GIVE US WARMER HOMES BEFORE ROAD AND RAIL SPEND, SAYS UK PUBLIC

THE Energy Bill will be considered in the House of Commons on Wednesday.  I’ve tabled an amendment that would set targets to eradicate fuel poverty, while the Government are seeking to use the Bill to remove its statutory obligation to eradicate fuel poverty.

This is a shameful move by David Cameron, which has been aided and abetted by the Lib Dem Energy Minister, Ed Davey, not least because excessive winter deaths increased by 29 per cent last winter.

The Prime Minister would do well to listen to the British public because people say making homes more energy efficient is a greater infrastructure priority than building HS2, new roads, airports or power stations.

In a poll published yesterday, 85 per cent of adults rank free energy efficiency measures, which could save an average family around £500 every year, in their top three infrastructure priorities.

In fact, 57 per cent of people believe it should be the UK’s number one priority, ahead of building new roads (15 per cent), new power stations (15 per cent), HS2 (3 per cent) or new airports (2 per cent). 
It is an even greater priority for younger people, with energy efficiency for homes coming first for around 70 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds.

In addition, 63 per cent of people say that, of the infrastructure projects, it would have the biggest benefit for them personally, with the number rising to over 70 per cent for those with children and around three quarters of those aged 35 to 44.  The findings were released amid growing concern that the Chancellor will slash investment in energy efficiency in his Autumn Statement next week.

The poll was conducted by TNS for the Energy Bill Revolution, the world’s biggest fuel poverty alliance representing over 150 British businesses, charities, energy companies and unions.  The alliance has warned the Chancellor that reducing annual funding for energy efficiency is a dangerously short-term approach that will prevent thousands of people from escaping fuel poverty.

Ed Matthew, director of the Energy Bill Revolution, said: “The Government has over £100 billion in infrastructure projects planned but not one single penny is set aside to insulate homes. All parties need to listen. What people want more than anything is warm homes.  This must be the UK’s number one infrastructure priority.

Meanwhile, Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders, said: “Energy-efficiency improvements, unlike major road or rail projects, are not at the mercy of our lengthy planning process before they can get started.

“The positive impact on jobs and growth is immediate because energy efficient improvements to our homes can be done right away.  If the Chancellor prioritises this type of capital investment, he will bring about significant economic gains, providing additional work for the UK’s small local builders, who are the backbone of the construction industry.”

With the Energy Bill debate on Wednesday and the Autumn Statement on Thursday, next week will be significant in determining whether the Govt will give any priority to addressing this massive investment requirement.

SHUTTING THE COWSHED DOOR AFTER THE PLAGUE GOT IN

THE Badger Trust says it welcomes the recent flurry of announcements of measures under consideration to control transmission of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) between cattle and between camelids and alpacas, but deplores the 20-year delay in producing them.

Defra is now proposing to impose a zero tolerance policy on English farmers with overdue herd tests.  David Williams, chairman of the Badger Trust, said: “Overdue tests have been a scandal for decades. The cattle industry has stubbornly resisted sensible restrictions on cattle management since the catastrophic rise in bTB began in the early 1990s. Farmers used badgers as scapegoats while they dug their heels in against better regulation of markets and abattoirs, more frequent and improved testing, pre-movement testing and comprehensive biosecurity on farms.

David Williams added: “If the measures we have listed here had been in place when the cattle toll averaged a thousand a year it would never have risen to its present level of almost 30,000.

I remember being chided by the NFU for having the temerity to suggest in a debate, at which I spoke during the 2010 Game Fair, that badgers are often used as an excuse for bad husbandry.

From next year farmers who have not arranged for bTB surveillance and check tests to be carried out by the due date will face cuts to their subsidies. The level of reduction will depend on the length of time the test was overdue.

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Owen Paterson, admitted in a Commons statement on November 28th that he was addressing a number of “long-standing weaknesses in our bovine TB controls”. Some of these weaknesses were strengthened a year ago, but only at the insistence of the EU. They included annual testing in the south west of England and zoning restrictions.

