to play a key role in
the transition to a zero-carbon economy and
protecting nature.
A Fairer, Greener Democracy
Defending your human rights
The Green Party is committed to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the European
Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the
European Court of Human Rights.
Elected Greens will:
• Defend the Human Rights Act.
• Support continued direct access to ECHR
rights in the domestic courts.
• Restore legal aid for public law cases so
everybody can uphold their rights in court.
• Protect the right to religious expression.
• Scrap the Police, Crime, Sentencing and
Courts Act, Public Order Act and other
legislation that erodes the right to protest
and to free expression.
The recent rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism
highlights the importance of tackling hate
crime and opposing divisions in our society.
Elected Greens will support the right to religious
expression and work with religious communities
to defend the safety of places of worship. We will
also scrap Prevent.
The Green Party supports self-ID, so that trans
and non-binary people could be legally recognised
in their chosen gender through self-declaration.
We also support ending the spousal veto so that
married trans people can acquire their gender
recognition certification without having to obtain
permission from their spouse, and to change
the law so an X gender marker can be added to
passports for non-binary and intersex people who
wish to use it.
Sharing a Fairer,
Greener Welcome
How we treat people who have chosen the UK
as their home says a great deal about our values
and national character. Greens are proud that
we are country forged by migrants and welcome
the economic and societal contributions that
immigrants and refugees make to British society.
We understand that migration is inevitable, and
that people have always moved around. We also
recognise we all have a collective responsibility for
the climate emergency and that the UK has a duty
to support people forced to move due to changes
in their home environment, whether internally or
overseas.
Green MPs would advocate for inclusivity and an
outward-looking approach to the world. We want
to be welcoming, promote social cohesion and
support migrants to put down roots.
Elected Greens will push for:
• An end to the hostile environment.
• An end to the minimum income requirements
for spouses of those holding work visas.
• Safe routes to sanctuary for those fleeing
danger, persecution and war.
Asylum and protection
No one becomes a refugee lightly. People leave
their homes, friends and often their family
because they are forced to do so through
circumstances that are intolerable.
The Green Party acknowledges the right to claim
asylum, in any country, as set out in the United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Elected Greens will campaign for a system of
asylum and humanitarian protection that treats
the applicant fairly, humanely and without
discrimination.
Elected Greens will push for:
• The United Kingdom to work with other
countries to establish safe routes by which
those fleeing persecution, war, or climate
disaster may arrive in the country of their
choice to make their case without having to
risk their lives.
• A fast and fair process to assess asylum
applications.
• Those seeking asylum and protection to be
permitted to work while their application is
being decided.
Ending the hostile environment
The hostile environment approach has not only
been found at times to be unlawful, it has caused
immense suffering for those who have been
caught up in it, including the Windrush generation.
Green MPs would campaign to abolish the
No Recourse to Public Funds condition that
exacerbates social, economic, and racial
inequalities.
We would also campaign to abolish the ten-year
route to settlement which unfairly traps people in
poverty and hardship.
We believe that migration is not a criminal offence
under any circumstances and that there should
be an end to immigration detention for all migrants
unless they are a danger to public safety.
All visa-holding residents should have the right to
vote in all elections and referendums.
Sharing a Fairer, Greener Welcome
Fixing a broken system
We will push to dismantle the dysfunctional
Home Office and create a new Department of
Migration alongside a Department of Justice,
thus separating functions around migration and
citizenship from the criminal justice system.
The system of visa applications should be
simplified and all applications should be
processed swiftly, and with empathy and
intelligence.
We would seek the end to the exploitation of
people for profit and only charge application fees
at cost.
Access to the NHS should be free and
comprehensive for migrants with visas.
Workers, students
and families
We want to attract the best researchers for our
universities, the top talent for our start-ups and
to welcome those who come to work in our health
and social services, on our farms, and in our
offices.
Elected Greens will therefore push for migrants,
including students, to be allowed to bring
members of their family to the UK who would
normally live with them in their country of origin, or
would do so if it were permitted by law or custom.
