Your Questions Answered: How to improve Corby services

The Corby Urgent Care Centre was built to try to meet the health needs of an expanding population

Corby, once known for its steelworks, has over the last 10 years become one of the fastest growing towns in the UK.

The Office for National Statistics says the town has seen a growth of 20% over the last decade - the fifth highest of 383 local authority areas.

And between 2018 and 2041 growth in the Northamptonshire town could rise by a further 26.8%.

The issue of the impact a population rise could have on local services has been raised by local people.

Janet, 66, from Corby, sent the BBC her general election question which asked: "How would you improve local services which are at breaking point due to rapid growth of Corby?"

• BBC News: Election 2019

Labour Party candidate Beth Miller said: "There's nothing wrong, in principle, with the expansion of Corby - we have plenty of brownfield land here for housing and commercial development and we have a great location in the centre of England to attract businesses and create employment.

"You are right, however, that the provision of public services - particularly in relation to health, education and social housing haven't kept pace with the increasing population

"This isn't an inevitable result of growth, it has been the consequence of Conservative government policies to not just fail to build services to keep pace with expansion, but to actually cut back the existing services.

"Successive Conservative governments have consistently failed to give Corby people the health funding to which they are entitled under the NHS target funding formula."

Conservative candidate Tom Pursglove, who won the seat in 2017 with a majority of 2,690 over Labour, said: "Corby is the fastest-growing town in the country and is a great place to live and work. It is of course essential that the infrastructure keeps pace with the new homes that are being built.

"That is why we are investing record sums in our local NHS, with the brilliant Corby Urgent Care Centre providing first-class care, Kettering General Hospital is set to get a £46m upgrade and scores of new GP appointments are being made available.

"We are also investing more in new school places and boosting funding for every school child in the town. Our train service is going from hourly to half-hourly between Corby and London, we are putting more police on the beat, and have been allocated up to £25m for the next wave of regeneration through the Stronger Towns Fund.

"The best way to secure that progress is to vote Conservative."

Liberal Democrat candidate Chris Stanbra said: "I'm not sure I agree with the premise of the question that local services are at breaking point and that that is due to the rapid growth of the town.

"If breaking point has been reached it's much more due to chronic under-investment by the Conservative government.

"That said, the Liberal Democrats are planning to invest £130bn in new hospitals for the health service, railways, schools, broadband, green energy and other infrastructure.

"We are also planning to massively increase the building of council houses and houses for private sale.

"Councils need to do their bit and negotiate with developers to ensure they pay their fair share in contributing to the new infrastructure needed when housing development takes place."

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