A guide to party policies for the 2012 council elections

Edinburgh Student Manifesto:

• Widening participation in colleges and beyond: the council should invest more in adult and community learning to the continuation of wider participation 
• No HMO quotas, which ‘limit supply and increase rent for students’ 
• Landlords: The Edinburgh City Council should work with student unions to highlight the problems of unregistered landlords. The Council should take a more active role in enforcement of landlord registration regulations 
• Student Safety Strategy: to tackle hate crime, and reduce the theft of valuables like bikes and laptops 
• Council Tax Exemption: The Edinburgh City Council should exempt all students from paying council tax over the summer period. Currently, students on HNC and HND courses continuing to postgraduate study from an undergraduate degree must pay council tax during the summer period between courses.

Edinburgh Conservatives:

• Repairing roads and pavements 
• More cycling and improved cross-city routes 
• Reduction in unemployment ‘with a particular focus on youth unemployment’ 
• Revisiting alternative business models ‘to examine the potential of all sectors to deliver better and more efficient services’ 
• Increased recycling, dog waste bins and bags 
• A new cultural body to run and maintain venues like Usher Hall, the King’s Theatre and Festival theatre

Edinburgh Greens:

• Devolve budgets to communities by reviewing Neighbour Partnerships and Community Councils 
• More open planning and policy by webcasting council meetings and making council data publicly available 
• Improve public transport and introduce a safe cycling network 
• Introduction of more hybrid buses 
• More apprenticeships by working with the Scottish Funding Council and local colleges 
• Make Edinburgh a “Living Wage” city: Council and council contractors pay a living wage and other employers are accredited as they sign up to it 
• Firm action on landlords and letting agents who charge tenancy fees and do not honour their contracts

Edinburgh Labour Manifesto:

• A ‘co-operative council’, in which more community forums and co-ops are set up to influence council policy 
• Apprenticeships for young people within the Council and also through local firms 
• Protecting green spaces from development 
• Consultation on ‘bulk-buying’ gas and electricity for tenants for their homes through an energy co-op 
• A special anti-social behaviour unit within the police to ensure safety 
• Restriction on the use of ‘party flats’ 
• Environmentally sustainable planning policies 
• Repairing roads and pavements 
• A minimum of 5% of transport budget on cycling and pedestrians 
• Support the Edinburgh Student Manifesto

Liberals: (Broad UK campaign)

• Written constitution and Bill of Rights for the UK 
• Abandonment of UK’s nuclear programme 
• Reform of or withdrawal from the EU 
• Water and rail industries returned to public ownership

Edinburgh Liberal Democrats:

• Tackling hate crime 
• Involving community planning in council processes 
• Assessing a “Living Wage” for all Edinburgh 
• Energy efficient city through smart meters and efficient lighting 
• Strengthening household advice for those renting privately 
• Assessment of trams to Leith and Little France 
• Public inquiry into trams 
• Repairing roads and pavements 
• Increasing the share spent on cycling in transport budgets by 1% per year for the next 5 years, building on the 5% allocated in this year's Council budget

Scottish Anti-Cuts Coalition:

• Oppose all cuts to jobs, council services, pay and conditions 
• Creating jobs and apprenticeships through an investment programme for new council housing 
• No increases in council tax, rent or services charges 
• Oppose privatisation of council jobs and services 
• Support trade unionists and local communities 
• No cuts budget 
• Public ownership of banks and big companies 
• Taxing bankers and high-income earners ‘appropriately’

SNP:

• Maintaining council tax freeze 
• Re-introducing free higher education 
• Enforcement action against bad landlords 
• £20 million road repair budget 
• Living Wage for all council employees 
• Increased investment for cycling with a view to increase the percentage of people getting to work by bike 
• £500 million to tackle anti-social behaviour, described as ‘preventative spending’

Trade Union and Socialist Coalition:

• No privatisation of council jobs and services, privatised utilities back into public ownership 
• Free education and student grants under democratic local authority control 
• Invest to create and protect jobs, particularly for young people 
• Protecting jobs, wages and conditions and trade unions