Our fabulous candidate sets out his priorities below:
‘I’m delighted to have been selected as the Green Party’s General Election candidate here, and if elected will work for a fairer, greener Tunbridge Wells.
Britain is a wonderful country – but only if you ignore the politics and the inequalities. Since 2010 the Government has starved Local Government of the funding needed to provide services – from social care to avoiding potholes – and favoured private over public investment. The very rich have got richer, and billions of pounds have disappeared to overseas shareholders. Healthcare quality has been allowed to slip, with the NHS suffering staff shortages after Brexit. Our environment is being degraded as private companies are allowed to pollute our rivers and the sea, developers are being allowed to build on green fields, and the need to address climate change is put second to profiting from oil and gas. Our homes are the worst-insulated in Europe, and both rents and mortgages are unaffordable or unobtainable for young people. And unless you have money and influence, people have lost hope, and feel their country has left them behind.
But it doesn’t have to be this way; I want to restore people’s hope for the future.
In Parliament, Green MPs would propose and support measures to reduce inequalities, to improve housing and make it more affordable, and to turn our economy into a thriving green one.
We would reform our tax system to make it fairer – including a tax on the super-rich billionaires and multi-millionaires – raising £50billion to invest in our NHS, warmer homes and cleaner rivers.
We would restablish links with our European neighbours, and make it easier for young people to study, work and live abroad.
We would fight climate change.
For Tunbridge Wells my priorities would include:
– restoring central government funding for the local authority, with priority on social care and on other things that benefit the public, such as home insulation and clean air measures
– forcing the inclusion of affordable and social housing in new developments, and the use of all brownfield sites before green belt sites can be used
– ensuring our GP practices and hospitals are fully staffed, and the workforces are properly rewarded
– ensuring every town and village has buses that can be relied on for school and for shopping trips
– requiring water and sewage companies to put the public and the environment before profit
– stopping Gatwick installing a second runway
– supporting the businesses that are building a green future, and initiatives such as Amplifi
– training a new generation of people to retrofit home insulation and install heatpumps
Please join me in working for a Fairer, Greener Tunbridge Wells!