I attended the Statement on local authority finance today.
The government said that West Berkshire will have £113 m of core spending power next year, and Wokingham £110.7m. The Schools settlement is of course in addition to this.
Most Councils were awarded similar figures to 2016-17, which means the need for efficiency improvements next year to maintain services.
I raised the issue of provision for social care for the 2 Councils.
Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): I wish Ministers well with their Bill. One of its central purposes is one I strongly support—the idea that we need to build more homes.
It has been a tragedy that in this century there has been a big reduction in the proportion of people in our country who can afford to own their own home and feel that they can get access to home ownership—something that previous generations thought was more normal and easier to achieve. One of things we must do is build more. Like the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Teresa Pearce), I look forward to the housing White Paper, because many of the things that we need to do have nothing to do with legislation but are about money, permissions, and using what law we already have to ensure that our industry can serve the needs of all the people.
I also support the Bill’s second big aim, which has to be balanced against the priority of creating many more affordable homes for sale and, where needed, for rent— namely the priority that local communities must be part of the process. We are asking local communities to go to a great deal of effort, to work on the local plan as a principal planning authority and to work on neighbourhood plans village by village. They will only do so willingly if they feel their work will be taken seriously.
I represent parts of two local authority areas, West Berkshire and Wokingham Borough. Both have had a very good record over the past few decades on making sure that a lot of new housing is built in the area to help with the national need. In particular, at the moment Wokingham has four very large sites, with between 2,500 and 3,500 new homes on each, as its contribution to the national effort. Wokingham wants to make sure that the Minister’s fine words earlier will be taken into account and be part of the system—that when the local community has done the decent thing and made sure there is plenty of land available for building, an inspector does not come along and say that more homes will be built somewhere else, because some developer is gaming the system. I was very reassured that the Minister is well aware of that problem.
Where local authorities co-operate, and local communities are prepared to take responsibility and make those judgments, Ministers, their officials and the inspectors must understand that those authorities and communities should be taken seriously and, in most cases, their views should be upheld. I hope that as the Bill progresses Ministers will take on board the fact that there is huge support on the Government Benches for more homes and for local planning, but that we sometimes think inspectors still do not get it and developers are very clever, meaning that we end up with homes in places where we do not want them, which gives the whole policy a bad name.
On Tuesday Parliament held an important urgent debate on the cruel end to the recapture of Aleppo by the Syrian government. All of us were horrified by the reports of shelling, barrel bombs and mass killings of the civilian population. We all wanted to see action taken to help the humanitarian workers, the doctors, nurses, and aid staff that are at risk. We all wished there was a way for the west to provide humanitarian aid and to organise a ceasefire. I listened intently to see if there was some way we could help.
We were told by the Foreign Secretary that Syria and her allies have complete control of the air, so it would not be safe to fly in supplies or try to airlift people out. The UK has repeatedly sought through the UN to help organise a ceasefire, but the Syrian regime assisted by Russia refuses. I understand the impatience of some constituents who have written to me about it, urging action. I am sure, however, we all agree there is no point in seeking to put humanitarian staff into this killing field without guarantees that they themselves will be safe. People who bomb hospitals and refuse medical staff safe passage are unlikely allow western relief workers safe passage either.
Those parties the electorate would destroy, they first drive into coalition. There is a very European pattern of political change. The traditional establishment parties of the centre left and centre right become unpopular in government, they are driven into coalition, and the junior partners in the coalition often become extremely unpopular as a result. Mrs Merkel’s Free Democrat partners are no longer a force in German politics, and her latest partnership with the SPD in grand coalition is harming their electoral appeal.
The bigger issue is the ability of the Euro and the EU scheme to drive the traditional parties out of government, and then to leave them struggling as minor parties with very few seats. Normally when a political party discovers than one of its main propositions is unpopular it changes its view and seeks to get back in favour with electors. To win again Labour in 1997 had to accept Conservative tax rates and spending plans. To win in 2010 Conservatives accepted the minimum wage and social legislation put through by Labour. What is odd is that time and again the strictures of EU and Euro economic policy, generating high unemployment and little or no growth, are rejected by electors only to be upheld as policy by the traditional parties that suffer from the backlash.
