Building a Fairer Cornwall - Our Pledges

There are four priorities for how the Liberal Democrats will make Cornwall a fairer place: fair taxes; a fair start for every child; a fair, green economy with jobs that last; and fair, clean and local politics.

Fairer Taxes

We will change the tax system, so those earning less than £10,000 per year will pay no income tax at all.

An estimated 20,000 more workers in Cornwall will no longer pay any income tax. The majority of taxpayers will be £700 a year better off and pensioners will keep an extra £100 a year.

A Fair Start for Cornwall's Children

After decades of underfunding from consecutive Conservative and Labour Governments (Cornish schools currently get £338 a year less per pupil from the Government than the national average), the Lib Dem pupil premium will bring back fairness to the way education is funded in Cornwall.

The extra £22 million a year that Cornwall's schools will benefit from could be spent on reducing class sizes and recruiting more teachers.

A Fair and Sustainable Economy

We've worked to put Cornwall at the cutting edge of the green economy - the Lib Dems will push for this investment to continue, so that jobs can be created for Cornwall that will last for generations.

We will prioritise savings from government to invest in infrastructure. For Cornwall this will mean:

- Making dualling the final sections of the A30 a priority

- Re-investing in much-needed social housing

- A home insulation programme to keep vulnerable people warm.

- Making sure local businesses are the first to benefit from high speed broadband right across the county. This means protecting convergence funding, and making the decisions on where that money is spent here in Cornwall.

Fair, Transparent and More Local Politics

We'll be open about how we will deliver these priorities. On tax we'll make sure the rich pay their fair share, by introducing a mansion tax on the value of homes over £2m, by taxing income and capital gains at the same rate, and switching tax from income to pollution.

Our education investment will be paid for by stopping tax credits for high earners and scrapping Labour gimmicks in the Department of Education. On infrastructure investment, we'll be honest about where savings must be made to balance the books.