Markets are a tool for society, not as the primary reason for it. The economy should work for everyone, not just billionaires, hedge funds and investment banks. Excessive rent-seeking (gaining wealth from from financial speculation and intellectual property) increases inequality. In the short to medium term, we seek to rebalance the economy to reduce this by ensuring wage income is closer to rentier income.
Re-nationalise the UK Green Investment Bank and rename and restructure it as the National Investment Bank (NIB). The NIB will also be merged with the Public Works Loan Board and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
The NIB shall be capitalised with £20 billion, drawn primarily from the sale of the government’s shares of private banks following the financial crisis, the removal of subsidies for fossil fuels, and the existing funds held by the UK Green Investment Bank.
The aim will be to raise £500 billion in investment over the next 20 years and invest that into infrastructure and technology.
The NIB will target particularly deprived or underfunded regions, and local authorities will also be able to make the case for investment in their region.
The minimum wage should be set to the same value as the living wage (currently £14,458.50 based on 252 working days of 7.5 hours per day at £7.65), and automatically adjusted in line with that figure.
@anilliams - about 7 years ago
@Floppy For some reason this has registered as you proposing this? Not sure why.
oh, what the f...
right, I'll fix that. Damn. That would explain why I didn't get an email though - did you?
@anilliams - about 7 years ago
I did, yes. You can close this if you want and I'll open it again. I may have initiated this clicking through from the somethingnew.org.uk manifesto bit, so that might be something to do with it?
I think we should close this anyway, before anyone votes on it, as it's gone in wrong. I'll fix the code, test, and get you to resubmit. Sorry for the inconvenience!
@andrewdwilliams you managed to find another bug we'd not hit before. I've fixed it now (again), so please have another go :)
This is all incredibly useful, I assure you! (sorry, though)
The OpenPolitics Manifesto
@Floppy - about 7 years ago
Taking what I wrote at #442 and putting it into a proposal. It turns out this is very similar to a policy proposed by Corbyn, but that was not on purpose. I'm primarily basing the idea on the Environmental Audit Committee's 2012 report about what the Green Investment Bank should be - ie this https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmenvaud/505/505.pdf. If we're happy with this, we can incorporate how we would use the NIB into our already existing policies.