Elected Greens will push to remove minimum
income requirements from all applications
including spousal visas, because all British
citizens should have the right to reside with their
loved ones no matter their income.
Migration and
climate breakdown
People have always moved in search of better
lives, but famine and the increasing conflict in
the world is driving an increase in involuntary
migration. As the climate crisis worsens and the
impacts on people in marginalised communities
become more severe, more people may be forced
to leave their homes. Our proposed significant
increase to the overseas aid budget, as well as
our policy of supporting lower-income countries
to deal with the climate crisis, are vital to ensure
people can stay in their home communities, but
we will also ensure that those who are forced to
leave can do so safely and with dignity, without
fear or intimidation.
Sharing a Fairer, Greener Welcome
Access to Art, Sport
and Culture for All
Arts, culture and sports are central to people's
enjoyment of life, to their mental and physical
wellbeing, and to thriving communities. They also
make a huge contribution to the UK economy -
yet they've been increasingly squeezed out of
the national curriculum and subjected to savage
government cuts that are putting many cultural
institutions - libraries, museums, theatres and
local arts centres - at risk.
Meanwhile, our media landscape is skewed by the
dominance of billionaire and big-tech ownership,
with the owners of media companies seeking
to maximise profits by irresponsible practices
that undermine democracy and promote harmful
online content.
The Green Party believes we should cherish
and support the wellsprings of creativity and
wellbeing, and that the media sector urgently
needs to be reformed. Elected Greens will push
for effective regulation of both traditional and
social media, safeguarding our democracy and
the spaces for shared cultural expression. They
will also protect local media to support local
democracy.
Elected Greens will:
• Invest £5 bn investment in community sports,
arts and culture.
• Support local grassroots sports clubs, music
and art venues.
• Implement the 2012 Leveson Report
recommendations on cleaning up the media
and reinstate the second part of the review.
• Introduce a Digital Bill of Rights that
establishes the UK as a leading voice on
standards for the rule of law and democracy
in digital spaces.
• Support the right of people in Wales to use
the Welsh language in every area of life.
Local art, sport and culture
Art, sport and culture are important anchors
of well-being in communities, and drivers of
regeneration and sustainability. Local authorities
need to be given the tools to ensure that
grassroots participation in art, sport and culture is
accessible and thriving.
To support local culture and sport, elected Greens
will campaign to:
• Invest an extra £5bn over 5 years for local
government spending on arts and culture
to fund keeping local museums, theatres,
libraries and art galleries open and thriving.
• Protect the night-time economy through a
review of planning regulations and giving
local authorities the powers to ensure there
is space for cultural life.
• Exempt cultural events, including everything
from theatre and museum tickets to gigs in
local pubs, from paying VAT.
• Give local authorities discretionary powers to
exempt socially and economically essential
local enterprises from business rates.
• Ensure that musicians have access to visa-
free travel to the EU through negotiating
a reciprocal arrangement at the earliest
possible opportunity.
Access to Art, Sport and Culture for All
• Protect school playing fields from
development through rigorous planning
controls.
• Allow access to school sports facilities by
local clubs and teams outside teaching
hours to ensure maximum use of a valuable
resource.
• Enable local authorities to maintain key
sporting infrastructure including pools and
playing fields. These need to be used across
all sections of the community to ensure sport
is inclusive.
• Permit local authorities to invest in shares
in professional sports clubs which operate
in their area as a means of maintaining
a connection between the club and its
community. Any dividends paid to the
authority must be reinvested into public
sporting facilities or coaching programmes in
the area.
• Work cross party to support sports to be
more diverse and representative, especially
for women and girls and disabled people.
Media
Elected Greens will push for rules on media to
be tightened so that no individual or company
owns more than 20% of a media market. We would
implement the recommendations of the 2012
Leveson Report and reinstate the second part
of that crucial review to ensure the UK media are
held to the highest ethical standards.
We will support local media through new grants to
encourage the growth of a wider range of civic-
minded local news publishers. Local newspapers
in the UK are an important part of our democracy
and civic culture yet many are closing or
struggling to survive.
