Labour commits to Building Britain's Future

Building Britain's Future

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown published the new plan for Buildings Britain’s Future. In the visions set out the Labour government wants a fairer, stronger and more prosperous society, which will help drive the countries economic growth forward and help create more jobs.

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated his intentions for the future when announcing the new plans “Our task after three terms in office is not merely to defend Britain’s achievements over the last decade but to work even harder so as to meet new challenges with the same sense of conviction.”

This signifies a move towards further involving people with the big issues facing us all today, helping us build a better future for Britain, together.

To show the changes this new plan will bring, the Labour government are making twelve commitments to the people of Britain:

1. Cleaning up politics

- To rebuild trust in politics, we will create an independent regulator for parliamentary standards and a statutory Code of Conduct for all MPs.

- We will further reform the House of Lords, including the process of removing the hereditary principle. And we will now bring forward a draft bill for a smaller and democratically constituted second chamber.

2. Jobs and skills

- We will not lose another generation to workless ness. We will guarantee a sixth form, college or apprenticeship place to all school leavers. From next year, every person under 25 who has been out of work for a year will have to take a job, training, or work experience place.

- Adults who have been out of work for six months will get help with setting up a business, skills training, or volunteering opportunities.

- The £1 billion Future Jobs Fund will provide 100,000 jobs for young people and a further 50,000 new jobs in areas of unemployment.

3. A new economy

- We will pursue a new, more active industrial policy to drive growth and create the high value jobs of the future. We will invest to ensure that Britain can lead in the new industries of the global economy, ensuring broadband access for all by 2012 and working towards a nationwide high-speed broadband network by 2016

- We will ensure that Britain's economy is underpinned by a world class modern infrastructure and that we have world-leading capabilities in the “network” industries of the future – low carbon, biotechnology, life sciences, digital, advanced manufacturing and financial services.

- To support the key technology-based sectors of the future we will establish a new £150 million Innovation Fund which will over time lever up to £1 billion of private sector funding.

4. More power for patients

- Patients will have enforceable rights to high standards of care, including hospital treatment within 18 weeks, access to a cancer specialist within 2 weeks, and free health-checks on the NHS for people aged 40-74

- We will look closely at where we can go further to establish new rights, for example to NHS dentistry, to evening and weekend access to GP’s, to an individual budget for those with long-term or chronic conditions and whether we can create a right to choose to die at home as further progress is made in implementing the end of life care strategy.

5. More power for parents

- Parents will now be guaranteed an education that is individually tailored for their child, including: a personal tutor for every pupil at secondary school ; stretching teaching for all pupils, with catch up tuition for those who need it, including one to one; and qualifications that suit every child’s strengths whether practical or academic.

- We will back head teachers to enforce good behaviour in every classroom and achieve high standards for all pupils, with the best head teachers working in more than one school as we radically expand federations of schools, Trusts and Academies.

6. Investing in young people

- We are working towards ensuring that, in time, every young person gives at least 50 hours of service to their community in their teenage years.

- In the coming years, we will create new or refurbished youth centres or other facilities in every constituency to ensure that all young people have easy access to positive activities.

7. Early years

- We are creating local Sure Start Children’s Centres within easy reach of every parent and we are extending free early learning for two year olds.

- To make sure they have the best start to their primary education, all children will be entitled to start school in the September after their fourth birthday, or be offered 25 hours free early learning a week.

- The Government is extending the right to request flexible working for parents of children aged under 16.

8. Affordable housing

- An additional £1.5 billion will be invested over the next 2 years to deliver 20,000 new affordable homes, creating 45,000 jobs in the construction and related sectors.

9. Crime and policing

- We will take a bold new approach to policing and justice. We will give local people more power to keep their neighbourhoods safe, including the right to hold police to account at monthly beat meetings, have a say on CCTV and other crime prevention measures, and vote on how offenders pay back to the community.

10. Immigration and citizenship

- We will now require newcomers to earn the right to stay; extending the points based system to probationary citizenship applications and controlling the number of people getting settlement.

11. A low carbon future

- We have set the world’s first legally binding carbon targets, cutting UK emissions by a third over the next decade.

- We are investing in energy efficiency and the next generation of renewable, nuclear and clean coal technology to make Britain a global leader in low carbon industries.

- We will set out plans for a major programme of rail electrification.

- In the coming year we will publish a feasibility study for a new North-South high-speed rail line.

- We will provide incentives for the take up of low carbon buses and develop a National Cycle Plan to promote cycling as a mainstream form of personal transport.

12. International leadership

- We will ensure Britain leads globally on three major international reforms over the coming year: reforming the International Financial Institutions including through the G20; securing a global climate change agreement in Copenhagen by the end of 2009 leading global action to fight poverty, and driving forward a step-change on the nuclear non-proliferation and multilateral disarmament agenda in 2010.