Local Campaign Pledges and our full 2022 Local Manifesto

Sutton Labour: On your side

Our 10-point contract with the residents of Sutton

1. We will tackle the cost of living not see you go further into debt. Labour is on your side and has proposed a national energy plan for a £600 payment to you from a windfall tax on energy companies. Locally we will provide secure, quality job opportunities and attract new business into our borough and promote wider business commitment to the London Living Wage. Poverty and the need for more food banks should never be allowed to increase in Sutton.

2. We will support increased locally based Policing to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. We will establish twice yearly open meetings across the borough where you can all directly question Police in your local area. We will invest in CCTV, better lighting and community safety hubs and work with the community to improve women’s safety locally after recent public scandals. We will commit to make sure Sutton is “No place for hate”.

3. We will provide secure affordable homes for our younger people who are priced out of the borough and build more genuinely affordable, council housing in our borough. This should be safe and learn the lessons of Grenfell Tower. We want low or zero carbon houses and small-scale flats not intense development of tower blocks. We will increase registration and regulation of private landlords to support the many people who are now forced to privately rent instead of be able to buy and introduce a Sutton Private Tenant’s Charter.

4. We will commit to: Cleaner Streets. Cleaner Air. Too many bins are not emptied and there is too much fly-tipping. The 12-visit rationing of recycling centre visits must end. We will aim to see if “community spring cleans” with community skips could be reintroduced like it existed in the past. We will immediately table a “notice of improvement” of contractor Veolia and then seek to bring the waste contract back in house locally so your complaints are dealt with immediately and not be managed from a distance. We will propose to residents’ ways in which we could withdraw from the Beddington Incinerator contract as well as expensive heating contracts that cost residents money.

5. We will consult residents over parking and traffic schemes. We will never introduce any road or parking scheme without a full consultation and strong local consent and will ensure changes are driven by resident demands not Town Hall bureaucrats. We support a fairer system for existing parking permit fees with no hidden costs.

6. We will protect our local environment. We will fight for our Parks and Open Spaces as we did by opposing building on both Rosehill Park and Sheen Way playing fields, not just one or the other as other Parties cynically did. We will ensure the council plays a key role as part of the Declaration of a Climate Emergency and seeks funds to remediate the threat of flooding in lower lying areas of the borough.

7. We will protect our health and social care services and learn the lessons of the COVID pandemic. We will prepare for future pandemics with stores of PPE and a full resilience plan. We will never let our old people die in large numbers in care homes at a time when Tory Government ministers were breaking the rules. We will fight to keep all acute services at our St Helier Hospital and oppose a highly risky relocation of an A&E needed for a future pandemic right next to a cancer hospital full of clinically shielding cancer patients.

8. We will provide Education and Inclusion for all. We will promote the undoubted excellence of our locally rooted primary and secondary schools that already provide places for more than 90% of Sutton pupils and will support them to increase that. We support the demands of Sutton Parents campaigning for more SEND support and improved transport. Inclusion is fundamental to our campaigning on areas from blue badge access, to fighting in support of families with children that have special educational needs and ensuring council services are not solely digital by default. We support the dignity of old age and commit to an Age-Friendly Sutton as well as commit to review and improve mental health services and address loneliness exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.

9. We will stop the decline in local arts, sports & culture and revitalise our High Streets with more “meanwhile use” and pop-up shops. We will examine the possibility of the relocation of more accessible Council services to them as a core hub to sustain our High Streets post-pandemic for the long-term and ensure this only happens if it benefits local residents. We will also work with the Mayor of London to review public transport links to improve accessibility. We will seek to increase free access to sports facilities for the less well off from a key public health perspective.

10. We will listen. We will consult. Too many people cannot get hold of their current Councillors. Labour is standing strong local hard-working candidates to be Councillors. We will bring in a new listening and consultation strategy led by local residents and encourage local “resident juries” and a “People’s Question Time” to hold services to account. We will develop stronger more accountable local committees, with the opportunity for them to become proper local community councils, but only if residents petition and vote for them to be. We will press for revision to existing contracts so that the Council treat employees fairly as part of a longer-term plan to in-source more services so the Council directly provides them. We will also hold our local MPs to account as they may talk about the small stuff but never tell you about all the bad things they vote for in Parliament.

Our full 2022 Local Labour Manifesto is available here.

We have also published two other policy documents for this election

Our 2022 Local Labour “Green Manifesto” is available here. There is only 1 Green candidate in 16 wards & none in 4 wards so if Green voters in Sutton want to make all their votes count in the elections on Thursday 5th May they could consider using their spare votes for Labour?

