Cameron’s UK Conservatives in 2015: 3 of 4 numeric pledges met by 2020. Affordable homes reached 87%
- Minimum wage over £8109%
- Personal allowance £12,500100%
- Higher rate from £50k100%
- 275k affordable homes87%
Fact at the deadline, % of the promised number
3 of 4 numeric pledges met by 2020. Affordable homes reached 87%.
The personal allowance and the higher-rate threshold were raised to £12,500 and £50,000 a year early. By March 2020 England had built 238k of the 275k affordable homes.
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Before the 2015 election David Cameron’s Conservative Party promised lower taxes, a higher minimum wage and more affordable housing by the end of the decade. Here are all its numeric «at least» goals beside what came out.
A row is one promise: who, what and by when. The question is whether at least half came true. Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: each row gets its outcome and what actually came of it, the card a stamp counting those that came true. Quotes and links to the facts are below.
- Minimum wage over £8 — Conservative Party (David Cameron), 2015 £ an hour
promised 8 by 2020; fact 9 (109%). From April 2020 the minimum was £8.72 an hour for workers aged 25 and over and £8.20 for those aged 21–24.
GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
- Personal allowance £12,500 — Conservative Party (David Cameron), 2015 £ a year
promised 12,500 by 2020; fact 12,500 (100%). The allowance reached £12,500 in April 2019, a year early (it was £10,600 in 2015/16).
HMRC, Income Tax rates and allowances for current and previous tax years
- Higher rate from £50k — Conservative Party (David Cameron), 2015 £ of annual income
promised 50,000 by 2020; fact 50,000 (100%). The 40% rate started at £50,000 from April 2019 (at £42,385 in 2015/16).
HMRC, Income Tax rates and allowances for current and previous tax years
- 275k affordable homes — Conservative Party (David Cameron), 2015 affordable homes in England, cumulative since April 2015 (end of March)
promised 275,000 by 2020; fact 238,398 (87%). England added 238,000 affordable homes from April 2015 to March 2020; 275,000 was passed in 2020/21 (290,000 by March 2021).
MHCLG, Live Table 1000: Additional affordable homes provided, England
Goals: the 2015 Conservative manifesto. Fact: HMRC, GOV.UK minimum wage rates and the housing ministry (MHCLG, affordable homes in England). Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
Cameron resigned in 2016; the pledges were carried out by the May and Johnson governments. Scotland has had its own income tax thresholds since 2017; the figures are for the rest of the UK; from 2021 the allowance is £12,570 and frozen. In 2016 the National Living Wage for workers 25 and over was introduced above the old minimum; both 2020 rates were over £8. Affordable homes: England only, financial year to March; lockdown stopped sites in 2020, 275k was passed in 2020/21; the table is revised.
A question for this picture
Why are tax pledges easier to keep than pledges to build homes?