The fall in support has been massive for several of the leading continental parties. In Germany the Labour party equivalent, the SPD used to be able to win more than 40% of the vote and form a government. Today it languishes on 22% in the polls. In Italy the PdL centre right party won 37.4% of the vote in 2008. In 2013 this had fallen to 21.6%. Their left of centre opponents, the PD, also fell from 33.2% to 25.4%.
In Spain the centre right party PP fell from 44.6% in 2011 to 33% in 2015, whilst the centre left PSOE fell from 43.9% in 2008 to 22.6%. Worst of all has been the performance of the traditional parties in Greece, where the economic crisis has been the most intense. There Pasok, the Labour party equivalent, collapsed from 44% in 2009 to just 6% in 2015.The centre right New Democracy fared a bit better, falling from 45% in 2004 to 28% in 2015.
In each of these cases the old cycle of government switching between the centre right and centre left depending on economic performance and political skill has been decisively broken. Both main parties in each of these countries has backed the Euro and the full EU scheme. All have supported and defended it continuously, claiming there is no alternative. The electors disagree, and are busy searching for an alternative that might break out of banking troubles, low or no growth and high unemployment.
I just do not understand why once great political parties accept these policies, when they are so clearly life threatening to them as election winning organisations. Why have the normal rules of politics been suspended by the EU? Why don’t these parties want to improve the lot of their electors and get back in touch with their former supporters?
Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): West Berkshire and Wokingham educational authorities that service my constituency are some of the worst funded and are finding it very difficult to keep going with their excellent education and their current teaching work forces, so we welcome the statement. Can there be any transitional relief in 2017/18 as our need is now?
The Secretary of State for Education (Rt Hon Justine Greening): My right hon. Friend will know the transitional relief that we had from the previous years has indeed been carried over to this forthcoming year and, of course, beyond that I am now setting out the steps that we are going to take to make funding fairer.
It is important and, in spite of the debate that no doubt will be kicked off on the back of this consultation, I just don’t think we can accept a situation where the same or a similar child with similar needs will get such a different amount of funding put into their education and their school for no other reason than that they are in different places.
This simply cannot and should not be accepted and that is what we are setting out the solution to today.
On Tuesday we had an important debate about housebuilding and local plans. Several of us made the point that local and neighbourhood plans can be outflanked by developers using the appeal system. Where a Council has concentrated development on a few sites to maximise the development gain payments and to ensure proper infrastructure provision, the developer can go slow on the build rate. This can lead an Inspector to grant permission for more homes in a place where the local community and Council did not want to build.
The truth is that having an up to date Local Plan and supporting Neighbourhood Plans does not fully protect areas where a community does not seek more building. The best defence a Council has comes through working closely with developers that do have planning permission to try to keep the build rate at the required level.
THe Minister promised to tackle this problem by relaxing the rule over the 5 year supply of land.
I am relieved that Southern Rail does not serve my voters. All too many commuters having been paying up to £5000 for their season ticket out of taxed income, only to discover the service is poor and often non existent, when there is another strike day.
The dispute is incomprehensible to anyone working in the competitive private sector. It is the fact that the train company has a monopoly and operates within a very controlled framework provided by the public sector, that it can indulge itself in the luxury of antagonising all its customers. They have nowhere else to go. They are prisoners of the system.
Apparently the dispute is over what duties a guard or train manager has on board the train. The company wishes the drivers to control the highly automated system of door closing and locking, as they do on other railways. The Unions say the guard needs to keep this duty. We are told no jobs will be lost if the management changes go through, and the passengers will get a better service. The Unions decline the offer and argue the train would be less safe if the driver works the doors.
Trains are best at moving large numbers of people at rush hour. Then the high capacity of a train coupled with the freedom from pedestrians, cycles and junctions that train track enjoys means it should offer the fastest way of getting into your place of work or back home again. The large numbers wanting to travel means the railway can offer a good timetable for rush hour periods, with frequent trains. The main constraint is the technology of our railway which limits the numbers of trains that can use popular track below the levels the demand would justify. It will take lighter trains, better brakes, and modern signals to increase the capacity of the commuter network.
In the meantime management and Unions need to learn to work with each other to give their passengers value for their high cost season tickets.
