2024 manifesto · published 11 June 2024

What did Conservative propose in 2024?

Further employee National Insurance cuts and public-service commitments, funded partly by welfare savings and tax-compliance measures. The certainty of the savings was a central point of independent scrutiny.

Evidence last reviewed 11 October 2026

The same seven issues and source fields are reviewed for all seven selected parties. This is a June 2024 Westminster-election baseline, not a statement of current policy or a forecast. Northern Ireland parties and later devolved-election manifestos are outside this comparison.

Seven issues, the same questions

These are summaries of proposals, not quotations or assessments of whether they were delivered. Open each issue for its mechanism, original estimates, timing and source.

Housing

Deliver 1.6 million homes in England in the next Parliament, permanently abolish Stamp Duty for first-time buyers on homes up to £425,000, and launch a new Help to Buy scheme offering an equity loan of up to 20% towards a new build home.

Scope: England for the 1.6 million homes target and social housing tests (stated in the manifesto); the manifesto does not state a jurisdiction for the Stamp Duty and Capital Gains Tax measures.

Mechanism, cost, funding and source

Mechanism: Abolish EU 'nutrient neutrality' rules to unlock 100,000 homes, fast-track brownfield planning in the 20 largest cities and raise inner London density; a two-year Capital Gains Tax relief for landlords selling to tenants, and a Renters Reform Bill with court reforms to fully abolish Section 21.
Published cost: Costings Document: Stamp Duty abolition for first-time buyers £320m in 2025-26 rising to £590m in 2029-30; Help to Buy £665m in 2025-26 and £940m in 2026-27; CGT relief on sales to tenants £20m a year in 2025-26 and 2026-27 (nominal terms).
Funding: Help to Buy to be part funded by contributions from house builders; the Costings Document states the manifesto as a whole is fully funded, with tax cuts offset by welfare reform and tax gap measures.
Timing: 1.6 million homes over the next Parliament; nutrient neutrality change to 'immediately unlock' 100,000 homes; CGT relief is two-year and temporary.
What remains unclear: The documents do not break down how many of the 1.6 million homes each measure would deliver, or the size of house builder contributions to Help to Buy.

Original manifesto · Manifesto PDF p. 54-55 (printed p. 52-53); Costings Document PDF p. 3 and p. 5

Original costings document

NHS

Increase NHS spending above inflation in each year of the next Parliament, with 92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors than in 2023, 250 new or modernised GP surgeries, 50 more Community Diagnostic Centres and an expanded Pharmacy First.

Scope: England (devolved policy area); several commitments refer explicitly to NHS services in England.

Mechanism, cost, funding and source

Mechanism: Delivered through the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan and the NHS Productivity Plan (productivity growth of 1.9% a year from 2025-26), £3.4 billion of new technology, and reducing NHS managers by 5,500 to release £550 million for frontline services.
Published cost: Costings Document: 250 GP surgeries £118m in 2025-26 to £180m in 2029-30; 50 CDCs £28m to £580m; Pharmacy First £20m to £250m; mental health £246m to £729m (nominal terms). No cost is published for the overall above-inflation spending increase.
Funding: Costings Document lists offsetting savings including 5,500 fewer NHS managers (£550m in 2029-30) and savings on consultancy spend (£640m in 2029-30).
Timing: Workforce numbers and NHS Constitution performance levels by the end of the next Parliament; social care cost cap from October 2025; 40 new hospitals by 2030.
What remains unclear: IFS: no overall NHS funding figure is given, so it is impossible to judge whether returning to constitutional waiting-time standards in one parliament is feasible.

Original manifesto · Manifesto PDF p. 42-43 (printed p. 40-41); Costings Document PDF p. 5

Original costings document IFS scrutiny of this programme

Tax and spending

Cut employee National Insurance to 6% by April 2027, abolish the main rate of self-employed National Insurance by the end of the Parliament, introduce a 'Triple Lock Plus' age-related personal allowance for pensioners, and move the Child Benefit charge to a £120,000 household threshold; no rise in income tax or VAT rates or corporation tax.

Scope: UK-wide (reserved tax areas); the manifesto does not state a jurisdiction for each measure.

