The three main candidates in the general election in Holborn and St Pancras are Labour MP Frank Dobson MP, Jill Fraser for the Lib Dems and Tory Margot James. Here are their responses to our questions

I’ll help put 15,000 waiting for homes into our empties

The Lib Dem councillor Jill Fraser was vocal in her opposition to using Lyndhurst Hall as social housing because she said it would create a ‘ghetto’. Yet among her constituents is a family of five living in a two-bedroom house. We asked her how she would ease Camden’s housing crisis.

In Camden successive Conservative and Labour governments have left us an acute shortage of affordable homes.
Because the money raised from the Tories’ right-to-buy initiative was not reinvested in replacing housing stock, and because councils are still prevented from building municipal housing we now have a waiting list of 15,000 with virtually nothing to offer them. Liberal Democrats would tackle the problem first by vigorous action against the scandal of empty homes.
Empty buildings offer an efficient, affordable and environmentally friendly way of increasing housing supply quickly.
We would work with professional landlords to revitalise and improve standards in the private rented sector.
By investing more in shared equity schemes and mutual home ownership we would make it easier for people to own their first home.
Shared equity schemes, where people part buy and part rent, have been starved of funds by Labour.
We would direct more of the housing budget to shared equity, and promote a “golden share” model, enabling the council or housing association to set limits on who can buy, thus targeting help towards those most in need and limiting price rises.
Mutual home ownership would enable young people starting out to buy shares in a mutual home ownership trust.
These homes are more affordable because the land on which they are built would be owned by a separate Community Land Trust, excluding land cost from the house price.
The largest area in Camden which could be devoted to such schemes is the former railway land at King’s Cross, and we would do everything to ensure this was devoted primarily to housing rather than offices.
But housing alone is not enough. People want to live in communities that are safe and clean, and provided with appropriate facilities for recreation, leisure and social activities. Areas with only “social housing” too quickly become slums.

Labour is looking after pensioners

Why hasn’t the Labour government restored the link between pensions and earnings? Why are pensioners dependent on means tested benefits?

The Labour government didn’t restore the link with earnings, which the Tories abolished, because we gave top priority to helping the worst-off pensioners and in particular elderly women who weren’t entitled to a full pension.
This year pensioners will receive an extra £11 billion. That is £8 billion more than restoring the link.
Almost half of this extra money will go to the poorest third of pensioners.
Pensions Credit has benefited more than 4,000 pensioner households in this constituency with the basic pension being topped up on average by £41.43 a week.
The Labour government has provided free TV licenses to over-75s.
We introduced the £200 winter fuel allowance for every pensioner household and made it £300 for the over-80s. If re-elected we will give an extra £200 to help pay the council tax for all households with someone over-65.
The scheme the Tories propose would give most to the better-off not the worse-off.
As Health Secretary, I re-introduced the free eye tests the Tories abolished. Getting more money into the handbags and pockets of the worst-off does involve means testing but people should be put off by that.
After all, pensioners are just as entitled to the money as the millionaires who claim all the tax concessions that they can when they fill in their tax return.
However, I do recognise that the system has got very complicated.
If I am re-elected I will press the government to try to move to a simpler system with less means testing, although I don’t think any government will ever get rid of it entirely.

We must work to overcome our cultural differences and racism

We asked Conservative candidate Margot James what are your views of the patriarchal nature of Muslims groups in this and other constituencies and its effects on women’s rights?

Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, is a religion of the first millennium that drew on the attitudes towards women of that time.
Once polygamy was common. Elite women enjoyed power and prestige but the majority were on a par with slaves; they had no human rights and female infanticide was common.
The religion of God, whether Jewish, Christian or Islamic became as patriarchal as most ideologies of the period.
The influence of religion over the lives of women has been to set them apart as a group to whom fundamental liberties are denied.
Islam is no more patriarchal in nature than are the other two religions.
The significant differences between the three relate to the way they are practised in Britain today with the degree of influence exerted over followers in general, the modern day interpretation of the Koran, the Bible and the Torah, and how that interpretation influences the daily lives and customs of followers.
These differences account for the difficulties of Islam, as it is commonly practiced in London, not just for women but for the integration of Muslims into the wider community. Monica Ali’s first novel Brick Lane gave me a fascinating glimpse into British Bengali culture. Monica was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and grew up in London.
Mrs Azad, a powerful character in the book, observes: “When I’m in Bangladesh I put on a sari and cover my head and all that. But here I go out to work, I work with white girls and I’m just one of them.
“Some women spend 10, 20 years here and they sit in the kitchen grinding spices all day and learn only two words of English. They go around covered from head to toe, in their little walking prisons, and when someone calls to them in the street they are upset. The society is racist. The society is all wrong.
“Everything should change for them. They don’t have to change one thing.”
On education, the number of GCSEs passed at C grade by children of Pakistani origin is 39 per cent compared with those of Indian origin (65 per cent) and Chinese origin (75 per cent). These are worrying statistics and reinforce the relatively high unemployment levels in Muslim communities.