nTHIS is a question very close to my heart. I believe that without young families communities die, schools and shops close and once lively places become more like retirement villages.

The average rural home now costs around £40,000 more than a similar one in urban areas despite lower average wages for those living and working in the countryside. Young families can no longer afford to live in their home villages.

Gone are the days of council owned houses – thanks to the right to buy, most of these homes are now privately owned. The Labour government is making it easier for councils to begin to build homes again but it will have to be in partnership with housing trusts as the scale of the problem has been allowed to escalate over the past thirty years.

I would work in partnership with our local council to ensure that we have up-to-date information of housing need in all rural wards. I would campaign in Parliament to make affordable homes to buy and rent a priority.

Also, as Labour spokesperson for children’s services, I voted against the closure of primary schools that the Tory-led Cheshire County Council implemented and was dismayed at the closure of my own child’s school at Dunham Hill.