He proposes consultations on various proposals rather than acting on any of them – action that should have been taken years ago.  He also proposes the pre-movement testing exemption for movements of cattle to and from common land. Also, the lifting of bovine TB restrictions on parts of a restricted holding could be phased out. In future the whole of a holding would be either restricted or officially TB free at any one time. Farmers would be “encouraged” to share details of the disease history of any cattle they sell so buyers would be finally better able to manage any disease risks.

BIOSECURITY STUDY
Northern Ireland has published the results of a two-year study of farm biosecurity measures to assess badger- and cattle-related risk factors for bovine TB breakdowns and the associated biosecurity measures. It recommends further investigation of specific areas such as the potential role of contiguous spread across farm boundaries and greater exploration of the role of cattle movement is recommended.  The report also says farmers should be encouraged to use established biosecurity measures to separate badgers and cattle. The majority of farm boundaries in the study area would have facilitated nose-to-nose contact with cattle on neighbouring farms and the survey team recommends closed herds or pre- and/or post- movement bTB testing and isolation of purchased animals.

ALPACAS AND LLAMAS
In yet another much-needed improvement Defra is “seeking the views” of alpaca and llama owners by  January 10th 2014 about how more could be done to prevent the spread of bovine TB in and among herds, but any measures will still only be voluntary, so failing to close yet another gap in security.

LIB DEMS' DIRECTIONLESS STEWARDSHIP DAMAGED DERBY

WESTFIELD’S decision to exit Derby inevitably made the headlines recently, but it also opened the debate on the broader issue of businesses operating within our city centre.

I remember well when Westfield arrived – I was Leader of Derby City Council at the time.  It transformed Derby’s retail offer, pushing our city way up the retail league and increasing visitor numbers by around 10 million per year. 

But I also remember the wider plans that we had in place at that time.  We had a marketing strategy aimed at bringing destination retailers into the Cathedral Quarter and St Peter’s Street.  We also planned to improve our public spaces to make the city more attractive.

Unfortunately, those strategies were jettisoned in May 2008 when the Liberal Democrats catastrophically took control of the council.  Never in my political life have I witnesses such abysmal leadership of the city as that offered up by the Liberal Democrats during that period.

Under their directionless stewardship, the council sleepwalked through the next two years up to the General Election when the Coalition Government heralded in its devastating austerity programme.  The huge opportunities they had to build on Westfield’s arrival were squandered and are in stark contrast to the massive challenges being faced by the city’s current Labour administration.

That’s why politics matters.  The decisions taken by the Liberal Democrat city leaders (sic) during that period are still impacting on us today.  Were it not for those decisions, areas standing derelict would have been regenerated, more local people currently jobless would be employed and Derby’s public services would be in better shape.

I know Westfield’s decision to sell up has caused some anxiety, but I believe it could actually be a catalyst to improve the retail offer outside the Westfield Centre.  It’s in everyone’s interests, including any new owner of the shopping mall, to continue making Derby as attractive as possible to encourage even more people to come here to shop. 

That is why I support the CBI’s calls for a year-long exemption from business rates for firms that move into vacant properties.  And their request that the Chancellor uses next month’s Autumn Statement to introduce a two per cent cap on business rate rises for the next two years is also sensible.  Given the number of empty shop units on East Street, Albion  Street and St Peter’s Street, these measures would provide a welcome incentive. 

So let’s thank Westfield for choosing Derby to develop its first iconic shopping mall in the UK.  It put our city back on the retail map, produced the best shopping destination in the East Midlands and created 3,000 new jobs in the process.  That’s a great legacy leaving us with solid foundations on which to continue building an exciting and prosperous future for our city centre.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

RIGHTWING MILITANT TENDENCY DRIVING EDUCATION POLICY

MANY teachers already think that Michael Gove’s policies border on lunacy, and a leaked thesis by one of the Education Secretary’s most trusted advisors will have done little to change that view.

The report by Dominic Cummings argues that our young people’s educational performance is not about the quality of teaching, but about genetics.  Now I’m not so blind to biology to doubt that someone’s genetic make-up clearly has a major impact on the person they are.

I’d be unsurprised to learn that there are certain genes that affect learning, and it stands to reason that there are some children more naturally gifted in some areas of education than others.  But Mr Cummings goes some way beyond that.  The implication of his 250-word report is that a child’s educational attainment is almost pre-determined by their DNA.

