Monthly Report for July 2009
Below is a summary of my work in Parliament and in Southampton for the month of July 2009 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
Marine & Coastal Access Bill
Much of my time over the last month has been spent working on the committee scrutinising the Marine & Coastal Access Bill. The MCAB is a very important Bill for coastal towns and cities like Southampton which I have been lobbying for over a number of years now, along with other groups such as the Wildlife Trust. The Bill, when completed, will deliver improvements to marine areas by unifying many of the various bodies that currently have some say in marine management into one Marine Management Organisation, which can take a holistic view of what is best for marine areas. The Bill will also complete Labour’s right to roam legislation that we began back in our term in office, which will enshrine in law the right to roam around the entire coastline of Britain. Over the last few week I have been trying to ensure that owners of vast tracts of land are not able to designate their large fields as a ‘private garden’ and therefore escape the scope of the act (while of course keeping protection in place for private gardens that genuinely are private and gardens).
Council Homes
Some very significant and positive developments have just been announced by the government regarding funds for building new, affordable housing across Britain. First, the government has announced that £1.5 billion will be allocated to enable local authorities to build 20,000 new affordable homes over the next two years, creating 45,000 jobs in the construction industry. This rise to a build of 150,000 new council homes over the next 10 years.
Second, Housing Minister John Healey announced at the start of July that the government will exclude all new build council housing from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) subsidy system, which means that councils will retain in full the rent and capital receipts from these homes.
Taken together, these measures could amount to the biggest expansion of UK affordable home building since the 1960s, while at the same time placing council homes on a much more stable long-term financial base.
As readers may know, Labour MPs and Councillors have been working to resolve problems that have arisen from the HRA system. The HRA is, for the uninitiated, the system by which funds relating to council housing are distributed by central government. A proportion of the revenue gained from council housing from streams such as rents and right-to-buy council house sales goes into a central government pot, which is then re-allocated to the various housing authorities across the country. A certain level of centralisation is necessary for this type of revenue collection, as it is for all forms of national taxation, to allow the government to allocate funding to areas in most need. However this year there is an imbalance between the amount of money paid in by housing authorities like Southampton, and the amount those authorities get back from central government.
I and a number of Labour MPs and Councillors have been seeking to rectify this imbalance (the Conservative Council has also done a limited amount of lobbying on this issue, although their stance is somewhat undercut by their party’s commitment to cut funding for the relevant government department by £240 million this year). It was this lobbying by MPs that led to the government’s earlier decision to cut the proposed rise in council house rents in half (down from 3.1% from 6.3%) which significantly closed the gap between rent income and HRA grants.
However, this announcement by the government is potentially much more significant in terms of changing the underlying funding relationship between local housing authorities and central government. It opens up the possibility for authorities to build a significant new stock of affordable housing that will be permanently outside the scope of HRA re-allocation. This opens up a golden opportunity for councils like Southampton to build a new generation of council homes, in the knowledge that any revenue derived from those homes would always go back to the local authority.
This week just gone I asked a PMQ on this issue, asking the government to ensure that these new homes would comply with the Sustainable Buildings Code and be examplars for energy efficiency in the sector.
Parliamentary Standards
The Parliamentary Standards Bill received its second reading this month. Among other measures, the Bill will set up a new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. The IPSA will have the power to:
- set an allowances and expenses system
- appoint a Commissioner for Parliamentary Investigations to conduct investigations when necessary
- require those who have received allowances to which they were not entitled to repay money, and those who have inadvertently omitted entries in the register of interests to amend their entries.
All claims and expenses will be made public, as will the expenses system, rules, reports following investigations, and sanctions. The IPSA will also be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The Bill also sets out new criminal offences for:
- providing information that a member knows is false or misleading in claiming for an allowance, for which the maximum sanction is up to twelve months custodial sentence or an unlimited fine;
- failing, without reasonable excuse, to comply with the rules on registration of financial interests, for which the maximum penalty is a fine of up to £5000;
- and breaching the rules which prohibit paid advocacy, for which the maximum penalty is a fine of up to £5000.
I spoke in the debate that followed the reading of the Bill.
Building Britain’s Future
This month the government published ‘Building Britain’s Future’- a quite comprehensive document on the government’s plans for the economy, public services and law & order over the next decade. Some parts, such as work to guarantee long term youth unemployed a job or training, will already be familiar to some members. However, there are genuinely new focuses on issues such as affordable housing, as well as a welcome refocusing on the delivering of things like 1-1 tuition for all school children who need it. Below is a brief summary of some of the ‘headline’ priorities announced in BBF:
Getting Britain back to work
Every young person who has been out of work for a year will be guaranteed a job, training or work experience place.
Patient power
Patients will get enforceable entitlements to the highest standards of health care - like seeing a cancer specialist within 2 weeks, and free health-checks on the NHS for people aged 40-74.
Having a say on fighting crime
People will have more power to keep their neighbourhoods safe, including the right to hold the police to account at monthly beat meetings, having a say on CCTV cameras and voting on how offenders pay back to the community - like cleaning graffiti.
