Category: Articles

Last week I went to Birmingham for the Conservative party conference. I spoke at four events, on growth, on our relationship with the EU, on schools and on public spending.

Sharing a panel with Matthew Hancock, the new Business Minister, chaired by Oliver Letwin, we discussed with the party members what additional cuts in spending could and should be made. I favoured making sure that foreign visitors using our health service pay for the treatments they receive, just as we have to when visiting their countries. We are losing hundreds of millions by faoling to invoice them or their insurance companies or the Euro card scheme. I urged the government to get on with its proposal to charge foreign lorries for using our roads, just as domestic haulage companies have to pay high Vehicle Excise duties. I proposed reducing the large programme of research at the Overseas Aid department, removing aid to nuclear weapons powers, and reducing that department’s rising overhead. I suggested cutting the numbers of appeals and follow up legal actions taxpayers pay for to foreign nationals who have lost their immigration or extradition case in the UK. The large audience seemed appreciative of these proposals.

In the meeting on growth we looked particularly at what Councils and local agencies can do to promote growth. There was general agreement that speedier planning decisions are helpful, and that plenty of free or cheap car parking is crucial to promoting a town centre. A good idea that has worked elsewhere where a town centre has too much empty space is the pop up shop. Spare shop space is offered free for a short period to people willing to try out shop ideas. If they work the person can then negotiate a rent and start paying for some of the spare space. In the meantime the shopping centre does not look so bare.

I dashed back to Wokingham to attend the first Founders Day at Oakbank school. Wokingham parents and well wishers have created the first secondary free school in the country. A hectic six weeks this summer saw part of Ryeish Green school buildings transformed into a clean modern space suitable for the first pupils. I had the pleasure of hearing the founding pupils read, sing and perform just four weeks into their careers at the new institution. I wish them and the teaching staff every success with their new venture. The Founders have shown great commitment and enterprise bringing it altogether.

MailOnline

October 8, 2012 Monday 1:27 PM GMT

‘Treasure Island’ of free healthcare and benefits for foreigners must end, says senior Tory

BYLINE: MATT CHORLEY, MAILONLINE POLITICAL EDITOR

LENGTH: 436 words

. Former Cabinet minister John Redwood uses behind-closed-doors policy session to demand an end to handouts for foreign visitors
. Calls for curbs on health and benefit tourism and cuts to legal aid cited
. Says the government needs to find ‘popular cuts’

The government will today face calls from senior Tories to end the ‘Treasure Island’ culture of benefits claimed by foreign visitors to Britain.
Party policy chief Oliver Letwin will be told health tourism, legal aid bills and foreign lorries are costing the UK taxpayer millions of pounds.
Former cabinet minister John Redwood will tell the Tory party conference that George Osborne must go in search of ‘popular cuts’ in order to tackle the deficit.
Two panel debates today will examine ways to cut the deficit and ‘challenge the something for nothing culture’.
The sessions will be held behind closed doors for party members, but Mr Redwood said ministers had to do more to recoup costs from foreign visitors using public services.
Mr Osborne will today set out plans for £10billion to be cut from the welfare budget, targeting British citizens living on benefits.
But Mr Redwood, a former economic and tax adviser to David Cameron, said it would be more popular to reduce the state handouts claimed by people coming to Britain.
He told MailOnline: ‘They need more cuts and they need popular cuts. They need to tackle the Treasure Island syndrome.
‘As a start, anyone who comes here for health tourism should pay for it. They should require hospitals to levy the invoices they should be levying.’
Every year the NHS writes off more than £6million in bad debts and claims against overseas patients which are never paid.
Mr Redwood said the ability to claim benefits should be linked to the right to work.
‘We need to be a lot firmer on benefit entitlement. You can come here to work but we need to pursue those cases and say to Europe you cannot come here on benefits.’
He said the legal aid bill also had to be reduced, including reducing the number of appeals on tourist and immigration cases.
And foreign lorries should face higher charges for using British roads, otherwise road tax risks ‘clobbering our haulage firms’ while rivals from overseas operate free of charge.
Last month Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, announced foreign lorries will be charged up to £1,000 a year to use British roads.
UK lorries will also have to pay the levy, but it will be offset by a £1,000 reduction in road tax.
‘We need popular cuts to get the deficit down. We are giving out too many freebies to foreign visitors in a way that we don’t get in other countries,’ Mr Redwood added.

Re-published with the permission of the Daily Mail. Copyright of this article belongs to the paper and the author, Matt Chorley.

It is time to bring most of our troops home from Afghanistan. When Labour put our army into that country, they did not envisage a ten year plus commitment or warn us of such a long stay. When the Coalition took over they did impose a deadline of the life of this Parliament to complete the task , which was some progress.

