Across the 9 days leading up to polling day Dorset Eye will publish the answers to the questions set by local people for some of the local candidates standing in the 2015 General Election. Some candidates have yet to reply and should we receive their responses then they will be included in later interviews.
Why should someone of my age group (18-20) vote for you?
Oliver Letwin: The Conservative Party West Dorset
I hope that people of any age, including younger voters, will vote for a Conservative government because they understand the importance of letting us finish the job of repairing Britain’s economy and giving our country a better, more secure future.
Rachel Rogers, Labour Party West Dorset
I’ve spent much of my live working with young people, in young offender institutions, in schools and for Dorset Children’s Rights service. I know that the lack of rewarding work, training and housing opportunities is trapping thousands of young people in a cycle of hopelessness.
A Labour government will:
• cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 a year, funded by restricting tax relief on pension contributions for the highest earners and clamping down on tax avoidance. It’s time to link cost to quality – £6000 should be the maximum not the default.
• tackle the growth of unpaid internships: too many very able young people who cannot afford to work for free are unable to enter too many of our professions.
• guarantee an apprenticeship for every school leaver that gets the grades, requiring every firm that gets a large government contract to offer apprenticeships and ensuring those apprenticeships can lead to higher level qualifications.
• introduce a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee, paid for by a bank bonus tax, which will provide a paid starter job for every young person unemployed for over a year, to give them the experience that might be holding them back.
• increase the National Minimum Wage to more than £8ph by 2019 and encourage employers to make the Living Wage the minimum wage. This will reduce the need for reliance on in-work benefits such as housing benefit and tax credits, giving the economy a welcome boost.
• ban the exploitative zero-hours contracts which make it difficult to budget and impossible to save or build for a home or a family and which prevent people from speaking out about unfairness or mistreatment at work for fear of not being given sufficient work to enable them to live.
To help young people and families get on the housing ladder, a Labour government will
• set up a Future Homes Fund by requiring that the money saved in Help to Buy ISAs be invested in increasing housing supply.
• ensure at least 200,000 new homes a year are built by 2020, which will also provide jobs in the construction industry.
• work with local authorities to give first priority to local first time buyers.
• provide more security for renters by guaranteeing three-year tenancies with a ceiling on excessive rent rises and by banning unfair letting agency fees.
Peter Barton: Green Party West Dorset
In my view, the Green Party is the only party which is offering a genuine vision of hope for the future, for a better Britain and a better, safer world. We are the only party which puts the protection of our planet as its top priority with strong policies to tackle the major threat to our collective security: climate change.
The Greens are the only party that puts improving people’s well-being and social security above removing the deficit in importance (although the deficit would be reduced significantly over the next parliament with Green policies), the only party with the policies to create a fair, just Britain by making the super-rich individuals and large corporations pay a fair share of their immense wealth in tax; the only party that would invest in hundreds of thousands of new, skilled ‘green’ jobs in the manufacture of sources of clean, safe, cheap renewable energy; the only party that would keep the NHS totally public and bring the railways into public ownership and the only party that would abolish university tuition fees and ensure that all young people have access to further and higher education and good apprenticeships. The Greens would scrap Trident nuclear weapons, end UK support for rights-abusing regimes and work hard internationally for global peace and justice.
Simon Bowkett: Labour Party Dorset South
In polls of first-time voters, young people are overwhelmingly leaning towards voting Labour – with Labour enjoying a ten-point lead with this age group.
It’s not hard to see why. Under this government, young people have borne the brunt of cuts to services, changes in employment laws, and have seen their prospects for jobs and homes dramatically reduced.
In South Dorset particularly, young people are victims of a low-wage, part-time and often seasonal labour market; while housing – even rented housing – is unaffordable.
Dorset sees a larger proportion of its young people leave the area than any other county. I believe that is because few see prospects here. Yet, for those going to university, they are now paying at least £3000 a year more than they would under Labour.
Labour has a better plan – and a fairer plan – for young people.
Over 700,000 of our young people are unemployed. Many more are under-employed, working too few hours for too little pay to be able support themselves.
Too many do not have the skills they need for work. And yet in the past year the number of young people starting apprenticeships has fallen. The Government’s decision to triple university tuition fees leaves young people either starting their working lives burdened by £44,000 of debt, or without a clear alternative path to a decent career.
Labour will cut tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 a year, funded by restricting tax relief on pension contributions for the highest earners and clamping down on tax avoidance.
We will tackle the growth of unpaid internships because thousands of highly able young people who cannot afford to work for free are locked out of too many of our professions.
We will introduce a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee, paid for by a bank bonus tax. It will provide a paid starter job for every young person unemployed for over a year.
For too long we have failed to provide a system which makes the best use of the talents of young people. So we will guarantee every school leaver that gets the grades an apprenticeship. We will create thousands more apprenticeships in the public sector, including the civil service. Every firm getting a major government contract, and every large employer hiring skilled workers from outside the EU, will be required to offer apprenticeships.
