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Community Agenda — Leicester's priorities for the general election
We’ve asked people in Leicester what issues are most important to them this election. This Community Agenda is a list of their priorities.
These questions will be put directly to candidates over the coming weeks, and their answers will be published on our website before the election on Thursday, 4 July.
Improve the NHS
- Over the past decade and more, NHS dentist provision has drastically eroded and is now practically non-existent. What will you do to ensure that those unable to afford private dental treatments can access basic treatment?
- Treatment and diagnosis for many neurodivergent conditions is not available for adults under the NHS, with the NHS refusing to diagnose and treat conditions such as dyspraxia. What is your position on this, and what will you do to change this?
- Doctors are leaving in droves. We do not have enough consultants, yet we are not training enough to be consultants. We have too many medical students, not enough postgraduate training. What will you do to ensure the retention of local doctors in a traditionally unpopular area?
- What will you do to support unpaid carers who care for adults? Current support is seriously inadequate — financial and emotional in particular — and the impact on the wider family drags more people into needing care themselves and exacerbates mental health problems.
- What are your views on the privatisation of certain services in the NHS? How do you envisage an increasingly privatised health service, guaranteeing access to a decent health service for everyone?
- How will you improve access to LGBTQ+ healthcare, particularly for Trans people?
Make housing affordable
- Are you willing to raise the issue of homelessness, and the need for better institutions to help those who are facing eviction?
- What practical and actionable steps will you take to build more housing, while balancing that commitment with preserving heritage and green space?
- How will you curb unscrupulous landlords who provide housing not fit for human habitation?
- Will you support proposals like rent caps to prevent rents from getting even more out of control?
Protect our environment
- Despite the adverts advising people to tackle energy prices themselves by washing on a Sunday, this is not a problem to blame on the public. What will you do to tackle this issue?
- Will you work with Leicester City Council to make sure our cyclist infrastructure is fit for use?
- What steps will you take to strengthen environmental protections, now we can no longer rely on the EU?
- What commitments will you make to preserve the country's green spaces and countryside?
- What will you do to encourage more people to use greener transport?
- What should be done about pollution in our rivers and canals?
Strengthen democracy
- Will you actively encourage more working-class people to get involved in politics?
- How can we keep organisations like the NHS, post office, and PPE providers accountable when systemic and intentional public harms are done?
- What can be done to increase turnout at the next general election?
- Will you support the introduction of fairer voting systems, like proportional representation? It has been over a decade since the alternative vote referendum, and a lot has changed since then.
- How will you improve transparency in government?
Fight inequality
- I’ve been harassed and assaulted where I live twice now by passers-by in cars, I no longer feel safe where I live and feel much safer elsewhere. How can you ensure that the women are properly protected from this sort of thing happening in the future?
- Do you support workers taking industrial action, and will you openly support them on picket lines?
- What will you do to improve community cohesion?
- How will you improve opportunities and access to work for people with health conditions or impairments?
- Given the importance of migrants and their descendants to Leicester's economy and culture, what are your views on the fact the major parties are fighting this election on the basis that immigration is a bad thing?
- How will you make higher education more accessible, and will you commit to abolishing tuition fees?
- Will you work to implement new schemes that aim to prevent young people from turning to crime?
Read more
General Election 2024 - Great Central Gazette
The general election is scheduled for Thursday, 4 July 2024. Follow our latest coverage here.
Rhys Everquill
