LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn rode into town to hear calls to save Orsett Hospital and make affordable housing more available to residents living and working across Thurrock.

Mr Corbyn came to Stifford Clays to give support to Labour candidate, Lee Watson and her colleagues as they fight in sixteen wards in the borough.

The Labour leader spoke to residents and knocked on doors as he attempted to drum up Labour momentum as the party looks to build on its three Thurrock seats.

Mr Corbyn gave his support to the local Labour party’s bid to “Save Orsett Hospital” and told the Gazette he aims to make affordable housing more available to residents, revamping the scheme so it is based on wages in the area.

He said: “Vote Labour for a council that will support you, vote Labour for a council that will do its best to improve housing.

“But also a council that will stand up for Orsett Hospital and local health services across Essex.”

Mr Corbyn stated the Labour party wanted to redefine “affordability”.

He said: “What we are proposing is two things, one is a very big national investment in housing, a million homes over 10 years, half of which will be socially rented council homes.

“But we also want to redefine affordability on the basis of the local average income and earnings, so that local people are not priced out of the housing market as they increasingly are in South Essex and the other areas surrounding London as commuters take over.”

Responding to Mr Corbyn’s comments, a spokesman for Thurrock Conservatives said: “Thurrock Conservatives are spending £80m to build four new medical centres, which will house all of Orsett’s services, before Orsett closes.

“Instead of being in walking distance of just 2,500 people, the rest of the 168,000 will now have a chance of walking to their hospital services.

“Orsett will not close before these four centres are open and in use – only the Conservatives got the NHS to commit to not closing the hospital first.

“We are building more council homes than Labour did in their six years.

“The Conservatives are building 1,000 homes across the borough – 350 being affordable, and we have saved the Purfleet development of 2,800 houses, which residents want.

Infrastructure will come first – a school, a medical centre, a new train station, in Purfleet, before the majority of the new homes are built.

Parents worry that our children when they grow up will be priced out of Thurrock and have to move away from us to have their own home. The Conservatives want to stop that from happening”.