Access to Art, Sport and Culture for All
Digital rights
Elected Greens would push to establish the UK as
a leading voice on standards for the rule of law and
democracy in digital spaces with a Digital Bill of
Rights to ensure independent regulation of social
media providers. This legislation will safeguard
elections by responding to the challenges of
foreign interference, social media and declining
confidence in democracy.
The Digital Bill of Rights will give the public
greater control over their data, ensuring UK data
protection is as strong as any other regulatory
regime. Given the complexity of this legislation,
elected Greens will push for the Bill to be
developed through a broad and inclusive public
conversation.
The rise of AI is transforming many industries
and has enormous potential for good, when well
regulated.
Elected Greens will push for a precautionary
regulatory approach to the harms and risk of
AI. We would align the UK approach with our
neighbours in Europe, UNESCO and global efforts
to support a coordinated response to future risks
of AI.
We will also aim to secure equitable access to any
socially and environmentally responsible benefits
these technologies can bring, at the same time
as addressing any bias, discrimination, equality,
liberty or privacy issues arising from the use of AI.
We would insist on the protection of the
Intellectual Property of artists, writers and
musicians and other creators. We would ensure
that AI does not erode the value of human
creativity and that workers' rights and interests
are respected when AI leads to significant
changes in working conditions.
Bringing Justice to
Crime and Policing
Everyone has the right to feel safe - on the
street, in their home or online. Simple things like
more police on the beat and greater support
for domestic violence units can make a huge
difference. But Greens recognise it's time to do
more - so we will tackle structural injustice and
transform our policing and justice system.
Green MPs will expand restorative justice when
crimes do take place, both to give victims a
voice and to help offenders take responsibility
for the harm they have done. We will focus on
the prevention of crime through restoring the
funding withdrawn from youth services since
2010 and through community-based policing. We
will focus on rehabilitation through investment
in the probation and prison services; Greens
choose to rebuild people's lives rather than
condemning them to a downward cycle of crime
and imprisonment.
It is a cliché that justice delayed is justice denied,
but it is also true. We would invest in criminal
justice so that defendants are brought to trial
quickly in the interests of both victim and the
people accused.
Elected Greens will work to:
• Restore trust and confidence in the police.
• End violence against women and girls.
• Repair and renew our court system with
a £2.5bn investment.
Trust and confidence
in the police
We believe in policing by consent, but this can
only work if the police can rebuild trust with the
communities they serve. Police Services need to
acknowledge the institutional racism, misogyny,
homophobia and disablism that have dominated
policing for so long. They must root out any
officers who hold views incompatible with serving
as a police officer.
Many communities, especially Black communities,
are disillusioned with the police after experiencing
decades of disproportionate policing and
traumatising tactics like stop and search and the
use of force. Rebuilding trust and confidence
and earning the consent of communities to being
policed is critical for the future of policing.
Police Services should be accountable to elected
local government and to the communities where
they work.
Elected Greens will push for:
• An end to the routine use of stop and search
and to the use of facial recognition software.
• Police Services to deliver ongoing fitness
to practice assessments on diversity for all
police officers and relevant civilian staff.
• Police and Crime Commissioners, and local
councillors on police and crime panels, to
have open access to the data needed to
enable effective scrutiny of operational
policing.
Restorative justice
and a practical approach
to prosecution
The Green approach to crime is grounded
in a restorative approach and a belief that
rehabilitation is the best way to reduce future
Bringing Justice to Crime and Policing
offending. Prison is a demonstrably ineffective
way of reducing reoffending: evidence shows that
short prison sentences are especially ineffective
and lead to higher rates of recidivism.
There are some people who need to be imprisoned
for reasons of public safety or the seriousness of
their offence. For others a restorative approach,
forcing criminals to take responsibility for the
consequences of their actions, is better for the
offender, the victim and society at large.
Elected Greens will seek to break the cycle of
reoffending through legislating for a presumption
against custodial sentences under two years.
