To combat the scourge of inequality, the Green Party nationally is calling for: a wealth tax on the super-rich, who have startlingly large carbon footprints; the raising of Universal Credit by £40 per week; the introduction of an unconditional Universal Basic Income; the provision of free school meals for all primary and secondary schoolchildren; and the nationalising/renationalising of the energy and water companies. Cambridge is an increasingly diverse city, a diversity that the Green Party respects and celebrates, in a spirit of collective kindness. Our city is also, however, one of the most unequal in the country. Cambridge has enormous prestige due to its successful universities, colleges, businesses and scientific and technological enterprises, but many living in the city do not have a stake in that success and affluence. We need to share this wealth with local communities, ensuring a decent standard of living for all and a healthy, sustainable society.
Green-led Councils would:
- lobby for a Universal Basic Income pilot in the city and region;
- continue to promote Cambridge as a City of Sanctuary, welcoming refugees and working with community and voluntary sector organisations to support them;
- identify and act on the needs of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities;
- tackle misogyny and violence against women and girls;
- defend LBGTIQA+ rights, supporting trans and non-binary people in their accessing of services corresponding to their gender rights;
- promote disability rights and endorse the social model of disability, emulating best practice in other councils;
- ensure policy decisions take more account of the mental health crisis afflicting our communities, and the young in particular, after the long years of austerity, the divisions of Brexit, the deepening of the climate emergency and the Covid-19 pandemic;
- rekindle Cambridge’s Neighbourhood Watch and Speed Watch schemes and improve night-time safety through better street lighting;
- tackle anti-social behaviour, mindful of the fear it causes.