14 Jun 2024

Election 2024: what would Labour's plans mean for your money?

Find out about Labour's pledges on tax, pensions, housing and more

The Labour Party has launched its manifesto ahead of the 2024 general election, which will be held on 4 July.

The manifesto sets out the party's policies and how it plans to pay for them, should it win the election.

Read on to find out about the key personal finance and consumer pledges announced by Labour, covering everything from tax to social care.

We've covered the key money pledges in the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party manifestos in separate stories.

You can also find key information from the Green Party, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) manifestos in our story on manifestos from smaller parties.

Tax

No increase to National Insurance, income tax, or VAT rates.
Modernise HMRC to tackle tax avoidance. Increase registration and reporting requirements, strengthen tax office powers, and invest in new technology.
Abolish non-domiciled tax status and replace it with a new scheme.
End the use of offshore trusts to avoid inheritance tax.
Close the loopholes in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies
Close a loophole which allows the private equity industry to treat performance-related pay as capital gains.
Set up a new Office for Value for Money to ensure taxpayer money is spent wisely.
End the VAT exemption and business rates relief for private schools.

Find out more: use the Which? tax guides and calculators to find out your current position

Housing

First-time buyers

Give first-time buyers the first chance to buy new homes. End the practice of international investors buying off-plan.
Reduce mortgage costs for first-time buyers by introducing a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme.
Increase the number of affordable homes. Make changes to the Affordable Homes Programme and support councils and housing associations to increase supply.

Home building

Build 1.5m new homes over the next Parliament.
Update the National Policy Planning Framework, including restoring mandatory housing targets.
Support local authorities by funding additional planning officers, paid for via increasing the rate of the stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.
Prioritise the development of previously used land and fast-tracking the approval of urban brownfield sites.
Build new social rented homes and better protect existing stock by reviewing Right to Buy discounts. Increase protections on newly built social housing.
End the practice of international investors buying off-plan.
Fund additional planning officers, through increasing the rate of the stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.

Home owners

Review how to better protect leaseholders from building safety costs.
Ban new leasehold flats. Enact the Law Commission's proposals on right to manage and commonhold.
Tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rent charges.

Renters

Abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.
Introduce measures to stop renters being exploited and discriminated against. Give renters powers to challenge unreasonable rent increases.
Extend ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the private sector to raise standards.
Ensure homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030.

Reform the social care sector by creating a National Care Service to ensure services are locally delivered. Provide support for people to live independently at home for as long as possible.
Strengthen regulation of the children’s social care sector, including working with local authorities to support kinship, foster care, and adoption.
Make improvements to data sharing across services to ensure no family 'falls through the cracks'.
Ban the sale of cigarettes to the next generation and ban vapes from being advertised to appeal to children.
Ban the advertising of junk food to children along with the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s.

Pensions and investments

Retain the triple lock for the state pension.
Reform the system of workplace pensions.
Undertake a review of the pensions landscape to improve pension outcomes.

Benefits

Support disabled workers, including tackling the backlog of Access to Work claims and reforming or replacing the current Work Capability Assessment.
Support for people seeking employment will be reformed, with 'consequences' for those who are capable of working but don't 'fulfil their obligations'.
Review Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty.

Banking and scams

Introduce an expanded fraud strategy to tackle online, public sector and serious fraud. Work with technology companies to stop platforms being exploited.
Appoint a 'Covid Corruption Commissioner' to recoup public money lost in pandemic-related fraud and from contracts which have not delivered.
Support the creation of banking hubs to give customers access to banking services on the high street.

Household bills

Make a renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030.
Create a new publicly owned company called Great British Energy and upgrade National Grid infrastructure.
Strengthen regulations so energy companies are held to account for wrongdoing and ensure customers are automatically compensated.
Work with the regulator to reduce the burden of standing charges on energy bills.
Invest an extra £6.6bn into a Warm Homes Plan, offering grants and low-interest loans for insulation and other green improvements.
Tackle the soaring cost of car insurance.
Reduce food prices by removing barriers to businesses trading.
Put failing water companies under special measures to clean up our water. Give regulators new powers to block the payment of bonuses to executives who pollute the waterways.

Woman holding energy bills with a smart meter in front

Transport

Bring the current rail network gradually into public ownership as contracts end and through enhanced responsibility of a new body, Great British Railways.
Introduce a new rail passenger watchdog, focused on driving up standards.
Improve buses by giving local leaders the power to take control of services.
Support the transition to electric vehicles by accelerating the roll out of charge points and restoring the phase-out date of 2030 for new cars with internal combustion engines.
Fix an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the next Parliament.
Take steps to tackle the soaring cost of car insurance.

Jobs and pay

Merge Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service to provide a national jobs and careers service.
Guarantee access to training, apprenticeships, and support to find work for all 18 to 21-year-olds.
Consult on banning zero hours contracts, ending firing and rehiring, and introducing 'day one' rights to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal.
Change how minimum wage is calculated so it takes the cost of living into account. Remove age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage.
Introduce a National Wealth Fund to increase investment across the country, including boosting jobs and improving infrastructure.
Review the parental leave system.
Introduce basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal.
Reform the points-based immigration system, with appropriate restrictions on visas, and by linking immigration and skills policy

Childcare and education

Introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school.
Open an additional 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools.
Continue to support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university.
Recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects.
Review the parental leave system.
End the VAT exemption and business rates relief for private schools.
Provide two weeks of guaranteed work experience for every young person, and improve careers advice in schools and colleges.
Guarantee of access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work for all 18- to 21-year-olds.

Young children playing in a childcare setting

What will Labour's pledges cost?

Labour says its manifesto pledges will be funded in part by tax reforms that will raise a total of around £8.5bn, including through VAT on private school fees, closing loopholes, and a windfall tax on oil and gas.

It will borrow £3.5bn a year across the parliament for investment in policies including a new Great British Energy company, as well as a national wealth fund and home insulation scheme.

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Which?’s consumer agenda

Which? recently published our election manifesto, which sets out the reforms Which? believes the next government should implement to protect consumers.

Better retirement standards, protecting face-to-face banking services and a dedicated fraud minister are some of the money policies Which? wants to see from the next government.

Find out more in our consumer agenda for the government.