Mechanism, cost, funding and source

Mechanism: Employee NICs cut from 8% to 7% in April 2025 and 6% in April 2027; self-employed NICs cut from 6% to 5% in April 2025 and in annual steps to full abolition in April 2029; spending restrained by returning the civil service to its pre-pandemic size, halving spending on external consultants and requiring 2% annual productivity growth plans from departments.
Published cost: Costings Document: total tax cuts £6,207m in 2025-26 rising to £17,206m in 2029-30, including employee NICs £10,300m, self-employed NICs £2,600m, Triple Lock Plus £2,400m and Child Benefit charge change £1,316m in 2029-30 (nominal terms).
Funding: Welfare reform (£12,000m) and tackling the tax gap (£6,000m) in 2029-30, totalling £18,000m; the Costings Document states a net Exchequer gain of £289m in 2029-30 and a cumulative reduction in borrowing slightly in excess of £2 billion.
Timing: Phased from April 2025 to April 2029; costed for 2025-26 to 2029-30, with 2029-30 the target year for the fiscal rules.
What remains unclear: IFS: the tax cuts are definite but the welfare and tax-gap savings meant to pay for them are uncertain and only loosely specified.

Original manifesto · Manifesto PDF p. 8 (printed p. 6), p. 16-18 (printed p. 14-16); Costings Document PDF p. 3, 4, 7

Original costings document IFS scrutiny of this programme

Work

Maintain the National Living Wage at two-thirds of median earnings in each year of the next Parliament (around £13 per hour on current forecasts), continue implementing Minimum Service Levels legislation, and reform welfare to move more people into work, saving £12 billion a year.

Scope: Not stated in the manifesto; treated here as UK-wide (reserved policy area).

Mechanism, cost, funding and source

Mechanism: Change work capability assessments from September 2025, move fit notes from GPs to work and health professionals, bring the claimant review point forward from 18 to 12 months and close claims of those refusing a suitable job; the manifesto states it will not introduce Labour's proposed union rules and will keep a 'flexible and dynamic labour market'.
Published cost: No cost published for the National Living Wage commitment; Costings Document scores welfare reform as a saving of £4,000m in 2025-26 rising to £12,000m in 2029-30 (nominal terms).
Funding: Not stated
Timing: National Living Wage in each year of the next Parliament; assessment changes from September 2025; £12 billion welfare saving by the end of the Parliament.
What remains unclear: IFS: the policies set out are not enough to deliver £12 billion a year of welfare savings, and the manifesto gives little detail on disability benefit reform.

Original manifesto · Manifesto PDF p. 13 (printed p. 11), p. 17 (printed p. 15), p. 24-25 (printed p. 22-23); Costings Document PDF p. 4

Original costings document IFS scrutiny of this programme

Education

Protect day-to-day schools spending in real terms per pupil, introduce the Advanced British Standard for 16-19 education, create 100,000 more apprenticeships in England every year, require schools to follow guidance banning mobile phones, and deliver 60,000 more school places and 15 new free schools for children with special educational needs.

Scope: England (devolved policy area); the apprenticeships and university course measures are stated as England.

Mechanism, cost, funding and source

Mechanism: Apprenticeships funded by changing the law so the universities regulator prevents courses with excessive drop-out rates or poor outcomes from recruiting; teacher bonuses of up to £30,000 tax-free over five years in priority areas; two hours of PE a week; a register of children not in school.
Published cost: Costings Document: 100k young apprenticeships £232m in 2025-26 rising to £886m in 2029-30, offset by savings on low value degrees of £204m rising to £910m; 15 special free schools approximately £250 million within the forecast period (nominal terms).
Funding: Apprenticeships funded by closing university courses in England with the worst outcomes; the Costings Document states other measures, including the special free schools, are offset by savings in the Shapps-Williams rail reform plan.
Timing: 100,000 apprenticeships a year by the end of the next Parliament; teacher bonuses from 'this September'; Lifelong Learning Entitlement loans from the 2025 academic year. No date given for the Advanced British Standard.
What remains unclear: IFS: with pupil numbers falling, protecting per-pupil spending in real terms could still mean total school spending falls by about £3.5 billion.

Original manifesto · Manifesto PDF p. 28-30 (printed p. 26-28); Costings Document PDF p. 5-6

Original costings document IFS scrutiny of this programme

Energy

Legislate for annual oil and gas licensing rounds, treble offshore wind capacity, approve two new fleets of Small Modular Reactors, build new gas power stations and the first two carbon capture clusters, and keep policy costs and levies on household bills lower each year than in 2023.

Scope: Not stated for the section as a whole; the energy efficiency voucher scheme is stated as open to every household in England.

