Epsom & Ewell Liberal Democrats

Skills Wallets are a plan to allow every adult in England to access training throughout their lives, after leaving full time education.

A £10,000 fund for each person will give them the opportunity to retrain and upskill for jobs that we can't even imagine yet.

It can be expensive to develop new skills later in your career. The cost of courses and qualifications shuts too many people out. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives have any answer to this - their 20^th century and 19^th century policies don't work in the 21^st century.

Epsom & Ewell Liberal Democrats have confirmed Steve Gee as their 2019 parliamentary candidate.

The Epsom & Ewell seat at Westminster covers a larger area than the borough of Epsom & Ewell, and the neighbouring parties covering Ashtead and the Nork & Tattenhams area have also agreed to support Steve as their candidate.

The Liberal Democrats have announced they have entered into arrangements in a number of seats with Plaid Cymru and the Green Party.

The arrangement will see the Liberal Democrats working with both parties, getting candidates to stand aside for those who will campaign to stop Brexit.

The news follows a successful arrangement in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, which saw Liberal Democrat MP Jane Dodds defeat the Conservative Party in August earlier this year.

Responding to Labour's promise to make all new-build homes "zero carbon" by 2022, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the Climate Emergency and the Environment Wera Hobhouse said:

"This Labour policy is nothing more than a vague aspiration. With no specific commitments and no mention of the 4 million non-domestic buildings that need upgrading too, this is nothing more than a superficial attempt to appear serious about tackling the climate emergency.

Responding to the Government ending support for fracking in the UK, former Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey said:

"A moratorium on fracking is welcome but it is not a ban. Liberal Democrats back an immediate ban now - given the evidence we are now in a climate emergency.

From local resident Sarah Clayton, via Nextdoor.com

"We have now formed a small Epsom XR group, to keep building the movement. Extinction Rebellion is calling for change, radical change - in the way our politics, economics and society works - in order to cut carbon emissions and attempt to keep the planetary climate stable enough for life as we know it.

Following a request by the Lib Dems, Surrey County Council has agreed to exempt young care leavers from paying its share of Council Tax.

Earlier today, Surrey's Full Council approved a report from the Cabinet to give young people who have been in the care system a discount of 75% on their Council Tax, which is the Surrey Council portion of Council Tax bills. About 600 young people under 25 who have left the care of the Council will no longer have to pay full Council Tax from next April.

The Lib Dems have called on Surrey County Council to back a bill that would increase the fines for leaving vehicles idling and make it easier to levy fines.

During tomorrow's Full Council meeting, Councillor Will Forster will ask the Leader of Surrey County Council to call on the Government and Surrey's MPs to support the Vehicle Emissions (Idling Penalties) Bill.