Larry Ngan: Parliamentary Campaigner for Folkestone and Hythe

Everyone has been hit, but those with the least have, as ever, been hit most. Food prices: up. Energy costs: up. Rent: up.

Do you know rents in Folkestone & Hythe are rising faster than almost anywhere else in the country?

"It cost £967 a month to rent the average private home in Folkestone and Hythe during the 12 months to February 2024, according to the latest data from the government’s Housing Market Indices Team. That is a 19.8 per cent increase from February 2023 when the average private rent was £807 a month. Only one other local authority in the whole of Great Britain has seen a larger increase in the past 12 months - Brent in London at 20 per cent." Kent Online

Some of that is because this is a great place to live, and people can see that. But with limited affordable options, and no way for many to buy their own place, soaring rents hurt local families.

Rent is a matter of supply and demand. The most straightforward way to tackle this problem is to build more homes. Our party is committed to new social home building projects, including new council homes. We need to build more affordable homes for our communities. Without those, we will not slow rents increasing way faster than incomes. Developments like Otterpool Park and Ship Street in Folkestone need to deliver thousands of affordable new homes for the area over the coming years.

We are also committed to help people with the cost of living crisis. No-one should have to rely on food banks. Charities locally like the Rainbow Centre are doing incredible work supporting thousands of people, whether homeless, hungry, or both. But in 2024, they simply shouldn't have to. How are we living in a time that working families need to rely on food banks to make ends nearly meet?

Right now, households are still having to decide between paying for eating or heating. Energy prices have come down a bit, but are still much higher than they were in 2021. The Government support to all familes has ended. To tackle the dilemma, the Liberal Democrats would implement a proper, one-off windfall tax on the super profits of oil and gas producers and traders. It will be used to relieve the burden brought by the energy bills.

Getting through to a GP surgery for an appointment feels like a lottery. There are just not enough GPs to go around.

And its not just GPs. Just last year, BUPA closed one of its dentist branches in Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone - leaving thousands of us searching for a new provider. Try finding a place with an NHS dentist in Folkestone or Hythe. It's almost impossible.

Our NHS is simply underfunded by the Conservatives. Remember the Conservative's 2019 manifesto pledge to build “40 new hospitals by 2030”? They don't. They've cut that target to 32 hospitals already, none have been delivered, and Parliament has "no confidence" they'll even get close to hitting that new target, The NHS is not safe in their hands.

"The report warns that it is highly unlikely even to construct the 32 new hospitals that it is now aiming to complete by 2030, after the commitment to build all 40 by then was abandoned in May." Public Accounts Committee

The recent financial trouble of East Kent NHS Trust will mean they are looking for almost £50m of savings next year, further weakening the services we use. NHS staff, local communities and patients will suffer.

Nationally, despite the Conservatives pledging to cut waiting lists at the start of 2023, they've gone up massively. Again.

We are committed to give everyone the right to see their GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to. To deliver on that right, we will train, recruit and retain more GPs and free up more of their time, and invest in public health and prevention so that fewer people get ill and need treatment.

From the Warren, to Sunny Sands, down the coast through Sandgate, around Hythe Bay to St Mary's Bay, Dymchurch and Greatstone, we have beaches with different characters.

But how can those beaches survive and thrive if the water companies keep pumping sewage into our sea?

"‘Do not swim’ warning in Hythe after wastewater discharges from Southern Water pumping station"  Kent Online

How can we accept water companies releasing sewage into our seas every time it rains hard? Storm overflows used to only happen occasionally. They now seem to happen all the time.

Stories like this are happening more and more, all around the UK but also here in Folkestone and Hythe, Sewage was dumped into our sea and rivers 369 times in 2023 for a total of 3836 hours. That's the equivalent of dumping into the sea just over 10 hours a day every single day of the year. Every. Single. Day.

It all started from water company deregulation under a Conservative government. But we've reached the point that we just cannot go on like this. Our communities deserve better.

The Liberal Democrats campaigned to increase monitoring by ensuring that new storm overflow monitors measure volume and percentage of sewage. They would empower citizens as well as charities and other groups to take water companies to court, and force the water company to fund local environmental reporters. With those measures, water companies would have to clean up, or get out.

Please sign our Stop the Sewage petition today.