SPD on other topics

The SPD wants to expand the Lower Saxony consumer advice center and raise its funding to the national average per resident. Consumer and nutrition education is to start with children, and food waste is to be prevented through new rules and projects.

The consumer advice center helps people with shopping and contracts. The SPD wants to give it more money. Advice should be available all over the state. Children should learn more about food in daycare and school. Less food should end up in the trash.

Daycare centers, schools, other educational institutions and campaigns are to provide better information on how food is produced and processed. Children and young people are to learn about their consumer rights and how companies try to influence them. The program cites around 1,870 kilograms of edible food thrown away every minute in Lower Saxony. The SPD wants to collect better data, create legal foundations such as in waste law, and support waste-prevention projects and local food councils.

The SPD wants equal living conditions in urban and rural areas and intends to put rural funding on a permanent footing. Small and mid-sized towns that serve their surrounding areas are to get better access to funding.

The SPD wants to strengthen life in the countryside. Village shops and doctors' offices should get steady funding. Every place should have a meeting spot. Small and mid-sized towns should also get more help.

The state's regional development offices are to be expanded. The party relies on the EU's ELER fund for rural development and on expanding the LEADER regions. Citizen participation is to be supported, for example in development plans, regional management and regional budgets. The "Zukunftsräume" program for towns of 10,000 or more residents is to grow and be linked with urban development funding, along with an advisory service. The SPD wants to push for lifting the population cap on ELER funding for places with important service functions; federal funds from the GAK joint program should no longer be tied to a single budget year.

The SPD wants to secure state funding for organized sports in the long term through an inflation adjustment and continue the renovation program for sports facilities. Renovating swimming pools remains a focus. Inclusion, integration and diversity in sports are to receive more support.

The SPD wants to keep giving money to sports clubs. The money should rise with prices. Gyms and swimming pools should be repaired. All children should be able to learn to swim. People with disabilities should find it easier to do sports.

According to the platform, organized sports most recently received more than 50 million euros a year from the state; over five years, 100 million euros went into renovating sports facilities. Funding is also to cover sustainable spaces for sports and exercise for all groups and be better coordinated with the federal government. The SPD commits to the Olympic training center and wants to support clubs' sports camps and projects to win back members. Sports facilities are to be made accessible, and funds for integrating migrants and people with disabilities are to rise. Projects promoting acceptance of sexual, ethnic and gender diversity in grassroots sports will continue to be funded.