On 30 August I called for earlier withdrawal on www.johnredwood.com. Mr Hammond, the Defence Secretary announced in the second week of September that his latest advice told him we could bring more troops home more quickly. On 17 September Mr Hammond was required to answer an urgent question in the Commons about the safety of our forces. This followed yet more deaths perpetrated by members of the Afghan forces we are meant to be helping, or by people pretending to belong to those forces.

I asked that our troops now withdraw from dangerous patrols and combat duties. Surely, after all these years of training there are enough troops and police in the Afghan forces to be able to patrol their own country? Why can’t we now confine our advice and training to classrooms and practice terrain within our bases? Why can’t all Afghans needing more advice and training from us come to the base and go through proper security checks before mixing with NATO forces?

Mr Hammond repeated the mantras that we are there to protect the UK from terrorism, and that the job is not yet finished. I was therefore pleased to learn this morning that the US has decided that the level of murders and attacks on NATO personnel by Afghan force members or by Afghans pretending to be members of the security forces is unacceptable. They have ordered that NATO troops will no longer join Afghans in mixed patrols. This should give Mr Hammond the opportunity to endorse the US decision, and to add that in the UK areas there will be no UK patrols. These can be left to Afghan forces, who may return for advice or call on Helicopter and other advanced technology support from ourselves if needed.

I am full of praise, as all MPs are, for the bravery, dedication and professionalism of our forces. They have done good work in  training many Afghans in police work, and have put themselves at risk to calm the tense situation in parts of Afghanistan. I do not accept that today our continued presence in Afghanistan is crucial to our national interests and our national security. Terrorists can find other homes in the Middle East where Afghan bases are denied them. There are no great UK investments or trade interests unique to Afghanistan that need a UK military presence to protect them.

It is time for our troops to be brought home. They can hold their heads high for a job well done. They have been brave and restrained in very difficult circumstances. The latest spate of murders of NATO forces is producing a welcome rethink. Let’s take it to its sensible conclusion.

What a way to run a railway. We have seen several years of high fare rises. Now comes confirmation of yet another large rise in fares, by as much as 6.2% on some routes. With incomes going up on average by around 1.6%, that’s another tight squeeze on people’s living standards.

Part of the problem is the railway relies on a few high volume routes into the centres of our larger towns and cities for the bulk of its revenue. In our case commuters to Reading and to London account for a large proportion of the daily turnover. It makes them too easy a target for the railways wanting more fare revenue. They tax and tax again the captive commuter audience.

Meanwhile, the railways also run lots of trains to and from less popular destinations, and at times of day when few people want to travel. To try to get in some revenue on these trains, and to look as if the railway is useful there as well, the companies sell a large number of deeply discounted tickets to tempt people to travel where otherwise they might not, or tempt them to travel by train rather than by car. The companies do not feel they can bump these prices up, as many of the buyers do not have to buy the ticket in the way the hard pressed commuter does.

All this seems very unfair. Some say the answer is to send more government money to the railway companies, to increase the subsidy in order to keep the fares down. Much of this is just charging the same people in a different way. The very people who go to work on the commuter train are also some of the people who have to pay the higher taxes to pay the rail subsidy. The car commuter, often commuting by car because there is no train for his journey, also will have to pay more tax to subsidise someone else’s journey. How fair is that?

The answer has to be running the railways better and more efficiently. UK railways have costs around a third higher than the better comparable European railway systems. Our railways are paying bills to send a lot of nearly empty trains around the countryside, as well as failing to provide enough seats and trains on the really popular routes at popular times of day for travel. If you fly above southern England at morning peak you will see jammed roads with coaches, buses and cars bumper to bumper trying to get into London or Reading, and you will see largely empty railway lines, owing to the technology and numbers of trains operating.

There are cheaper ways to run good train services. There are technologies that would allow you to shift many more people safely each hour on the current available railway routes. That is what we need to do. The railway needs revenue from more and better peak services, and needs to spend less on trains to places few want to go.

Well done to all our Olympic athletes. Thank you to their coaches, families, schools, Colleges and other backers. The nation has enjoyed the spectacle, taken pride in a games well executed, and shown pride in the great success of many competitors from Team GB.

Now there is discussion of the legacy. An important part of East London gains a fine new park, good new housing, and a range of glittering facilities. Let’s hope more jobs, enterprise and success follow in their footsteps. The organisers and government need to help find a new owner and user for the Stadium.

Many want to see more sport in schools and Colleges, to keep the flame of the Games burning. That may be possible. In the short term the massive television coverage will ensure many more young people want to take up competitive sports, and strive harder to raise their own game. We can only expect that to continue if parents and teachers, sports clubs and sports organisers, encourage and help young athletes to make the commitment and put in the time and effort. What seems possible or fun in a summer of Olympic success, may not look the same in a couple of years in mid winter when the young athlete has to choose between more leisure time and putting in those extra training sessions early in the morning or in the evening instead of going out with friends. That’s when the enthusiasm of family members, teachers and coaches matters most.

