Good afternoon.
Thanks for inviting me to come to speak with you all today – an invitation that reflects the place of the Green Party as the third-largest in England and Wales. I’m pleased to say that more than 90% of the people in England and Wales will be able to vote Green on May 7 – more than 90% of the people in this room.
The focus of my speech today will of course be older people, but I want to start with a phrase with which you are no doubt all familiar – “we are all in this together”. For it is terribly clear that we need to improve the conditions for all generations in Britain.
That list aims to make what I think is a very important point – we shouldn’t be talking about trade-offs, competition between generations, but rather on the way the 1% is scooping up a huge amount of our wealth, while the 99% are being left without.
But the good news is … that was the gloomy part: I’m now going to talk about hope, the way in which the Green Party wants to change this country so that it works for the common good – and particularly so that we make the UK a ‘great place to grow older’.
Our successes – in healthcare and nutrition, amongst other things – mean that the UK is changing demographically. By 2037, for example, the number of people aged 80 or older is expected to double, to six million.
But even now, before that, in the world’s sixth-richest economy, we are facing a huge crisis: there are 1.6 million older people living in poverty, 900,000 of them in severe poverty.
Far too many are switching off the heating because they are fearful of the cost, skimping on food because of fear of next week, unable to afford even the little luxuries like a pint in a pub or a slice of cake in a café.
We live in a country where Age UK reports that in 2011, two million older people had care-related needs, but nearly 800,000 received no help at all.
Yet government spending on adult social care services was slashed by £700m between 2010 and 2013.
And the vast shortfalls in our social care provision are reflected in the public’s concern on the issue: just 40 per cent of people are confident that older people are treated with dignity when receiving social care.
And this while many care workers are – disgracefully – not being paid even what is supposed to be the legal minimum wage: they’re paid for half-hour appointment here, an hour appointment there, but not for the travelling time in between.
The lack of care – and the treatment of care workers – is completely unacceptable, and that’s why the Green Party is committed to providing free social care for every adult aged 65 and over who needs it – with workers paid a living wage.
Free healthcare is the cornerstone of our entire society: that the NHS provides healthcare free at the point of use to anyone, regardless of their individual level of wealth. The same should apply to social care.
This policy will cost £7bn per year, rising to £9bn per year by 2020. It’s a lot of money. But it can be raised by cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion, with a new tax on wealth and a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions.
And just as importantly when considering cost, we should ask ourselves not only how could we afford it, but also, how could we not? There’s a huge human cost in the current failed system – a cost making Britain a caring Britain could eliminate.
And the benefits of free social care are also financial. Because at present, the lack of effective care is putting extra pressure on our already overstretched NHS.
Of course, providing free social care is a big job – and will create a lot of jobs - 200,000 new jobs and training places.
So now I turn to the NHS… there’s been something of a bidding war of promises of extra funding, and extra staff – and we do need to provide that.
But what the NHS needs really is something more fundamental – a foundation of two key principles that can hold it up for generations to come. Both of these are in the NHS Reinstatement Bill presented to parliament by Green MP Caroline Lucas.
First is the principle that the profit motive has no place in the NHS. Money meant for care should not be going into the profits of multinational healthcare companies.
Second is that we need to remove the market mechanism – under which even a publicly owned hospital is commissioned by a Clinical Commissioning Group to provide services, acting like purchaser and seller, with a whole host of administrative costs that should be going into care instead.
I’ve just used a lot of time on health and related issues – but that’s a key issue: making Britain a caring Britain, in which people feel secure.
But now I want to turn to the issue of poverty – and particularly poverty among older people, a condition that we simply should not tolerate, not accept.
That’s why The Green Party will immediately introduce a Citizens’ Pension, an unconditional regular, reliable payment made to every older person: £180 for singles, £310 for couples. That’s set at a level that means immediately, by definition, no older person would be living in poverty.
Increased secure pensions, and free adult social care, are of course policies designed to help ensure older people are not forced into poverty.
But we can do more. And the Green Party will do more to make this a society that meets the needs of older people.
Last winter, 2.28m households suffered fuel poverty. Those households, including almost 1m older people, simply could not afford to properly heat their homes.
We will enact a free policy of home insulation, focussed at first on areas where fuel poverty is at its worst and most widespread, which will insulate nine million homes.
And every new home we build – and we will build 500,000 new social rented houses, as well as replacing the council owned properties lost in the disastrous Right To Buy scheme, will also be built to the highest possible energy efficiency standards.
And we will safeguard free local transport for pensioners, while simultaneously re-regulating bus services and bringing the railways back into public hands – run for passengers not shareholders.
And we will make our roads safer – 20mph where people live work and shop, and an environment in which pedestrians feel safe and secure – and where traffic lights allow all, but particularly vulnerable pedestrians, enough time to cross the road in safety.
Older people in the UK are not alone. Sadly, that means they are not alone in having been failed by our current system.
The Green Party has a slogan – ‘fighting for the Common Good’. The time has come for a new politics, one in which everyone, regardless of their age or sex, can thrive, and in which no-one is left behind.
We can deliver that. But only with your help. You can vote for real change on May 7. I ask you to do that, for yourselves and for other generations.