Care charges – “dementia tax” could hit 76% of homes in Bury

76% of homes in Bury could be eligible for sale to meet Theresa May’s so-called ‘dementia tax’, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The figures are based on the value of homes sold so far this year across Bury, where 76% are over £100,000 (based on house sales so far this year). The threshold, set at £100k estate value would cover 9 in 10 houses in England. This is a conservative estimate as this is based of the value of homes rather than entire estate values which will often be higher as they include savings and other assets.

The Prime Minister has now said that there will be a ‘cap’ on care costs, but refuses to say what the cap will be. If the cap was set at £200k, over half the the value of the average home would be at risk of being wiped out in 40% of English constituencies.

We believe that politicians need to be honest about how much money we need to spend on health and care services, particularly for a population that includes more older people. The Liberal Democrats are calling for a penny on income tax to boost funding for the NHS and social care by £6 billion a year.

Every elderly person who needs care should receive it in the best place for them. People shouldn’t have to worry about losing everything they’ve worked hard for to pay for crippling care cost. Nobody should be forced to sell their home to pay for their care needs.

Help us put a stop to the care tax by signing this petition. Stop the ‘Dementia Tax’

Lib Dems will invest £27 million to protect school funding in Bury

The Liberal Democrats have announced they will invest £27,055,827 more in schools and colleges in Bury over the next parliament.

The funding for Bury would reverse cuts to frontline school and college budgets, protect per pupil funding in real terms and ensure no school loses out from changes to funding arrangements.

£1,534,076 of the funding would be spent on protecting the Pupil Premium, introduced by the Liberal Democrats to help the most disadvantaged children.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bury North, Richard Baum, said:

“Children in Bury are being taught in overcrowded classes by overworked teachers – but Theresa May doesn’t care.

“Under the Conservatives, funding per pupil is set to see the biggest cuts in a generation, while billions of pounds are being spent on divisive plans to expand grammars and free schools.

“This extra £27,055,827 of funding would ensure no school and no child loses out.

“We will reverse crippling Conservative cuts to school budgets and invest to ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed.”

Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said:

“A landslide for the Conservatives would allow Theresa May to take parents across the country for granted and cut our schools to the bone.

“Only the Liberal Democrats can provide the strong opposition Britain needs to stand up for Bury.

“Vote for the Liberal Democrats and you can change Britain’s future.”

More information:
The Liberal Democrats will invest £6.9bn more in our schools and colleges over the next parliament, to ensure no school and no child loses out. A breakdown of local figures on additional funding by local authority can be found here.

Over the course of the Parliament, we will:
Protect per pupil funding in real terms in schools (£3.31bn)
Protect further education per pupil funding in real terms (£660m)
Ensure no school loses out from the National Funding Formula (£1.26bn)
Protect the pupil premium in real terms (£415m)
These plans will be fully costed in the Liberal Democrat manifesto, which will be launched in due course and set all our spending plans out in more detail. This will include reversing the Government’s proposed funding for new grammar schools.

A report by the National Audit Office has found school budgets will be slashed by £3bn in real terms by 2019-20 – the equivalent to reducing spending by 8 per cent per pupil, under current government plans (link)

Lib Dems penny for NHS would raise £21.6 million extra for Bury

The Liberal Democrats have announced they would plug funding gaps for the NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax, in their first major manifesto commitment of the election campaign.

The tax would raise an additional £21.6 million for Bury, with £14 million for the NHS and £7.6 million for social care each year.

This is the party’s flagship spending commitment and its first major policy announcement for the election. The Liberal Democrats manifesto will also set out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services in their manifesto.

At least 70% of Brits would happily pay an extra 1p in every pound if that money was guaranteed to go to the NHS, an ITV poll found last October.

Liberal Democrat parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Andrew Page, said:

“Right now in Greater Manchester we are seeing patients lying on trolleys in hospital corridors, urgent operations being cancelled and the elderly being denied the care they need.

“The Liberal Democrats are prepared to be honest with people and say that to secure the future of the NHS we will all need to chip in a little more.

“A penny in the pound would allow us to invest in improving local NHS services and ensuring the elderly receive the care they deserve.

“This Conservative government has left our health and care services chronically underfunded – and while the crisis gets worse they just don’t seem to care.

“We cannot continue asking the system to deliver more and more, without giving it the resources to do so.”

