General election manifestos: key policies

Now the main political party election manifestos are in, FWD has compiled the key takeaways for the wholesale sector

FWD’s manifesto briefing can be accessed here.

A recording of this week’s Bringing Wholesale Together election special webinar featuring pollsters Survation will be available soon.

In summary, the key policies affecting wholesale are:

Conservatives

Tougher sentencing on assaults against retail workers
100,000 additional apprenticeships per year
Improve public sector procurement with the goal of at least 50% of food expenditure spent on food produced locally or to higher environmental production standards
Continue to develop a UK-wide Deposit Return Scheme
Bring forward Tobacco and Vapes Bill in first King’s Speech

Labour

Introduce a New Deal for Working People as part of their plan ‘Make Work Pay’
Change the remit of the Low Pay Commission to account for the cost of living.
Reform the Apprenticeship Levy to create a more flexible Growth and Skills Levy
Ensure half of all food purchased across the public sector is locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards
Create a new specific offence for assaults on shop workers
Implement the Windsor Framework and protect the UK internal market

Liberal Democrats

Extend free school meals to all children in poverty, with an ambition to extend them to all primary school children when the public finances allow
Replacing the apprenticeship levy with a broader and more flexible skills and training levy
Introduce a holistic and comprehensive National Food Strategy
Introduce a deposit return scheme for food and drink bottles and containers, working with the devolved administrations to ensure consistency across the UK
Introduce robust and clear-to-understand food labelling

Apprenticeship Levy

Ahead of the election, FWD has called on the next government to make reform to the Apprenticeship Levy an early priority.

As political parties launched their election manifestos, FWD sent a letter to PM Sunak, leader of the opposition Starmer, and Lib Dem leader Davey, signed by 11 wholesale businesses calling for reform of the Apprenticeship Levy.

The letter calls for the Apprenticeship Levy to be reformed into a wider Skills Levy within the first 100 days of a new government taking office. The letter sets out its rationale for change, with more than £3.3 billion in unspent funds returned to the Treasury since 2019.

Many businesses, including those in the wholesale sector, can only access a small fraction of the Levy, due to overly complex criteria that make much of the funds inaccessible.

The letter has been signed by wholesalers including Bestway Wholesale, Bidfood, Caterforce, Confex , Country Range Group, Fairway Foodservice, Henderson Foodservices, Kitwave, Sugro, Sysco GB and Unitas.

General Election Government wholesale

Back To List Next Story