Ahead of Thursday's General Election in the United Kingdom, all the main parties have made pledges which impact upon anyone who lives, works or enjoys the British countryside. We've taken a look at all the manifestos to measure up their varying promises.

LIFE IN THE COUNTRY

Conservatives	Labour	Lib Dems	Green Party	UKIP
High-speed broadband for every home and business by 2020	Universal superfast broadband by 2022	Expand hyperfast, fibre-optic broadband connection to every house in the UK with an unlimited usage cap by 2022	Public-works programme of insulation to make every home warm and investment in flood defences and natural flood management	Match CAP payments, then introduce a UK Single Farm Payment capped at £120,000 per year; support farming without antibiotics
Post-Brexit, the same cash total in funds for farm support is promised until the end of the Parliament, with a new agri-environment system to follow	Rethink rural funding-allocation mechanisms and protect post offices, high-street banks, sports clubs, pubs and independent shops	Refocus support for farming towards producing healthy food and public benefits	Strong protection for the green belt, national parks, SSSIs and AONBs	New Environmental Protection Act
Safeguard the post-office network and support pharmacies and village schools	Develop coastal protection and better flood management	Increase accessible green space; new national nature parks	A more effective network of protected marine areas around our coasts	Leave Common Fisheries Policy, withdraw from 1964 London convention on fishing, set up Fisheries Protection Force and draft new Fisheries Bill
£2.5 billion flood-defence programme	Plant a million native trees	Establish a ‘blue belt’ of protected marine areas	Tough action to reduce plastic and other waste
Public forests and woodland to be kept in trust for the nation	Keep forests in public ownership	Plant a tree for every UK citizen over the next 10 years and protect remaining ancient woodlands	Give power to local communities by allowing 40% of local electorate to secure a referendum on local-government decisions or recall their MP
Natural England will expand provision of technical expertise to farmers	Allow EU workers employed across farming, fishing and food manufacturing to remain in the UK	Increase the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator
Conserve our marine environment	Reinstate the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme, as well as the Agricultural Wages Board	Set up £2 billion Rural Services Fund and prevent post-office closures
A comprehensive 25-year Environment Plan	Expand the current role of the Groceries Code Adjudicator	Establish a £2 billion flood-prevention fund
Extend the Coastal Communities Fund for seaside towns to 2022	Set up a national review of local pubs

ANIMALS AND WILDLIFE

Conservatives	Labour	Lib Dems	Green Party	UKIP
A free vote on the future of the Hunting Act 2004	End badger cull	Suspend neonicotinoids until proven they don’t harm pollinators	An Environmental Protection Act to safeguard and restore the environment and protect and enhance biodiversit	Triple maximum jail sentences for animal cruelty
Reforms on pet sales and licensing	Safeguard habitats and species in ‘blue belts’	Stronger penalties for animal-cruelty offences
Make CCTV recording in slaughterhouses mandatory	Prohibit neonicotinoids as soon as is allowed, to protect bees	Clamp down on illegal pet imports and minimise the use of animals in scientific experimentation
Control the export of live farm animals for slaughter post-Brexit	Promote cruelty-free and better-enforced animal husbandry	Update farm-animal welfare codes and promote the responsible stewardship of antibiotic drugs
	Third-party sale of puppies will be prohibited	Develop ‘humane and evidence-based ways of controlling bovine TB’

TRANSPORT

Conservatives	Labour	Lib Dems	Green Party	UKIP
£40 billion into improvements, including HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and the expansion of Heathrow	Bring private rail companies back into public ownership	Invest in road and rail infrastructure, including a continued commitment to HS2, Crossrail 2 and rail electrification	Return the railways to public ownership; invest in regional rail links and electrification of existing rail lines, rather than wasting money on HS2 and the national major-roads programme; cancel all airport expansion	Scrap HS2; upgrade existing mainline services
Develop the road network and create extra capacity on the railways	Complete HS2 into Leeds and Manchester, then into Scotland	Government-run companies to temporarily take over Southern Rail and Govia Thameslink; complete rail link between Oxford and Cambridge	Incentives to take diesel vehicles off the roads	Support zero-emissions vehicles; stop diesel drivers being penalised
Support expansion of cycle networks	New Brighton Main Line; complete the Science Vale transport arc from Oxford to Cambridge	Develop strategic airports policy for the whole of the UK; no expansion of Heathrow, Stansted or Gatwick		Support for rural bus operators and smaller regional airports
Improve road surfaces in residential areas	Local bus companies will be publicly run	Diesel scrappage scheme and ban on sale of diesel cars and small vans in the UK by 2025		Stop speed cameras being used as revenue-raisers for local authorities
	The need for extra airport capacity in the South-East is recognised	Extend ultra-low-emission zones to 10 more towns and cities
		Provide local authorities and communities with the powers to improve transport and ticketing

ENERGY AND RENEWABLES

Conservatives	Labour	Lib Dems	Green Party	UKIP
Independent review into UK energy costs	Transition to a publicly owned, decentralised energy system	Additional funding for renewables including solar PV and onshore wind, plus smart grid technology, hydrogen technologies, offshore wind and tidal power	Replace fracking, coal power and subsidies to fossil fuels	Cut typical household energy bills by £170 a year
No more large-scale onshore wind farms in England	Immediate energy price cap: the average dual-fuel household energy bill will remain below £1,000 per annum	Support use of nuclear power	Nationwide insulation programme	Withdraw from Paris climate agreement and EU Emissions Trading Scheme; repeal Climate Change Act 2008
Offshore wind will still be developed	Insulate four million homes	Ban fracking	New Clean Air Act	Remove subsidies from unprofitable wind and solar schemes
Develop the shale industry	Ban fracking			Support coal, nuclear, shale gas, conventional gas, oil, solar and hydro
	Build up renewable-energy projects and support nuclear energy

HOUSING AND PLANNING

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Conservatives	Labour	Lib Dems	Green Party	UKIP
Deliver one million homes by the end of 2020 and 500,000 more by the end of 2022	Build more than a million new homes, giving councils new powers; prioritise brownfield sites and protect the green belt	£5 billion of initial capital for a new British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank	Banning letting fees	Plan to introuduce low-cost, factory-built modular homes, affordable on the national average wage of £26,000
One million more trees to be planted in towns and cities	Start work on a new generation of New Towns	New direct spending on housebuilding to help build 300,000 homes a year by 2022; build at least 10 new garden cities in England	Building 100,000 social rented homes by 2022
		Four million properties to receive insulation retrofits by 2022
		Enforce housebuilding on unwanted public-sector land

SMALL BUSINESSES

Conservatives	Labour	Lib Dems	Green Party	UKIP
Improve the general business environment for SMEs and ensure that big contractors comply with the Prompt Payment Code	Lower small profits rate of Corporation Tax for small businesses	Create a new ‘start-up allowance’; support fast-growing businesses seeking to scale up through the provision of mentoring support		Freeze Insurance Premium Tax
Business-rate relief and low taxation for small businesses will continue and bureaucracy and regulation will be cut	Small businesses excluded from plans for quarterly reporting	Review business rates to reduce burdens on small firms		Cut business rates by 20% for small businesses
	Take action on late payments and prioritise lending to small businesses

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