At-a-glance: Solidarity manifesto

Solidarity has launched its manifesto for the Holyrood elections. Here are the main points of the plan.

Public services

• Bring forward a bill to place Scottish Water firmly in public hands, write-off historic debts and abolish domestic water charges.
• A referendum on Scottish independence.

Education

• Bring in a bill setting targets for councils to cut primary school class sizes to an average of 19 pupils.
• Employ and train additional teachers, paid for by cutting "bureaucratic management" and abolishing charitable tax relief for private schools.
• Abolish the student graduate endowment and bring back grants.

Health

• Introduce a bill to make all school meals free, at an estimated cost of £180m per year, while exposing children to healthy eating choices at an early age.
• Invest at least £10m to improve support for young carers.
• Give young carers free access to distance learning and Open University courses to combat the proportion leaving school with little or no qualifications.
• Plans, in a parliamentary bill, to give a non-means tested allowance to all carers.
• Propose legislation to provide fast help for drug addicts to address their problem, including the possible prescription of heroin under medical supervision.
• Scrap prescription charges at a cost of £46m per year.

Justice

• Bring a bill to ban airguns, an issue reserved to Westminster, using the UK parliament to pass the appropriate powers to Holyrood.

Communities

• Call for the construction of at least 30,000 new local authority homes in the next three years.

Environment

• Bring forward a bill creating a not-for-profit renewable energy corporation for Scotland.
• Place a statutory duty on the Scottish Executive to bring in 10-year "rolling plans" for a "renewable energy economy".

Economy

• Set up a Scottish Fisheries Board to allow fishermen to advise on government policy, offer subsidies and incentives for improving equipment and promote "substantial" council house investment in fishing areas.
• Scrap council tax and replace it with an income-related Scottish Service Tax which would see those earning below £10,000 pay nothing, while raising at least £300m a year more for local services.
• Cap rents charged to tenant farmers and award grants to encourage new entrants to farming as well as payments to support organic farming.
• Abolish Scottish Enterprise and all associated local enterprise companies, freeing up £500m per year to fund the scrapping of domestic water charges and direct funding into "proper apprenticeships" and long-term jobs for local communities.

Transport

• Bring Scotland's railways back into public ownership, with services run by a not-for-profit company.