THE borough must build 18,500 homes by 2026 as part of its local plan. We asked the prospective general election candidates for the three major parties: What’s your view on this? Is this something you’d support if elected?

Jackie Doyle-Price, Conservative MP

IT rests with the council planning committee to ensure new housing takes place in a managed way. We need more housing, so every family in need has access to a new home.

We look to the planning committee to make sure housing development takes place where it can be accommodated. Any additional burdens on the community should be addressed through contributions from developers.

The local plan has identified such sites, but the committee continues to approve applications on green belt sites and without appropriate mitigating measures.

For example, the application for the Aveley Fire Brigade site was approved despite conflicting with the council’s policy on green belt and despite the inadequate developer’s community package.

So long as the planning committee does its job Thurrock need not become overdeveloped, but the buck stops with it.

Tim Aker, Ukip candidate

THE latest shocking figures out last week showed that 624,000 people came into Britain in the last year. That’s 298,000 more who came than left. It is a truly shocking legacy from the Conservatives.

Our infrastructure, including housing stock, simply cannot cope.

We need to limit numbers and start giving local people first preference on housing rather than people who haven’t paid in. The green belt must also be protected. But there’s little chance of that with such huge numbers being let in every year by Labour and the Tories.

Labour started mass immigration. It has increased even more under the Conservatives. We can only control immigration and the number of people coming into Britain by leaving the European Union.

Polly Billington, Labour candidate

RENTS are high and house prices rise as more people choose to move to Thurrock. There simply aren’t enough affordable homes for the next generation to get a look in.

We need to protect our green belt and improve our local services and infrastructure to cope with a growing community.

But to address our housing problems we need to build more affordable homes to buy and to rent. And council homes first go to those who have lived or worked in Thurrock for at least five years.

Labour will give communities powers to get homes built where they want. Currently, we have the worst of both worlds – the lowest level of housebuilding since the 1920s and often built in the wrong place.

We can’t just stop people moving here. Even if we could, it wouldn’t solve our problems, as we need different homes for our elderly and for young families.