General Election 2015: Natalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas launch Green Party manifesto that includes spend more, tax more and drive less

Natalie Bennett, right, and Caroline Lucas launch the Green Party manifesto at London’s Arcola Theatre on Tuesday (Reuters)

Britain has hit “Peak Car”, with the younger generation preferring to be on public transport using their mobile phones rather than sitting at the driving wheel, the Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, claimed on Tuesday.

The party’s commitment to getting people out of cars and on to public transport, or bicycles, is central to its principal aim of reversing global warming.

But its manifesto, launched yesterday in an east London theatre, also offered a range of policies for stimulating the economy, creating jobs, and reversing privatisation, many of which were reminiscent of Labour in the 1980s.

Rather than seek to cut government spending, the Greens propose to increase it from its present level of £743bn to £799bn in 2015, rising to £919bn in 2019. The increases would be paid for by a variety of tax increases, including a “wealth tax” on individuals whose wealth exceeds £3m, a “Robin Hood” tax on financial transactions, reducing tax relief for pensions, and imposing VAT and fuel duty on air travel. They also have an ambitious target to save £6bn in 2015 alone by tackling tax avoidance and evasion. That figure would rise by £6bn a year to £30bn in 2019.

The Greens propose to bring the railways back into public ownership; cut fares; restrict the role of private companies in the NHS; make prescriptions, dentistry and chiropody free for everyone in England; abolish the “bedroom tax”; provide 500,000 social rented homes by 2020; and raise the minimum wage to £10 an hour by 2020.

To discourage car use, they would end all road building, apart from mending surfaces and taking safety measures, and spend £1.8bn a year promoting walking and cycling. However, proposals to decriminalise the membership of terrorist organisations, impose levies on pop stars and impose new taxes on large gifts have all been dropped.

The party is also no longer committing itself to pulling out of Nato and a pledge never to attack Iran has disappeared.

Defending their transport policies, Ms Bennett said: “This is very much moving with social change – you might have heard the phrase ‘Peak Car’. Young people these days are getting their licence later, driving fewer miles, buying a car later.”

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CLIMATE CHANGE

The party is proposing giving everyone their own “carbon quota” – which you would have to use whenever you bought fossil fuels or electricity. It would also invest £35bn in renewable energy and ban all fracking.

NHS

A promise to increase the health budget by £12bn and increase it in real terms by 1.2 per cent a year to take account of the ageing population.

EDUCATION

Parents would be eligible for a “free, universal and flexible” early education and support until their children reach school age.

HOUSING

Build 500,000 social rented homes by increasing the social housing budget from £1.5bn a year to £6bn a year. Right-to-buy would be ended and the party would introduce new higher council tax bands for more expensive homes.

WORK AND WAGES

Increase the minimum wage to £10 an hour by 2020, saving £2.4bn a year in tax credits and generating £1.5bn a year in income tax and national insurance. The party would introduce a maximum pay ratio of 10:1 between the highest-paid and lowest-paid in every organisation.

BENEFITS

Scrap most existing benefits apart from disability and housing benefits and abolish the income tax personal allowance. Then pay every woman, man and child legally resident in the UK a guaranteed, nonmeans-tested income, sufficient to cover basic needs – known as a basic income.

TAX

Radical changes to redistribute wealth. A new wealth tax of two per cent a year on the top one per cent. Employees earning more than £42,000 would lose out through scrapping the national insurance upper threshold – raising £28bn a year. The top rate of tax would be raised to 60 per cent – raising £2bn a year. Corporation tax would rise from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.

What the greens would ban:

Cheap flights – VAT and fuel duty on all flights

Ban on grouse shooting and hunting any animals for sport, as well as foie gras

Horse racing – a review that may result in a call for an outright ban on horse and greyhound racing

Fur coats or any product made from animals fur

Grammar schools, free schools and academies would all be integrated into the comprehensive system

Keeping rabbits or hens in cages, or keeping monkeys or other primates as pets

Cheap booze – a minimum price of 50p per unit

All nuclear power stations phased out in 10 years

Coal-fired power stations to be closed by 2023

GM food – the Greens want an EU-wide ‘moratorium’

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