Housing and heating - two of the key targets residents wanted addressed, but how far have the MPs gone to get issues in their corner of Medway heard?
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00:00Fourth of July, 2024. The day that three Medway councillors became Labour MPs.
00:06Tristan Osborne, Nishar Bakhan and Lauren Edwards have represented their constituents for six months.
00:12But it hasn't always been smooth sailing.
00:14Controversy came quick for Lauren Edwards, after a tweet from the Rochester and Stude MP drew criticism in August.
00:21In a statement about the now-deleted tweet, she said it was a significant error of judgement on my part, and I apologise wholeheartedly.
00:28Lauren Edwards was unavailable to speak to us, but we've come to Rochester to see what her constituents think of their new MP.
00:34I probably said things in a tweet or on a Facebook page ten years ago, probably when I've had a drink or when I just felt a bit angry. Yeah, I don't really care.
00:44I don't like it. Obviously I would like her to explain her position now, but I do appreciate that people's decisions and opinions do change through time.
00:55She's made comments like that, whether they're ten years ago or not, that she should face them and deal with them, and perhaps comment on why she said that when she said it.
01:03In Nishar Bakhan's constituency next door, the chair of food bank charity Gillingham Street Angels thinks access to housing is an issue.
01:11You see these problems everywhere. In Chatham in particular, they're building all these brand new flats. Who's going to live in those brand new flats? Is it Medway residents?
01:20That's what my concern would be. If we need housing in Medway, it needs to be people in Medway living in it.
01:25Nishar Bakhan also sits on the Government's Housing Select Committee.
01:28I think the issue is that for a long time now that word affordable has been used when we talk about housing, but actually it doesn't feel that way.
01:35And so that's why, and this is something that I've really backed because it's come very strongly through this Labour government, it's come very strongly through the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, is the building of council housing and social housing.
01:46I'm also really keen to work with local communities, work with people in Gillingham and Raynham and the council to make sure that we get this right for local residents.
01:54A Conservative councillor in Tristan Osborne's constituency of Chatham and Aylesford criticised changes to the winter fuel payment eligibility rules.
02:02You know, I've got grandparents I'm just about to visit, and you know, they can't afford to heat their homes. So, you know, us grandchildren have to fund their heating bill for them.
02:12When I say to them where the threshold is, people actually do change their mind and acknowledge that there will not be a choice for many around heating and eating this winter.
02:21That is a false argument. We are making a start on getting more money in people's pockets and the economy is in a more stable place.
02:27We're going to have the same Chancellor and Prime Minister instead of this sort of merry-go-round we saw in the last Parliament.
02:33With six months down, who knows what the next six months will bring?
02:37Beth Williams for KMTV.