Don't know who to vote for in Truro and Falmouth? This might help

We spoke to candidates for the Falmouth and Truro constituency and asked them a series of general questions and something specific to their party.

We asked them what they would do for local people to: ensure the supply of affordable homes; increase levels of employment and a fair wage; ensure funding and support post-Brexit, and guarantee rights currently protected by Europe; help people with mental health problems; adequately fund and staff the NHS; and provide adequate policing.

Here are their responses:

Jayne Kirkham, Labour.

On housing: "The Labour Party are going to give local authorities the powers to build the houses communities need, taking into account local plans like the one going through in Falmouth, so we end up with truly affordable houses for local people to buy or rent."

She also reiterated Labour's manifesto pledges to build 100,000 new council and housing authority homes put an inflation cap on rent rises and create more secure tenancies.

"The university are building more student accommodation on campus and our Labour led council have introduced new rules on converting and building student accommodation, so this should help ease the pressure on housing in the town."

On employment, she repeated manifesto plans to bring in a £10 minimum wage for over 18s, set up a National Investment Bank for small businesses and self employed people, reform business rates, keep corporation tax low and scrap quarterly reporting for small businesses, and remove the one per cent public service pay cap: "Nurses using food banks is something that should be banished to history in this country in the 21st century.

"We want to see real investment in Cornwall so that more jobs are created in new and traditional Cornish industries. We are going to improve infrastructure by investing in the rail, road and bus network in Cornwall from our £250 billion National Transformation Fund."

On post-Brexit funding: "Brexit has created worry and uncertainty for Cornwall. Labour will make sure we will not be affected by the withdrawal of EU funding for the remainder of this parliament.

We will make sure the workers rights', consumers' and environmental protections we gained from Europe will be protected in UK law. The Conservatives wanted to ditch these."

On mental health: "We will ringfence mental health budgets and give mental health the same priority as physical health. There will be no out-of-area placements by 2019.

"We will spend more on children's mental health and make sure that all secondary school children have access to counselling if and when they need it."

On the NHS she said the party pledged to commit to an extra £30 billion to the service in the next parliament, put £8 billion into social care and set up a National Care Service, axe "astronomical NHS parking fees, bring back nursing burasries while scrapping tuition fees, and pay carers a living wage while ensuring carers' allowance is on par with Jobseekers' Allowance.

"We will stop the Cornish STP which is looking at closing health services, including Falmouth Hospital, to cut costs and start again with a focus on patient need rather than just cutting money.

On policing she reiterated a national pledge for 10,000 new officers.

"When Labour was last in power Devon and Cornwall Police gained 661 police officers. Since the Conservatives have been in government we have lost 643. Crime has risen and local police officers embedded in their community, like PC Andy Hocking, are becoming a thing of the past."

Asked about allegations Jeremy Corbyn would make a weak Prime Minister, she said: "Jeremy Corbyn has proved himself to be strong and calm during this campaign, through press attacks and two leadership elections. He would be far better negotiating with the heads of the EU countries than Theresa May who makes constant U-turns and is scared to debate with other leaders.

"When you vote Labour in Truro and Falmouth, you are choosing me to represent you in parliament. Standing up for Cornwall where our six Tory MPs have failed to do so."

Sarah Newton, Conservative.

On housing: "While planning decisions are the responsibility of Cornwall Council, I am a champion of neighbourhood plans as they enable local people to shape the future of their community. I hope that the Falmouth Neighbourhood plan will be supported by the local community in the forthcoming referendum as it will enable more homes for locals. I will build on my track record of securing additional funding into Cornwall for more homes for locals including for community-led housing and more effective and tougher control of 'rogue landlords.'"

On employment: "There are record numbers of people in work here now, including high quality apprenticeships for people of all ages. Supporting our local businesses to secure and grow jobs is a top priority."

She reiterated Conservative pledges to increase the Living Wage, increase the income tax threshold and cap energy bills, as well as implementing the findings of the Taylor review into fair pay and conditions."

On post-Brexit funding: "The Conservative plan for Brexit is clear and includes as a priority securing the rights of EU citizens who live here and those of Brits living in the EU. I want a close mutually beneficial relationship with our neighbours and allies in Europe."

She also claimed to have secured the funding Cornwall would have received within the EU, and added: "A new Prosperity Fund will continue to deliver the post-Brexit infrastructure and economic development funding that Cornwall needs."

On mental health: "We have changed the mandate of the NHS so that mental health and physical health are treated equally. More funding is going into mental health services, for example a new, local adolescent mental health facility is about to be built and working with partners I helped secure funding for new perinatal mental and dementia services. A&E at Treliske has recently secured an extra £1 million for 24 hour specialist mental health professionals. The regional Crisis Care Concordat aims to prevent people with a mental health crisis being detained by the police."