Mechanism, cost, funding and source

Mechanism: Halve nuclear approval times, deliver a gigawatt plant at Wylfa, invest £1.1 billion in the Green Industries Growth Accelerator, rule out further green levies, maintain the energy price cap, keep the oil and gas windfall tax until 2028-29 and retain the fracking moratorium.
Published cost: No cost published in the Costings Document; the manifesto states £6 billion for energy efficiency over the next three years and £1.1 billion for the Green Industries Growth Accelerator.
Funding: Not stated
Timing: SMR approvals within the first 100 days of the next Parliament; import carbon pricing mechanism by 2027; windfall tax until 2028-29; net zero by 2050.
What remains unclear: The documents do not say whether the £6 billion energy efficiency spending is new money or within existing departmental budgets.

Original manifesto · Manifesto PDF p. 50-52 (printed p. 48-50)

Immigration

Introduce a binding legal cap on work and family visas that falls every year of the next Parliament with an annual parliamentary vote, and remove illegal migrants to Rwanda with monthly flights.

Scope: UK-wide (reserved policy area).

Mechanism, cost, funding and source

Mechanism: Bring the Illegal Migration Act into force, clear the asylum backlog with claims processed in six months and hotel use ended, sign further returns deals, raise Skilled Worker and family income thresholds with inflation automatically, and increase all visa fees and remove the student discount to the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Published cost: No cost published for the Rwanda or asylum measures; Costings Document scores visa charges as a gain of £600m in 2025-26 falling to £360m in 2029-30, of which approximately £200 million a year is from the student Immigration Health Surcharge.
Funding: Not stated for the Rwanda and asylum measures; visa fee and surcharge increases are stated to raise money for public services.
Timing: Rwanda flights every month 'starting this July'; the cap falls every year of the next Parliament.
What remains unclear: The manifesto does not state the level at which the migration cap would first be set.

Original manifesto · Manifesto PDF p. 38-39 (printed p. 36-37); Costings Document PDF p. 5-6

Original costings document

What was costed, and who would pay?

The party published a costings table or separate document. This records publication, not independent validation, complete policy coverage or guaranteed funding.

Welfare reform (£12,000m) and tackling the tax gap (£6,000m) in 2029-30, totalling £18,000m; the Costings Document states a net Exchequer gain of £289m in 2029-30 and a cumulative reduction in borrowing slightly in excess of £2 billion.

These are the party’s 2024 estimates, not today’s receipts or spending. Annual and whole-parliament amounts, different price bases and different geographies cannot be added or ranked as though they were the same.

The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024 (Clear Plan. Bold Action. Secure Future.)Original manifesto, published 11 June 2024. Page references appear under each issue.
Party costings document (2024)Party estimates; not an independent endorsement.

Independent scrutiny and implementation limits

Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2024-06-11

about £17 billion a year of tax cuts, the largest a 2p cut in employee NICs (8% to 6%, over £10 billion a year) plus abolishing the main self-employed NICs rate, funded by a £12 billion cut to projected welfare spending and tax avoidance/evasion measures. Public service spending plans topped up by only £500 million by 2029-30. The tax cuts are definite but the savings are uncertain and unspecific; the stated welfare policies are not enough for £12 billion, and the manifesto is silent on the £10-20 billion of cuts implied for unprotected services.

IFS manifesto reaction (2024)

What would implementation need to resolve?

These are the issues identified in the dated source review, not forecasts of markets, health outcomes or an election result. Later policies need a separate assessment.

Housing: The documents do not break down how many of the 1.6 million homes each measure would deliver, or the size of house builder contributions to Help to Buy.
NHS: IFS: no overall NHS funding figure is given, so it is impossible to judge whether returning to constitutional waiting-time standards in one parliament is feasible.
Tax and spending: IFS: the tax cuts are definite but the welfare and tax-gap savings meant to pay for them are uncertain and only loosely specified.
Work: IFS: the policies set out are not enough to deliver £12 billion a year of welfare savings, and the manifesto gives little detail on disability benefit reform.
Education: IFS: with pupil numbers falling, protecting per-pupil spending in real terms could still mean total school spending falls by about £3.5 billion.
Energy: The documents do not say whether the £6 billion energy efficiency spending is new money or within existing departmental budgets.
Immigration: The manifesto does not state the level at which the migration cap would first be set.

What happened at the election—and since?

These proposals were published for the July 2024 general election. Election results, present voting intention and government delivery are different measures; use the linked evidence pages for each.