Cambridge general election candidates clash on how to improve future of ‘most unequal city’

General elections candidates said it was ‘scandalous and shocking’ the poverty and inequality seen in Cambridge. However, opinions differed between them on how best to address the issue. In the hope to win support from voters in the city, the candidates faced questions from members of the public at a hustings event this week (June 26), organised by Cambridge City Foodbank in partnership with a number of other charities in the city.

There are seven candidates standing in Cambridge hoping to be elected to represent the city in the July 4, general election. The candidates include Khalid Abu-Tayyem, Workers Party of Britain; David Carmona, Independent; Keith Alexander Garrett, Rebooting Democracy; Shane Manning, Conservative Party; Sarah Louise Nicmanis, Green Party; Cheney Payne, Liberal Democrat; and Daniel Stephen Zeichner, Labour Party.

Five of the candidates and a representative of the Labour candidate attended the hustings to answer questions on how they would tackle poverty and homelessness in the city. One member of the public said there were over a 1,000 people waiting for social housing in the city and asked how many new social homes the candidates wanted to see built.

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Khalid Abu-Tayyem (Workers Party for Britain) said providing “decent, cheap, secure housing for all” was one of the points in the 10 point programme the Workers Party of Britain had put forward. He said working in the NHS he knew doctors and patients were “struggling” and said more people in the city were “starving”. Mr Abu-Tayyem said he also wanted to see all students offered free school meals and free transport. He added that people needed to fight for free education as he said people were graduating university in debt and that they are “poor from the start”.

David Carmona, an independent candidate, said there was “shocking inequality” in the city adding that poverty was a “blight on society” and a “sign of wealth distribution gone wrong”. He claimed much of the city’s social housing had been “sold off” over the years, or had “fallen into disrepair”. Mr Carmona said the current plans for development in and around Cambridge were an “affront to people”.

He said the existing house building was not solving the housing problem, but was attracting more people to the city while making others poorer. Mr Carmona argued the growth of Cambridge needed to be left “until later” and that they “must begin by bettering the lot of people left out of these plans, the local people who make the city tick”.

Tory candidate says his party 'not done enough' to help tackle poverty

Shane Manning (Conservative Party), said his party had a “clear ambition” to build more homes and said they needed to make sure there was more social housing for people. He said poverty was an “incredibly complex topic” that no one organisation could solve on its own.

However, he said he had to acknowledge that the Conservative government had “not done enough in the last 10 years” to address the problem. He said he supported the Trussell Trust’s proposals for an essentials guarantee for people on Universal Credit, which he said he was “shocked” did not already exist.

Mr Manning said working people in poverty had “no business paying taxes” and said the threshold needed to be raised to bring them out of paying tax. He also said they needed to give people job security and build more social and affordable housing, as he said it has been proven that “having a secure roof over your head means you are much more likely to get out of poverty and stay out of poverty”.

Sarah Nicmanis (Green Party) said it was “scandalous” people could not afford the essentials in life. She said people in Cambridge were “suffering tremendously” and said it was “shameful” the city had the title of the “UK’s most unequal city”. Ms Nicmanis said there were actually nearly 3,000 people waiting on the city’s housing list.

She said the development taking place at the moment was not providing enough social housing, adding that the Green Party had committed to building 150,000 social rented homes across the country. Ms Nicmanis also said her party also wanted to increase Universal Credit by £40 a week and proposed to scrap the two child benefit cap. She said poverty was a “political choice” and that the country “can do better”.

'We need to think beyond the next five years in government'

Cheney Payne (Liberal Democrat) said her party had also committed to building 150,000 social homes across the country. She said in Cambridge they needed to focus on delivering some of the projects that have been worked on in the long term to build more social housing.

However, she stressed that “local people” needed to keep control of deciding where new development happens, hitting out at the government plans for a development corporation, which she said would take that power away. Ms Payne also highlighted her work as a secondary school teacher for the last 30 years through which she said she had seen the impacts on poverty on children in school.

She said she saw some children arrive at school “tired and hungry” and said they faced a “much harder struggle” and often fell behind. Ms Payne said poverty was a lack of money, but also a “lack of time and freedom” and that those in charge needed to “think beyond the next five years in government”.

She highlighted some of the changes she said her party would make including extending free school meals, increasing carers allowance and lifting the child benefit cap. Anna Smith (Labour), a councillor at Cambridge City Council and Deputy Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, stood in for the Labour candidate Daniel Zeichner at the hustings.

She said her party was “committed to building new homes” and would “prioritise affordable housing”. She also said they wanted to “protect renters rights” and end to leasehold. Ms Smith also highlighted the work the city council has done to build new council homes in that city.

She said: “I’m really proud of our record as a Labour council working in partnership with many people in this room trying to address food poverty and build council homes, but there is so much more to do. We need changes at the centre to ensure those things can be done.”

Ms Smith said Labour would “bring in a new deal for working people”, including supporting more affordable homes, and offering better funding to local authorities to “do the work on the ground”. She said: “We need to give people a chance to look forward with hope, people need to be secure that life will get better. Change is possible but we have to vote for it, we can restore hope.”