Policy highlights from coalition deal
Liberal Democrats will be allowed to campaign against new nuclear power stations in the West, it emerged yesterday.
The document, thrashed out by the Lib Dem and Conservative negotiation teams, also accepted there will be disagreements over renewing the Trident nuclear weapons system.
It outlines what the coalition deal, agreed during five long days of talks, means on areas ranging from reducing the nation's debt to possessing illegal timber.
There are sections on tax measures, banks, political reform, pensions and welfare, education, relations with the EU, civil liberties and the environment, but the paper also throws up a series of questions.
The immigration section is very short, with little more than an annual limit on the number of non-EU economic migrants allowed into the country to live and work, although it does not give the number.
There is little on health, no mention of fox hunting, and nothing on farming policies or the problems of the countryside, such as the closure of village post offices.
The Labour government wanted new nuclear power stations, earmarking Hinkley Point in Somerset and Oldbury in South Gloucestershire as favoured sites.
The coalition document says the Lib Dems have long opposed any new nuclear construction.
But the Tories are committed to allowing the replacement of existing nuclear power stations.
The agreement includes an emergency budget within 50 days, "modest cuts" of £6 billion in 2010-11 to "non-frontline services" and reductions to the Child Trust Fund and tax credits for higher earners.
There will be five-year fixed-term Parliaments, with the next General Election to be held on the first Thursday of May, 2015 – however, Parliament can be dissolved if 55 per cent or more of MPs vote in favour.
The alternative vote system will be introduced for the Commons, if backed in a referendum, while there will be fewer, but more equal, constituencies.
The Government will restore the link between the basic state pension and earnings from April next year.
The default retirement age will be phased out, and there will be a review to set the date at which the state pension age starts to rise to 66.
NHS funding will increase above inflation every year, and there will be extra cash for poorer school pupils.
There will be a "substantial increase" in the income tax personal allowance from April 2011, to "take priority over other tax cuts".











Comments