2 hours agoBy Kevin Peachey, @PeacheyK, Cost of living correspondentBBCThe Conservatives have launched their 2024 election manifesto. The document sets out what the party’s plans would be, should it win the election on 4 July.Here are some of the most eye-catching pledges.The return of Help to BuyRishi Sunak says he wants to “build an ownership society”, but admitted that owning a home has become more difficult, in a BBC interview ahead of the manifesto launch. He’s set an ambitious goal of building 1.6 million homes in England in five years. However, previous targets have regularly been missed.Part of the plan to get people onto the property ladder is a resurrection of the Help to Buy scheme, which would provide first-time buyers with an equity loan of up to 20% towards the cost of one of these new homes. However, in the past these schemes have been criticised for pushing up house prices and benefitting developers rather than buyers.Then there’s making permanent the stamp duty threshold of £425,000 in England and Northern Ireland for first-time buyers. It means that about eight in 10 first-time buyers do not pay stamp duty, Zoopla figures show. For renters, there is a commitment to eventually ban no-fault evictions, a policy first proposed by the party in 2019, but which has been delayed. And there’s a two-year tax-break to allow landlords to sell to existing tenants, but landlord groups say it doesn’t address shortages in homes available to let.Tax help for the self-employedOne manifesto surprise is the abolition of National Insurance (NI) for the self-employed. Currently they pay 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above £50,270. There are more than four million self-employed people, so it is understandable why the Conservatives want to offer something.The cut is promised by the end of the next Parliament and will cost £2.6bn a year. This comes on top of the £5bn a year cost of reducing NI for employees by a further 2p by 2027, in addition to the 4p already cut in 2024.There is also a promise to increase the personal tax-free allowance for pensioners. This would mean future rises in the state pension – by the higher of wage rises, inflation or 2.5% (the triple lock) – will not be hit by income tax. People below pension age will pay more tax on their incomes over the next Parliament, as both the Conservatives and Labour have said they will maintain the freeze imposed when Rishi Sunak was chancellor on income tax thresholds.Mr Sunak says these tax cuts will be paid for by a £6bn a year crackdown on tax avoidance and cutting the welfare bill by £12bn a year by the end of the next Parliament. Both savings are thought uncertain at best and unlikely at worst by analysts including the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank.This would apply to the whole of the UK.Tougher sentences and new prisonsThe Conservatives are pledging to toughen sentences for offences including knife crime, grooming and assaults against retail workers. But prisons have an overcrowding crisis, with officials expecting jails in England and Wales to be at full capacity over the next few weeks. This raises questions as to where these criminals would go. Prisoners are already being released early to free up space. The Tories say they will build four new prisons providing 20,000 new places but that will take years.The party wants to show they are tough on crime – a stance that usually does well with its traditional supporters. It’s pledged to increase the number of community police officers by 8,000. However, some in policing tell us it’s one thing wanting to hire more officers but it’s …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nn2 hours agoBy Kevin Peachey, @PeacheyK, Cost of living correspondentBBCThe Conservatives have launched their 2024 election manifesto. The document sets out what the party’s plans would be, should it win the election on 4 July.Here are some of the most eye-catching pledges.The return of Help to BuyRishi Sunak says he wants to “build an ownership society”, but admitted that owning a home has become more difficult, in a BBC interview ahead of the manifesto launch. He’s set an ambitious goal of building 1.6 million homes in England in five years. However, previous targets have regularly been missed.Part of the plan to get people onto the property ladder is a resurrection of the Help to Buy scheme, which would provide first-time buyers with an equity loan of up to 20% towards the cost of one of these new homes. However, in the past these schemes have been criticised for pushing up house prices and benefitting developers rather than buyers.Then there’s making permanent the stamp duty threshold of £425,000 in England and Northern Ireland for first-time buyers. It means that about eight in 10 first-time buyers do not pay stamp duty, Zoopla figures show. For renters, there is a commitment to eventually ban no-fault evictions, a policy first proposed by the party in 2019, but which has been delayed. And there’s a two-year tax-break to allow landlords to sell to existing tenants, but landlord groups say it doesn’t address shortages in homes available to let.Tax help for the self-employedOne manifesto surprise is the abolition of National Insurance (NI) for the self-employed. Currently they pay 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above £50,270. There are more than four million self-employed people, so it is understandable why the Conservatives want to offer something.The cut is promised by the end of the next Parliament and will cost £2.6bn a year. This comes on top of the £5bn a year cost of reducing NI for employees by a further 2p by 2027, in addition to the 4p already cut in 2024.There is also a promise to increase the personal tax-free allowance for pensioners. This would mean future rises in the state pension – by the higher of wage rises, inflation or 2.5% (the triple lock) – will not be hit by income tax. People below pension age will pay more tax on their incomes over the next Parliament, as both the Conservatives and Labour have said they will maintain the freeze imposed when Rishi Sunak was chancellor on income tax thresholds.Mr Sunak says these tax cuts will be paid for by a £6bn a year crackdown on tax avoidance and cutting the welfare bill by £12bn a year by the end of the next Parliament. Both savings are thought uncertain at best and unlikely at worst by analysts including the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank.This would apply to the whole of the UK.Tougher sentences and new prisonsThe Conservatives are pledging to toughen sentences for offences including knife crime, grooming and assaults against retail workers. But prisons have an overcrowding crisis, with officials expecting jails in England and Wales to be at full capacity over the next few weeks. This raises questions as to where these criminals would go. Prisoners are already being released early to free up space. The Tories say they will build four new prisons providing 20,000 new places but that will take years.The party wants to show they are tough on crime – a stance that usually does well with its traditional supporters. It’s pledged to increase the number of community police officers by 8,000. However, some in policing tell us it’s one thing wanting to hire more officers but it’s …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
