David has lived in Shoreham for many years, knows the area and people very well and is a tireless campaigner for Shoreham and Worthing. Below David sets out his vision for a better fairer Worthing and Shoreham.

The Environment

Our river and sea are polluted with sewage, we are not seeing improvement in air quality and our green spaces are under threat.

How have Labour and Conservatives made it worse

1. Locally the Labour politicians talk a good game but don’t really live up to our expectations. What do you think the Labour Council did in Worthing in the first year they were in power? They invested over £20m in Southern Water. On the one hand they say they want to punish them and on the other they cosy up to them for over £1m in rent a year.
2. Nationally the Conservatives have rolled back on virtually every climate promise they have made and Labour are being very squeamish about standing up for the environment

What’s are Liberal Democrats going to do

1. We understand the need for long term action. When we were in coalition we insisted on the establishment of a Green Investment Bank which invested over £10bn in 50 project, generating a great return and establishing  the UK as a global leader in offshore wine generation. Three year later the Conservative Govt sold it. What a wasted opportunity. We will double down on Environmental Initiatives and long term commitment ambitious targets
2. We will hold individuals and organisations to account by promoting an environmental duty of care for all organisations and also a legal requirement for candour for all officials. No more sweeping things under the carpet

Jobs

We have a jobs crisis in East Worthing and Shoreham. Earning have fallen behind most of our neighbours and even nationally we’ve gone from well paid to nearing the bottom of the table. This has caused huge hardship as the cost of living crisis bites. There are less jobs here than most other places. There is 2 jobs for every 3 working people that means people struggle to find local jobs or have longer commutes.

How have Labour and Conservatives made it worse

1. Locally,Conservative and Labour Councils have not done their jobs. They have wasted a huge opportunity to make this area a hub for new green and tech employers. We have all the raw ingredients but other areas like Bath, Woking and Stevenage have left us behind. We have been focused on chasing national flat building targets and will miss the boat if we don’t get on it fast
2. Nationally we’ve had the Conservative economic chaos we don’t need to say more about but they have also been dismantling so much of the innovation infrastructure which means we loose out on jobs in a global market.
3. Conservatives have eroded so many employment rights meaning the jobs we do have are less secure, worse paid and lower skilled

What’s are Liberal Democrats going to do

1. We will reverse the erosion
   • •  20% higher minimum wage
     •  enhanced Statutory sick pay
     •  and a big expansion of apprenticeships

2. Bring down trade barriers and work in partnership with global partners. The Conservatives are clinging on to BREXIT slogans at the cost of jobs and prosperity. Post Brexit trade barriers have cost us untold millions and probably billions
3. Locally we will campaign to reverse the jobs crisis with promotion of new industries in partnership with key local employers and innovators

Housing

Average house prices in East Worthing and Shoreham have gone through the roof. It now costs over. Last year house prices were more than 12 times average earnings around here and its not must better this year. Prices are so high because there are not enough family houses that people need. Its the same if you are renting the so called affordable homes being built are out of reach for people on normal wages around here

How have Labour and Conservatives made it worse

1. Trying to rent locally is a lottery - If you rent and your landlord is Adur Homes you know the mess this Council owned landlord has made of things. They are so bad they were forced to report themselves to regulator. Tenants lives have been blighted for years. It really is time this was sorted
2. Wasted opportunities - Whilst we are talking about the Council anyone that has driven along the coast road and seen the 1000+ flats going up with more to come. Its simply the wrong type of housing in the wrong place without the basic ammonites people need to build a life or enhance the local community 

What’s are Liberal Democrats going to do

1. We will get on and do the things the Conservative government have been dragging their heals over.
   •  ban no fault evictions - this is long overdue and needs legislating immediately
   • sensible controls on holiday lets - Too many houses that could be used for young people needing a home are being lost to second homes and holiday lets. We will introduce proper controls to ensure local areas are taken over and remove the tax advantages forcing many owners towards holiday letting rather than providing long term homes for local people
   • reform of the residential leaseholds - too many home owners have been left trapped and poorer by rocketing charges. We will bring in legislation to cap unfair ground rents to give everyone control over their homes
2. We will prioritise social housing by giving Councils the power to ensure public land is used for social housing. We will give social tenants more rights to set and enforce standards on their landlords.
3. We will sort out the mess in Adur by leading a review of the local development to pause further development until local services have time to catch up and give existing residents  a better say in the sort of housing we need in the future. Nationally we will give local groups and charities more of a say in how the profits from public land sold for development and payments to Councils for large planning consents are spent on projects that directly benefit the community

