by Elliot Keck, head of campaigns
We’ve had to wait for a long time for a detailed, clearly laid out policy agenda from the leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch. There’s certainly been a drip drip of undeniably sound proposals, such as extending to ten years the amount of time someone has to be here before claiming indefinite leave to remain. There have also been encouraging announcements on energy policy - such as scrapping the net zero target and getting rid of the disastrous windfall tax. The Conservatives have also been clear they would reverse changes to business property relief, agricultural property relief and VAT on private schools.
But little else beyond that, to the frustrations of some. Well that has now changed decisively, with a detailed policy agenda laid out at Conservative Party Conference, in particular in Kemi Badenoch’s speech on Wednesday. It’s incomplete, which is unsurprising given the amount of time until an election. But it’s an impressive start to her policy programme.
To take a few highlights…
The golden rule: these so-called “rules” can on occasion sound like a gimmick, but the principles underlying Kemi’s own fiscal rules are undeniably sound. For every two pounds saved one pound will go towards paying down the deficit. Given the state of the UK’s national debt, with our debt clock showing the debt ticking up by £5,000 per second, taxpayers will be pleased to see a major party leader with such a focus on sorting out the finances. Any other savings will go towards boosting economic growth. Here is where more detail is needed. If “boosting economic growth” means tax cuts and spending on genuinely growth generating projects like capital expenditure then happy days. What it must not be is a smokescreen for pork barrel projects.
Welfare: we at the TPA have been banging the drum for months about the need to crack down on the welfare bill, which is rapidly heading towards £100 billion for health and disability benefits by the end of the decade. In fairness to Kemi, she’s been on the ball about this for a while, with her speech in parliament during Labour’s disastrous attempt to reduce the growth of welfare spending mentioning our pioneering work. Her and her team’s plans to limit benefits to those with mild mental health conditions is obviously sensible.
Cutting the size of the civil service: as our research has consistently shown, the civil service has continued to grow in recent years with absolutely no evidence that it is delivering in the way of improvements. Instead we are just paying for a bigger, more bloated, less effective bureaucracy. The problem is, as we’ve demonstrated, the new roles are heavily weighted towards policy and communications, not actual service delivery. Kemi’s commitment to slash the size of the civil service is well over-due, although we have of course heard these promises made before…
Review all DEFRA quangos: DEFRA quangos such as Natural England are some of the most notorious when it comes to red tape and bureaucracy. They suffocate growth, add costs to businesses and hold back rural areas. But it’s not just DEFRA quangoes that need to be reviewed, as our Britain’s Quangos Uncovered campaign has demonstrated.
Abolishing stamp duty: just unambiguously positive. A policy that will boost growth, simplify the tax code and ease the housing crisis. Although let’s abolish it for shares as well as property purchases, please!
There’s a whole load more, mostly sensible, some radical, policies laid out in Kemi’s speech and in the days prior. We still have more to learn about her broader policies on tax, the NHS, pensions and a whole range of other policy areas. Take inheritance tax - reversing changes to APR and BPR isn’t enough, we need to scrap the whole thing.
But a good start it certainly was.