More affordable homes
An extra £1.5 bn will be invested in 20,000 affordable homes over the next two years. This housing investment package will also create an estimated 45,000 additional jobs in the construction and related industries.
1-1 tuition
Parents will be guaranteed an education individually tailored to their child. This will include a personal tutor for every pupil and 1-1 tuition for all those who need it.
Preparing Southampton for the new economy
The government is investing in areas that are important to future industry, like ensuring broadband access for all by 2012 and working towards a nationwide high-speed broadband network by 2016.
Speeches, Questions & Interventions
This month I asked questions on Parliamentary Standards, speeding up windfarm developments, and smart meters. I made interventions in debates on the Marine & Coastal Access Bill. I also made a full speech as part of my work on the Public Bill Committee on microgeneration. All of these speeches & questions, in addition to the transcript of my work on Bill Committees are, as always, available in glorious technicolour on my website.
Work In Southampton
The future of Lordshill
Over the next month volunteers will be distributing a survey from me about the future of Lordshill. The survey covers the proposed move of Oaklands and Millbrook schools sites to a new site on Five Acre Field, and what residents would like to see done with the school sites if the proposed move does go ahead.
I am particularly concerned that the community facilities adjoining the current Oaklands site are not forgotten about in the debate over the future of the new school. Oaklands pool, for example, was never built as a part of Oaklands School (I know this, because I was Council leader when it was built)- it was always intended to be a free-standing facility for the whole community. It is not the case, therefore, that just because Oaklands school is moving, Oaklands Pool has to close. The same argument can very easily be made for all the other community facilities at Oaklands, which occupy a largely separate ‘footprint’ from the Oaklands school buildings.
It is also the case that the proposed move of Oaklands & Millbrook schools will result in a rather substantial cash capital receipt for the Council. They already own the land the new school would be going to, and the building of the school itself will largely be funded out of central government Building Schools for the Future funding. That means that whatever the Council makes from the sale of the land on Oaklands and Millbrook sites will largely be pure Council profit. It is therefore completely legitimate, and indeed morally right, to call on the Council to reinvest a significant proportion of any money they get from the sale of Oaklands & Millbrook school sites back into the local community, in particular in providing more modern community facilities that Lordshill sorely lacks.
What is not acceptable, I think, is to take the approach the Council currently is embarking upon, which is to say that there will be private facilities near to the new 5 Acre site, and this will be just as good as all the facilities lost from Oaklands and Millbrook. This really is not a fair deal for Lordshill.
Of course, most of these decisions are still a long way from being finalised, and I hope my survey on the future of Lordshill will help generate real debate about how Lordshill residents want to influence the changes planned for their area.
City Patrol
I have written to Cllr Royston Smith asking him to clarify the recent reports that have appeared in the press regarding cuts to City Patrol. I have asked him to guarantee that if he plans to sack existing City Patrol officers and give parking attendants increased powers to compensate, that these parking attendants will have all the same powers, the same training and the same level of experience as existing City Patrol Officers. I have yet to receive a reply.
Family Centres
Also this month I visited Forest View Family Centre in Coxford ward, which is one of the family centres in Southampton that the Conservative Council had proposed to close and merge with less specialist children’s services [NB- the day after this report was written, the Council announced these centres would not be closed, which was welcomed by councillors from all sides]. Family Centres currently provide targeted support for the most vulnerable families in Southampton, such as parents who have been victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse. As such they do not enjoy the high profile as more widely used Sure Start Children’s Centres, but the work they do is just as important, particularly in ensuring there is not an equivalent ‘Baby P’ case in Southampton.
Irving Road Shopping Parade
There has been a very strong response to a survey conducted by myself and Millbrook Labour Action Team Leader Dave Furnell over the state of the pavements at the Irving Road Shopping Parade. We have contacted the Council about the state of the slabs, but have been told the Council is not willing to speed up repairs to the area. As residents will know, the state of the pavements by the parade not just because of issues of safety- it is also an issue of pride in the local community and the impact poor pavements have on local trade. We will continue to lobby the Council to take the repair of the parade as a higher priority.
Other engagements
Also this month I attended the Hampshire Tamils Forum; spoke at the presentation of Avenue St Andrews Church with an eco-congregation plaque, hosted a Parliamentary roundtable on sustainable buildings, met with the principal of Tauntons about the delays to the redevelopment of the college; and visited Southampton General Hospital to see the work they are doing to increase training and education opportunities for their staff.
Fairtrade Update
Just under 1000 constituents in Southampton Test have received an update from me about new fair-trade products that are now on the market. These products have been made available thanks in part to our government’s push for fairer trade deals for developing countries- which has allowed more employers in those countries to offer their employees a living wage. The government has also given over £2 million to Fairtrade since 1997 and £12 million to fair and ethical trade initiatives. For more information about the new products available, go to www.fairtrade.org.uk
Roving surgeries
I ran roving Red Rose surgeries in Millbrook and Freemantle wards, in addition to my regular Friday and Saturday surgeries.
Alan Whitehead MP July 2009