Labour

Labour will create a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to invest in the UK’s cultural infrastructure – across arts, music, film, theatre and culture – as it sets out plans to build on Britain’s status as a world leader in culture and the creative industries.

Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and Shadow Culture Secretary, Tom Watson, will unveil the fund at an event in Hull, the UK’s 2017 City of Culture, on Monday.

Labour’s election manifesto, published last week, included a commitment to create a pupil premium to help children of primary school age fulfil their artistic potential.

Labour announces today that a £1 billion Culture Capital Fund will invest in ‘creative clusters’ across the country.

Labour will guarantee a Creative Future for All by:

* Establishing a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to support our world-leading cultural industries, which have been badly hit by Tory cuts.

The fund will be one of the largest arts infrastructure funds ever created. It will give the country’s creative sectors an opportunity to bid for extra funding and help the UK protect its status as a creative and cultural hub in the digital age.

It will protect and invest in live music venues in order to support grassroots and professional music and ensure there is a vibrant music industry in all parts of the country. Labour will review the business rates system and extend the £1,000 pub relief to help small music venues that have been hit by rate rises.

* Ensuring museums and art galleries remain free and invest in our heritage sector, which is central to the identity and economy of local communities across the country.

* Introducing a £160 million arts pupil premium for every primary school in England to boost creative education and ensure state schools have arts facilities of an equivalent standard to those available in many private schools.

Shadow Culture Secretary, Tom Watson, who is a graduate of Hull University, said:

“As a former resident I’m proud to see Hull staging world-class cultural events and that it is attracting tourists from around the world who want to visit the UK City of Culture.

“Labour believes that cities like Hull have demonstrated that creativity can drive inward investment, regeneration and tourism as well as being an important expression of local and regional identity.

“Our thriving creative industries define how we are perceived overseas and make a vital contribution to our economy.

“Under the Tories, the arts and cultural institutions have been forced to absorb huge cuts; under Labour, they will get the investment they deserve.

“Our £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund will give museums, galleries and theatres in all parts of the country access to investment that can be used to upgrade and regenerate their buildings and facilities.”

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“We want to unleash the potential of every young person not just through education but also through culture. In every one of us there is a poet, a writer, a singer of songs, an artist. But too few of us fulfil our artistic ambition.

“The arts pupil premium will allow every primary school child the chance to learn an instrument, take part in drama and dance and have regular access to a theatre, gallery or museum. Labour will deliver a creative future for all and culture for the many, not the few.”

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Notes to editors:

·         Labour will introduce a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to invest in new facilities communities can be proud of and upgrade existing cultural and creative infrastructure for the digital age. The fund will invest in creative clusters across the country, based on a similar model to business enterprise zones.

·         The Cultural Capital Fund will be administered by the Arts Council over a five-year period and help to transform the country’s cultural landscape. This will be funded from Labour’s new National Transformation Fund, announced in the manifesto last week, that will invest £250 billion over 10 years to upgrade our economy.

·         Since 2010 there are now 600 fewer music teachers, 1,200 fewer arts teachers and 1,700 fewer drama teachers in our schools, and teaching hours in arts subjects has fallen by nearly 38,000. New pledges in the Conservatives’ manifesto requiring 90 per cent of pupils to study the EBacc combination of subjects by 2025 could all but wipe out creative education in our schools. Labour will revamp the EBacc and restore the importance of creative education to the curriculum.

·         You can download Labour’s Cultural Manifesto ‘A Creative Future For All” at  www.labour.org.uk/culturemanifesto

400,000 university students will be freed from an average of around £27,000 debt this autumn if Labour is elected next month, Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, and Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, will announce today.

Tuition fees will be abolished from 2018 under a Labour Government. But Labour is also pledging to write off the first year of fees for students planning to start university this September.

Abolishing tuition fees will lift a total £38 billion in debt from fees over the course of the next parliament, before a penny of interest is added.

This will give 18-year-olds sitting their A levels this summer yet another reason to register to vote before tonight’s (22 May) midnight deadline and to vote Labour on 8th June.

Tuition fees have trebled to over £9,000 a year since 2012 and graduates are being held back by starting their working lives saddled with debts averaging almost £45,000.

As well as abolishing university tuition fees, Labour will restore the maintenance grants the Conservatives abolished in 2016 and, under its transformative plan for a free National Education Service, will scrap college fees for adult learners.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“The Conservatives have held students back for too long, saddling them with debt that blights the start of their working lives. Labour will lift this cloud of debt and make education free for all as part of our plan for a richer Britain for the many not the few.

“We will scrap tuition fees and ensure universities have the resources they need to continue to provide a world-class education. Students will benefit from having more money in their pockets, and we will all benefit from the engineers, doctors, teachers and scientists that our universities produce.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said:

“Labour believes everyone should have the chance to further their studies, not just those that can afford it, and we will restore the principle that education is free. No one should be put off from getting an education through a lack of money or fear of debt.

