April Looking Forward to Meeting with Vince Cable at the Lib Dem Conference

10.58.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 10th Sep 2008

LIBERAL Democrats in Broadland are making their final preparations to attend the party's conference in Bournemouth next week. April Pond, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Broadland, will be leading a team of members heading for the conference which will be held from Saturday 13th to Wednesday 17th September. Debates taking place will include pensions, crime, eco-towns, the housing and mortgage crisis, transport and health.

"We are looking forward to a good conference and some lively debates," said April Pond. "We are also looking forward to speeches from leading figures in the Liberal Democrats, particularly Nick Clegg's Leader's speech on the final day.

"People in Broadland are feeling the pinch with rising unemployment, rising prices for food and energy and a collapsing housing market. So there will be a great deal of interest in the debate about the housing and mortgage crisis and in the speech of Vince Cable MP, our Shadow Chancellor."

April added, "I am meeting with Vince Cable on Sunday. Vince Cable predicted the credit crunch long before it arrived, and has repeatedly called on the banks to loosen the purse strings to first time buyers, who currently have to find ludicrously large deposits on houses to get a mortgage.

"I feel strongly that the banks are adding to current misery, they react en masse, got it wrong with over-lending, and have got it wrong again by swinging too far the other way. In Norfolk which remains a low wage economy these issues really matter to ordinary people."