Labour’s apprenticeships will be gold-standard qualifications. We will re-focus existing spending away from low-level apprenticeships for older people, and towards a system where apprenticeships are focused on new job entrants, lasting at least two years, and providing level three qualifications or above.
We will make sure that apprenticeships can lead to higher level qualifications by creating new Technical Degrees and supporting part-time study. They will be co-funded, co-designed and co-delivered by employers and they will be the priority for expansion within our university system.
At the same time, we will tackling the national housing shortage that is making housing unaffordable for young people. We will build 1 million new homes by 2020, including granting powers to local authorities to require developers to provide affordable housing for young people local to the area. That is an important promise in an area like South Dorset where too many properties are second homes or holiday homes.
Labour will also better regulate the private rented sector, offering 3 year tenancies as standard, placing a ceiling on rent increases, and banning rip-off letting agents’ fees.
Jane Burnet: Green Party Dorset South
Climate change, inequality and debt are three very real threats to young adults.
The Green Party has protecting the environment at the heart of ALL our policies, from energy, to transport, housing and how we want to use tax to encourage sustainable economic development. We are the ONLY party opposed to fracking for this reason – it is a new fossil fuel. If we do not tackle climate change, world food and water shortages and mass environmental migrations will threaten global political stability and leave your generation with an impossibly costly mess to sort out. If this concerns you, the only way you can make that message known to the other parties is to vote Green. We are uncompromising on our environmental policies.
Inequality between nations, within nations and between generations has the potential to divide our global, national and local communities and we are the only party with bold tax policies that seeks to address this inequality. You can read about our tax policies on my web site www.janeburnet4southdorset.org.uk
These are designed to address many of the problems of inequality. For your age group, this means we will end austerity and invest in your future. We will enable councils to build social homes for rent. This will bring down the price of all rents for those in the private rented sector too. Other parties talk of affordable housing but this means selling homes at 80%of the market price – still too high for too many young people.
And we believe we need to increase our aid budget in an effort to enable countries in the global south to develop energy, food and economic security so that, in the long term, these countries will become more stable and the need to migrate will be mitigated. The horrors in the Mediterranean are a symptom of growing deserts, water shortages and poverty and will only get worse unless we play a leading role in addressing these issues to create a safer world for your generation.
Our policies on education should also be a reason for you to vote Green. There is a question on this so I will explain in that answer.
Vikki Slade: Liberal Democrats Mid Dorset and North Poole
I first got involved with politics to ensure that my own children have a better future. We need to make sure that young people have a good education, job prospects, homes, sustainable transport and a clean environment. This applies to all those in the next generation be they 18-20yr olds or those who are much younger.
Simon Hoare: Conservative Party North Dorset
Behind everything Government does and people expect lies a sound economy. The Conservative Party is the party of sound economic management that funds the NHS, schools, universities etc. Our support for apprenticeships and the speedy creation of jobs will help young people. We also want to improve access to housing that’s why I support the provision of affordable housing. The Conservatives will build 200,000 homes in the next Parliament exclusively for first time buyers. They will be at a discount price. The legacy of debt left by Labour has hurt the opportunities open to young people. We are trying to turn that around as quickly as possible. Sound economic management keeps inflation and interest rates low. These are key requirements if you’re borrowing money for a mortgage or saving for a deposit.
Ros Kayes: Liberal Democrats West Dorset
Quite simply, if you elect me you will elect someone who will _
· Defend our NHS
· Fight for social justice
· Someone with a 30 year green record of action ( having been a member of the Ecology Party in the 1980s)
· And you will be voting for someone who can actually win in West Dorset.
I’m, standing for election because I believe in equality and justice, promoting skills, tackling climate change , the right to freedom of conscience, dispersing power downwards from government to communities and above all, protecting our public services: in particular the NHS. Our political system is rotten and I’m committed to changing it.
· I’m grounded here in West Dorset and I offer more than just hot air, with a record of action not just words:
· saving Bridport Foyer (supported Housing for Yong People ) from closure;
· supporting the building of 57 affordable homes for local families:
· co founding the Dorset Health Campaign to protect our NHS (saving the Dorchester Pathology Lab from privatisation );
· setting up a group to save Weymouth Women’s Refuge; working with the community to save the Bridport to Yeovil bus.
I am a hands on , interventionist campaigning politician. I also have a record of achieving financial support for this area :
· a grant of £ ¼ million to teach green skills in West Dorset (permaculture, renewable energy systems, support for small businesses) ;
· and £22,000 to deliver training to out of work young people, helping to set them up in apprenticeships, training and employment.
I have a 17 year old son and a 19 year old daughter .
Finally – because my party is committed to offering financial support for housing and public transport to 16-21 year olds – in particular a rent to own scheme, help to find rental deposits and a youth bus pass offering a 2/3 discount on bus transport to help you get to training or work.
Thank you to all those who responded and to all those who set the questions.
