Labour publishes manifesto for Brighton and Hove local elections

The Labour Party has published its manifesto for the Brighton and Hove City Council elections on Thursday 2 May.

It contains “six key pledges” include delivering a park and ride scheme and building at least 800 new council homes over the next four years.

The party also pledged to “take all action required to make our city carbon neutral by 2030”.

The Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Daniel Yates, said: “Our six pledges highlight key issues facing our city that the next council must act on for future generations.

“Action on homelessness, the housing crisis, the climate change emergency, community safety and our NHS cannot be pushed into the long grass and any genuine incoming administration needs to have robust plans in place to address these urgently.”

Councillor Yates also said: “Alongside these, we need to assure residents that where services are outsourced this is for genuine effectiveness reasons and not simply to reduce council staffing or support private profit from public services.

“Our city is in a strong position to deliver a better future for all. These pledges start to make those ambitions reality.”

Brighton and Hove Labour Party’s Local Campaigns Forum chair Jon Rogers said: “Today Labour is launching six firm achievable pledges as our commitment to the people of Brighton and Hove.

“Over the coming days and weeks, we will spell out in detail how a Labour majority council will implement these pledges.”

Although Labour currently runs the council, it does not have a majority. It was elected in 23 seats out of the 54 in Brighton and Hove. It now has 19.

The Conservatives won 20 seats at the last election and, with the recent defection of former Labour councillor Anne Meadows, the Tories now have 21 seats. The Greens have 11.

Mr Rogers said: “Across Brighton and Hove our excellent diverse team of candidates are already out campaigning for our policies.

“On Thursday 2 May, Labour will offer local people the chance to vote for a socialist council which can make a real difference for our city.”

The six key pledges are

• We will take all action required to make our city carbon neutral by 2030 including delivering a park and ride scheme.
• We will continue to focus on the causes of homelessness and work towards eliminating the need for rough sleeping.
• We will provide a minimum of 800 new council homes over the next four years, bringing the total to over 1,000.
• We will independently audit all outsourced services and bring services in-house if it will achieve a higher level of social value.
• We will establish a fund to enhance the provision of neighbourhood services and community policing across the city.
• We will defend the NHS and work to create a joined up health and social care system locally to provide the best seamless care for residents. However, we will oppose any proposal for merger which further privatises our NHS, fails to provide for democratic oversight or is not in the best interests of the people of our city.

Publication of the manifesto follows “a massive consultation process by thousands of Labour Party members from across the city”, the party said.

The key pledges “are intended to shape the party’s priority areas for the next four years” although Labour said that it required a majority – 28 seats or more – to be sure of fulfilling its promises.

The party said that it planned to outline further details over the next three weeks to give residents and the media a chance to properly scrutinise their policy offering.