GAVIN BARWELLIdea s to ch a nge Brit a i n fo r t h e bett e r

We want to help people fulfil their dream of owning their own home

We will increase the NHS budget every year

A Conservative Government will cut your income tax bill

GAVIN BARWELL - A St rong Voice fo r Croydon

Help young people get on the housing ladder

One of the most common concerns that people share with me is whether their children will ever be able to get on the property ladder in Croydon. We’re in danger of going back to the days when owning your own home was only for a privileged few.

The key to keeping prices affordable is to build enough homes, but the Government also needs to help people get on the housing ladder.

We’ve already introduced the Help to Buy scheme that stops banks asking for massive deposits. But if we win the next election we’ll take it further. We’ll build 100,000 new starter homes. The only people that’ll be able to buy them will be first-time buyers under the age of 40 and they’ll cost 20% less than the normal market price.

Labour want more and more people to depend on the Council for housing. Their councillors are saying that at least 30% of all homes built in Croydon must be council or housing association homes. We want to help people fulfil their dream of owning their own home.

Increase the NHS budget every year

I’m passionate about our NHS. It saved my life when I had cancer as a child. And my wife and I don’t have private health insurance, so if we or our children get sick it’s the NHS we depend on.

This Government has increased the NHS budget every year, protecting it from the cuts we’ve had to make in other places. That money has paid for 6,500 more doctors, 3,300 more nurses and a Cancer Drugs Fund to make sure people get new, life-saving medicines.

If we win the next election, we’ll keep increasing the NHS budget by more than the rate of inflation every year. But that’s only possible because we’ve got our economy back on track. You can only have a well-funded NHS if you have a strong economy.

Let you keep more of the money you work hard to earn

When Labour left office in 2010, the per-sonal allowance (the amount of money you can earn before you have to start paying income tax) was just £6,475.

By next April, we’ll have increased that to £10,500. As a result, millions of us will have had our income tax bill cut by over £800 a year.

If we win next year’s election, we’ll in-crease it even more to £12,500. That will cut our tax bills by up to another £400 a year. And it’ll mean that some-one working full-time for the minimum wage won’t pay any income tax at all.

We’ll also increase the amount you have to earn before you start paying the 40p rate from £41,900 to £50,000. Only rich people were supposed to pay the 40p rate, but in recent years many middle-

income people have been dragged in to it. That’s not fair.

As Conservatives, we believe people should keep more of the money they work hard to earn. So there’s a clear choice at the next election: higher taxes under Labour, lower taxes under the Conservatives.

1

2

3

My last leaflet set out my vision for Croydon. This one sets out some of the things the Conservative Party will do if we win the next election - things we haven’t been able to do over the last five years either because the country couldn’t afford it or because we couldn’t convince the Liberal Democrats to vote for them.

As well as helping young people, we want our elderly people to enjoy their retirement with dignity and security. That’s why we’ve:

protected pensioner benefits like the Winter Fuel Allowance and the Freedom Pass;

made sure the basic state pension increases in line with whichever is higher of price inflation, wage inflation or 2.5% (so we don’t repeat the 75p a week increase pensioners got under the last Government); and

scrapped compulsory annuities, giving people freedom to spend the money they’ve saved however they like.

But at the moment when someone dies, the Government taxes the pension they’ve saved at 55 per cent before it goes to their loved ones. We’ll scrap that tax completely.

End long-term youth unemployment

We need to get control of the number of people coming here from the EUYoung people should be earning or learning, not on the dole

Keep in touch with Gavin’s work for Croydon at www.gavinbarwell.com @gavinbarwellmp www.facebook.com/gavin.barwell.mp 020 8663 8741

Letting hard-working, skilled people move here is good for our country.

But we’re a small, already densely populated island so we need to control numbers. Under Labour, 250,000 people were coming here every year. This Government has reduced that amount by a quarter. But as the graph shows, this headline figure disguises the fact that while we have reduced immigration from outside the EU, immigration from inside the EU - over which we currently have no control - has increased.

We need to get back control of our borders. A Conservative Government will renegotiate our relationship with the EU. Changing the rules about freedom of movement is our main goal. You might doubt whether David Cameron can do this. But he’s made it clear that he’ll put the results of this renegotiation to a referendum. If you’re not happy with the deal we’re offered, you’ll have the chance to vote to leave the EU. We’re the only party offering you that choice.

One of this Government’s successes is the massive drop in unemployment. In my constituency, it’s down 41% since the last election. And youth unemployment is down 45%. These aren’t just statistics - over 1,200 of the people I represent have found a job and can now provide for themselves and their families.

But if we win the election, we want to end long-term youth unemployment altogether. We’re focusing on young people because all the evidence shows that if they’re out of work for the first few years after they leave education, it has a big impact on the rest of their lives. They should be earning or learning, not on the dole.

So if 18-21 year olds who don’t have children and are fit to work haven’t found a job in six months, they’ll have to choose between taking an apprenticeship or a Community Work Placement - 10 hours of looking for a job and 30 hours of useful work a

Promoted by Ian Parker on behalf of Croydon Conservative Federation, both at 36 Brighton Road, Purley, CR8 2LG. Printed by OPT Complete Print Solutions Ltd, Trend House, 58 Coulsdon Road, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR5 2LA

GAVIN BARWELL

Labour’s Human Rights Act meant it took years to deport Abu Qatada

Scrap the Human Rights Act

Basic rights like the right to free speech and the right to practice your religion are fundamental pillars of a free society. But in recent

years the way the European Court of Human Rights has interpreted those rights has become more and more bizarre. It’s stopped us deporting suspected terrorists and told our Parliament that it must change the law to give convicted criminals the right to vote - even though the majority of people don’t agree with this.

That’s why a future Conservative Government will scrap Labour’s Human Rights Act and pass a new British Bill of Rights so that British judges make decisions about our human rights in British courts.

Be able to see a GP seven days a weekAnother complaint I hear a lot is about how difficult it is to get an appointment with a GP. This is just one consequence of the last Government’s failure to provide the extra infrastructure our growing population needs.

The first and most obvious thing we need to do is recruit more GPs. Our aim is to make sure the NHS has nearly 5,000 more by 2020.

But we also need to change primary care to fit in with the fact that many of us lead much busier lives. By 2020, we want everyone to be able to see a GP seven days a week - and to have email, Skype or phone consultations rather than face-to-face appointments when it’s safe to do so and that’s what patients want. We’d also like to see smarter use of electronic prescriptions and booking appointments online.

45

6

8

week (things like making meals for older people, cleaning up litter or working for local charities). To make sure they have that choice, we’ll fund three million apprenticeships that combine training with work experience and a wage.

We know that’ll cost a lot of money. So we’ll:

reduce the cap on the total amount of benefits an out-of-work family can get from £26,000 to £23,000 a year (under the last Labour Government, some families were getting over £50,000 a year); and

stop unemployed 18-21 year olds from claiming Housing Benefit so they can leave home (but we’ll still help people like care-leavers who need their own home).

As Conservatives, we believe it’s unfair for people who aren’t working to be better off than working people. And we’d rather spend taxpayers’ money helping people into work.

Let people pass on their pension tax-free when they die

You should be able to pass your pension to a loved one when you die without the Government taxing it

We want everyone to be able to see a GP seven days a week

7

Reduce immigration from the EU

Idea s to ch a nge Brit a i n fo r t h e bett e r

Photo © The Home Office