Mid Bedfordshire by-election in charts

Voters will choose from 13 candidates to replace Nadine Dorries as Mid Bedfordshire's MP

Mid-Bedfordshire faces a by-election after its last MP, Conservative former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries, quit after failing to be granted a peerage in Boris Johnson's resignation honours.

Tucked between Luton and Bedford, taking in stretches of the M1 and A6, and home to more than 118,000 people, it will choose her successor on 19 October, with 13 candidates standing.

But what are the issues facing this battleground seat, and what do some of the political hopefuls have to say?

Housebuilding

Most – but not all – the constituency lies in the Central Bedfordshire Council area.

In 2012/13, the area saw an additional 966 new homes built or converted; in 2021/22 it was 2,424 – a 151% rise. Across England, the increase was 87%.

Is that too high a rate of growth?

"The question we should be having is 'Are they the right homes and are they in the right places?'," said Festus Akinbusoye, Conservative.

"I'm not a Nimby (Not In My Back Yard). I do support housebuilding following the inadequate amount of houses built under the previous Labour government.

"However, what we do need to make sure is local people are not being excluded from the local decision-making.

"We can't continue at this rate by building more and more houses on our greenbelt land and just building more and more four-bedroom homes in rural areas like Mid Beds."

Candidates said voters complained about the amount of housing and the lack of infrastructure built to support communities

At their party conference, the Liberal Democrats voted to keep a 380,000 annual housebuilding target in England.

Emma Holland-Lindsay, their Mid Beds candidate, said voters were "very concerned" at green spaces being paved over with houses "that local people simply cannot afford", leaving communities "with a really shocking lack of infrastructure".

She said she would like to replace a system "stacked in favour of developers" with a "community-led one".

"We're all about putting the power into local neighbourhoods," she said.

Labour's Alistair Strathern said "the current system is not working" for the area, with new homes often out of local people's price range.

He pledged not to support developments planned without "proper infrastructure".

"It's time we had someone to stand up for our corner of Mid Bedfordshire to make sure we're getting what we need out of developments," he said.

For Dave Holland, Reform UK's candidate, the problem is not too few houses, it is "too many people".

He encouraged voters to "step back from the housebuilding issue and say we actually need to control immigration".

Independent Gareth Mackey, who is part of a group of independent councillors that took over the running of Central Bedfordshire Council in May, said the numbers of new homes were "not necessarily" too high.

"It's whether they are in the right place and are backed up by the right kind of infrastructure," Mr Mackey said.

But Cade Sibley of the Green Party said he did not think the number of homes being built met the demand.

"How much of that 2,424 figure is small, one- or two-bed places, where you have access to things that people generally need, and how much of that is two-garages, five-bedroom places, that are going to be a second property for someone, or a third or a fourth?"

Access to healthcare

In August across the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes (BLMK) NHS area there were 2,799 patients for every fully qualified GP – the fifth-highest ratio in England.

There were, on average, 468 more patients per GP than in March 2017, though the number of trainee GPs in the area was more than double what it was five years ago.

Ms Holland-Lindsay said the "picture is incredibly challenging" with patients "battling through phone systems".

As a Central Bedfordshire councillor, she said had "pushed really hard" to encourage the NHS to "listen to local views".

Nationally, she said the Lib Dems "want to see more GPs recruited" as well as "more funding to deal with some of the problems we have got with our buildings".

The pressure on GP services across Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes has been increasing

Mr Strathern said it was "really heart-breaking what's been happening locally" with "unbearable pressure on GP services".

Labour planned, he said, to close a "tax loophole that non-doms benefit from" and invest the "billions that would bring in" to build up "staff capacity".

He added: "It can't just be down to injecting more money, it's also about making sure we have a comprehensive approach to modernising the NHS so that it's truly shaped and structured – so it's fit for purpose."

• Final list of candidates for Mid Beds by-election

• 'When did Nadine Dorries find time to be our MP?'

• Dorries tells TV host she is definitely going

Mr Akinbusoye said if the "massive growth in population" continued in Mid Bedfordshire "we are never going to have enough money for GP surgeries".

"We need to deal with the demand side and the cause of this pressures on local services in the first place, not just say we need to give more money to the NHS – which we do need to do – but we must deal with the demand side as well."

Cost of living

Mid Bedfordshire has a higher proportion of "economically active" people than both the regional and national average, with average gross weekly pay of £767 in 2022, compared to £668 across the East and £642 across Britain.

The constituency does not – overall – appear deprived. But some 39% of its homes are owned with a mortgage, the third-highest proportion in England and Wales.

Many residents are therefore exposed to higher interest rates, which the Bank of England has increased 14 times since December 2021.

Labour's Mr Strathern said he had spoken to families in the constituency having to find hundreds of pounds more each month to meet their payments.

"That's meaning they've got to make some really tough choices for their family," he said.

If elected, he said he would be "championing measures to ensure more support for mortgage holders nationally, more relief for people with their energy bills, through a proper windfall tax".

Mr Akinbusoye said he hoped, with inflation falling, the Bank of England "will now have a bit more headway to lower interest rates".

He added that the chancellor's agreement with banks – known as the Mortgage Charter – would help some borrowers lower payments.

The Bank of England raised interest rates 14 times since December 2021

Ms Holland-Lindsay said the Liberal Democrats would reverse tax cuts for banks and create a £3bn fund to help mortgage holders. The party has previously said the fund would provide grants of up to £300 a month to homeowners.

"That could really help a lot of families here in Bedfordshire," she added.

Mr Sibley said he supported a "windfall tax... on the top 1%".

He added: "People don't have to struggle to pay their mortgage; people don't have to struggle to pay their heating bills; it's a political choice, at the end of the day."

Mr Mackey said the government should "make every single effort to make sure people aren't tipping over the financial cliff".

He added: "Controls on rent would be something that I would like to see, so people don't feel like they have to own their own homes."

Mr Holland said VAT on fuel should be cut to lower transport costs.

"Putting up interest rates to take money out of people's pockets when they haven't got any money in their pocket the first place is just cruel and it isn't working," he said.

The result in 2019

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook and Instagram. If you have a story suggestion email [e-mail] or get in touch via WhatsApp on 0800 169 1830