Bloggers4UKIP: Conference policy announcements

A raft of new and revised policies have been announced at the UKIP party conference in Doncaster.

You'll find a flag next to each policy to help understand which policies apply to the UK and which apply only to England (something that is always missing from UKIP manifestos) and just for fun a left/right scale below each section - red for left, blue for right. There's no real science to the left/right scale but it indicates that the policies announced this weekend are roughly 60% right wing, 40% left wing. It's no wonder Labour are running scared!

Employment

People working on zero hour contracts must be offered a fixed hour contract after 12 months. It will be their choice whether to take up the offer.
Employers will be allowed to discriminate in favour of unemployed British under-25s during the recruitment process.
Personal tax allowances will be increased so that nobody on minimum wage will pay income tax. This will take a million people out of the tax system.
A points-based immigration system will be introduced that ensures we get more highly skilled immigrant workers doing the jobs we need them to do rather than unskilled economic migrants who add little to no value to the economy.

Defence

Create a Veterans Department in the Ministry of Defence to provide a one stop shop for former armed forces personnel to access services.
Guarantee of a job in the police, prison service or border force for former armed forces personnel who have served for 12 years or more.
Priority health care for former armed forces personnel, including mental health services.
Priority access to social housing for armed forces personnel returning to civilian life.
Introduction of a National Defence Medal for all armed forces personnel to acknowledge their contribution.
Guaranteed housing for former armed forces personnel.

Communities

Stricter punishments for anti-social and criminal behaviour.
Community service for people who cause criminal damage.
Criminals jailed for crimes that affect their community will be banned from returning to live in the same area when released.
More local public services run by community groups.
Unemployed people on training courses should do work that benefits their local community.
Help community groups and charities set up credit unions to tackle loan sharks and dependency on pay day lenders.
Allow community groups to purchase services and supplies through the local authority to benefit from their buying power.
More control of council budgets by the community.
End the postcode lottery within local authorities for training and grants.
Criminalise noise nuisance so the police can deal with it when it's happening.
Make it easier to evict problem families.
Protect guerilla gardeners from punishment for improving their local green spaces.
Change planning laws so that decisions can be based on the community's access to a range of services and impact on local independent traders.
Right of appeal on planning decisions for local communities and important planning decisions to go to a referendum.
Local people should have a say on highways improvements rather than decisions being based on statistics.
Publicly funded services won't be allowed to use premium rate phone numbers.
School governing boards must have at least 30% parents of children at the school and councillors appointed to the board must demonstrate a link to the school to prevent political appointments.
Councillors must be appointed to outside bodies based on merit rather than their politics and appointments must include residents.
No parallel legal systems will be allowed.
If you go abroad to join extremists you won't be allowed to come back.

Immigration

Priority entry points at ports for UK passport holders.
Increase front line border staff by 2,500.
Abolish the provisions of the Dublin Treaty that prevent us from identifying the country of origin of illegal immigrants who come here with no identification.
All immigrants should be treated the same regardless of where they come from without discrimination based on religion, origin or ethnicity.
A points-based immigration system will be introduced that ensures we get more highly skilled immigrant workers doing the jobs we need them to do rather than unskilled economic migrants who add little or no value to the economy.
Reduce net immigration to 50,000 people per year.

Health

Commitment to the NHS remaining free at the point of need.
Licensing of NHS managers.
Exempt the NHS from the trade and investment agreement about to be signed with the US.
Exempt the NHS from investor protection laws so private companies can't sue the government over NHS contracts.
Mandatory health insurance for immigrant workers and visitors.
County health boards will replace Monitor and the Care Quality Commission and will be run by clinicians.

Economy

Personal tax allowances will be increased so that nobody on minimum wage will pay income tax. This will take a million people out of the tax system.
Reducing the tax rate from 40% to 35% on earnings between £42k and £55k a year.
Eventual implementation of a simple 20% basic rate, 30% intermediate rate and 40% top rate of tax.
Abolish inheritance tax - everything you buy is taxed when you're alive, why should your family pay tax on it again when you die?
Introduction of a 25% luxury goods tax to combat "tax free shopping" where the super rich fly in to buy expensive luxury items and claim the VAT back at the airport.
Establish a Treasury Commission to design a turnover tax for large companies to ensure a minimum rate of corporation tax is paid.

Justice

Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a UK Bill of Rights.
No votes for prisoners.
Non-compliance with the EU Arrest Warrant and the EU Investigation Order.
Routine personal sound and video recording by police officers.
Motivational and learning focus on the rehabilitation of prisoners.

Welfare

Crack down on benefit fraud.
Immigrants will have to work for 5 years before being entitled to benefits.
Child benefit will only be paid for children living in the country.
Limit child benefit to two children for new claimants.
Reinstate the spare room subsidy (abolishing the inaccurately-named "Bedroom tax").
End unfair disability benefit assessments.
Higher unemployment benefits for people who have paid into the system for 5 years or more.

Education

Return to traditional teaching in primary schools.
End sex education for primary school children.
Bring back the limit of 30 children per class.
A grammar school in every town.
Establish a single exam board to prevent schools cherry picking the easiest syllabus to inflate pass rates.
Introduce a vocational Apprenticeship Qualification Option worth 4 GCSEs that can be continued to A-Level.
Reverse the trend of closing special schools.
Require an OFSTED investigation of schools if 25% of parents and governors sign a petition expressing concerns about the school.
Abolish the target of 50% of school leavers going to university.
Abolish tuition fees for students studying medicine, science, maths and technology.
Charge EU students at universities the same as other foreign nationals.

Environment

Incentivise the return of 700,000 empty houses into the housing stock.
Relax planning regulations in strategic planning zones to convert disused commercial buildings into housing.
Concentrate house building on brownfield sites.
Establish a UK Brownfield Agency to maintain a register of brownfield sites and administer grants and loans for decontamination.
Issue Brownfield Bonds to raise £5bn for redevelopment of brownfield sites.
Abolish VAT and Stamp Duty for brownfield developments.

Business

Conduct a skills review to ensure the education system teaches the skills that businesses need.
More flexible labour market with less regulation.
Work with local councils to encourage free parking in town centres.
Simplify the planning system to help SMEs secure change of use and make it easier to bring vacant commercial properties back into use.

Transport

Scrap HS2.
Ban new toll roads.
Work to abolish existing toll roads.
No road pricing.
Abolish the EU Certificate of Professional Competence.
Introduce a road tax payable on entry to the UK so that foreign haulage companies contribute to the upkeep of our roads.
Abolish electric car subsidies.
Free bus passes for pensioners and disabled people.