Election 2024: what would the Liberal Democrats' plans mean for your money?

The Liberal Democrats have launched their manifesto ahead of the 2024 general election, which will be held on 4 July.

Read on to find out about the key personal finance and consumer pledges made by the Lib Dems, covering everything from social care to tax.

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Tax

Reverse tax cuts on bank profits.

Additional investment in HMRC to tackle tax avoidance and evasion.

Introduce 4% tax on share buyback schemes of FTSE 100 companies.

End retrospective tax changes such as the loan charge.

Housing

Building new homes

Build 380,000 homes each year across the UK, 150,000 of which would be social homes.

Build 10 new garden cities.

Introduce 'use it or lose it' planning permission.

Private renting

Create a national register of licensed landlords.

Require landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties to EPC C or above by 2028.

Social housing

Introduce Rent to Own model for social housing, where rent payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property until they own it outright after 30 years.

End rough sleeping within the next Parliament.

Leaseholders

Cap ground rents to a nominal fee.

Remove dangerous cladding from all buildings without any financial contribution required from leaseholders.

Social care

Introduce paid carer's leave.

Introduce statutory guarantee of regular respite breaks for carers.

Make caring a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

Pensions and investments

Require pension funds to show their portfolios are consistent with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Increase powers for regulators to act if banks don't properly manage climate risks.

Benefits

Remove the benefit cap and two-child limit.

End the spare room subsidy, which reduces the amount of benefits received depending on the number of additional bedrooms in a property.

Replace benefit sanctions regime with incentive-based scheme.

Expand the full rate of universal credit to parents under 25.

Banking and scams

Require the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to protect access to cash, expand access to bank accounts, deliver Sharia-compliant student finance, and support vulnerable customers.

Name and shame banks with the worst records on preventing fraud and reimbursing victims.

Require banks to reimburse victims of automated push payment (APP) scams unless there is clear evidence they are at fault.

Household bills

Introduce social tariff of energy discounts for vulnerable households.

Provide incentives for installing heat pumps.

Ensure gigabit broadband access to all homes and businesses.

End regional differences in domestic energy bills.

Transport

Roll out more electric car charging points.

Restore the 2030 deadline for all cars and small vans sold to be zero-emission.

Freeze rail fares.

Simplify public transport ticketing.

Maintain £2 bus fare cap while fares are reviewed.

Expand Rural Fuel Duty Relief.

Jobs and pay

Scrap the lower apprentice rate of the minimum wage.

Create a new 'dependent contractor' employment status between employed and self-employed, with entitlement to minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holidays.

Set a 20% higher minimum wage zero-hour contract workers at times of normal demand.

Establish carer's minimum wage, £2 above the national minimum wage.

Introduce a right to a fixed-hours contract after 12 months on a zero-hours contract.

Increase the rate of sick pay to line up with the national minimum wage, while expanding it to those earning less than £123 a week and being available from the first day of missing work instead of the fourth.

Childcare

Extend free school meals to all children in poverty, with longer-term plan to extend to all primary school children

Double statutory maternity and shared parental pay to £350 a week.

Increase paternity leave to 90% of earnings with a cap for high earners, alongside a 'use it or lose it' leave month for fathers and partners.

Make parental pay and leave rights available from the first day of work and extend them to self-employed parents.

Introduce paid neonatal care leave.

Longer-term plan to give families six weeks of 'use it or lose it' parental leave paid at 90% of earnings, and 46 weeks of parental leave shared between a couple as they like, paid at double the current statutory rate.

Pricing

Ending the gender price gap so that women are not charged more than men for practically identical products or services marketed at them. 

What would the Lib Dems' pledges cost?

The Liberal Democrats have estimated that these pledges will cost £26.8bn.

Funding would come from £26.9bn raised from tax pledges and other smaller policies. The Lib Dems anticipate around £7bn would come from tackling tax avoidance and evasion, plus just more £5bn from reforms to capital gains tax loopholes, and more than £4bn from increasing tax on bank profits.

Other savings come from measures including allowing asylum seekers to work after three months, a 'sewage tax' on water company profits, and increased Digital Services Tax on tech companies. 

Which?'s consumer agenda

Ahead of the general election, we'll be covering all the major party manifestos as and when they're released.

We've also recently published our election manifesto, which sets out the reforms we believe the next government should implement to protect consumers.

These measures include better retirement outcomes, tackling online crime and helping people make more sustainable choices.

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source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/election-2024-what-would-the-liberal-democrats-plans-mean-for-your-money-aA9Vq6D3hOUD