Here is a brief bulleted summary of the Conservative manifesto for the 2015 manifesto. Click one of the links below to go to a specific section or scroll to read the whole summary. You can find the manifesto in full here. Read other parties’ manifestos here.
- Economy
- Infrastructure and Communication
- Jobs
- Taxes and Welfare
- Immigration
- Education
- Health
- Culture, Equality and Opportunities
- Government & Constitution
- Housing
- Environment & Energy
- Crime & Justice
- Terrorism
- Retirement & Pensions
- Europe
- Foreign Policy
Economy
- keep our economy secure by running a surplus so that we start paying down our debts
- increase the tax-free Personal Allowance to £12,500 and the 40p Income Tax threshold to £50,000
- commit to no increases in VAT, National Insurance contributions or Income Tax
- crack down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance and ensure those who can afford to pay the most do
- rebalance our economy, build a Northern Powerhouse and back elected metro mayors
- pursue our ambition to become the most prosperous major economy in the world by the 2030s.
Infrastructure and Communication
- invest in infrastructure to attract businesses and good jobs across the whole of the UK
- make your life easier, with more and faster trains, more roads and cycle routes
- keep commuter rail fares frozen in real terms for the whole of the next Parliament
- roll out universal broadband and better mobile phone connections, to ensure everyone is part of the digital economy.
Jobs
- help businesses to create two million new jobs, so we achieve full employment
- give businesses the most competitive taxes of any major economy
- back small firms with a major business rates review
- support three million new apprenticeships, so young people acquire the skills to succeed
Taxes and Welfare
- cut income tax for 30 million people, taking everyone who earns less than £12,500 out of Income Tax altogether
- pass a new law so that nobody working 30 hours on the Minimum Wage pays Income Tax on what they earn
- back aspiration by raising the 40p tax threshold – so that no one earning less than £50,000 pays it
- cap overall welfare spending, lower the amount of benefits that any household can receive to £23,000 and continue to roll out Universal Credit, to make work pay
- bring in tax-free childcare to support parents back into work, and give working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds 30 hours of free childcare a week.
Immigration
- keep our ambition of delivering annual net migration in the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands
- control migration from the European Union, by reforming welfare rules
- clamp down on illegal immigration and abuse of the Minimum Wage
- enhance our border security and strengthen the enforcement of immigration rules
- develop a fund to ease pressure on local areas and public services.
Education
- ensure a good primary school place for your child, with zero tolerance for failure
- turn every failing and coasting secondary school into an academy and deliver free schools for parents and communities that want them
- help teachers to make Britain the best country in the world for developing maths, engineering, science and computing skills
- create 3 million new apprenticeships and make sure there is no cap on university places, so we have aspiration for all.
Health
- continue to increase spending on the NHS, supported by a strong economy, so the NHS stays free for you to use
- spend at least an additional £8 billion by 2020 over and above inflati on to fund and support the NHS’s own action plan for the next five years
- ensure you can see a GP and receive the hospital care you need, 7 days a week by 2020, with a guarantee that everyone over 75 will get a same-day appointment if they need one
- integrate health and social care, through our Better Care Fund
- lead the world in fighting cancer and finding a cure for dementia
Culture, Equality & Opportunities
- keep our major national museums and galleries free to enter
- support school sport, build on our Olympic and Paralympic legacy, and deliver the Rugby and Cricket World Cups and the World Athletics Championships
- freeze the BBC licence fee, to save you money
- support our creative industries and defend a free media
- guarantee your child a place on National Citizen Service, so they can learn new skills and meet young people from different walks of life
- promote equal treatment and equal opportunity for all in a society proud of its tolerance and diversity
- give those who work for a big company and the public sector a new workplace entitlement to Volunteering Leave for three days a year, on full pay.
Government and Constitution
- save you money by cutting government waste
- put more of the essential services you use online, to make them more convenient
- continue to make government more transparent, so you can hold us to account for how your money is being spent.
- give English MPs a veto over matters only affecting England, including on Income Tax
- honour in full our commitments to Scotland to devolve extensive new powers
- implement the agreed settlement for Wales, handing over more responsibility to the Welsh Assembly
- continue to build a Northern Ireland where politics works, the economy grows and society is strong.
Housing
- help to keep mortgage rates lower by continuing to work through our long-term economic plan
- build more homes that people can afford, including 200,000 new Starter Homes exclusively for first-time buyers under 40
- extend the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme to 2020 to help more people onto and up the housing ladder, and introduce a new Help to Buy ISA to support people saving for a deposit
- give more people the chance to own their home by extending the Right to Buy to tenants of Housing Associations and create a Brownfield Fund to unlock homes on brownfield land
- ensure local people have more control over planning and protect the Green Belt
Environment and Energy
- put in place a new ‘Blue Belt’ to protect precious marine habitats
- invest in cleaner air and water for you and your family
- keep our forests in trust for the nation
- keep your bills as low as possible and promote competition in the energy market
- ensure your homes and businesses have energy supplies they can rely on
- help you insulate your home
- halt the spread of subsidised onshore wind farms
- meet our climate change commitments, cutting carbon emissions as cheaply as possible, to save you money
Crime & Justice
- finish the job of police reform, so you can have more confidence that your local policing team is working effectively
- toughen sentencing and reform the prison system, so dangerous criminals are kept off your streets
- support victims, so that the most vulnerable in our society get the support they deserve.
- scrap the Human Rights Act and curtail the role of the European Court of Human Rights, so that foreign criminals can be more easily deported from Britain.
Terrorism
- strengthen the ability of the police and intelligence agencies to disrupt terrorist plots, so the authorities have all the tools they need to prevent attacks
- deal with online radicalisation and propaganda, so we can reduce the risk of young people being drawn into extremism and terrorism
- tackle all forms of extremism, including non-violent extremism, so our values and our way of life are properly promoted and defended
Retirement & Pensions
- take the family home out of Inheritance Tax for all but the richest by raising the effective threshold for married couples and civil partners to £1 million
- continue to increase the State Pension through our triple lock, so it rises by at least 2.5 per cent, inflation or earnings, whichever is highest
- reward saving by introducing a new single-tier pension
- give you the freedom to invest and spend your pension however you like – and let you pass it on to your loved ones tax-free
- protect pensioner benefits including the free bus pass, TV licences and Winter Fuel Payment
- ensure Britain has a strong economy, so we can continue to protect the NHS and make sure no-one is forced to sell their home to pay for care.
Europe
- give you a say over whether we should stay in or leave the EU, with an in-out referendum by the end of 2017
- commit to keeping the pound and staying out of the Eurozone
- reform the workings of the EU, which is too big, too bossy and too bureaucratic
- reclaim power from Brussels on your behalf and safeguard British interests in the Single Market
- back businesses to create jobs in Britain by completing ambitious trade deals and reducing red tape.
Foreign Policy
- ensure Britain is a major player on the world stage, using diplomacy to protect your interests, uphold British values and tackle threats to your security and prosperity
- help generate new trade, investment and job opportunities, to benefit you and your family
- maintain our world class Armed Forces so they continue to guarantee your security
- uphold our commitment to spend 7 per cent of gross national income on international development.