With this year’s general election vote on a knife-edge, how parties tap into first-time voters is more crucial than ever. The Echo asked four first-time voters in south Essex what they hope for in the new government. We also look into what the main four parties would offer to voters come May 7.

So what do the main players have to offer?

THE Tories have pledged to introduce new laws to keep people working 30 hours on minimum wage out of tax Thirty hours of free childcare per week for working parents of three and four-year-olds has also been pledged.

It is the only main party to offer and in/out referendum on the European Union, which it says it will do before 2017.

In a move that could go down well with social housing tenants in Essex, the party has offered to extend the right-to-buy scheme to housing association tenants.

LABOUR is looking to strike a chord with younger voters by lowering the voting age from 18 to 16.

The group will also look to reduce tutition fees to £6,000 following a hike in the last Government, and will look to clamp down on zero-hour contracts.

Labour is also looking to crack down on tax dodging, with its headline policy on scrapping non-dom tax status. It will also look to raise the minimum wage by £8 an hour by October 2019 and will scrap the “bedroom tax”.

THE Lib Dems will look to whet the appetite of first-time voters by increasing the personal tax-free allowance to £12,500.

Despite the party’s controversial decision to back the rise in tuition fees, it has made education a central to part of its manifesto, promising to invest £2.5billion into the sector.

The group, like Labour, wants to clamp down on zero hour contracts and will get tough with businesses paying below the Living Wage. Lib Dems say they will bring the country out of deficit by 2017/18.

UKIP’S headline policy is to bring the country out of the European Union. It says it will then negotiate a “bespoke trade agreement’ with European nations instead.

The anti-EU party will scrap any tax on the minimum wage up to £13,000, and at the other end of the spectrum, scrap inheritance tax.

The party will also introduce an Australian-style points system to assess migrants who want to come and live in the country.

The group will scrap the bedroom tax.

Echo: