Summary and Recommendations
Under each of the Labour Government’s five missions, including the premise of ‘strong foundations’, we set out how to ensure policy making supports gender inclusion and promotes gender equality.
Use the table of contents above to navigate between our summary of recommendations for each mission. Download the full briefing for more details.
Strong foundations
Every commitment a Labour Government makes will be based on the premise of economic stability, underpinned by two fiscal rules that will govern “every single decision made in government”.
WBG Recommendations
Economic Stability
- Explore tax reform options to increase fairness and revenue and revise the government’s fiscal rules to ensure necessary investment in social infrastructure is not compromised.
Mission 1: Kick-start the economy
“Kick-start economic growth to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 – with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off”.
WBG Recommendations
Women’s Participation in the labour market
- Address inequalities and barriers to women’s employment through better intersectional pay gap reporting and ensuring that parental leave and pay policies work alongside a flexible by default UK labour market and a universal childcare system.
Parental Leave
- Reform the Shared Parental Leave system to ensure parents have a non-transferable, equal entitlement to well-paid parental leave on their own right, that prioritises shared caring between parents and guarantees flexibility.
Support for the self-employed
- Equalise for the self-employed so that self-employed parents are entitled to the same level of Statutory Maternity Pay and Shared Parental Leave as employed parents.
Housing
- Prioritise the building of more social housing and constrain the Right to Buy to preserve stock in high-demand areas: Social housing stock has decreased markedly in recent years. The government must ensure there is enough affordable housing for those in need.
- Restore the link between LHA and actual rental prices by raising LHA to the 50th percentile and keeping it there, to ensure the most vulnerable are protected.
- Revive the Renters Reform Bill and improve private renters’ rights and security.
- Increase the number of women’s refuges and prioritise funding for specialist services.
Transport
- Invest in widespread, accessible and affordable, if not free, public transport. Public ownership can improve public transport routes, service reliability, affordability, and accessibility.
- Active travel design must involve underserved communities to ensure that infrastructure is fairly distributed. It must be adapted for Disabled people as much as possible and must not obstruct or stigmatise Disabled people who need to drive or be driven.
- Transport systems should be gender responsive and prioritise gender equity and inclusion.
Economic growth across the country
- Local government funding needs to be urgently restored to a level which enables councils to meet their statutory obligations and also provide the preventive, non-statutory services which are vital to the well-being of women, children and those in need of all forms of care.
- Meaningful equality impact assessments of local government funding levels and proposed cuts should be carried out by central government and local authorities.
Supporting people into work
- Fully fund a system of high quality universal free childcare and invest in the creation of the National Care Service ensuring care workers are paid the Real Living Wage.
- Address inequalities in the health system and strengthen support for mental and physical health to promote a healthier population.
Making work pay
- Address low pay by increasing the National Minimum Wage and strengthen the social security system and financial support available to women, including housing and childcare support, in order to tackle in-work poverty.
Mission 2: Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower
“Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower to cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero.”
WBG Recommendations
Green and Caring Economy
- Prioritise public investments in decarbonisation and social infrastructure, particularly in the care sector, which can create more green jobs and reduce emissions compared to traditional industries like construction.
- Targeted support through social security for people with higher energy demand, like Disabled people and low-income large families (e.g. through an “energy element” in Universal Credit benefit and legacy benefits).
High Quality Jobs
- Promote a green and caring labour market through equitable job creation, reskilling initiatives, and improved working conditions aligned with environmental sustainability and gender equality.
- Invest in well-paid green jobs in the care sector.
Warm Homes Plan
- Focus on housing as a key vehicle for climate action, promoting energy efficiency and social housing development to reduce emissions and improve living conditions. Implement a retrofitting plan to improve energy efficiency in existing homes and buildings.
Mission 3: Take Back Our Streets
“Take Back Our Streets by halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels.”
WBG Recommendations
Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
- Commit to long-term grant funding for specialist women’s services, including ringfenced funding for services led ‘by and for’ Black and minoritised women, Deaf and Disabled women and LGBT+ survivors.
- Ensure all migrant survivors can access protection and support services.
- More and better specialist training for police dealing with VAWG cases.
- Restore women’s access to justice through a commitment to clearing court backlogs and increasing legal aid funding and availability.
- Invest in prevention measures in schools to address the root causes of violence against women and girls.
- Reform social security (including uprating benefits and scrapping the benefits cap and two-child limit) to ensure women’s economic independence and their ability to leave abusive relationships.
Mission 4: Break Down Barriers to Opportunity
“Break Down Barriers to Opportunity by reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain”.
WBG Recommendations
Child Poverty
- Abolish the two-child limit and the high income child benefit charge (HICBC), increasing the amount of child benefit to £50 per week for all children.
- Respect the principle of independent taxation and ensure members of households are not taxed collectively. Making one partner’s tax liability dependent on the other’s income undermines the principle of independent taxation, which is an important contribution to gender equality.
Universal Credit Reform
- Abolish the benefit cap and two-child limit to prevent child poverty and make other changes to Universal Credit (UC) such as ending the UC five-week wait and introducing a second-earner work allowance.
- Get UC to claimants sooner by making advances non-repayable grants: Currently, families have to wait five weeks for a payment, or accrue debt in the form of an advance, which is only available as a loan.
Early Education and Childcare
- Develop a strategy of Rescue and Reform of the childcare system, in line with the Early Education and Childcare Coalition’s recommendations.
Parental Leave
- Reform the Shared Parental Leave system to ensure parents have a non-transferable, equal entitlement to well-paid parental leave on their own right, that prioritises shared caring between parents and guarantees flexibility.
Mission 5: Build an NHS Fit for the Future
“Build an NHS Fit for the Future that is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer”.
WBG Recommendations
Reducing Health Inequalities
- Restore funding for the NHS to the long-run average once the backlog of treatments has been cleared. An initial injection of funding is needed to clear it.
- For a gender-equal health service, the needs of a diverse range of groups must also be prioritised, including those of older, Black, Asian and minority ethnic, migrant, Disabled, and LGBT people and those living in deprived areas.
- Increase pay and improve conditions for NHS staff. Ensure that any workforce strategies go hand in hand with improvements to funded childcare and wraparound care.
Social Care Reform
- The National Care Service must provide universal, high-quality care, built on establishing and maintaining consistent relationships, as well as enhancing capabilities. People’s needs, including complex needs, would be met in a way which supports wellbeing, prioritises dignity and ensures self-determination.
- The choice to provide unpaid care by carers should be supported by benefits which are adequate, accessible and do not disproportionately penalise carers for undertaking some paid work to supplement their income.
- The ban on overseas care workers bringing dependents with them should be reversed.
READ THE FULL BRIEFING HERE