Labour's Bilal Mahmood lists five reasons why the people of Chingford and Woodford Green should vote for him on May 7

Here Labour's candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, Bilal Mahmood, explains why you should vote for him. 

1 Helping the squeezed middle - We'll guarantee 25 hours a week of free childcare for children between two and four, tackle the housing and renting crisis and capping energy prices. The Labour Waltham Forest council has already started to licence landlords to make sure they treat their private tenants fairly. 

2. Tackling inequality - Labour will raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour over the next five years and support the living wage. This is vital in Chingford and Woodford Green, where nearly half the local jobs pay below the London living wage of £9.15 an hour. I'll also support an end to some of the most severe cuts Iain Duncan Smith has made to welfare such as the bedroom tax. 

3. Protecting our great NHS  - We'll secure 36,000 more frontline staff, together with funding for mental health and social care, together with a guarantee that you will be able to see your GP within 48 hours. We'll scrap the Health and Social Care Act to make sure that there's once again a legal duty to ensure that the NHS will be free at the point of use. I'll also campaign and work hard to make sure Barts and the London trust does all it can to help get Whipps Cross Hospital out of special measures. 

4. Creating a strong economy - We'll balance the books and cut the deficit fairly each year with a combination of increased taxes on tobacco firms, tackling tax dodging and 'non-doms', together with tackling low pay and getting more people into better paid jobs.

5. Revitalising our area buying locally helps build the community - I'll work with both councils to invest and support local businesses and regenerate community areas in Highams Park and Chingford Mount. Nationally I'll push for reducing business rates for small businesses for the first year, and freezing them for the second. 

In summary, the Waltham Forest resident, said: "If elected, I’d work with local councils in regenerating our local shopping areas.

"I’d campaign to get Whipps Cross out of special measures and local GP services to be able to see patients within 48 hours and I'd campaign to get local jobs paying the living wage so people can prosper from hard work."