The Green Party welcomes the greater emphasis
on diversion in the criminal justice system. Green
MPs will ensure that diversion programmes are in
place for:
• All low-level drug and alcohol related
offences.
• Young offenders arrested for
low-level offences.
End domestic abuse
and violence against
women and girls
The continuing murder, abuse, harassment and
denigration of women and girls is a stain on our
society. It is a Green Party priority to end domestic
abuse and violence against women and girls.
Elected Greens will push to:
• Make misogyny a hate crime across the UK
and increase the police's capacity to deal
with domestic violence.
• Develop and implement a new UK-wide
strategy to tackle gender-based violence,
including domestic violence, rape and sexual
abuse, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and
trafficking.
• Ensure that domestic abuse and
gender-based violence is a key measurable
priority for all police forces and that all police
officers are trained to recognise and tackle
domestic violence.
Bringing Justice to Crime and Policing
• Fund local authorities so that domestic
violence, rape crisis and other provision
can meet local needs.
• Decriminalise sex work.
Tackling the court backlog
The court system is in chaos and it's letting down
victims and the accused, whilst large numbers
of prisoners on remand and endless court
cancellations create knock-on effects for the
prison and probation services too.
The Green Party will invest £11bn in restoring the
Ministry of Justice budget over the course of the
next parliament. This would be used to restore
legal aid budgets, to ensure that the Criminal
Bar is sufficiently well funded and to repair court
buildings. Elected Greens will push to recruit more
judges and to ensure that they are representative
of wider society.
A public health approach to
tackling violence
Violence is experienced by communities
across the country. The evidence supporting a
public health approach to reducing violence is
compelling. The Green Party supports the use of
violence reduction units and the need for them to
be a focus on multi-agency working.
In Scotland, the introduction of violence reduction
units, coordinated with the Scottish Government's
control over public services, has delivered a
welcome decrease in violence. Elected Greens will
push for more local control over public services
and more effective joined up working across
public services to deliver violence reduction
strategies.
Communities all over the country experience
youth violence in particular. Many of the Green
Party's proposals will, over time, reduce the level
of violence affecting young people.
Elected Greens will also campaign to ensure that:
• Local authorities are properly funded to
deliver youth services including the youth
workers who play a key role in keeping young
people safe.
• Safeguarding is the priority in encounters
between young people and the police.
• The use of traumatising tactics like stop and
search becomes an exception, not routine.
• Children and young people are never strip
searched without an appropriate adult
present, and only in very exceptional
circumstances.
• Youth workers rather than police officers
work with pupils in schools.
Reforming drug laws
Elected Greens will push for the establishment
of a National Commission to agree an
evidence-based approach to reform of the UK's
counterproductive drug laws.
Neither prohibition nor the policing of low-level
drug offences, especially cannabis possession,
have reduced use and consequently have had no
impact on the size of the criminal market or the
profits made by organised crime.
Elected Greens will therefore push to
decriminalise personal possession of drugs,
diverting people from the criminal justice system
towards support with addiction, housing and
employment, from health workers focused on
drug harm reduction This would free up hundreds
of thousands of hours of police time, which could
instead be invested in tackling other priorities
which benefit wider society.
Bringing Justice to Crime and Policing
Building A Fairer,
Greener, Safer World
In a world threatened by war and the rise of
authoritarian regimes, the Green Party believes
that the UK's foreign policy should be based on
shared commitments to democracy, peace, global
solidarity and the protection of human rights. It
has never been more important to support the
rule of law, including the international law that
underpins our rights and protects against state
aggression, genocide and the inhuman treatment
of refugees.
In a world threatened by climate-driven instability
and mass migration, there is an ever-greater
need for enlightened leadership and international
solidarity.
The Green Party wants to see the UK:
• Take the lead in upholding the right to
self-determination and the enforcement of
international law.
• Continue to support Ukraine as it
resists Russian invasion.
• Work towards reform of the European
security architecture and disarmament,
based on shared commitments to democracy
and mutual transparency.
