What are the political parties pledging that could help my joinery business?

Matthew Mahony, BWF Policy Executive

The UK general election is now only a week away and it is difficult to ignore the tidal waves of political promises, pledges and pronouncements that have followed in the wake of the launch of the Party Manifestos.

So what relevance will the manifestos actually have?

Those of you thinking back to the run-up to the previous election will probably already have forgotten about the ‘Big Society’, the ‘Green Deal’ and the coalition’s early stated ambition to become the ‘greenest government ever’. Events of more relevance to a joinery industry in the doldrums at the time would perhaps have been the winding down of expensive publicly-funded projects such as Building Schools for the Future’ as the construction economy began its slow and painful post-crisis rebalancing to a market now driven by growth in private housing, commercial and infrastructure.

With famous examples of missed targets and manifesto ‘U-turns’ including those on tuition fees (by the Liberal Democrats in 2010 and by Labour in the previous decade), and April 2011’s ‘no ifs no buts’ Conservative announcement on immigration, you could be forgiven for thinking that current grand designs for housing, apprenticeships and the ‘locking’ of tax rates may remain unrealised.

So what are the parties offering this time around?

Aside from bold pronouncements on house building and some ambitious pledges on the use of sustainable products by the Liberal Democrats and the Green party, the general picture could be summarised as ‘steady as she goes’, rather than ‘full steam ahead’. All parties are keen to court small businesses but with a review of business rates already in progress and both major parties seemingly agreeing not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT (watch this space!), there is little to differentiate between them. Despite numerous pledges to keep Britain’s forest in public hands and plant more trees, the manifesto documents each betray a lack of knowledge of the genuine sustainability benefits of timber and timber products – something that we will be keen to demonstrate to them.

We have isolated some of the main manifesto points below and you can also read the CPA summary documents in our new Campaigns Toolkit.

Will the parties be able to follow through on their initiatives even if they can generate the necessary political capital within their own support?

This is unclear, as political parties are as beholden to events as you or I and will have to retain a degree of pragmatism dependent on the economic situation at the time. Delivery is also a factor as in the case of projects such as the Green Deal, which generated a lot of political momentum initially but ultimately struggled to make much of a dent in the hugely ambitious targets set despite noble intentions to improve energy efficency in the UK’s existing building stock. In terms of the timber window and door market, yearly sales on account of the Green Deal would have accounted for little more than a workshop worth of product. Perhaps we will one day soon see a repackaged and rebranded ‘Green Deal’ type scheme building on the lessons learned.

Cross-party support for an initiative will likely be required. Current polling has been inconclusive with US statistician Nate Silver, who correctly predicted the results in every state in most recent US election, among those suggesting there could be an “incredibly messy outcome” with no two parties able to form a majority without the help of a third. This could lead to a ‘rainbow coalition’ or even another election further down the line. In this instance it is unlikely that we will see movement on more controversial initiatives such as the extension of Right to Buy to housing association tenants, without cross-party political deal-making taking place.

Given the potential for a minority government and the likelihood of political trade-offs, the manifestos of the smaller parties have been under more scrutiny than ever before. Despite the standard selection of political platitudes, all the mainstream political parties have been careful to give the impression that their pledges are affordable and have incorporated a wide range of issues into their manifestos.

How will BWF continue to ensure that my voice is heard after the new government is formed?

Relevant ministers, previous MPs and candidates in marginal seats will have already received a copy of the BWF's manifesto, but to ensure that UK manufacturers of joinery products get the best deal from any new government, whatever the colour, we will correspond with the relevant new ministerial teams –when they are appointed – and ensure they receive an introduction to the BWF.

We will also be preparing other resources for you, such as a template letter to send to your new MP to get them to visit your factory. This will be linked in to what you are doing to support the local community, jobs, and apprentices and will cover issues such as securing a low carbon future, local procurement and payment, retrofitting and business rates.

You can find further information on the BWF website,  including the CPA summaries of each manifesto. Here are some of the main manifesto points and differentiators on the topics of manufacturing, sustainable products, construction and skills (parties listed in alphabetical order).

Conservatives

• Abolish employers' NICs for young apprentices under 25.
• Accept the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission that the National Minimum Wage should rise to £6.70 this autumn, on course for a Minimum Wage that will be over £8 by 2020.
• Jobcentre Plus advisers to work with schools and colleges to supplement careers advice and provide routes into work experience and apprenticeships.
• Not increase the rates of VAT, Income Tax or National Insurance in the next Parliament.
• Raise the tax-free Personal Allowance to £12,500.
• Raise the 40p tax threshold so that no one earning less than £50,000 pays the higher rate of Income Tax.
• Support the creation of 200,000 Starter Homes, sold at a 20 per cent discount, which will be exclusively available for first time buyers under 40 years old.
• Deliver 275,000 affordable homes by 2020.
• Right to Buy to be extended to all Housing Association tenants.
• Local authorities will be required to provide an open register of what brownfield land is available for development and ensure that 90 per cent of suitable sites have planning permission for housing by 2020.
• Implement the recommendations of the Competition and Markets Authority investigation into the Energy Market.
• Legislate in the first session of the next Parliament for an in-out referendum to be held on Britain’s membership of the EU before the end of 2017.

