This briefing summarises the key policy pledges in the Reform UK manifesto, what the party terms as a ‘contract’, released on 17 June 2024, relevant to the work of actuaries.
Overview
Leader Nigel Farage launched the Reform UK manifesto, titled ‘Our Contract with You.’ The manifesto features five core pledges, they are:
- ‘Smart Immigration, Not Mass Immigration’
- ‘No More Small Boats in the Channel’
- ‘No NHS Waiting Lists’
- ‘Good Wages for a Hard Day’s Work’
- ‘Affordable, Stable Energy Bills’
Personal Taxation
- Reform would increase the threshold at which people start paying income tax to £20,000
- Reform would retain the basic rate of tax at 20%.
- Reform would raise the higher rate of taxation to £70,000
- Reform would cut Stamp Duty to 0% below £750k. Cut it to 2% from £750k - £1.5m and cut it to 4% over £1.5m.
- Reform would abolish Inheritance Tax (IHT) for all estates with a valuation under £2m, impacting 98% of all estates. The rate above would be a 20% tax, with an option to donate to charity instead.
Economy / Financial Services
- Reform has pledged to remove 1.2m small and medium sized businesses from corporation tax. Reducing the main corporation tax rate from 25% to 20%, then to 15% from Year 3. The minimum profit threshold will also be lifted to £100k.
- Reform will abolish IR35 rules and lift the VAT threshold to £150,000.
- Reform will abolish Business Rates for high street-based SMEs. They will “offset” this with an Online Delivery Tax at 4% for ‘large, multinational enterprises.
- Reform will cut ‘entrepreneurs' tax’ to 5%.
- Reform will scrap “thousands of laws that hold back British business and damage productivity, including employment laws”.
- Reform opposes the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as part of its opposition to a cashless society.
Technology, Transport, and Infrastructure
- Reform has pledged to accelerate the construction of transport infrastructure, focusing on coastal regions, Wales, the North, and the Midlands.
- Reform will launch a new ownership model for critical national infrastructure. This will see 50% of each major utility provider brought into public ownership, with the other 50% owned by UK pension funds.
- Reform will introduce a ‘A Single Government Infrastructure Funding Stream’, overhauling and merging the National Infrastructure Bank and National Infrastructure Commission.
- Reform will incentivise the use of new construction technology to speed up building, improve efficiency and ‘cut waste’.
- Reform will scrap the in-construction HS2 railway, which it states will save £25bn.
Climate, Sustainability and Energy
- Reform will scrap Britain’s 2050 net zero objective entirely. The party states this will save Britain £30bn a year.
- Reform will scrap planned bans on petrol and diesel cars, and there will be no legal requirements for manufacturers to sell electric cars.
- Reform will scrap the annual £10bn of renewable energy subsidies.
- Reform will fast-track licenses of North Sea gas and oil, and grant shale gas licenses on test sites for two years. Major production will be granted when safety is proven with local compensation schemes.
- Reform would scrap VAT on energy bills and scrap environmental levies.
- Reform would fast-track clean nuclear energy with new Small Modular Reactors, increase and incentivise ethical UK lithium mining for electric batteries, combined cycle gas turbines, clean synthetic fuel, tidal power and ‘explore’ coal mining.
- Reform will scrap climate-related farming subsidies. Current subsidies will be replaced with direct payments.
Social Care, Pensions and Health
- Reform will commence a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the UK’s social care system.
- Reform will aim to ‘simplify’ social care through a single funding stream, “instead of the split between NHS and local authorities”. The party states more funding will be needed for social care overall when a national plan is agreed.
- Reform have pledged to review the UK’s existing system of pension provision, stating the existing system is “riddled” with “complexity, huge cost and poor returns leading to less uptake.”
- Reform accepts the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s 2021 recommendations in full to amend the Mineworkers Pension Scheme arrangements so that all the scheme surpluses accrue to the mineworkers.
- Reform have committed to retaining NHS services at free at the point of use.
- Reform will “harness” independent and not-for-profit health provision in the UK, creating a larger independent healthcare capacity.
- Reform will introduce a 20% tax relief on all private healthcare and insurance.
- Reform will introduce a new NHS Voucher Scheme. NHS patients will receive a voucher for private treatment if they cannot see a GP within three days, a consultant would be three weeks and an operation would be nine weeks.
Regulatory / Governance
- Reform will replace the 2010 Equalities Act.
- Reform will scrap Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DE&I) rules that it states have “lowered standards and reduced economic productivity.”
- Reform state that Britain still retains over 6,700 retained EU laws, which cover State Aid, Competition, Employment, Net Zero and the Environment. The party has pledged to repeal all these laws.
- Reform would stop the Bank of England from paying interest to commercial banks on QE reserves.
Further Information
Read the full manifesto. For more information on the IFoA’s general election work, please contact Charlie Wynne.
