Tilly Hogrebe – for Southend West & Leigh

Having been a candidate in my home ward St. Lukes for the last three local elections, I am honoured to represent my constituency in the upcoming General Election.

I stand for building strong, connected communities across the City of Southend and beyond, and I have a proven track record of facilitating change towards community connection, both through vocational and voluntary activities. We need happy and healthy communities, where residents not only have all their basic needs met but also find connection. This creates an environment where people will feel less isolated, feel safer in their local area and foster inclusivity for marginalised people. If this was not enough, connected communities also represent substantial economic benefits, according to The Cost of Disconnected Communities Report (Centre for Economics and Business Research, 2017).

Looking at the bigger picture of the climate breakdown, a society of happy, healthy and well-educated citizens will aid the transition to decarbonisation and a healthy planet. Creating strong communities to promote the transition towards decarbonisation on an individual level must always come hand in hand with robust policy at a national level.

As an active Green Party member, but also as an educated citizen and, last but definitely not least, a mother, aunt and facilitator of activities for and with young people, I have long been very concerned about the future we are building for the generations to come.

Our current administration is incapable of delivering the change we need due to severe personal conflicts of interest.

In line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, I stand for the decarbonisation of industries. This includes appropriate taxation and regulation of industries creating carbon, such as energy providers, air travel, and agriculture, to name just a few. On the other hand, I support circular economies, active travel as well as a solid and affordable train network, investment into green jobs, regenerative power and farming based on permaculture principles.

I support the renationalisation of public services. Every citizen has a right to free or very affordable access to education, healthcare, public transport, warm homes and clean water.

Here in the City as well as across the country, we can clearly see the failure of the current system of privatisation in the continuing sewage contamination of our waterways following the ongoing lack of investment in the infrastructure. Our current administration is unable to resolve this issue.

I stand for equality among people. On a national level, this means the introduction of a Universal Basic Income scheme as well as legislation in support of marginalised groups of people. Beyond this, it includes immigration laws rooted in kindness and safe routes into the country for refugees coming from areas threatened by oppression, war and environmental catastrophes due to climate breakdown.

Referring to one of my heroes, Kate Raworth, and her theory of Doughnut Economics: I strive for a world where all people live inside the doughnut – a world where all basic needs are met for everyone, while our use of resources remains within the planetary boundaries.