Green Party

• Phase in a 35 hour week.
• End exploitative zero hours contracts and end the exploitation of interns, ensuring no unpaid full time internship lasts more than four weeks.
• Review business rules to ensure they are not discriminating against smaller businesses.
• Introduce a maximum pay ratio of 10:1 between the best and worst paid employee in an organisation.
• Oppose HS2.
• VAT on housing repairs and renovations to be reduced from 20 per cent to 5 per cent.
• Large building companies to be broken up in order to diversity the building sector and increase the number of SMEs.
• Right to Buy to be scrapped.
• Provide 500,000 social rented homes to high sustainability standards in the lifetime of the parliament.
• Local authorities to set out a local carbon plan to show how their area will meet overall greenhouse gas reduction targets.
• All new homes to be built to the Passivhaus standard.
• A national college created for training in energy home improvements.
• Establish mandatory standards for commercial building performance.
• Support an in-out referendum on British membership of the EU but remain committed to EU membership.

Labour

• Reverse the 50p tax cut for the top one per cent.
• No increase in the basic or higher rates of Income Tax, National Insurance or VAT.
• A cut and freeze of business rates to maintain the most competitive corporate tax rates in the G7.
• An increase in the National Minimum Wage to more than £8 an hour by October 2019.
• Introduction of Make Work Pay contracts to provide tax rebates to firms becoming Living Wage employers.
• Guaranteed apprenticeship for every school leaver who attains the grades and requirement any firm that gets a large government contract to offer apprenticeships.
• Build at least 200,000 homes a year by 2020, by implementing the recommendations of the Lyons Review.
• Increase competition in the house building industry by backing small builders, including through Help to Build scheme, and by getting the public sector building again.
• Build more affordable homes by prioritising capital investment for housing and by reforming the council house financing system.
• Support HS2.
• Freeze energy bills until 2017 and give the regulator the power to cut them.
• Deliver a million interest free loans for energy home improvements in the next Parliament. For those on low incomes, Labour will make 200,000 homes warm every year.
• Privately rented properties to have to meet a decency standard.

Liberal Democrats

• Develop a national skills strategy for key sectors, including low-carbon technologies, to help match skills and people.
• Extend the business rates review to ensure it considers the implementation of land value tax, as well as interim reforms like site value rating that could be completed within five years.
• Reform Capital Gains Tax and Dividend Tax relief, refocus Entrepreneurs’ Relief and create a supplementary Corporation Tax for the banking sector.
• Support HS2.
• Remove exemptions in the Zero Carbon Standard for new homes, increasing the standard steadily and extending it to non-domestic buildings from 2019.
• Promote the development of off-site manufacturing techniques to improve energy performance of buildings.
• Reform the Green Deal ‘pay as you save’ scheme into a new Green Homes Loan Scheme.
• Build 300,000 homes a year.
• Local authorities to be permitted to borrow to build affordable homes and have full control over Right to Buy.
• Double the number of businesses which hire apprentices, including by extending them to new sectors of the economy, like creative and digital industries.
• Develop National Colleges as national centres of expertise for key sectors, like renewable energy.
• Hold an in/out referendum on EU membership if there is any treaty change involving material transfer of sovereignty from the UK to the EU.

Plaid Cymru

• UK additional tax rate to be set at 50p in the pound for those earning more than £150,000 per year.
• Reduce VAT to five per cent on certified housing renovations.
• Support first time buyers to get on the housing ladder and reform the legal fees applicable for when housing deals fall through.
• Introduce a Green New Deal to support making homes more energy efficient.
• Introduce a Citizens’ Service focusing on skills and learning so that young people are ready for the world of work.

Scottish National Party

• Increase in the minimum wage to £8.70 by 2020.
• Increase in the minimum wage rate for 18 to 21 year olds to £6.86 by 2020 and pay the same rate to apprentices.
• Press the UK government to introduce effective legal protections to ensure small businesses are paid on time.
• Raise additional revenue through reintroduction of the 50p top tax rate, a tax on bankers' bonuses, a bank levy, a mansion tax, a crackdown on tax avoidance, the abolition of 'non dom' status, reversal of the married couples' tax allowance, and a review of the pension tax relief available to the wealthiest.
• Back plans for an annual UK target of 100,000 affordable homes.
• Call on and vote for the UK Government to adopt Scotland’s ambitious carbon reduction targets.
• Prioritise the devolution of powers over employment policy, including the minimum wage, welfare, business taxes, national insurance and equality policy.
• Give the Scottish Parliament the ability to directly represent its interests on devolved matters in the EU and internationally.
• Vote against an In/Out EU referendum. In the case of a referendum, seek to introduce a 'double majority' rule, requiring a 'Yes' majority in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, for the UK to leave the EU.

UK Independence Party

• Allow British businesses to choose to employ British citizens first.
• Introduce a 20 per cent business rate relief if a business has only one property and the rateable value is less than £50,000.
• Introduce a scheme whereby if a large company is found to be systematically exceeding its contractual terms of payment with small businesses, a sanction of significant fines will be levied.
• Raise the threshold for paying 40 per cent income tax to £55,000 and introduce a new intermediate tax rate of 30 per cent on incomes ranging between £43,500 and £55,000.
• New immigration policies to begin when they confirm the country’s intention to leave the EU with an ‘out’ vote in a national referendum.
• Allow large-scale developments to be overturned by a binding local referendum triggered by the signatures of 5 per cent of electors within a planning authority area, collected within three months.
• Merge Planning and Building Control departments in local authorities.
• Build one million homes on brownfield sites by 2025.
• Commit to withdrawing taxpayer and consumer subsidies for new wind turbines and solar photovoltaic arrays, while respecting existing contractual arrangements.
• Abolish green taxes and levies and withdraw from the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme.
• Introduce an option for students to take an apprenticeship qualification instead of four non-core GCSEs.
• Support an In/Out referendum on EU membership as soon as possible.
• If successfully passed, activate Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, giving notice to leave the European Union within two years. The Foreign Secretary will have ultimate responsibility for managing the process.