Brent Central candidates battled for the green vote in front of about 80 residents at a hustings organised by Brent Friends of the Earth, writes Andrew Cheng. Shahrar Ali, of the Green Party, had the most ambitious plan of committing �44 billion towards

Brent Central candidates battled for the green vote in front of about 80 residents at a hustings organised by Brent Friends of the Earth, writes Andrew Cheng.

Shahrar Ali, of the Green Party, had the most ambitious plan of committing �44 billion towards green jobs that 'isn't just about saving the planet but also giving people a living wage.'

He tackled the issue of 'over-consumption' and said: "it's not just about recycling but also buying less, consuming less and increasing the resilience in society."

Sarah Teather of the Liberal Democrats questioned where this money would come from in the middle of a recession and instead promised to invest �3.1bn towards projects like 'refurbishing shipyards in North England and Scotland so they can manufacture off-shore wind turbines and other renewable energy equipment.'

Dawn Butler of the Labour Party did not mention how much money her party wished to invest in green jobs but stressed that it is the party's aim to create 400,000 new jobs by 2015.

Similarly, Sachin Rajput of the Conservative Party did not specify how much money his party would invest but said that his party's plan to give each household �6,500 for improvements that would make their homes more green and carbon efficient would create such jobs.