Town & Country
With the country facing the third General Election in little more than four years, most parties are trumpeting their Brexit views. However, other issues are equally as pressing for voters: alongside health and crime, many now identify the environment as a top priority. Rural areas also face challenges, from patchy broadband to farming, so where do parties stand on what matters to the countryside? Carla Passino investigates Conservatives Farming
Move funding to a ‘public money for public goods’ system, with the current budget for agricultural support guaranteed for the duration of Parliament. Urge public sector to buy British products. Future trade agreements won’t compromise environmental, animal-welfare and food standards
Climate change and environment
The UK could be carbon neutral by 2050, with gas boilers banned from new homes and support for electric cars, plus energy-efficiency and decarbonisation schemes, the restoration of peatland, the planting of up to 75,000 more trees a year, a deposit-return scheme to boost recycling and the banning of plastic exports to NON-OECD countries
Connectivity and infrastructure
Strengthen public transport by building the Northern Powerhouse Railway, reintroducing lines between smaller towns and creating a super-bus network; discuss HS2 with regional authorities. Every UK home and business to have full-fibre broadband by 2025, with greater countryside mobile coverage. Spend £4 billion on flood defences
Housing, planning, communities and crime
More new homes; change planning rules to ensure schools, roads and surgeries are delivered ahead of housing. Prioritise brownfield development and improve the Green Belt. Recruit 20,000 more police officers and increase resources devoted to fighting rural crime. Increase flytipping penalties
Animal welfare
Ensure animal sentience is recognised in law, toughen animal-cruelty sentences, ban ‘excessively long’ livestock journeys, end puppy smuggling, fasttrack cat micro-chipping and forbid trophy-hunting imports and primate pets
Hunting
No changes to the Hunting Act
Labour Farming and fisheries
Retain agricultural funding, but gear it towards eco-friendly food production and land management. Uphold environmental regulations in future trade relations and end the badger cull
Climate change and environment
Cut most British emissions by 2030, invest in renewable energy, plant two billion trees by 2040, promote electric cars, ban fracking, introduce windfall tax on oil companies, improve energy efficiency across housing and set zero-carbon standards for new developments. Bring in a new Clean Air Act, launch a bottle-return scheme and climate apprenticeships and monitor the carbon footprint of imports
Connectivity and infrastructure
Bring energy, water and railways into public ownership, launch the Crossrail for the North, electrify lines across the country and complete HS2 to Scotland, ‘taking full account of... environmental impacts’. Give councils control of bus networks, expand services and allow free travel for under 25s. Nationalised broadband would make full-fibre services available to all by 2030. Earmark £5.6 billion for improving flood defences
Housing, planning, communities and crime
Introduce a ‘rural-proofing’ process for new policies, deliver more than a million homes over a decade and prioritise brownfield developments, as well as protecting the Green Belt. Recruit 22,000 police officers; address rural and wildlife crime
Animal welfare
Enshrine animal sentience in law, new measures to tackle hare coursing, puppy smuggling and horse abandonment. Wildlife crime to become a reportable offence. Ban live exports for slaughter and fattening, as well as the sale of snares and glue traps, trophyhunting imports and primate pets
Hunting
Tighten law to ‘close loopholes’