'I'm moving in with my partner so I can afford to live in my home town'

A year on from Labour's landslide General Election victory, we asked voters in two North Yorkshire seats that changed hands for the first time in years if they had seen any change and what their priorities were for their new MPs.

Caitlin Lee works as a waitress in Harrogate, a seat won by Liberal Democrat Tom Gordon from the Conservatives in the poll on 4 July 2024.

She said she left her home town after being asked for a combined £1,600 up front to rent a flat and went to live in nearby Leeds where tenancies are cheaper.

The 31-year-old is now planning to move back, but will only be able to afford to if she moves in with her partner, and wants her local MP to push for cheaper housing. "There is nothing for a single person to afford," she said.

Tourism and hospitality play a crucial part in Harrogate's economy, but Caitlin said a number of her friends who also worked in the sector could not afford to live in the town.

"It is really hard to find places to live that match our wages," she said.

"If I had tried to move into somewhere on my own, the rent would have taken most of my salary.

"I'm moving in with my partner so that situation is fine for me, but for a single person there is nothing."

For husband and wife Paul and Rachel Flatters, who also live in Harrogate, the new government's first year has been one of worry about the cost of living - and plans for welfare reform.

Paul said: "Everything is so expensive. We're trying to manage in the best way we can but all you can think about is paying the bills."

Rachel said the couple both received personal independence payments (Pip) and the government's plans for welfare reform were "frightening."

"We want our MP to fight those cuts in parliament," Rachel said.

Their new MP said he had challenged the government on its welfare reforms "multiple times" and voted against the changes in the big Commons confrontation earlier this week.

"The government's plans to cut Pip were ill-thought through and foolish," said Gordon.

"Pip empowers many disabled people to live more independently, helping to cover the increased costs that come with a disability."

He said his Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency "desperately needs" more high-standard affordable and social housing.

"We also need to see developers held to account to provide the badly-needed infrastructure to support new housing, whether that's improved public and active transport, GPs and NHS services or schools," Gordon added.

Sixty miles east is the seat of Scarborough and Whitby, the scene of another Conservative loss last year, this time to Labour's Alison Hume.

The first voter we met there was Sheena O'Sullivan, who raised a long-running complaint, the lack of progress on improvements to the A64.

There have been calls for decades for the stretch of road between York and Malton to be upgraded to a dual carriageway to ease congestion.

"We haven't seen any change on this at all," said Sheena, who lives in Scarborough.

"I was hopeful Labour could deliver some change, but I didn't have much confidence, unfortunately.

"Last week I was in a traffic jam for two-and-a-half hours in the heat. It is so frustrating."

Eighteen-year-old Lewis Fawthrop, who is also from the resort, said young people in his home town needed more things to do that they could afford.

"We were going to do an escape room, but it was £88 for the four of us. That's not something everyone can afford to do," said the 18-year-old.

Lewis, who moved to Scarborough from Bradford, said: "It was fun at first when I moved over, going to the beach every day, but it got boring after a while. There's not much else to do except for the arcades."

He said that if the town had youth clubs, he and his friends "probably" would have gone.

"We would have looked at them, depending what they were doing," he added.

Hume said: "The government has committed to a strategy for young people and, in March, a national listening exercise was launched to allow young people to feed into this. Our youth guarantee means every 18 to 21-year-old in England gets access to education, training, or help to find a job or an apprenticeship.

She said improving the A64 was one of more than 30 schemes identified by National Highways and Department for Transport that is being considered for delivery from 2030 onwards.

Hume added: "Major projects such as this typically go through eight consultation stages and the National Highways have completed most of stage two. York and North Yorkshire CA has also been awarded a bus franchise pilot."

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