However she admitted: "More needs to be done."

On the NHS she repeated claims the party was committed to increasing real-terms funding.

"I will continue to work hard to make sure we get at least our fair share of NHS and social care funding and that it is better used, joining up care around the patient and their families.

"Local people are currently involved in a once in a generation opportunity of reshaping and improving our local NHS and care services - the STP.

"I will keep the pressure on Lib Dem leaders of Cornwall Council to actually spend the extra money that they have been given for social care [and] public health services."

On policing: "I am pleased to see that Devon and Cornwall Constabulary are now recruiting and securing Police Transformation Funding to help to support innovation."

She added the Conservatives had protected the police budget since 2015 and she would work to "ensure that they have the resources that they need."

Asked if Theresa May's U-turn on the dementia tax showed she is not the 'strong and stable' leader she claims, she said: "There is no dementia tax. Under the current system if you are in a nursing home you could lose almost all your life savings – including your home – to pay for your care. Under our plan, however expensive your care, we will protect at least £100,000 of your life savings so that you can pass them on to your family. In addition there will be a cap on the amount you will pay towards the cost of your care."

Rob Nolan, Liberal Democrat.

On housing: "The Liberal Democrats fought the recent Cornwall Council elections with a key policy of building 1,000 new council houses."

"I would work to support this fantastic policy, and push the Westminster government to recognise the need to supply genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy."

On employment: "We still have a bucket and spade economy, but we had started to move away from it with all the investments in infrastructure and connectivity.

"I think many people were aghast when the announcement came about the Growth Deal, and how our current crop of MP’s failed to make the case for Cornwall despite a full and thorough briefing from the LEP."

On post-Brexit funding: "Brexit is going to hurt Cornwall a lot more than most places... we’ve received an awful lot of support over the years through various investment schemes.

"We see this on a daily basis, be it the investment the university has brought to the area, the improvements to the Falmouth branch line, and super-fast broadband across Cornwall.

"The failure of the Conservative MP and the government refusal to confirm whether or not they will make up this pretty substantial funding shortfall once we’ve left the EU is nothing short of scandalous."

He said mental health was a "time bomb" and Tory education cuts meant "fewer teachers and specialist teachers able to fill the gap. "Theresa May’s government is failing our children, and our Conservative MP sits idle.

"Lib Dem Norman Lamb introduced maximum waiting times for mental health services during the coalition, which is a big step in the right direction, and the Liberal Democrats are fully committed to improving waiting time standards for access to mental health services."

On the NHS: "Cornwall’s NHS is getting a raw deal from this Government. Treliske has again been on triple black alert over the last few days, and the UK Government is planning to under-fund Cornwall’s NHS to the tune of £277 million over the next five years.

"I would campaign tirelessly to fight for the fair funding deal Cornwall’s health service desperately needs. I will particularly make the case for Cornwall’s fluctuating population size being taken into account. Our population more than doubles in the summer months with holiday makers and second home owners.

And he repeated the Liberal Democrat plan to add 1p in the pound to income tax and raise £6 billion for the NHS.

On policing: "The Liberal Democrats will scrap the unnecessary and costly office of Police and Crime Commissioner, and use the money saved to recruit more officers to serve our communities."

Asked if the party was still tainted five years of coalition government and its capitulation over tuition fees, he said: "In coalition the Liberal Democrats achieved some pretty remarkable things. We introduced the pension triple lock guarantee, we increased the number of apprenticeships to a record level, and we lifted three million people out of paying income tax altogether.

"Nick Clegg publicly apologised for [tuition fees] and we learned as a party to not make promises we couldn’t be sure we could deliver. "The tuition fees policy introduced by the coalition has seen an increase in the number of university applications, and the gap between the richest and poorest making it to university is the smallest in history.

"What really worries me is the way the Conservatives... are now trying to overturn some of the very best things achieved during the coalition government. Ground-breaking policies like the pupil premium, the abolishment of child detention in immigration cases and the triple-lock guarantee on pensions."

Duncan Odgers, Ukip.

On housing, he reiterated party policy to identify and buy cheap brownfield sites, use them for modern modular one and two-bed flats and two-bed houses and exempt them from stamp duty, to "create affordable homes at under £100,000 per property," with a guarantee to buy them back if they’re in good condition.

On employment, he repeated party pledges that no tax be paid on the first £13,500 of earnings, while red tape on small businesses will be "slashed."

On post-Brexit funding: "Ukip will ensure that as a minimum the actual funding in Cornwall will be matched as a minimum and

targeted where the community actually need it with true public consultation. It’s our money and I want it invested by elected representatives and constituents rather than unelected bureaucrats from Brussels."

On mental health: "Mental health services are often the ‘poor relation’, forgotten and underfunded when politicians talk about the NHS. This needs to end. We’ll add an extra £500 million per year to recruit more professionals and spend the money we have more effectively.

He said "nobody should ever have to wait more than 28 days for an appointment," and the party will "ensure better communication" between child/adult and physical/mental health, stop mental health funding being diverted to other NHS services, and include "some mental health training in teacher training programmes."

On the NHS: "We’d pay for more spending on the NHS by cutting the foreign aid budget. Under UKIP’s plan we’d still give 0.2 per cent of GDP to foreign aid... but scrap the unrealistic 0.7 per cent target. We’d save another £2 billion per year by ensuring that everyone coming to the UK has medical insurance and ending health tourism. Consultancy fees currently cost the NHS £0.6 billion per year; we’d cap these."

He added that savings would be spent on 10,000 more GPs, 24,000 more nurses and 3,500 more midwives, and stopping the government’s 1 per cent pay rise cap. he also said the party would remove the 7,500 cap on medical school places, pay medical school students tuition fees provided they actually work in the NHS when qualified, make it easier for retired GPs to return to work on a part-time basis, improve pay and conditions to stop doctors leaving the UK, and allow all doctors, nurses and healthcare workers from abroad to remain in the UK.

On policing: "We will train and deploy 20,000 more police and employ 7,000 more prison officers."

He repeated pledges to make sentences mean what they say, build more prisons, and deport foreign criminals, and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

Asked whether UKIP standing in the election is pointless as it had secured Brexit, he said: "UKIP are the guard dogs of democracy. The will of the British people would be ignored by the Lib Dems, ruined by Labour and the Greens, and only UKIP will fight to keep the Conservatives on message and stop them backsliding from the best outcome for the people of this country. Any divorce payment when legally the EU owes us is not only a betrayal of the British people but stolen funds from essential services as the NHS."

He also listed the party's six tests for proving Brexit mean exit: The Legal Test, The Migration Test, The Maritime Test, The Trade Test, The Money Test, and The Time Test.

Amanda Pennington, Green Party.

On housing: "Allowing private developers to build more - often substandard - houses on greenfield sites will do nothing to make things better. We need to tackle the structural problems in the housing market that have driven up prices and allowed landlords to profit."

She reiterated party pledges to end tax breaks for buy-to-let landlords, change the law to give tenants more security, end so-called letting fees and introduce rent controls, including a ‘living rent’ that reflects local wages.

She said new housing should be sustainably designed and sited, preferably developed by community-oriented organisations, and planning should be decided at local level.

"We also fully support measures to prevent more of Cornwall’s housing stock being bought up by second home-owners."

On employment: "Green MEP Molly Scott Cato showed in a recent report, more investment in renewable energy could create thousands of good jobs in Cornwall as well as supplying local energy needs and creating revenue"

She also called for more support for start-ups and creative enterprises through community credit and green investment, and repeated pledges to increase the minimum wage to £10 an hour by 2020 and abolish exploitative zero-hour contracts.

"Over the longer term, we’d phase in a four-day working week to encourage a fairer distribution of work and a better work-life balance."

On post-Brexit funding she said the party wanted to prioritise remaining within the single market and freedom of movement, and safeguard vital rights for UK and EU, as well as a referendum on a final Brexit deal "with the option to reject the deal and remain in."

"If we do indeed leave, Greens would press for EU structural funding to be fully replaced by the UK government – something that the Tories have failed to guarantee. Without this, Cornwall’s economy and social infrastructure will face a bleak future."

On mental health: "We want to bring mental health care in line with physical health care and ensure that people experiencing mental health crises are supported close to home. We’d also introduce mental health awareness training within the public sector.

"We [also] want a more humane approach to education that promotes personal development and well-being."

On the NHS: "We’d roll back privatisation and make sure that all health and dental services are always publicly provided and funded, and free at the point of access.

"We’d also scrap the so-called NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans, and provide an immediate cash injection to ensure everyone can access a GP, hospitals can run properly, and staff are fairly paid."

On policing: "Good community policing is absolutely vital, and the way that the whole of Falmouth turned out to pay their respects to PC Andy Hocking showed just how much people value this. We want to see more police officers like Andy who really know the communities they help to keep safe, and will oppose cuts to police funding that are taking such officers away from our communities."

Asked why the Greens are standing in closely contested Falmouth and not standing aside to support other progressive parties, she said:

"The Green Party has pressed for a Progressive Alliance that would mean a single candidate opposing the Tories in seats around the country. Unfortunately, neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats have shown the same spirit of constructive co-operation.

"Truro and Falmouth recorded one of the highest Green votes of any constituency in 2015, and it is by no means clear which of the other parties has the best chance of beating the Tories here. We strongly believe that the Green voice needs to be heard in this election."

The general election will take place on Thursday, June 8, and polls will be open from 7am to 10pm.