Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance

Green Candidate Addresses Redruth Audience

Euan McPhee, Green Party Candidate for Camborne and Redruth, held an open meeting at Murdoch House on March 11th where people of Redruth learnt about the party's policies on housing, public services and renewable energy.

On the subject of housing, Euan raised the problem of the 700,000 empty houses nationally, and the Green Party policy to bring them back into use through local government enforced Empty Property Orders. He agreed there is a desperate shortage of affordable housing in Cornwall, especially for rent, but that local needs should be determined by local people, not by nonsensical targets imposed from Whitehall. He also raised the issue of low energy housing, and that building standards needed to be radically improved.

As regards public services, only the Green Party is wholly against any cuts. When asked how these services would be paid for, he said 'through radical reform of the taxation system, including a sliding scale of income tax with low earners protected but higher income earners paing more. The UK could also save at least £5B a year by scrapping the Trident nuclear missile system, and nearly as much by axing the new road building programme.'

On the renewable energy front, Euan claimed that Cornwall is perfectly positioned to be able to lead the country in the development of carbon- neutral energy systems, such as wind, wave, geothermal and ground sourced energy. 'For too long the spirit of industrial enterprise for which Cornwall was once famous has lain dormant. The need to develop renewable energy systems offers the perfect opportunity for Cornwall to be at the cutting edge of this new age.'