Quick guide to the Liberal Democrat manifesto

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has made education a focus of his party's election manifesto, promising at extra £2.5bn a year by 2020.

Highlights of the 157-page document include:

Economy and taxation

• Eradicate the structural current budget deficit by 2017/18 and have debt falling as a percentage of national income

• Raise the income tax threshold to £12,500 during the next parliament, bringing forward a planned increase to £11,000 to April 2016.

• Raise the national Insurance threshold to the income tax threshold.

• Restrict access to non-dom status, increasing the associated charges and removing the ability to pass it on to children.

• Introduce an unspecified time-limited supplementary corporation tax charge on the banking sector.

• A graduated mansion tax on properties worth more than £2m

• Expand the British Business Bank and promote a new community banking sector

• No increase in headline rates of income tax, VAT or corporation tax

• Give higher status to the tourism sector by strengthening the Hospitality and Tourism Council

• Create a dedicated unit in HM Revenue & Customs for medium-sized businesses

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• Extra funding will finance a qualified teacher in every classroom, help schools offer more one-to-one and small group tuition and expand early years education as pupil numbers grow

• Establish an independent Educational Standards Authority

Benefits

• Write into law the "triple lock", whereby the state pension increases each year by whichever is higher - wage growth, inflation or 2.5 per cent

• Introduce a 1 per cent cap on the annual rise in working-age benefits until the budget is balanced in 2017/18

• Extend 15 hours of free childcare to parents of all two-year olds, give 20 hours of free childcare a week to all parents of children aged two to four, and extend paternity leave to a month

• Offer discounted bus passes to 16-21 year olds.

Health

• An additional £8bn a year for the National Health Service in England by 2020 and more money for the rest of the UK

• Invest £500m in mental healthcare

Environment

• Set a legally binding decarbonisation target to reduce energy demand by 50 per cent by 2030

<>Housing

• Introduce a scheme whereby monthly rent payments go towards tenants buying a stake in their properties

• Introduce a scheme to help young people rent their first home

• Increase housebuilding to 300,000 homes a year

Transport

• Cap rail fare rises to the rate of inflation over the time of the parliament

• Devolve more economic decision-making

• Proceed with the High Speed 2 rail link as the first stage of a high-speed network to Scotland

Miscellaneous

• Extend Freedom of Information laws to cover private companies delivering public services

• Introduce a digital bill of rights

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