Monthly Report for January 2008
Below is a summary of my work in Parliament and in Southampton for the month of January 2008. Click here to read previous reports.
If you'd like to know more about any of the work I've been doing, or if you think there is another issue you think I should be acting on, you can always contact my office.
Work in Parliament
Fuel poverty debate
In a recent Westminster Hall debate, I argued for a number ways to improve the government’s current fuel poverty strategy. The clearest, short-term mechanism the government currently uses to reduce fuel poverty is the direct payment of benefit (in this case, the Winter Fuel Allowance) to help individuals pay the bills set by their energy provider. While this has been an effective and relatively quick way of helping approximately 2.9 million people out of fuel poverty, direct payments in and of themselves do not address many of the underlying market failures that contribute to the problem in the first place. In my speech I argued that in addition to rising Winter Fuel Payments, there also needs to be a renewed emphasis on helping those in fuel poverty or on the borderline to better insulate their homes, and therefore reduce their net demand for energy. It is also still the case that energy customers who pay using pre-payment meters are in many cases still paying more for their energy than those who pay by direct debits- something that needs to be addressed either by regulation or by mobilising public opinion against energy companies that continue in this unfair practice (Npower, E-on, British Gas, Scottish and Southern, and EDF have all so far failed to equalise their tariffs).
Houses in Multiple Occupancy Regulations
I have met with Yvette Cooper , Housing Minister, to discuss proposals to incorporate HMO conversions into planning regulations. she has indicated some interest in the proposals, and has suggested the possibility that these could be introduced into legislation in the next session of Parliament 2008/9) I am now exploring whether amendments could possibly be put down to that effect for the Planning Bill, which is currently in committee stage.
Energy Bill
The government has now published its Energy Bill, along with a statement in which they do envisage nuclear power playing a role in Britain’s future energy mix. However, even if the government changes the rules to allow nuclear power plants to get up and running more quickly, it is highly unlikely that any new nuclear power will be available to provide low carbon electricity to replace that lost from the closure of existing power stations (nuclear and non—nuclear) by that date. The energy ‘gap’ of about 40% of our required capacity up to 2025 will still need to be filled by low carbon non-nuclear power. I have produced a document for SERA (available on their website) setting ouot what range of measures would be necessary to take to fill the ‘energy gap’ to 2025 assuming nuclear does not. So, despite the current government focus on nuclear, in practice it is renewable energy and energy efficiency measures that will become ever more important to keeping our lights on over the next decade. The point of the timing of future nuclear energy set against the timescale of the ‘energy gap’ was raised by me during the statement on the energy Bill.
The Second Reading of the energy bill is due on 22nd January, and I hope to be able to speak in the debate.
Read my article for SERA entitled 'do we need nuclear power?'
Private Members bills
I was not successful in the ballot tis year, but I am sponsoring two Bills; on extending the scope of the ‘Merton rule’ in Local Building permissions, and on reducing the voting age to 16.
Questions
I have asked questions on sustainable housing and on freight on rail.
In Southampton
Save our Soccer campaign
Both I and John Denham attended the launch of the Save Our Soccer campaign at Green Park. The campaign aims to put pressure on the City Council’s Cabinet to withdraw its plans for closing football pitches in the city (the Conservatives have proposed the closures in order to pay for their tax proposals). The launch went very well and I hope to achieve as good a result as on the pensioners bus pass.
Council Spending
Following on from the City Council’s Cabinet decision to spend £100,000 on PR and bureaucracy to advance a Conservative group policy proposal, I have written to the Local Government District Auditor to ask if this decision is legal under the 1986 Local Government Act. The Act prohibits local authorities from promoting the policies of one particular party, while of course allowing authorities to promote agreed Council policy in a non-partisan manner.
Part of this £100,000 was used to fund the Council sending a 2 page letter to every household in the city advertising the possibility of a 10% Council Tax discount for some pensioners being introduced (although the caveats that would exclude probably around 50% of pensioners were curiously left out). Leaving aside the district auditor’s eventual ruling on whether or not this spending was illegal, it is still very clear that this was an extraordinarily cavalier way to spend the Council’s scant resources. There was, as far as I understand, no attempt to get the information asked for in this letter using other, less wasteful means- further evidence that this was primarily not an exercise in public relations, not data collection. The letter was sent to every individual in the city regardless of age. And the £100,000 of capital spend could have been spent on any number of more worthwhile projects, such as establishing more legally enforceable 20mph zones around schools.
The district auditor is not likely to report back his ruling on this issue for a number of months, so I will be monitoring the Cabinet closely for the foreseeable period to make sure they are held to account for any other similarly reckless decisions.
Public transport
With regards to the Conservatives’ u-turn on cutting the rights of disabled people and pensioners to free travel within the city, while this is an excellent result it is important to recognise the Conservatives have so far not made any climb down over their proposals to cut bus routes. I will continue to work to demonstrate how these cuts could still have a very negative impact on Southampton’s ability to reduce congestion.
Read my article on the bus cut proposals
Other meetings
This month I presented SCRATCH with their Investors in People award. I also publicly backed the launch of Epilepsy Action’s Take Control campaign, the aim of which is to encourage people with epilepsy to learn about how to better regulate their condition. Epilepsy Action estimates that up to 70% of people with epilepsy could become seizure free with the right medication- however currently only 52% of people living in Southampton have their seizures controlled through medication.