“The Tories trebled tuition fees and students now rack up an average £45,000 debt. A Labour Government will stop that. If students sitting their A levels now want a say on their future they need to register to vote before tonight’s deadline and vote Labour on 8 June.”

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Notes to editors:

·         Labour will abolish tuition fees for home students in England studying standard undergraduate first degrees at established universities and further education colleges from the academic year starting in 2018 – the earliest it will be possible to pass the legislation through parliament. (University is already free for EU students in Scottish universities)

·         To discourage students who are planning to start university this September from deferring until after tuition fees are removed, we will guarantee to immediately write off their first year of fees.

·         Students part way through their degree will not have to pay fees for the remainder of their course. Part-time students will be covered for the cost of their first undergraduate degree.

·         Students who have already graduated will be protected from above inflation interest rate rises on existing debt. And we will look for ways to ameliorate this debt burden in future.

·         We will seek to provide free tuition for EU students and seek reciprocal arrangements at EU universities as part of the Brexit negotiations. We will remove EU and international students from the net migration figures and preserve the current system of fees for non-EU students.

·         The average student leaves university with almost £45,000 worth of debt, which they would pay off through their lifetime. Under our plans this will be reduced by an average of more £27,000 for students who don’t qualify for a maintenance grant, and to zero for students who do.

·         We have costed the abolition of tuition fees at £9.5 billion annually in 2021/22 prices (the £11.2 billion figure for higher education listed in our Grey Book published alongside the manifesto also included £1.7 billion for maintenance grants). Over four years (from 2018/19 academic year, this is £38 billion). It will be paid for by increasing income tax for the top 5 per cent of earners and reversing the Conservatives’ cuts to corporation tax. The £9.5 billion is an estimate of the actual revenues currently being paid to universities through fees, and this money will all go directly back into universities so they will not lose out.

·         In 2015/16 there were 365,700 full-time first year students studying their first undergraduate degrees in England (Higher Education Statistics Agency). In 2014/15 there were 38,600 part-time students studying their first undergraduate degree (own calculations). Assuming student numbers stay roughly constant, approximately 400,000 students will benefit each year.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to Damian Green’s comments on the Andrew Marr Show that the Tories £8bn NHS manifesto pledge involves reallocating existing budgets, said:

“Damian Green has let the cat out the bag. The Tories are offering no new money for the NHS at this election, but instead their offer involves reallocating existing budgets. In 2015 they said they’d give the NHS £10bn and it turned out to be untrue. They’re up to the same tricks again.

“As part of Labour’s fully costed manifesto, we are offering the NHS a cash boost of £8bn this year, including money for urgently needed capital works, and we’ve said how we will pay for it. Only Labour will give the NHS the funding it needs to deliver a truly modern, 21^st Century service for Britain’s patients. Under the Tories the NHS will continue to be underfunded and overstretched and it is patients who will pay the price.”

Labour will stand up for older people and has made five key pledges to ensure older people have the security and dignity they deserve:

1.      Secure pensioner incomes with the Triple-Lock on state pensions.

2.      Protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes for pensioners.

3.      An extra £45 billion for the NHS and social care.

4.      No rise in the state pension age beyond 66.

5.      Justice for women born in the 1950s hit by five year rise in pension age.

Theresa May’s government has failed older people, their cuts to social care have resulted in over one million older people not getting the care they need. Labour will spend an extra £45 billion on the NHS and social care over five years.

The Conservative Party manifesto has promised three major new burdens to be placed on older people:

1.      Scrapping the ‘triple lock’ on state pensions so that pensioner incomes are no longer protected.

2.      Means testing Winter Fuel Payments to remove support to heat the homes of ten million pensioners  

3.      Forcing those who need social care to pay for it with their homes.

Pensioners would be at least £330 worse off under the Tories’ new Double Lock had it been in place between 2013/14 and 2017/18, compared with the basic state pension being uprated by the Triple Lock. Under Theresa May’s plan, ten million people – five out of six pensioners – are set to lose their Winter Fuel Payments, worth up to £300.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour party, said:

“Not satisfied with plunging our social care system into crisis, Theresa May’s nasty party has promised more attacks on older people:  scrapping the triple-lock on state pensions, removing the Winter Fuel Allowance and asset stripping the ill by forcing those who need social care to pay for it with their homes.

“Labour will protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and Triple-Lock on state pensions to deliver a secure and dignified retirement for all, and spend an extra £45 billion on the NHS and social care over five years, so that older people can get the care they deserve.

“Theresa May and the Conservatives won’t stand up for pensioners, their only concern is their billionaire friends. Labour is proud to stand up for the many, not the few.”

***Check against delivery***

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, speaking at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, said:

Over the last week the dividing lines in this election have got much clearer and sharper.

The two parties have published their manifestos. Set out their visions.

And in the case of Labour – but only Labour – published our sums too.

We don’t just have a vision, we have costed it too.

By contrast, the Tories are offering blank cheques made out to misery.

But the contrast is more substantial than that. I believe that the difference is this:

Where the Tories look to divide, Labour seeks to bring people together.  

The Tory manifesto must be the most divisive for many elections past.

They are now pitching young against old. 

Their manifesto is a typical nasty party attempt to set generations against each other.

For pensioners they offer a triple whammy of misery: 

Ending the ‘triple lock’ which protects pensioner incomes, means-testing the Winter Fuel Allowance and slapping a ‘compassion tax’ on those who need social care by making them pay for it using their homes.  

Some claim that cutting support for the elderly is necessary to give more help to the young. But young people are being offered no hope by the Tories either – loaded up with tuition fee debts, with next to no chance of a home of their own or a stable, secure job.  

Labour stands for unity across all ages and regions in our country.  It is simply wrong to claim that young people can only be given a fair deal at the expense of the old, or vice versa. We all depend on each other.

That is why we are calling on the Tories to drop their anti-pensioner package immediately – older people should not be used as a political football.  

And we promise that a Labour government will make education free at all levels and build the homes young families need, offering the security of a home for life.  

Only Labour stands for the many against government by, of and for the few.

We say that if we all stand together we can build a fairer Britain.

There is no trade-off between young and old – and there should be no trade-off.

Society should not be setting the future of our young against security for the old.

We have the wealth to offer a decent, secure life for all.

Labour’s proposals will ask the top 5 per cent of earners and the big corporations to pay a bit more, to help address these problems.

That way we can make sure that young people can get homes and pensioners can heat their houses in winter.

That way students can leave college without a huge burden of debt and older people can have their income protected through the “triple lock” which only Labour will guarantee.

I believe that this message is getting through.

The ink wasn’t dry on the Tory manifesto before some of their own MPs and candidates were inching away from the attack on the elderly.

They know it’s not right and it’s not fair.

They may even suspect it’s not much of a vote-winner.

So Theresa, please end the anxiety for millions of older people and do a U-turn now. You will end up facing the right way.

Let me now say a word about young people.

And it is right that I do so in the youngest city in Britain, where forty per cent of the population is under 25.

But also a city where nearly ten per cent of young people are out of work, more than twice the national average.

In a region where poverty is increasing. Here in the West Midlands one child in three is living in poverty.  

Sure Start was one of the best achievements of the last Labour government. We must build on that, instead of cutting back on school meals. A free school meal, without stigma, is the right of every child.

To make things still more difficult for the young, here in the West Midlands house prices have risen by five per cent over the last year, while wages are still lower than they were in 2008.

It all adds up to the worst thing for young people – loss of hope.

Hope for a decent, secure job.

Hope that you will be able to get a home of your own.

Hope that you can enjoy an education without fear of crippling debt.

We speak, rightly, of left-behind communities. There are many, alas, in the West Midlands.

But there is also the danger of creating a left-behind generation, enjoying few of the chances and none of the advantages of their parents. 

As I said when launching our manifesto on Tuesday, Labour’s approach is based on hope.

And that is our offer to young people.

Labour will scrap tuition fees and lift the shadow of debt from students. The Tories won’t.

Labour will invest in jobs, skills and training across all regions, including here in our traditional industrial heartland.  The Tories won’t.

Labour will build more than one million new homes over five years, with more than half being social housing for rent. The Tories won’t.

This is the sort of policy our young people have a right to expect from politicians.

After all, in offering the next generation free education and the chance of a job and a home we are only offering what should be regarded as basic human rights.

In return, we have the right to ask just one thing of young people today.

Register to vote.

This weekend is your last chance to register – the last chance to make sure you can vote Labour on June 8.

Let me be clear to all young people:

I want you to vote Labour.

But above all I want you to vote.

It is a right the working people of this country fought for.

It is a right that some in the establishment would diminish or take away.

So let’s dispel once and for all the myth that young people are apathetic about society by everyone getting on the electoral register and then getting down to the polling station on June 8.

I know that young people did not leave politics – politics left them.  Now we are bringing politics back to the rising generation.

Young, old or somewhere in between, we are all in the same country, the same communities.

Labour knows that we sink or swim together.

When the Tories offer tax cuts to their rich friends, we say let’s make life livable for the many first.

When the Tories want to balance the books on the backs of the vulnerable, we say let’s tell the wealthy and big corporations to start paying the tax they owe.

Simple choices. But ones that make a difference to millions of people.

And there is a simple choice before the country in this election:

The Labour way of working for the good of the entire community, or the Tory way which is perpetuating the grotesque level of inequality that already exists in our society.

I know which one I’ve chosen – the Labour way, for the many not the few.

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