Monthly Report for November 2008
Below is a summary of my work in Parliament and in Southampton for the month of November 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
Political Parties & Funding Bill
Much of my time in Parliament over the last two weeks has been spent working on the standing committee for the Political Parties and Funding Bill. Among other issues, the Bill is looking at how to better regulate spending outside of short election campaigns. Currently there are strict limits on what a party can spend during an election campaign, but no limit at all on what parties can spend in the 4 or 5 years leading up to that campaign. We all know that voters do not make up their mind about who they will vote for entirely during a short campaign, but over a much longer period. Therefore it appears to me that if we are serious about reducing the role of money in politics, it is crucial to limit what one side can spend, and therefore what the other side feels it has to spend, during the entire Parliament. I spoke in support of such measures during the second reading of the Bill and am supporting these measures in committee.
More information about the debate, including a video of my speech
Energy & Climate Change committee
I have also been nominated to be a member of the new Energy and Climate Change select committee, which has come about as a result of the setting up of the new Department for Energy and Climate Change now run by Ed Miliband. It would perhaps be easy to miss the significance of this new Department, but it is worth pointing out- this is the first time in history where the government’s work on energy and the environment have been part of the same portfolio. In the past ‘energy’ was always seen primarily as in the purview of departments for business, with the consequence that energy policy was often influenced more by short term economic factors and less by the long-term but equally pressing need to respond to the threat of climate change. Breaking that departmental logjam is in my view a momentous decision by the government and I am delighted to be on the committee that will work to put forward a powerful green energy agenda in the future.
Post office card account
5400 people in Southampton Test currently use the post office card account for their pension and benefit payments. They will be able to continue to do so, without any disruption, thanks to the government awarding the Post Office with the contract to continue providing this service. There had been representations made from Paypoint, a private company, to take over the service, however the government recognised the important social added-value of keeping this business with the Post Office to help the viability of the overall network. ‘No news is good news’ is perhaps harder to sell as people will not see any obvious change as a result of this decision- indeed that is the point. Nevertheless this is, I believe, a very welcome and very significant decision that will help safeguard the future of post offices in Southampton for much longer than perhaps otherwise might have been the case.
Work In Southampton
Care provision
Locally I have been campaigning on two aspects of Southampton City Council’s care policy, one that has received a great deal of public attention, and the other, less so.
Care homes
I made two submissions on the Council’s proposals to close Whitehaven Lodge. In my written submission I outlined the importance of publicly provided care in providing a benchmark for the quality of care in the private sector, as well as the strong connections between Whitehaven Lodge and other residents in Redbridge. I also pointed out that the plans to close the homes are not what the Council agreed was a sensible course of action even a few months ago, when they had proposed closing the two homes only if a modern replacement was built. The fact that this is now off the agenda is, I think, a clear reflection of the priorities of the Conservative administration and something they should be held to account over.
Together with local unions and John Denham’s office, we also raised just under a 5000 name petition opposing the home closures which were submitted as part of the consultation process.
Domiciliary care
The Council is also introducing significant changes into how domiciliary care (care in your own home) is provided. Rather than a number of different care providers operating across the city, the Council has now divided the city up into seven separate ‘zones’ with only one care provider operating in each zone. In Southampton Test, this has had the effect that almost all my constituents will have to get their domiciliary care from a single company called Care UK. If they were previously receiving care from a different provider, they will either have to lose their current carer and get a new one from Care UK, or switch to Direct Payments, where they manage their publicly-provided care budgets themselves and use it to pay a private care provider. However private providers often require a ‘top-up’ payment, and even if they do not many of the constituents who have contacted me are frail and do not want the additional problems of managing their own care budgets. I have also been contacted by constituents who say the quality of care from Care UK is lower than they have been receiving up until now- an argument which does appear to have some credibility as they have a lower ‘star rating’ than some of the providers that were operating in Southampton Test before November.
I have been in touch with the Council about this issue and asked them for a detailed breakdown of i) how many residents are losing their carer under the new system, ii) how many have been forced to switch to Direct Payments, and and whether there will be any difference in price between care provided through the local authority and care purchased personally through the Direct Payment system.
Public investment
It was announced this month that Southampton will get £8.8 million from the government to help rebuild and refurbish primary schools across the city. This funding is effectively the younger sibling of the already announced £100 million for rebuilding and refurbishing secondary schools in the city as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme. This investment is not only extremely important for improving the learning environment for our children- it is also a very welcome capital investment for the city during difficult economic times.
Trades Unions
This last Friday I attended a quarterly MPs-Trades Union Liaison meeting for Labour MPs and trades unions in the Southampton area. We discussed the government’s response to the credit crunch, how the crunch is affecting local members, as well as a number of other issues such as the future of the Swaythling Ford Plant and the rights of agency workers.