Health & The NHS

Our NHS used to be the envy of the world. But now, too many people can’t access the care they need. Now we have less GPs, over a third of patients wait over 2 months to start urgent treatment and 20,000 more Britons a year die of this terrible disease than other Countries

How have Labour and Conservatives made it worse

1. The Conservatives have plunged the NHS into crisis – as have the SNP in Scotland and Labour in Wales. With more than a hundred thousand staff vacancies in England alone, a crisis in staff retention, long waiting times, missed targets and poor outcomes, patient safety is being pushed into the danger zone.
2. Getting an appointment with a GP can take weeks and seeing a dentist is almost impossible. People are no longer confident that when they ring 999 an ambulance will turn up in time. Millions are waiting for treatment, unable to work. The frontline workers who were rightly applauded are now overworked and burnt out.
3. We are facing a public health crisis, Labour and the Conservatives are spending money firefighting crisis after crisis rather than dealing with the underlying causes

What’s are Liberal Democrats going to do

We will strengthen patients’ rights, fix crumbling hospitals, recruit and retain a workforce for the future, invest in technology that improves outcomes and saves money, and restore the UK as a world leader in health research.

1. We will give everyone the right to see their GP or trained medical practitioner within 7 or 24 hours in an emergency. Cancer patients will start treatment within 62 days. This is about sorting out systems and bureaucracy so everyone knows how to access the NHS and we have management in place to efficiently deal with patient enquiries
2. We will invest in hospitals and treatment centres in partnership with responsible partners like our own pension funds to fix our crumbling buildings that are now preventing the delivery of world class care you deserve and have paid for
3. We will invest in public health and mental wellbeing. That means addressing the issues we have in the community, with proper mental health services in the community, addressing the health inequalities, more controls on tobacco and a grown up debate about solving the growing impacts of drugs, alcohol, sugar and obesity on our health
4. We will attract back doctors that left. Many great Dr’s returned to Europe after BREXIT and during the pandemic. We will attract them back with closer working relationships with Europe.

Public Services

We are all working hard in EWAS to build a great future for our families and the community. So often our Public services work against us, at the Councils, in transport and the utilities. Many of the services that used to be the envy of the world have been sold, reorganised and meddled with by successive Labour and Conservative governments for the worse

How bad have things got

• Our transport system is in tatters - Locally the train company has always had higher than average disruptions and one of the poorest punctuality records but still made £62m for its investors in 2023
• Our local water company pollutes despite being fined £90m in 2021 for dumping raw sewage continued to pump raw sewage into our sea and river for 320,000 hours in 2023
• Our local councils have run up debts of over £200m chasing get rich quick investment schemes that haven’t generated expected returns and saddled the councils with crippling debt for decades to come that will curtail future investment
• Adur Homes is so bad it was forced to report itself to the housing regulator for poor repairs, safety and its treatment of tenants

What are Liberal Democrats going to do

1. Make a cast iron duty of care for the environment a legal duty to make Water Companies fully responsible for reckless pollution
2. Make it a legal requirement to report wrongdoing for public officials so we can get to problems faster without coverups
3. We will create The Great British Railway to join up all the organisations involved in running trains, stations and the tracks to get the best possible service for passengers
4. Locally only the Liberal Democrats are calling for a proper inquiry into what has gone wrong with Council finances. We have to root out the problems and start rebuilding our devastated resources

We know what happens when we Vote Labour in East Worthing and Shoreham

In 2022 residents of Worthing put their trust in Labour to rebuild the Council after over a decade of Conservative setbacks. What we saw in the following two years are a sobering lesson for anyone thinking of using their protest vote in the upcoming General Election

What happened when Labour took control of Worthing Council

• Double Standards on the Environment - they came to power with Environmental credentials at the fore but within a year they had invested £21m in Southern Water property and generation over £1m in rent from one of the biggest polluters of our river and sea. How will they hold them to account when they are reliant on them for delivering other services
• Financial Crisis - They inherited an investment scheme from the Conservatives. Rather than soberly reviewing it to understand it was fundamentally flawed they ploughed on racking up a debt of £140m. The Investment scheme is now mothballed leaving the debt for decades to come and very little in the way of enhanced services to show for it
• Incompetence - The Council wasted over £8m in a bungled development of a vital new health care centre due to poor planning, management and failing to alter course when they knew economic uncertainty was heading their way
• Radical factions - in the 2024 local elections they presented the face of moderate Labour to the voters but within a few days they unveiled a left wing faction of three Councillors running their own unelected agenda