David Cameron message

"Socialists can scheme their schemes. Liberals can dream their dreams. But we in the Conservative party have got work to do."

The words of the late Iain Macleod were particularly relevant during an election campaign in which we saw Labour plotting new ways to spend people's money; the minor parties promising the earth with no way of paying for it; and only the Conservatives - the real party of working people - setting out the difficult decisions and bold reforms needed to make life better for people in this country.

We can't pretend there's not still a long way to go. We've halved the deficit as a share of the economy - but there's still half of it left to pay off. So we will continue to take the difficult decisions necessary to bring spending down and secure our economy.

As we go about doing that, I want people to be in no doubt: I said five years ago we were all in this together and, five years on, nothing has changed. That's why, for example, I've decided to freeze the pay of the ministers in the government. For me, that's just one step which sends out a clear signal: that as we continue knuckling down as a country, we will all play our part.

But the next five years will be about so much more than balancing the books. When we came to office in 2010, Britain was on the brink of disaster. As we return to office, after five years of a long-term economic plan and sacrifices by the British people, we're on the brink of something different - something special.

We can become a country where all hard-working people can get on; not a two-speed society where some can afford childcare and homes of their own and others cannot. We can become a country where all children get the education they deserve and no one settles for a life on benefits, so no one's background is a barrier to their success. We can become a place where every town, city and region has a stake in economic growth and political power, especially after so many have been left behind by previous recoveries and still feel remote from power. In other words, we can become one nation.

That, for me, sums up the task ahead. That's what we'll build in this parliament on the foundations we laid in the last. And it starts next week as we launch a programme of legislation that reaches right across our country, into every city, every community and every home.

Our first aim is to help working people get on. The absolute key to getting on is getting a job. We created 2m jobs in the last parliament - more than the rest of the countries in the EU put together. In this parliament, we'll create 2m more - heading towards full employment: a job for everyone who wants one. We saw 2.2m people start apprenticeships in the last parliament. We'll help create 3m more, so our young people have the skills they need to do these jobs.

We'll also help people as they aspire to reach life's milestones. For those who want to buy a house, we're building more homes for them - plus helping them with their deposit and keeping mortgage rates low. For those who want to become parents and continue working, we'll deliver 30 hours' free childcare a week for three and four-year-olds. That's one nation: a country that says to people it doesn't matter who you are - if you work hard, you'll get the training, the job and the opportunities you need to succeed.

Our second goal is social justice. Educational excellence shouldn't just be the preserve of the wealthy and the leafy suburbs. Free schools and academies are already putting paid to that notion: there are 1m more children now in good or outstanding schools and we've even got some inner-city free schools sending as many people to Oxbridge as some private schools.

In this parliament we'll go further. We won't just open a few new free schools, we'll open 500 more. We won't just take over failing schools as academies, we'll take over coasting ones too - because "just enough" is no longer good enough.

And by lowering the benefits cap, we will make sure you're always better off in the office or factory than you are at home.

Of course, there is nothing that embodies the spirit of one nation more than our National Health Service, which is there for everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. So we will continue increasing spending on the health service, by at least £8bn a year by 2020, and make it a truly seven-day NHS.

Our third task is to ensure we are one nation when it comes to our economic success. Last year saw a remarkable achievement: the north grew faster than the south. With some of the biggest infrastructure programmes we've seen in centuries, like High Speed 2, and unprecedented power devolved to cities, we will build the northern powerhouse that rivals the great cities of the world, and put people in charge of their own destiny.

And we will follow through on our commitment to devolution in Wales and Scotland too - making Holyrood one of the most powerful devolved governments in the world. A British Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act will restore common sense to our legal system. And a referendum will give people the chance to decide finally whether they want to remain in the EU or not.

This one-nation approach exposes a fundamental difference between us and Labour. They seem to believe that to help some people you have to hurt others, reaching into the pockets of middle earners or heaping debt onto future generations. This zero-sum politics is an affliction of the left. Look at the SNP - they believe you make Scotland stronger by weakening England.

As Conservatives, we have a core belief: you don't pull someone up by pulling another down. I'm not saying that means protecting the rich. Under us, the top 1% of earners pay 27% of all income tax - more than they ever did under Labour. And we recently increased stamp duty on the most expensive properties. What I'm saying is you can help people on low incomes without hitting people on middle incomes. We'll prove that in this parliament.

We'll get even more people out of poverty by training them, creating jobs, increasing incentives to work - and at the same time we will help all the people like teachers and police caught in the 40p tax bracket by increasing the threshold at which you start paying it to £50,000.

So these are the challenges facing us as we return to office, this time as a majority Conservative government. Our task five years ago was rescue and recovery; this time it's renewal - renewing the idea that we are one nation, in which all working people can succeed; people of all backgrounds have social justice; and the ties that bind all parts of our nation are strong.

Our legislative programme is the first step in achieving that - for every single person in our country.