The Blackpool Gazette and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Blackpool North constituency at next month's general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given 90 seconds to answer questions from an audience at a Cleveleys venue.
Six out of the eight people on the ballot took part in the event with Jeannine Creswell (Social Democratic Party) missing and a stand-in taking the place of the absent Lorraine Beavers.
In order of appearance on stage:
PAUL MAYNARD (Conservative Party)
JAMES RUST (Monster Raving Loony Party)
GITA GORDON (Independent)
BILL GREENE (Liberal Democrats)
TINA ROTHERY (Green Party)
DAN BARKER (Reform UK)
CLIVE GRUNSHAW (Labour [Stand-in])
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00actually look on the community chats on Facebook, but you've got about 10 different housing issues every single day.
00:07Now one in particular yesterday was a member, and she's been living in her house for 16 years.
00:13She had some issues with damp and mould, she told the landlord, she told the council,
00:18and now she's got Section 21 and has to be out in two months with three children.
00:23She's terrified, she doesn't know where she's going to live in two months.
00:27So after all that, the council hasn't been putting enforcement notices in quick enough,
00:34so they can't do revenge eviction, and the main question is,
00:39what are the candidates going to do about abolishing Section 21,
00:45and actually doing something about renters' refund?
00:51Abolishing Section 21 is in our manifesto, as is a rental car.
00:55And did you say that brought me into chat?
00:57Yeah.
00:58Ah, then on a daily basis, you guys did a great job, thank you.
01:04Any issue that comes from here needs to be sorted by the MP who's elected next.
01:12So whether it's Section 21 for eviction or anything, that just needs to be spoken about and spoken louder.
01:20Thank you.
01:22It's fair to say that property housing is one of the biggest categories of casework that I deal with as an MP,
01:30and I'm sure many of my colleagues at Royal would say the same.
01:33I think our biggest challenge as a Parliament, as a nation, is to get rental reform right.
01:38It's been very difficult for the last government to do that.
01:41I deeply wish that that bill had got through, and we're very supportive of the original intentions of it.
01:46So I hope that we are able to bring it back speedily,
01:49and the difference it can make to the sort of people that you campaign on behalf of.
01:56It's not a loony answer, it's a human one.
02:00I sympathise enormously with the mother and the kids, who you've mentioned, and anybody else in that situation.
02:12It's an awful situation to be homeless.
02:17Likewise, I echo those sentiments.
02:21I did touch on this earlier about it being such a huge issue within this constituency,
02:28and housing is another of those areas.
02:32Housing defines the poverty and the deprivation and all the ills of societies that we have within Blackpool and the Fylde Coast,
02:43because there's a correlation between that deprivation and crime and antisocial behaviour and mental health,
02:50all the ills of society.
02:53We need to resolve that by intervention, by making sure that the landlords make the standards of properties far better than what they are,
03:05more selective about how they work and the absentee landlords.
03:12So it's a huge issue, but the last point is we need an MP who understands and who cares, and with Lorraine you would have that.
03:26I'm very sorry to hear about your situation you've outlined tonight,
03:29and I've got to say that from my feedback with politics, that's happening up and down the country everywhere.
03:34Fundamentally, we've got a problem. There's not enough housing, there's not enough rental properties,
03:38because, and I'm sorry to keep saying this, we've got a population explosion and housing has not kept up with it.
03:43Well let me say to you, sir, Section 21 rent controls, whilst they sound like a good idea and they would certainly seem to address the immediate issue,
03:51they would actually force landlords out of the market.
03:53So what we need is a more fundamental look at how we provide housing, whether there's more through the council,
03:58we need to build more properties, we need to take the rogue landlords to task,
04:02not by changing primary legislation, but by licensing landlords.
04:05And that's happened in lots of places around the country, and it's been very effective.
04:08You deal with the rogue landlords, and you let the good landlords carry on doing their business providing homes to people.