The Green parliamentary candidate for Stroud, Pete Kennedy, took part in a debate on BBC Radio Gloucestershire last week along with candidates from Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
They all responded to questions sent in on a variety of subjects by members of the public. Click here to listen to the debate:
Here’s a summary of what Pete had to say.
The impact on businesses of the high cost of imported goods
Small and medium businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and our communities. The Greens will ensure they get the support they need to thrive.
Our unstable economy means we rely on imports of pretty much everything. Some products will still need to come from Europe but we should produce at home what we can.
The Green Party is focused on supporting local economies, including reducing energy bills. To address the cost of oil and gas, we will bring the Big 5 energy companies into public ownership and invest in renewable energy.
Ways to address the housing problem
We need rent controls and a ban on no-fault evictions so that people know how much their rent will be instead of facing yearly increases. The Green Party will build 150,000 new social homes every year under our Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price charter. Housing shouldn’t be left to the private sector for profit. Homes will have the right infrastructure and be built to passiv haus standards so that energy bills are low.
Locally, large sections of Stroud are in the AONB or on the flood plain so there are not many options for where housing can go. Stroud District Council is bound by national planning policy, so development can’t necessarily be spread over a wide area, but we will push to change that so that housing can be built in the right places.
Road capacity needs to be upgraded as part of this. This is not necessarily what you’d expect Greens to do but we have to make tough decisions rather than taking the Conservative line of ‘just don’t build here’. Stroud needs an MP who will work with the council to fix the motorway junction capacity issues.
The need for affordable activities for children
Greens are focused on families. The Green-led district council spent £500,000 on upgrading parks and play areas in Stroud area, and the Green Party’s manifesto pledges an extra £5billion for councils to spend on arts and culture, including libraries and museums. We will also increase out-of-school activities such as sports.
Health care
The NHS is on its knees after 14 years of Conservative privatisation and underfunding. Both the Conservatives and Labour propose real-term spending cuts in the NHS.
The Greens are the only party with a plan to reverse these cuts. The Greens would invest £1.5billion a year to fix issues with seeing GPs and enhanced screening to detect 75% of cancers at Stage 1 or 2.
To fund this we will raise £30billion per year from a wealth tax of 1% on people with more than £10million in assets and 2% on people with more than £1billion in assets. The people with the broadest shoulders will pay for the health support that everyone needs.
Some people’s wealth has been growing exponentially while most people have been struggling with a massive reduction in their living standards.
A lot of this wealth is in offshore accounts. The wealth is there – we just need the political courage to go and get it.
The climate crisis
The Green Party exists to solve the climate crisis. Our manifesto has solutions from roads to aviation, education, food and farming. It’s fundamentally about reducing our impact so we can have a long-term sustainable future and a healthy life. We’re the only party with this focus, and without it we cannot fix the problems.