We contacted all of the candidates vying for your vote to be the next MP for the Glastonbury and Somerton constituency, asking each of them the same questions. We've taken their responses exactly as they were sent to us - so you know where each of the candidates stand, to help you decide who to vote for.

Here's their responses to the question:

What is your stance on affordable housing, and how do you plan to tackle the housing crisis in our community? How will you ensure that new developments are sustainable and benefit local residents?

Jon Cousins (Green Party):

As the Green MP for Glastonbury and Somerton, I will support Somerset Council and the larger Town and Parish Councils in the constituency to provide good quality, affordable, social housing in our area. And I will push to ensure large-scale developments are always supported by new infrastructure such as GP surgeries, bus services, cycling and walking networks, and extra places at nurseries and schools. It is Green policy that all new developments should be accompanied by the extra investment needed to enhance local services too, improving the life of all local residents. As a Green, I am committed to protecting the Green Belt and ensuring everybody has easy access to a green space – and, as your MP, I will campaign to change building regulations so all new homes meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards and to require house builders to include solar panels and low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps for all new homes.

As your MP, I will also push Ministers to ensure all social housing stock is brought up to and kept at a decent standard, with fair funding for Councils and Housing Associations to get this done. On a wider scale, the Green Party would invest £29 billion over the next five years to insulate homes to 'EPC B' standard or above, as part of a ten-year programme. £12billion of this will be to retrofit the social housing stock and £17billion as grants to retrofit privately owned homes to a similar standard. In addition, Green policy would provide 150,000 new social homes a year and end the so-called 'right to buy', so that social homes can belong to local communities for ever.

Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrats):

Too many people in Glastonbury and Street can't afford to buy or rent a good quality home. The Liberal Democrats would increase the building of new homes to 380,000 a year across the UK, including 150,000 social homes a year, through community-led development. We'd deliver a fair deal for renters by immediately banning no-fault evictions, making three-year tenancies the default, and creating a national register of licensed landlords. We'd also give local authorities the powers to end Right to Buy in their areas. All development would have appropriate infrastructure, services and amenities in place, and we'd make homes warmer and cheaper to heat with a ten-year emergency upgrade programme, and ensure all new homes are zero-carbon. 56% of homes in Glastonbury and Somerton are rated EPC D or below, which means that they're particularly inefficient at retaining heat and people living in them are faced with unnecessarily high energy bills.

Somerset is missing out on 18,000 new homes because of the issues with phosphates. In a planning reform debate, I pointed out that local planning authorities need to have more flexibility when it comes to decisions about where much-needed new homes are built.

Hal Hooberman (Labour):



I think this is the most important issue facing local people. Growing up in Bruton, owning a home to raise a family in near my parents is a pipe dream. It is similar in Glastonbury and Street. We need more houses. But not just houses for house's sake - but genuinely affordable and social housing built conscientiously, sustainably and with sufficient access to local amenities. I am excited about Labour's plans to reform planning rules, restore mandatory housing targets in local areas, and to hire an additional 300 new planning officers to make sure that we build 1.5 million decent homes over the next five years - with an overarching focus on affordable and social provision.

Tom Carter (Reform UK):

No response received

Faye Purbrick (Conservative)

No response received