General Election 2015: Five reasons Green candidate Adele Ward wants your vote in Finchley and Golders Green

Here Green candidate for Finchley and Golders Green Adele Ward explains why you should vote for her.

As a candidate I receive thousands of emails, making me aware of the main concerns of constituents and confirming my belief that it’s important to stand for the Green Party because our policies are the ones people are asking for.

NHS and tax avoidance - Would we stop the privatisation of the NHS and would we tackle tax dodging, particularly among the corporates? These two issues lead to many of the emails, and they go together as the money raised from clamping down on tax dodging could be used to reverse the privatisation of the NHS and to keep it free. We don’t take corporate sponsorship, so we can commit to this.

Fracking and TTIP - We also say a firm ‘no’ to fracking and TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that would make privatisation irreversible and have other serious consequences such as lowering our standards of food production.

Poverty - I find it unacceptable that we have 26 per cent child poverty in Finchley and Golders Green and that people are relying on a growing number of food banks, with many in work but not earning enough to feed their families. Austerity isn’t working and we’re against it.

Housing - The most shocking thing I’ve seen while campaigning is that the so-called regeneration of council estates is actually the demolition of people’s homes to make way for shops and luxury private housing. This is happening on a number of estates, and the planned overdevelopment of Brent Cross plays a significant role, all for the sake of an unnecessary mega-mall that will damage our high streets.

Fighting for the next generation - My parents’ generation worked hard so we could enjoy a free NHS, free education, and the ability to own our homes. For the first time we are handing the next generation a worse situation than our own, and I want to fight to stop that.