Conservatives launch bold plan for London

The Conservatives have today (Monday 24 June) pledged a series of tax cuts that will reinvigorate the housing market, protect pensioners, and put more money in the pockets of hard-working Londoners. 

We will also reverse some of the London mayor's most punitive attacks on drivers, such as the ULEZ expansion that has made motorists pay up to £4,500 a year just for driving their own car. 

We will also back business, ruling out a rise in Capital Gains Tax and Corporation Tax and eliminating the National Insurance Tax for millions of self-employed people.  

Our clear plan for London includes: 

• Abolishing the main rate of National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for the self-employed in a transformative boost to the economy and enterprise. 
• Cutting payroll NICs by a further 2p by 2027, putting more money in the pockets of hard-working people. 
• Abolishing Stamp Duty for first time buyers up to £425,000 and introducing a new Help to Buy scheme to get more young people on the property ladder. 
• Reversing Labour's unfair ULEZ expansion in London.   
• Ruling out pay-per-mile road tax schemes and a commitment to block Sadiq Khan from bringing his planned one in. 
• Ruling out new top-down blanket Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods and 20mph zones, with existing schemes to be put to a local referendum.  
• Increasing density levels in inner London to build more homes in the right places. 
• Delivering more family homes by forcing the Mayor to plan for more homes on brownfield sites like underused industrial land. 
• Giving a cast-iron commitment to protect the Green Belt from uncontrolled development, unlike Sadiq Khan who has promised to build on it.  
• Putting more police on London's streets, recruiting 8,000 additional full-time police officers across England and Wales to cut crime and make our streets safer.  
• Clamping down on so-called “zombie knives” and machetes, making them illegal to possess, sell, manufacture or transport. 
• Revitalizing the nighttime economy with a review on licensing, and by making sure councils are not setting disproportionate restrictions on licenses. 

We have a plan for London; Labour only lets the city down. Their record includes: 

• Taxing the lowest earners with an unfair ULEZ expansion and the imposition of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and 20mph zones without community consent.  
• Missing their own housing targets, building only half the homes the Mayor's plan identified as needed each year.  
• Dismantling the nighttime economy, overseeing the closure of 3,000 bars and pubs in London and have no plan to revitalize the sector.  
• Presiding over a 20 per cent increase in knife crime last year.  
• Overseeing a failure to recruit enough police, with the Labour Mayor being the only Police and Crime Commissioner to miss police recruitment standards, despite being provided with the funding needed by the Conservative Government. 

Minister for London, Greg Hands said: 

“Our plan for London will boost the economy, protect pensioners, and support hard-working Londoners by bringing in targeted tax cuts and reversing damaging tax hikes by Sadiq Khan.    

“By abolishing unfair taxes like the ULEZ expansion, scrapping National Insurance Contributions for the self-employed, and building more homes for Londoners, we will make London a more affordable and liveable city.   

“Unlike Labour under Sadiq Khan, which has consistently failed to meet housing targets and support the nighttime economy, we have a clear plan to improve our city for the benefit of all Londoners." 

ENDS 

Notes to Editors 

Plan for London 

ACTION ON TRANSPORT 

• Putting another £220 million to buy new trains so we can support extra services in the future. 
• Backing the Euston Quarter project, which will deliver a world-class station as the terminus for HS2 and up to 10,000 new homes.   
• Reversing Labour's unfair ULEZ expansion in London.   
• No road pricing schemes, and a commitment to block Sadiq Khan from bringing his planned one in. 
• Ruling out top-down blanket Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods and 20-mph zones, with new schemes to be put to a local referendum.  

ACTION ON HOUSING 

• We will raise density levels in inner London to those of European cities like Paris and Barcelona to build more homes in the right places 
• We will ensure the London Plan delivers more family homes a year, forcing the Mayor to plan for more homes on brownfield sites, like underused industrial land.  
• We will regenerate major sites like Euston, Old Oak Common and Thamesmead.   
• And we will have a cast-iron commitment to protect the Green Belt from uncontrolled development, unlike Sadiq Khan who has promised to build on it.  

ACTION ON THE NIGHTTIME ECONOMY 

• Review licensing and look at whether councils are setting disproportionate conditions/restrictions on licenses.  
• Retain powers for residents to raise concerns about poor conduct.   
• Building on the success of the pavement licence, consider introducing a unified consent/licence for pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues.  

ACTION ON CRIME  

• More police on London's streets, recruiting 8,000 additional full-time, fully warranted police officers across England and Wales to cut crime and help communities feel in safer.   
• Tough action to tackle knife crime in London, by clamping down on so-called “Zombie knives” and machetes, which will be illegal to possess, sell, manufacture or transport.  
• We will increase the maximum penalty for sale of dangerous weapons to under 18s and create a criminal offence of possession of a bladed article with the intent to cause harm, with a maximum penalty of four years' imprisonment.  

ACTION ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & GIRLS 

• We will tackle violence against women and girls in London.  
• We will make rapists and serious sexual offenders serve their entire sentence behind bars. 
• We will pass laws to tackle new crimes such as taking intimate images without consent, the unacceptable excuse of “rough sex gone wrong” and to make spiking an offence. 
• We will bring in a new investigatory model rolled out to all police forces and pre-recorded evidence available for victims in all Crown courts, including in London.  

ACTION ON BUSINESS 

• We will not raise corporation tax and will not increase Capital Gains Tax.  
• We will abolish the main rate of National Insurance entirely by the end of the next Parliament, meaning that 93% of self-employed people will no longer pay self-employed National Insurance at all.  
• We will use the freedoms granted by Brexit and exempt more companies from the burdensome reporting requirements. Lifting the employee threshold at which companies are considered medium-sized will save businesses at least one million hours of admin a year.  
• We will promote digital invoicing and improve enforcement of the Prompt Payment Code to support small businesses facing the perennial challenge of cash flow. This will build on our creation of the Small Business Commissioner with powers to tackle unfavourable payment practices.  
• We have made hiring an apprentice easier and cheaper for small businesses.  
• We have taken thousands of small businesses in London out of paying VAT altogether by raising the VAT registration threshold to £90,000. We will keep the VAT threshold under review and explore options to smooth the cliff edge created by the £90,000 threshold.