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson and former health minister Norman Lamb said:

“The NHS was once the envy of the world and this pledge is the first step in restoring it to where it should be.

“A penny in the pound to save the NHS is money well spent in our view.

“But simply providing more money on its own is not enough and that’s why this is just the first step in our plan to protect health and care services in the long-term.”

More information:

The Liberal Democrats manifesto will set out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services. This will include a 1% rise on the basic, higher, additional and dividend rates of income tax in the next financial year raising around £6bn per year, which will be ringfenced to be spent on NHS and care services and public health.

A regional breakdown of how the £6bn would be distributed, based on current funding allocations for both the NHS and social care, can be found here

Lib Dems Commit to End Rough Sleeping

The Liberal Democrats have become the first major party to commit to ending the “national scandal” of rough sleeping across Britain, including across Greater Manchester.

The latest figures show there were 189 people sleeping rough in Greater Manchester in 2016, many are young people and many believe these figures to be only the tip of the iceberg.

The Liberal Democrats have set out a series of measures to end rough sleeping, including introducing a Housing First provider in each local authority that would put long-term homeless people straight into independent homes rather than emergency shelters.

The news comes as a coalition of homelessness charities, including Centrepoint, Crisis, Homeless Link, Shelter and St Mungo’s, have called on political parties to commit to end rough sleeping in Britain.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Andrew Page, said:
“It is a national scandal that so people are sleeping on the streets in 21st century Britain.

“By increasing support for homelessness prevention and properly funding emergency accommodation, we can end rough sleeping across Greater Manchester and across the country.

“We will ensure our local authority has at least one provider of Housing First services, to allow long-term homeless people to live independently in their own homes.

“The evidence suggests that supporting people and giving them long-term, stable places to stay is far more successful in tackling homelessness than constantly moving them to different temporary accommodation.

“Under this government, homelessness has soared and young people have been stripped of housing benefit, threatening to make matters even worse.

Benefit cuts and Brexit squeeze to leave 3 million families £2,500 worse off

Three million households will be hit to the tune of £2,500 a year

Planned benefit cuts by the Conservative government combined with soaring inflation will leave nearly 3 million working households an average of £2,500 a year worse off, according to analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

Low inflation over the last two years has meant the government’s freeze on most working-age benefits has only amounted to a 1% real cut so far.

But rising inflation from the falling pound is now set to reduce the value of these benefits by 5% between now and 2020, with total cuts of over £5 billion a year in the long run.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Susan Kramer commented: “Theresa May’s plans for a divisive Hard Brexit and savage cuts to benefits will leave millions of working families worse off.

“Three million households will be hit to the tune of £2,500 a year as a result of cuts to tax credits, rising prices and the falling pound.

“The Brexit squeeze will hit people in the pocket across the country, with the poorest families hit hardest.

“This election is a chance to change Britain’s future and stop a disastrous hard Brexit that will leave us all poorer.

“Every Liberal Democrat MP elected is a challenge to Theresa May’s Hard Brexit agenda.”

Bury Liberal Democrats: General Election candidates announced

The Liberal Democrats are first off the starting block to announce both their candidates for the General Election on 8 June 2017.

Across the country the Party had candidates in place should the Prime Minister call a ‘snap’ General Election, while other parties are still choosing candidates.

(Richard Baum left, Andrew Page right)

In Bury North, former Councillor Richard Baum has been chosen as our candidate. Richard, who works for the NHS and is a Magistrate,  was a Bury Councillor from 2007 to 2011 and contested Bury North in 2015

In Bury South, our candidate will be Andrew Page, a photographer working across the North West who has previously worked in the NHS for 16 years and has been particularly involved in campaigning on health issues.

 

Liberal Democrats surpass 100,000 members

Voters flock to Liberal Democrats after Theresa May calls snap general election

WOW what a week so far! Since the general election was announced our members in Bury have been growing quickly and I would like to welcome you all to the party. The Liberal Democrats in Bury are currently organising new events for members to become involved in, so watch out for further updates.

The Liberal Democrat membership surge takes the party to a landmark 100,000 members – thanks to a staggering 12,500 joining since Theresa May announced the snap General Election last Tuesday.

Reaching six figures makes the party bigger than it has been since the mid-1990s and puts it on course to reach its highest membership ever. The biggest the party has been since its formation is 101,768 in 1994.