What a radical and bizarre claim.

Aside from the fact it conflicts with the views of just about every education professional you are ever likely to meet, it somewhat begs the question why Mr Cummings thinks anyone wants to bother trying to raise teaching standards.

All of this reflects very badly on Mr Gove.

Most worryingly, it begs the question what other wild and wonderful ideas have been bounced around in generating some of Mr Gove’s highly controversial changes to education in the last three-and-a-half years.

If Mr Gove’s most trusted aide seems to believe the role of teachers in shaping our young people’s minds is so minimal, does this explain the Secretary of State’s total lack of respect for this vitally important profession?

We in Derby have been on the receiving end of some of Mr Gove’s attacks on education.  We’ve seen academies forced upon the city, and we’ve played host to the most controversial example of Mr Gove’s Free School model, with the Al-Madinah establishment.

And as a city whose children have suffered because of Mr Gove’s interventions, we’ve got every right to feel aggrieved if it now transpires that even the most crackpot ideas are on the table when it comes to the development of Tory education policy.

But what I find particularly worrying about Mr Cummings report is how closely it represents Tory policy generally.

What does Mr Cummings suggest? Do we just abandon schooling and instead put children in a room with the right textbooks and let the natural talent just get on with it while the others flounder?  Well that’s exactly the sort of mentality reflected elsewhere by this Government – a protection of the minority and a total disinterest in supporting, or even thinking about, the majority.

And it is that parallel which makes it very difficult to discount Mr Cummings’ radical views as unconnected from other worrying policies being churned out by Mr Gove and the Tories.

MPs CAN VOTE TO SCRAP THE BEDROOM TAX ON TUESDAY

BEFORE I became a fulltime councillor and then elected as MP, I saw first-hand how people struggled to make ends meet in my profession as a welfare rights officer.

It was a job that could be hugely satisfying but it was also a role which could be quite emotionally draining, as you saw for yourself how people learn to live in the most desperate circumstances.

I dread to think how draining it must be for people in equivalent roles today, as the Tories endless attacks on the poorest continue to drive more families into poverty.

What is all the more galling is that many of the Government’s policies which are causing these difficulties are actually fundamentally flawed.

Take the bedroom tax.  Not only is it causing insufferable hardship for those affected, but far from helping to reduce the country’s deficit it will actually cost more than it saves.

You don’t have to listen to politicians for proof of that.

Even the National Housing Federation believes that those forced to move to the private rented sector because of the bedroom tax will cost the state more in housing benefit.

Then there are the tens of millions likely to be lost through the build-up of arrears – a claim made by various housing associations.

The National Audit Office has said that the Government’s costing does not take account of the full scale of potential impacts and does not include the additional costs faced by local authorities.

And research by the University of York suggests that any potential savings to balance against those costs are likely to be some 39 per cent less than the DWP predicted.

Unfortunately, the Government’s short-sightedness with the bedroom tax is not untypical given that it is has been ill-though out.

The Tories’ economic policy at large is unworkable because it is based on the fundamental misconception that an economy can recover by being shrunk.

A misguided belief that the private sector will ride to the rescue of a scaled back public sector is undermined by a failure to understand that the private sector relies upon local authorities for much of its business.

But what makes the bedroom tax stand out above many other Government policies is the widespread and unfair impact it has had on real people in just about every village, town and city up and down the land.

It is a policy which has attacked around 660,000, including more than 400,000 disabled people.  That includes 40,000 people, and 25,200 disable people, in the East Midlands.

It is a policy designed to drain most those who can least afford it, and which has been described by the National Housing Federation as “an unfair, ill-planned disaster that is hurting our poorest families”.

And it is a policy which the next Labour Government will not hesitate in repealing.

But our belief that the bedroom tax is causing more harm than good is not about making an election pledge.

We belief that it is so damaging that it needs to be removed even earlier – and that’s why an Opposition Day debate is planned for the House of Commons on Tuesday to call for just that.

The bedroom tax is leaving families up and down this country with nowhere to go and on the edge of spiralling debt. These people simply can’t wait until the next Labour government in 2015 for it to be repealed.

They need it repealed now, and that’s why I will be voting in support of that tomorrow.