The 2022 Co-operative Agenda for Sutton is available here.

Go to the “I Will Vote” website here to find your Polling Station, Labour candidates, set up a reminder to vote or sign up to volunteer to help.

Sadiq Khan’s Manifesto for London 2021-2024

Sadiq Khan was re-elected as Mayor of London in 2021 to deliver his “Manifesto for all Londoners”. The manifesto website is here and the pdf of the Manifesto is here.

The pledges and commitments below were the national policies we stood on in 2019:

Labour’s Key National Pledges

1) Increased funding for the NHS with more nurses and doctors to give patients the care they need.

2) A Real Living Wage of £10 an hour and no increase in Income Tax or National Insurance for 95% of people.

3) A Green Industrial Revolution creating 400,000 jobs.

4) Free school meals for all primary school children and reduced class sizes for all 5, 6 and 7 year olds.

5) Keep the Winter Fuel Allowance, free TV licences and bus passes for all pensioners.

Key Labour Policy Commitments:

1. Labour will create jobs and protect living standards.  Working people are set to be on average over £1,400 worse off a year, many are in insecure jobs and six million people earn less than the living wage. Labour will invest in infrastructure, skills training, co-operative businesses & a £10 per hour Living Wage.
2. Labour will deliver affordable homes for all. The Tories can’t fix Britain’s housing crisis. Under them house-building fell to its lowest level since the 1920s & home ownership is the lowest for a generation. Labour will build 1 million homes in 5 years to rent & buy, scrapping letting fees & creating a charter of private tenant’s rights.
3. Our NHS can’t take 5 more years of the Tories. Our NHS is at breaking point under the Tories cuts, closures and privatisation – waiting lists have soared to around 3.8 million and it’s getting harder than ever to see your local GP. Labour will strongly reaffirm the NHS as a fully public service, free at the point of use.

These and other policies will be reviewed as part of the policy development process set out below. Our members, supporters and members of the public are welcome to take part in that process.

National Policy Development

Labour Leader Keir Starmer set out 10 Pledges when he stood for election to the post in 2020. They are listed here.

The Labour Party has an annual Policy Development Programme. More details on that are on the Labour National Policy Forum website. The 2022 National Policy Forum Report is here. It refers to Sutton and Cheam Labour Party making a submission on page 94

The Labour Party is also running a two year Policy Review called “Stronger Together” and information on that is here. The 2022 Stronger Together Update Report is here.

Past National Policy

To help members and supporters think about the wide range of areas where debate is needed to decide future policies, below are recent national Labour Manifestos

Labour National Manifesto 2019

This is the Manifesto Labour stood on in 2019. The manifesto website is here and the pdf of the Manifesto is here. The 2019 full Labour Policy Guide (traditionally provided to MP’s, PPC’s and other Party Spokespeople) is still at present available online in summary here and in full (needs a member password to access) here.

Labour National Manifesto 2017

This is the Manifesto Labour stood on in 2017. A copy is here.

Labour National Manifesto 2015

This is the Manifesto Labour stood on in 2015. A copy is here.

Labour National Manifesto 2010

This is the Manifesto Labour stood on in 2010. A copy is here.

Labour National Manifesto 2005

This is the Manifesto Labour stood on in 2005. A copy is here.

Labour National Manifesto 2001

This is the Manifesto Labour stood on in 2001. A copy is here.

Labour National Manifesto 1997

This is the Manifesto Labour stood on in 1997. A copy is here.

Past European Policy

Though the UK has left the EU there are post-Brexit issues that still require cross-border co-operation and policy discussion so these documents provide useful background information to past debates.

Labour European Elections Manifesto 2019

The 2019 Labour European Elections Manifesto is here.

The Party of European Socialists Manifesto 2019 is here.

Labour in for Britain Referendum Campaign 2016 – Archive 

There is also still an archive online of Briefing Notes we locally produced for the EU Referendum Campaign which we provide as a historical record of that time.

Labour European Elections Manifesto 2014

The 2014 Labour European Elections Manifesto is here.

The Party of European Socialists Manifesto 2014 is here.

Labour European Elections Manifesto 2009

The Party of European Socialists Manifesto 2009 is here.

Labour European Elections Manifesto 2004

The 2004 Labour European Elections Manifesto is here.

The 2004 Party of European Socialists Manifesto is here.

Labour European Elections Manifesto 1999

The 1999 Party of European Socialists Manifesto is here.