• Rejoin and play its full part in the family
of nations that is the European Union,
as soon as possible
Israel and Palestine
The Green Party has been calling for an
immediate bilateral ceasefire in the war between
Israel and Gaza and the return of hostages since
mid-October 2023. We condemned the appalling
murder of hundreds of Israeli civilians by Hamas on
7 October and for which Hamas should be held to
Building A Fairer, Greener, Safer World
account, and since then have watched in horror
as Israeli forces have committed war crimes that
have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of
Palestinian civilians.
Green MPs will push for:
• An immediate and permanent
bilateral ceasefire.
• A durable political solution that ensures
security and equal rights for Israelis and
Palestinians. This is the only way to achieve
long-term security for the people of
Palestine and Israel.
• Recognition of the state of Palestine and
an urgent international effort to end the
illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
• Investigation and prosecution of war crimes.
We believe there is strong evidence to
support South Africa's submission to the
International Court of Justice that Israel is
guilty of genocide in its conduct in Gaza.
• An end to all UK arms exports to and military
cooperation with Israel, which make the
British government complicit in these
war crimes.
Climate diplomacy
and overseas aid
The UK carries a particular responsibility for
its high share of historic global emissions and
as a former colonial power. In recognition of
the importance of supporting countries in the
Global South to decarbonise their economies
and be resilient to climate impacts, Greens
would ensure that the UK's existing climate
finance commitments are delivered in full and are
genuinely new and additional to aid spending.
Elected Greens would push for the UK to:
• Go beyond restoring international aid to 0.7%
of GNI, raising this to 1% by 2033.
• Increase the climate finance budget to 1.5%
of GNI by 2033, with an additional contribution
to a newly established Loss and Damage
Fund in order to help climate vulnerable
countries to respond to increasingly severe
storms, floods and rising temperatures.
• Support a new international law against
ecocide and stand with those protecting
biodiversity globally, including indigenous
peoples.
• Enable the people of the Global South to take
the lead on how aid is spent, as those with
most at stake know best how to solve their
problems. In some cases, this may mean
direct support to affected populations rather
than working through authoritarian or corrupt
governments.
• Establish a Parliamentary Commission of
Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice to
address reparations needed to redress global
inequalities caused by the trans-Atlantic
trafficking of enslaved Africans.
• Work within international frameworks and
with international partners to remove the
burden of debt from the Global South.
• Make finance and technology available to
support the development of environmentally
and socially sustainable economies of
low-income countries to tackle the causes
and impacts of the climate and nature
emergencies.
International Trade
Green MPs will campaign to end the current
practice of parallel judicial systems in trade and
investment agreements, which allow companies
to sue governments secretly for billions. These
mechanisms give too much power to corporations
at the expense of democracy, the environment
and human rights.
Elected Greens will fight to ensure that all new
trade agreements:
• Respect workers' and consumers' rights.
• Meet UK animal protection and environmental
standards.
Elected Greens will also seek to leverage
the United Kingdom's position as a centre of
financial services to ensure that this industry
plays a key role in financing the transition to an
environmentally sustainable carbon-neutral
global economy.
Britain's future in Europe
The Green Party is pro-European, and proudly
so. We opposed UK withdrawal from the EU, and
believe that Britain would be better off politically,
socially, environmentally and economically had
we maintained our EU membership. A united
international response to global issues is needed
now more than ever. Full membership of the EU
remains the best option for the UK.
Green MPs will work towards:
• Re-joining the EU as soon as the domestic
political situation is favourable and EU
member states are willing.
• Joining the Customs Union as a first step
towards full EU membership, and a way
of resolving many of the worst problems
resulting from Brexit.
• A speedy return to the free movement of
people between the UK and the EU, including
reciprocal rights to work for both UK and
European citizens.
• Rejoining the Erasmus Programme, which
enables students to study for a year in
another European country.
Building A Fairer, Greener, Safer World
NATO and nuclear weapons
Most of the world's countries do not possess
weapons of mass destruction and are safer as a
result. Elected Greens will:
• Push for the UK to sign the UN Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW),
and following this to begin immediately the
process of dismantling our nuclear weapons,
cancelling the Trident programme and
removing all foreign nuclear weapons from
UK soil.
• Work with international partners to enlarge
membership of the TPNW and ensure that all
states meet their commitments under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Work to support and enhance the work of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) on arms control and the building of
mutual trust and confidence.
The Green Party recognises that NATO has an
important role in ensuring the ability of its member
states to respond to threats to their security. We
support the principle of international solidarity,
whereby nations support one another through
mutual defence alliances and multilateral security
frameworks.
However, that doesn't mean we think NATO is
perfect-far from it. We will work within NATO
for a greater focus on outreach and dialogue
to support global peacebuilding, based on
democratic and inclusive values. We want to
see crucial reforms to the way NATO operates,
that include:
• First and foremost a commitment to a
'No First Use' of nuclear weapons.
• Diplomacy and practical co-operation must
always take precedence over military action.
We want to see much greater emphasis on
the alliance's efforts to encourage dialogue
to support global peace-building.
• NATO must act solely in defence of
member states.
Building A Fairer, Greener, Safer World
Statistical Appendix
These are our best estimates of what needs to be added to total public expenditure in the next
spending review to fund the policies set out in this Manifesto. The estimates are for the five years
starting on 1st April 2025. The baseline for this forecast is the OBR March 2024 projection.
Year ended 31 March 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030
£bn £bn £bn £bn £bn
Revenue spending
Health and social care 30.7 35.4 40.6 46.4 52.9
Income support 17.6 23.0 25.1 27.2 29.4
Nature, food and farming 3.6 4.2 4.5 4.5 4.5
Education 13.9 13.4 12.9 13.2 13.6
Transport 5.7 10.5 10.8 11.9 14.6
Overseas aid 8.3 12.2 16.1 20.1 24.0
Other (1) 19.4 21.2 21.3 21.7 22.6
99.2 119.8 131.4 145.1 161.6
Capital spending
Health and education 9.2 6.6 6.6 6.6 6.6
Green economic transformation 9.9 19.1 46.7 56.7 72.6
Social housing 2.2 4.6 5.8 10.5 18.1
Other (2) 7.0 16.5 6.7 6.8 6.9
Savings (3) -5.6 -6.8 -9.2 -11.6 -13.9
22.8 40.0 56.6 69.0 90.3
Taxation
Taxes on personal income and wealth 28.5 65.3 68.9 71.9 72.9
Business taxes 7.0 9.1 9.5 9.6 8.2
Carbon taxes 1.2 40.6 57.0 69.7 91.3
36.7 115.1 135.4 151.2 172.4
Deficit - funded by additional debt 85.3 44.7 52.6 62.9 79.5
Notes
1. Includes debt interest and increased spending in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
on devolved function..
2. 2027 includes £10bn funding for regional banks.
3. Includes savings from cancellation of Trident replacement and reduction in road building.
4. These estimates are part of a 10-year programme. What is achievable in the first five years
may be constrained by inflation risks and supply-side shortages.
Statistical Appendix
Notes Notes
46 47
Vote Hope.
Vote Change.
Vote Green.
The Green Party has been going from strength to strength.
We find that when you tell the truth, aim high, and offer hope,
voters respond. We are now represented on 170 councils
nationwide and part of the administration on 42 councils. We
have increased our number of councillors fivefold in the past
five years. They are using the power given to them by your vote
to build fairer, greener communities.
In this election we are aiming high: we are standing in more
seats than ever before and we are aiming to win more votes
than ever before and to significantly increase our number
of MPs'. We need those MPs to keep climate at the top of
government agenda, to resist further privatisation of public
services, to make sure that the country sees the investment
that we need to mend so much that is broken.
Now, it's over to you. You can choose a fairer future for us all.
Vote for real hope and real change. Vote Green.
Vote Hope. Vote Change. Vote Green.
Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party,both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ.
Printed by FOX Managed Solutions Limited, 3 Chapman Way, High Brooms, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 3EF.