Launch of Sheffield Labour’s brilliant local election manifesto
On Saturday 25 March Sheffield MPs and Councillors launched Sheffield Labour Party’s 2023 local election manifesto. Entitled Our Plan for Sheffield, the manifesto sets out the five priority areas for the Council over the next year:
- Supporting residents through the cost-of-living crisis;
- Growing our local economy;
- Making Sheffield more connected;
- Investing in our neighbourhoods;
- Protecting our health and wellbeing
The manifesto was launched at the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park to an audience of over a hundred Labour members, councillors and council candidates, as well as MPs Louise Haigh, Clive Betts and Olivia Blake. Speaking at the launch Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh spoke about the need for
‘a Labour Government working with Labour Councils’ to get the United Kingdom back on track.
Louise set out Labour’s plans to bring high-skilled jobs back to areas like Sheffield, saying:
“We have dedicated £28 billion a year, investing in the gigafactories that we will need to power the green industrial revolution, investing in automotive manufacturing, in hydrogen, in off-shore and on-shore wind, in nuclear, and the alternative fuels that are going to power the green transition.”
Louise also spoke about her plans as Shadow Transport Secretary to end the ideological ban on local councils owning their own bus companies, saying that ‘working with a Labour Council and a Labour Mayor we would give that power to communities here to set routes, fares and services.’ She also recommitted the Labour Party to bringing the railways back into public ownership.
Our Plan for Sheffield sets out Labour Councillors’ plans to create thousands of new jobs in green manufacturing through the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District, delivering high-skilled, high-wage jobs along the Sheffield-Rotherham corridor.
Cllr Terry Fox, Sheffield Council Leader set out Sheffield Labour’s plans to invest in neighbourhood services, building on the cost-of-living budget his party presented to Council earlier this month.
“As the Manifesto spells out, we remain resolute in our Labour values and commitment to delivering the changes we need that drive us. We will never accept inequalities, nor a managed decline.
“We must learn from the boldness of Sheffield’s past to tackle today’s problems and create a better future. This is why we are today committing to a series of radical—and wholeheartedly Labour—plans to deliver for the city.”
He spoke of a recent encounter with a Manor resident struggling in the rising cost-of-living crisis:
“I went to one of my constituents just the other week, who took me out of his kitchen, into his front room and said that his lightbulb had gone. He had one light bulb… That’s the extent of the cost-of-living crisis in this city and why we need a Labour council working with a Labour government.”
