Mark Wilkes is the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for the City of Durham.

Full statement

The constituency includes the historic Durham City -- but also areas of the county stretching from Satley to Sherburn and Willington to West Rainton.

Mark has been a local councillor in the Durham City constituency for over 15 years and during this time has represented a large part of the area, including Witton Gilbert and Bearpark, and more recently Newton Hall, Framwellgate Moor, and Pity Me. Mark is the executive member for neighbourhoods and climate change on Durham County Council. He has helped secure major improvements including reopening the DLI museum, securing £100million of funding for infrastructure projects, and investing countywide in regeneration to bring much needed jobs to our county.

Mark has also personally helped to secure more funding to tackle climate change than the council has ever secured, making the council the best in the region for tackling environmental issues, and has secured a 35% reduction from his crackdown on flytipping.

Since first securing council housing for Bearpark over a decade ago, and social housing in Newton Hall more recently, Mark has been part of the team which has increased the number of council-owned homes. The policies he supported have delivered an increase from only 2 under Labour to more than 140 in just a couple of years. He supports an ambitious council house building programme to help tackle the housing crisis.

With qualifications in Law, and over a decade of public service, Mark will be a local champion for Durham City and its surrounding villages, demanding a fair deal for our NHS and demanding to see real levelling up for County Durham.