It means that more than 50,000 members have joined since last year’s European referendum and more than 67,500 since the 2015 General Election.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron pledged to build the party to 100,000 members by the end of the parliament as a key pledge during his 2015 leadership campaign – but at that point everyone expected the end of the parliament to be 2020.

Tim Farron said:

“Thousands of people are joining the Liberal Democrats every day because they want to change Britain’s future.

“People want a strong opposition to Theresa May’s Hard Brexit agenda and the Liberal Democrats are the only party challenging them up and down the country. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour has completely failed, offering no opposition whatsoever and giving Theresa May a blank cheque to pursue a Hard Brexit.

“This election is your chance to change the direction of our country. If you want to stop a disastrous Hard Brexit, if you want to keep Britain in the Single Market, if you want a strong opposition to fight for an open, tolerant and united Britain, this is your chance.”

The landmark figure is just the latest sign of the party’s gathering momentum:

The latest poll in Sunday’s Observer gave the party a four point increase. The party is consistently polling between 11-14%, close to double its average for most of 2015 and 2016.
We are on a winning streak. Not only did we win the Richmond Park by-election in stunning style in December 2016, we have had an astonishing run of council by-election gains – more than 30 since last May – making it the best year for by-election gains in the party’s history. We are winning from the Tories, Labour and UKIP, and in areas that voted both Leave and Remain. We are also the only party to have increased its share of the vote in every recent parliamentary by-election.
We have over-taken Labour in fundraising. In the last quarter of 2016, the Liberal Democrats raised nearly £2m – more money than the Labour Party for the first time ever.

Liberal Democrats double size of membership since 2015 general election

In the short time since the snap General Election was announced the Liberal Democrats have gained over 8,000 new members

A huge warm welcome to everybody who’s joined the Liberal Democrats in Bury over the past few days.

The Liberal Democrat General Election campaign has got off to a flying start as new members have seen the party double in size since May 2015.

In the short time since the snap General Election was announced the Liberal Democrats have gained over 8,000 new members.

Commenting on the surge Leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron said: “This election is a chance to change the direction of our country and thousands are joining our fight.

“If you want to avoid a disastrous Hard Brexit. If you want to keep Britain in the Single Market. If you want a Britain that is open, tolerant and united, this is your chance.

Join the Liberal Democrats

“Thousands of people up and down the country are joining the Liberal Democrats so that we can send a message to Theresa May and the Conservative Brexit Government that we do not want a hard Brexit.

“In this General Election it is clear that only the Liberal Democrats can prevent a Conservative majority.”

Jane Brophy: 45% of crimes not investigated in Greater Manchester

Jane Brophy, Lib Dems GM Mayoral Candidate, has uncovered astonishing figures about the GMP’s ability to investigate crime in Greater Manchester.

The force failed to follow up almost half (45%) of all crimes reported in 2016. A whopping 57% of burglaries were not investigated, along with more than three quarters of pickpocketing and street thefts.

70% of bicycle thefts were also not followed up.

Jane obtained the figures via a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. She commented:

Visible policing has all but disappeared apart from Manchester city centre and our town centres, leaving many communities feeling unsafe. If I become Mayor I will work to ensure frontline policing is improved to restore people’s faith in the police.

The elected Greater Manchester Mayor will take on the functions of the current interim Mayor and GM Police & Crime Commissioner, former Labour MP Tony Lloyd. This entails setting priorities for GMP in how they tackle crime.

Jane Brophy highlighted the fact that figures for the current year show that 42% of all recorded crimes for the first few months of 2017 were not investigated, greater than the percentage in 2014.

Jane says:

Overall Greater Manchester Police are doing a good job at tackling serious crime, but there seems to be widespread failure to record and investigate all crimes properly.

As Mayor, Jane will be responsible for setting GMP’s crime priorities, as well as working with GMP on successful preventative approaches to reducing crime by working with local communities.

 

Best Year Ever for Liberal Democrats in Local By-Elections

The year since the last local election in May 2016 has been the best year EVER for Liberal Democrats in local by-elections, with a total of 33 net gains.

You can get involved in this success every week at the ALDC (Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors) offices in Manchester where they run a volunteer phone bank every Thursday evening, calling up voters in local by-elections around the country to help Lib Dem candidates win. Contact Jenny for more information.

Of course in Bury we have our OWN local by-election on 4 May 2017, Besses Ward in Whitefield with activity every day over the next month. Find out more by emailing Gavin. Donate to help Gavin win here.