There’s no doubt who’s been setting the agenda as we leave party conference season. Ed Miliband and Labour have brought the problem of living standards into the spotlight.

The Tories and Lib Dems just assume that people in the south of England are well off but the reality is different – there are too many families falling into debt and going without the basics because of the cost of living.

Think of the coastal towns in Hampshire; wages are often well below the average but the cost of housing, commuting and child care is still higher than in other parts of the country.

In Southampton city centre, the people trying to make work pay are struggling – independent shops and small businesses are handing over too much of their income to pay for business rates.

Our young people face an uncertain future with zero hours contracts increasing and a careers advice network that has been stripped to the bones.

The foodbank network is expanding at an alarming rate and even some children’s centres in the south are handing out food parcels,.

Yet only the Labour Party has laid out policies to tackle these serious problems.

Labour will cut business rates in 2015 and freeze them again in 2016 – prioritising a tax cut for 1.5 million small businesses over a tax cut for 80,000 large businesses.

We will support working parents, by expanding free childcare for three and four-year-olds from 15 to 25 hours a week for working parents.

We will increase the number of apprenticeships, by insisting that every medium-sized or large company that hires a skilled worker from outside the EU must do their bit to train the next generation, by taking on an apprentice.

Ed Miliband has also set out bold plans to reform the energy market, there will be a simple new tariff structure and a tough new energy regulator. And in the time it takes to make these reforms, Labour will freeze your energy bills from the next election until January 2017 – saving a typical household £120 and the average business £1,800.