Adam's policies for the SDP

Written plainly, with no pretence that any of it is quick or free. More policies will be added here as the campaign continues.

Policy 1 of 6

Why I Back a Land Value Tax

I'm backing a Land Value Tax because working-class communities like mine have been taxed unfairly for decades, while wealth sitting quietly in land goes largely untouched. Council tax is stuck on 1991 values, a system so outdated that a mansion in Westminster can pay less than a modest terrace up north. That's not an accident. It's a design that protects the already-wealthy while squeezing families who can least afford it.

The evidence backs this up. Independent modelling shows the biggest winners from a land value tax would be places like Hartlepool, Blackpool and Middlesbrough: deprived, post-industrial towns where households could pay around £1,600 a year less. Meanwhile, the biggest bills would land on prime London property, where land values have been allowed to balloon untaxed for a generation. That's not punishing success, it's finally asking land wealth to pay its share.

I also believe in scrapping stamp duty, a tax that punishes ordinary people simply for moving house, whether that's chasing a job, downsizing, or finding a home near family. No other tax works quite so hard to trap people in place.

I'm not naive about the transition. It has to be done carefully, phased in gradually, with protection for people who've just bought their home, and support for those who are asset-rich but cash-poor. But the destination is worth it: a fairer system where wealth locked up in land, not workers' wages, carries the weight, and where a family home in Blackpool never again pays more tax than a mansion in Kensington.

Policy 2 of 6

Why I Back a "Buy British" Approach to Government Procurement

I believe every part of government, from Whitehall departments to local councils, should prioritise British companies and manufacturers when it spends our money. Public procurement is one of the most powerful levers government has, and for too long it has drifted abroad while our own industries were left to struggle.

The numbers tell the story. The public sector spends over £227bn a year on goods and services, yet only around a fifth of direct spending currently reaches British SMEs, the backbone of our economy. Meanwhile central government has consistently missed its own targets for British procurement, sitting more than 8% behind where it should be. That is taxpayers' money leaking away from the firms, apprenticeships and supply chains that keep our towns working.

Where councils have taken a different approach, the results speak for themselves. Local authorities that prioritise local and domestic suppliers see a multiplier effect: money circulates through nearby firms, wages, and further local spending, rather than disappearing into distant shareholders' pockets. That is the logic of community wealth building, and it should be the logic of national government too.

Buying British is not about isolation. It's about recognising that every contract awarded overseas is a job, a skill and an investment that never touches British soil. Prioritising our own manufacturers strengthens supply chains, creates apprenticeships, and rebuilds industrial capacity in the regions that most need it.

Public money should build British prosperity first.

Policy 3 of 6

Why I'd Make University Free Again

When I was at school, my generation was told the same thing over and over again, that if we went to university and worked hard, the rest would take care of itself. Most of us did as we were told, and what a great many of us received in return was around £53,000 of debt, a job that did not need a degree, and a payslip carrying what amounts to a second income tax for the privilege.

Until 1998 university in this country was free, and students from poorer homes received a grant to live on. Blair's government brought in tuition fees, every government since has put them up, and the loan system that replaced the old arrangement does not even work on its own terms. Graduates on the loans most of my generation took out paid back £5.3 billion last year, while £9.8 billion of interest was added to those very same loans, so that the debt grows faster than anyone could hope to pay it off. Most of it will be written off in the end regardless, and in the meantime it takes 9% of everything we earn above the threshold, at precisely the age when we are trying to save for a home or start a family. That debt should be written off, and university made free once again.

Free university is only half of the answer. For years we treated a degree as the only respectable way to get on and let apprenticeships wither, and so we now have graduates pulling pints while the country is crying out for electricians, engineers and nurses. For most of the NHS's history nurses trained on the wards, and that should come back through paid nursing apprenticeships, so that people can earn while they learn and finish with no debt at all, and the same should go for any public sector job where a degree is a box to be ticked rather than a skill that is actually needed. Apprenticeships and technical training should get the same money and the same respect as university, because if we are serious about buying British and building things here again, those factories and workshops are going to need people we have trained ourselves.

Public money should follow the courses and training that actually lead somewhere, rather than funding endless expansion for its own sake. None of this is an attack on university, I went myself and it should be free for anyone it suits, but it is an attack on telling every eighteen-year-old that there is only one road, charging them fifty thousand pounds to walk it, and then wondering why the jobs that keep this country running go unfilled.

Policy 4 of 6

Water

For years our water has been run for the benefit of shareholders overseas, while bills keep rising and our rivers fill with sewage. I want to bring water back into public hands, and put it beyond the reach of foreign owners who have no stake in our rivers, our coastline or our communities, and no interest beyond the return they take out of them. That won't be free, and I won't pretend otherwise, but I'd rather we pay to fix something we actually own than keep paying dividends to people who don't live here and don't drink from our taps.

Policy 5 of 6

Energy

We can't go on being a country that shivers through blackouts because we never built enough power of our own. I want to build many more nuclear power stations, so that Britain generates the energy it needs itself, instead of depending on gas bought in from abroad and cables we don't control. Nuclear isn't cheap and it isn't quick, it will take years and serious investment to get right, but the alternative is families choosing between heating and eating whenever the price of imported gas spikes. Energy security is part of keeping people safe, and I want that security in our own hands.

Policy 6 of 6

Housing

Britain needs more homes, and I don't believe the market on its own will ever build them fast enough, or in the right places, or of the right kind. I want to see the state building housing again, directly, so that young people and families have somewhere affordable to live, and so that older people have homes that actually suit them as they grow older, rather than being left in houses too big or too hard to manage. That means public money and public building, not just hoping developers decide it's profitable enough to act. It won't fix everything overnight, but it's how we get homes built for the people who need them, rather than for whoever bids highest.