I have received this letter from the Managing Director of Great Western Railway about services over the Christmas period:
Dear John
I wrote to you a few weeks ago to alert you to the closure of Paddington station over Christmas this year to allow for electrification and Crossrail works.
This is just a quick follow up to remind you that the six-day closure starts on Christmas Eve, Saturday December 24th through to Thursday 29 December. This will mean trains are very busy on Friday 23 December, and we are recommending customers book ahead and travel early if they can.
Trains will not call at Burnham, Taplow, Hanwell, Acton Main Line, West Ealing, the Marlow Branch line and the Greenford branch line from Christmas Eve until 3 January. During this period customers will be able to use scheduled bus services, or buses provided by GWR on the Marlow Branch line and from Slough to Burnham or Taplow.
Full details are on our website on a dedicated page https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/christmas-travel including details on travelling with bikes, our sleeper service and our Pullman dining service.
We are using every avenue we can to alert customers including posters, leaflets and announcements on trains and at stations, social and traditional media and Meet the Manager events at key stations, anything you can do to help us spread the message would be very helpful.
If you have any questions about the improvement work, or our plans during the closure, please contact me and we will do our best to help.
Best wishes
Mark Hopwood | Managing Director | Great Western Railway
Many advanced economies, especially on the continent, have struggled since the crash of 2008-9 thanks to the failure to mend the commercial banks. The main authorities of the advanced world lurched from being far too lax with how much banks lent compared to their capital, cash and reserves, to being too tough. As a result we have had slow growth or no growth, depending on the relative weakness of the individual national commercial banking systems. The US and UK fixed their banks more quickly than the Euro area, but still demand levels of cash and capital that makes normal levels of credit expansion difficult in this cycle. On the continent in the recession ridden economies of Italy, Greece, Portugal and until recently Spain, past excess has led to a long period of credit starvation.
All this cramps growth and opportunity. No-one is suggesting the banks should lend more to individuals and organisations that can’t repay the last lot they borrowed. This credit squeeze is also preventing new loans to individuals and companies that are not over borrowed, and stands in the way of the normal use of credit to grow demand for larger ticket items, and to expand business capacity to respond to rising demand.
I have long argued that I would rather the governments and Central banks since 2008 had concentrated on fixing the banks, than on Quantitative Easing as a palliative for not fixing the banks. I can see that QE could be better than doing nothing. However, one of its adverse side effects was to lower long interest rates, making it more difficult for banks to make a profit. This delayed their balance sheet recovery, as they need more retained profits to provide the buffers against future losses they need before lending more.
The arrival of Mr Trump may change all this. It offers an opportunity to turn our backs on excessive austerity banking, and to find some possible agreement between the Europeans and the USA over what the next phase of world banking regulation should look like. Basel IV, the possible further tightening of demands for bank cash and capital, is in dispute now. At the same time Mr Trump’s team may soon develop proposals to amend Dodd Frank and the US bank regulatory code that came in following the crash. Mr Trump will want to expand the US growth rate in part by making more loans available for good projects in the US private sector. That will require a new bank fix.
I will write more about this in future posts. The way to end austerity and slow growth is to fix the banks sensibly and credibly. The authorities made two big mistakes between 2005 and today. All now agree they were too lax prior to 2007. It is now possible more will come to see they have been too tough and too unhelpful to rebuilding well financed expansion minded banks since the crash. People may not like banks, but trying to punish them as institutions is a kind of self harm, as it depresses economic performance if the banks cant lend.
Christmas begins for me with the Wokingham Borough Schools’ Carol Concert. From the moment I stepped into the Loddon Leisure Centre last night and saw the orchestra and the decorations I felt the pulse of Christmas. James Baker led the choir and the orchestra with his customary enthusiasm and understanding. The Berkshire Maestros lived up to their billing and their predecessors, with spirited and lively festive playing.
The massed choirs from our local primary schools were in great voice. They loved the beat of the Calypso carol, the Swinging Shepherd Blues and Santa Claus is coming to town, and gave them full voice. We all enjoyed Leroy’s magic sleigh ride, as we heard the thump of the hooves and the crack of the whip from a stylish percussion section. The audience kept in time with the Quodlibet, a posh word for singing different parts in split choirs, and all came together for the final Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Congratulations to all! I enjoyed the evening and thank the organisers and the participants for achieving a high standard.