Flooding cash vow in Tories’ blueprint for power
£4bn pledged in party’s manifesto to protect communities from effects of downpours
THE PRIME Minister committed to spending billions of pounds on flood defences as he unveiled the Conservative Party’s manifesto for the General Election amid the continued fallout from deluges devastating parts of Yorkshire.
Despite Boris Johnson’s refusal to declare a national emergency after the River Don burst its banks earlier this month, the Tories yesterday said that £4bn in new funding would be made available to protect communities from the effects of such downpours.
In a manifesto that has been branded by one business expert “remarkable” for its lack of policies, Mr Johnson did pledge to build Northern Powerhouse Rail between Leeds and Manchester, after which the government would focus on transport in Liverpool, Tees Valley, Hull, Sheffield and Newcastle.
The manifesto describes high speed rail plans under HS2 as a “great ambition”, but said it would cost at least £81bn and not reach Leeds or Manchester until as late as 2040. Pledging only to “work with leaders” in the north and the Midlands, the Conservatives said they would consider the findings of Douglas Oakervee’s review into the project.
“In this manifesto there is a vision for the future in which we unite our country,” claimed Mr Johnson. “It is time to unleash the potential of our country and forge a new Britain.”
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said that businesses
would be “heartened by a pro-enterprise vision” in the manifesto, however deputy director-general Josh Hardie said that “the inconvenient truth remains: sustainable economic growth will be risked if there is a needless rush for a bare bones Brexit deal that would slow down our domestic progress for a generation”.
At his speech in Telford, Mr Johnson had again vowed to “get Brexit done”.
Mr Hardie added: “Significant investment in local infrastructure will drive growth and reduce regional inequalities.
“To get the UK moving, the next Government must match it with unequivocal backing for key projects like HS2 and Heathrow.”
The manifesto says that the Conservatives would prioritise the environment in their first budget as it outlines the £4bn for flood defences. Earlier this month, communities in the Sheffield and Doncaster flooded and the speed of the government’s reaction was criticised.
The Conservatives said they would not support fracking “unless the science shows categorically
that it can be done safely”. The party introduced a moratorium on the controversial energy extraction process this year.
The manifesto also pledged a “triple tax lock” with no increases in income tax, national insurance and VAT for five years.
The party committed to an additional 20,000 police officers and 50,000 extra nurses with the return of nurse bursaries.
Although £1bn of funding was committed to social care in every year of the next Parliament, there was no announcement on a any act of parliament in regard to the sector.
A new deal for towns, cutting taxes for small high street retailers and installing more
CCTV, an Australian-style points based system for immigration after Britain has left the European Union and a pledge to make the UK carbon neutral by 2050 all featured.
Paul Johnson, Institute for Fiscal Studies director, said: “If the Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos were notable for the scale of their ambitions the Conservative one is not. If a single Budget had contained all these tax and spending proposals we would have been calling it modest.”
He added: “As a blueprint for five years in government the lack of significant policy action is remarkable.”
There is a vision for the future in which we unite our country. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
HALF OF the extra 50,000 nurses promised by the Conservatives would need to be recruited from overseas, health experts have said.
The Tories have pledged an extra 50,000 NHS nurses in a bid to plug the existing vacancy gap, which currently stands at more than 43,000.
The Conservative manifesto also reintroduces a nurse bursary, which the Government had scrapped, worth £5,000 to £8,000 per year.
Labour has said it will recruit 24,000 extra nurses and has pledged to reinstate NHS student bursaries worth £20,000 a year in maintenance and support.
The Tory manifesto also says there will be 6,000 more doctors in GP surgeries and 6,000 more primary care staff such as physiotherapists and pharmacists.
But Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive at the Health Foundation, said that “even with major improvement in training, recruitment and retention, we have projected that almost half of the 50,000 nurses promised would have to be recruited from other countries”.
She added: “This will be challenging and means migration policy must not be a barrier.
“And with the number of qualified permanent full-time equivalent GPs having decreased by around five per cent since the last target was set, there must be realism about what can be achieved in the timescales set out.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the extra 50,000 nurses would be brought in over the parliament through “a combination of training and extra university places, also nurse apprenticeships which allow people to train as they work, and there will be some recruitment from overseas with our new NHS visa”.
On nurse bursaries, he declined to say they should never have been scrapped but said there was a need to provide “incentives”.
Tory sources later acknowledged that about 30,000 of the additional nurses would come from measures to retain existing staff rather than new recruits.
Donna Kinnair, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “The current shortage of 43,000 registered nurses can only be filled by registered nurses – with degree-level education.
“It is unfair on staff and inappropriate for patients to try to plug this gap with other staff.”
In response to criticism from Labour, the Tory manifesto also says: “When we are negotiating trade deals, the NHS will not be on the table.”
Regarding hospital parking in England, it will become free for people with disabilities, frequent outpatients, parents of sick children staying overnight and NHS staff working night shifts.
The Tories also pledged to cut NHS waiting times for operations and A&E wait times, both of which are currently at the worst ever level, and improve cancer survival.
And, as previously announced, there will be an extra £1bn a year for social care and a promise of cross-party working, 50 million extra GP appointments per year – a rise of 15 per cent on current levels –and £34bn more per year in cashterms NHS funding by 2023/24.
The Tories also reiterated their commitment to 40 new hospitals – which has come under fire after only six were allocated full funding – and to sort out NHS pensions, which have led to rising waiting lists as senior doctors cut their hours in the face of hefty tax bills.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the current Tory spending plans mean that NHS England’s day-to-day budget is planned to rise to £140.3bn by 2023/24 – £23.5bn higher in real terms than it was in 2018/19.
Under Labour’s plans, spending would reach £143.5bn in 2023/24.