TOWERING over Harlow town centre and surrounded by 100 CCTV cameras is Terminus House, a 14-storey office block full to the brim with human beings, most of whom have been pushed out of other places and into the self-contained 13 square metre rooms.

The owner block, Caridon Property, claims it delivers a “good service” to tenants sleeping in these dwellings that are far smaller than the average British front room and cost anywhere from between £625 and £800 per month.

It is no surprise that the town – which was built by pioneers after the second world war to provide a better standard of life to inner-city Londoners – is increasingly being considered a dumping ground for London councils to alleviate their own problems.

Aside from this blatant crisis in housing, other problems arise for Harlow’s people. A serious collapse in funding for youth services has been met with a huge rise in local anti-social behaviour. Harlow has been identified by various pressure groups and trade unions as a major spot for county lines gangs. Meanwhile, transport in the town is terrible, and while many young and elderly people cannot afford cars or to use taxis, bus services are hopelessly under-resourced.

Yet this town is represented by the Tory MP Robert Halfon, whose record speaks for itself: he has voted 15 times against raising benefits for unwell or disabled people, and voted 17 times against a bonus tax on bankers.

In a pub near Harlow Town train station, I spoke to Andy, a 32-year-old who runs his own small trading firm. I asked him what he thinks of the state of his town, but he cuts immediately to the state of national politics.

“I don’t hate Corbyn the man, but I don’t care for what he stands for at all.” What about Boris Johnson? “I like him. He’s got a touch of Churchill to him.” How does he figure that, I ask? “Well, with Europe. He’s not afraid to say to them we’re an island and we can be independent.”

What of the barrage of press attacks on Johnson’s character and whether he’s up for the job of prime minister? “He’s a liar, I didn’t say he wasn’t that. But so are they. There’s something cheeky about him, I don’t know, he knows how to wind a lot of people up.”

However, Laura McAlpine — Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Harlow — tells me that the mood is very different in other parts of the town.

“One woman told me about her neighbour who lives with her three adult sons in Terminus House,” she says. “During the daytime, they move their mattresses into the corridors of the building because of the lack of space.”

A headteacher at a local school told McAlpine that Harlow’s housing crisis is wrecking children’s futures, with a common reason for poor pupil attendance being that children living in units in the middle of industrial estates find it too far and exhausting to walk to school.

These worries and concerns are why many who have never engaged with politics before have joined Labour’s campaign trail in the town. Recent recruits have included young mums fearful about their children’s futures, junior doctors from the local hospital, cabbies and pub landlords.

Harlow Labour Party, a vibrant organisation of some several hundred active members, has been running a serious ground operation. Music nights, town centre stalls and phone banking have supplemented the more traditional aspects of electoral campaigning, and members who become active tend to stay active.

But how are things going down on the doorstep? I wonder how much Brexit has become an issue on the doorstep in Harlow, a town that voted to leave. “People are fed up with it,” McAlpine tells me, “they just want it done.” She says that she voted to leave the European Union, but believes that the party’s position of putting a Labour-negotiated “sensible deal” back to the people is right, and that its offer to both Leavers and Remainers goes down well with swing voters.

McAlpine’s pitch to Harlow’s residents is clear. As a Labour MP, she would prioritise well-paid jobs, education and youth services. She would put council housing and affordable homes back on the agenda and staunchly back legislation to end the “matchstick housing” that is so rife in the town.

She would also fight to regenerate Harlow town centre, and make sure that a publicly funded bus network would be established to properly serve the people. “After the second world war, the country was on its knees, but a Labour government still built Harlow.

“We can rebuild Harlow again. But voting Labour is our only chance.”