Local elections

As election time looms again, we must use this rare chance to speak-up for so many people who cannot speak for themselves, because they have no home, they have no front door - they will have no vote!

The candidates who knock on our own doors need to be told what we want and what we expect from them, as their duty.

No matter who we are, or where we come from, we all need a home, where we can sleep at night, knowing that tomorrow we will wake up feeling safe and hopeful for our future. This luxury, which most of us enjoy, is being denied to more and more people every day, whilst innumerable houses, business premises and flats lie empty in every town across our country.

It is incumbent upon our elected representatives, locally and nationally, to use their powers and the resources which we already have here, to buy and lease any wouldbe homes, be they flats above businesses, empty bank premises or vacant houses. We have so many abandoned spaces which could be turned into safe havens for those in grave need. Every empty building is a gross insult to those without a roof.

What we must demand now is a firm commitment from our politicians, to make housing their priority, along with a much-needed overhaul of our grant schemes and tax relief (or penalties) as an encouragement for property owners to act, so as to create homes for the homeless.

Every candidate must be told what we want from them!

Our sad, vacant spaces must be revitalised. Our run-down empty streets can, once again, be turned into vibrant communities, where so many forgotten people and desperate families, can start new lives, lives full of hope and the security of ‘belonging’.