AXE THE BEDROOM TAX MEET OUR CANDIDATES Labours pledge to scrap this vindictive tax
on the vulnerable.
BRISTOL VOICE
Election news from your local Labour Party candidates
We believe that every working person in Bristol deserves a Living Wage, an hourly rate of pay calculated to provide a basic but acceptable standard of living. Today in Bristol many thousands of households are struggling to make ends meet, especially those on the lowest incomes. Around 10% of earners in Bristol are paid at or near the minimum wage, with many reliant on state benets. Paying the Living Wage makes a real difference to the quality of life for employees and their families, saves taxpayers money and provides every worker with the dignity of a fair wage.
A Decent Home
Everyone should have a place to call home. More than 14,000 families are seeking a decent, affordable home to rent in Bristol. The average house to buy is 10 times the average annual salary in the city and only 100 affordable homes were completed in the city last year. Private rents are rising by at least 4% a year whilst earnings stagnate. The National Housing Federation estimate it takes over 7 years for the average Bristol worker to save enough for the deposit required for a modest starter home. At the heart of the issue are too few homes being built, but also far too many substandard existing properties. The Council estimate as many as 40,000 private houses in Bristol do not meet the decent homes standard, too often they are poorly insulated and badly maintained by absentee landlords for ever rising rents.
Bristol is a great city, full of exciting opportunities and recognised as the best city in the UK to live in.
Our schools are helping young people perform better than ever, with record exam results from Withywood to Henbury. Our two universities are world leading, low interest rates mean that for thousands of Bristol residents life is good. But we are also faced with massive challenges. Bristol is a city riven with inequality. Many of these challenges may require national solutions, but we can do more here in Bristol.
A few streets can mean a life expectancy Helen Holland - Leader of the Labour Group difference of up to 9 years. A young person in Clifton is three times more likely to go to university than one in Bishopsworth. Poverty level It is simply not acceptable that targets for affordable wages are common, with thousands paid below the homes are being watered down, that the Council does Living Wage. not insist that its contractors all pay the Living Wage or that we still dont have integrated tickets on our Buying a house in Bristol is now an impossible dream buses & trains. for many young families, private rent levels have soared as house building remains stagnant but for Labour councillors make a difference, they support a few luxury developments. Rogue private landlords the communities they represent & hold the elected exploit tenants & a few antisocial tenants can wreck Mayor to account. Campaigning with others they have communities. helped to block some of the worst cuts. A simple journey across the city can take hours because of congestion and a lack of integrated public transport. Pay day loan shops and pawnbrokers are now all too common.
Money is tight so big spending commitments are impossible, we must focus on what really matters.
At this election you can help make sure that more Labour Councillors are working hard for Bristol.
Green Capital
Bristol Green Capital 2015 must be positive for every part of our city. It must not just be a jamboree for those living within a mile of the city centre. Already, following pressure from Labour Councillors, nance has been agreed for the Filwood Green Business Park, but there is a danger that unless all the communities of Bristol are involved then the Green Capital will be perceived to be a failure. Priorities must include a Bristol Energy Company, which will provide sustainable energy to business, schools and consumers. We should target existing energy efficiency schemes on private tenants and lower income families. Cycling should be encouraged by providing more safe storage, close to peoples homes. Local groups should be encouraged to grow edible plants and vegetables on unloved parts of land. And public money should not be wasted on grandiose street parties, junkets or entertainment for the few.
Decisions over the next franchising of the Severn Beach line should be decided by the Council, wth a publicly owned operator allowed to bid. Managing contracts locally should lead to improvements for passengers, with more investment in trains and better stations. For far too long decisions about our local rail have been made in distant offices, the responsibility for improvements should be right here in Bristol where it belongs. Buses should be reregulated, giving a Mayor of Bristol
On your side
the power to set fares, routes and levels of service. And we need genuinely integrated local transport, as in London, with a ticketless system useable on all buses, MetroBus, local trains and ferries. Parts of Bristol have appalling air quality, all of our buses should be low emission vehicles and this should be included in any contract to operate the new MetroBus.
The fact is that massive cuts of 83m are still going to hit Bristol and there will be fall out from those cuts that will damage the city for years to come. These cuts are government imposed but we could not wash our hands of them when there was an opportunity to soften the blow to those hardest hit. That is what we had the chance to do, when the Mayor needed our support at the last minute, said Labour Leader and Whitchurch Park Councillor Helen Holland.
In December Labour forced the Mayor to fully fund the council tax reduction scheme for 29,000 vulnerable citizens - overturning his plan to reduce council tax benet by 25%. This is worth far more than the LibDem proposed Council Tax freeze.
Eileen Means Rhian Greaves Rosalie Walker Henbury Bishopston Brislington West
David Cameron has refused to rule out further tax cuts to the richest one per cent of taxpayers - a kick in the teeth for most of us struggling with an unprecedented cost of living crisis. Labour has been clear that when the decit is high and ordinary families are seeing their real incomes fall, it simply cant be right to give the richest people in the country a massive tax cut. The next Labour government will create a fairer tax system, ensuring that everybody plays their part in getting the decit down. When youre taking difficult decisions to tackle the decit and working families are struggling, its really important that people feel the burden is shared. Thats why Labour will restore the top rate tax to 50p for the next Parliament, and would bring in a lower 10p starting rate of tax, to help make work pay and cut taxes for 24 million people on middle and lower incomes. We will also crack down on tax avoidance and reverse the governments out of touch tax cuts to hedge funds. Cutting tax for the top one per cent wont help get the decit down and its deeply unfair, so join us in urging the Prime Minister to make fairness a central part of decit reduction and rule out a further tax cut for the wealthiest. Labour wants to freeze energy prices until January 2017, break the dominance of the big six energy companies, protect the public from being ripped off and create a tough new energy watchdog with the power to force energy companies to pass on savings to consumers.