For most of us sport is a pleasure, a pastime, not a driving ambition. It is good to be sufficiently capable at a team sport to be able to play a satisfactory amateur game. Like all things in life, you get more out of it if you can find time to put more into it. If I practice my cricket a bit I do get luckier at it! We look to schools to make sport sufficiently accessible and enough fun for the many to want to be able to join in. We look to our specialists to identify the serious talent who want to be the champions, and to work with them come rain come wind come snow until they too can challenge with the best in the world.

It has been a pleasure to see a couple of weeks of good news bulletins. A succession of interviews with winning UK competitors – and the occasional ones who nearly won – has been heartening. Their message has been uniform. They have a great sense of achievement. They know they owe a lot to their friends, families and coaches. They always say you only win if you work and work and work again. That’s true of a lot of things in life, where there are no medals. There are other rewards for providing good service, running a successful business, or assisting the public good. It is always a pleasure to know a job has been well done, and to see the good response that produces in others.

As I listened to the Secretary of State for Transport’s statement on new investment for the railways just before Parliament broke up, I thought it was about to time to renew Wokingham’s bid for better treatment from the railway industry. I was promised by Network Rail that the new station contract would be let early this year. There is still no sign of ink on paper. I have had another go to find out why they misled us, and why there is still no positive news. This time they have promised me they will sign the contract and get underway in September. I have been given so many promises they have broken, that I wonder if it’s even worth repeating. Let’s hope this time they mean it.

Network Rail has plenty of money to subsidise its activities and to pay for capital works. A lot of money has been spent by the railway, by the central government and by Councils on rebuilding and strengthening many bridges over the tracks, following worries that cars and other vehicles might get onto the railway by accident without major new works. Now there is to be a fund to replace level crossings with bridges or with stronger barriers. I am all in favour of tackling the safety issues around level crossings. At the same time it would be a good idea to cut the congestion the railway causes on many road systems, with too few bridges and with tail backs from crossing gates. I am pressing for Wokingham constituency to be a beneficiary of that money. We have three level crossings in Wokingham, and one inadequate bridge which is too low for many lorries unless they use the middle of a narrow road to get under. The railway creates much of the traffic congestion. Better crossings would ease the strain on the roads, and make the railway safer and faster. The Council has a line for a new bridge to take much of the north-south traffic, as part of its wider plans for the town. In the West Berkshire part of my constituency there is the Ufton Nervet level crossing to change, as that has been a killer on more than one occasion in recent years.

I am in correspondence with the railway industry over how we could get a better deal for commuters. There are too few seats available on peak hour commuter trains, and too little choice of train at busy times. The railway industry has insisted they can only run about 30 trains an hour on any stretch of track. The reasons are the lack of traction of steel wheels on steel rail, and the type of signalling they use. These two features require big gaps between trains to try to keep the railway safe. I have pointed out that the great routes into the centre of our major towns and cities need to be used more at peak times. That is when the train has a great advantage, and when we ought to be able to move many people speedily on nearly full trains with sufficient seats for the passengers. To do so requires better braking systems, and more modern signals. The railway has resisted this for years. At last they tell me they are working on both better brakes and better signals, and could indeed increase capacity markedly with new systems. If you could run 45 trains an hour instead of 30 that is a 50% increase in capacity, but still means less than train a minute using the very expensive track. With more trains you would clearly need more bridges, as crossing gates would be down so much more.

The railway has also always resisted the idea of having hard rubber tyres available on stop start commuter trains to grip onto a side concrete rail or onto a part of the track bed should there be slippage problems in bad weather. They agree that rubber tyres are used by parts of the Paris metro to get more grip, but say they could not do the same on an outdoor system in the UK. Now they tell me that even this is not off the agenda anymore. It is high time the railway started to innovate. The technology they are using is very old, and is failing to make full use of their routes. Commuters deserve better. If there was a more regular train service, and if there more seats at peak times, more people would use it.

Most electors want Parliament and the government to fix the economy. The squeeze on the private sector has been going on for four years now. We would like some relief from the tax rises, the inflation rises, the higher government imposed costs and charges. There was some welcome news that at last the inflation rate is falling. When I put it to them, Downing Street assures me they have got it, and are now reviewing the impact of government on the cost of living. There were welcome changes of mind on budget tax measures. The cost of living rises need to come down more.

Meanwhile, the SNP want the issue to be the separation of Scotland from England, the Liberal Democrats want the issue to be House of Lords reform, and the Coalition government has made elected Police Commissioners and the offer of elected Mayors two of the issues brought before us.

Of course an energetic Parliament can handle more than one issue at a time. The problem with constitutional reform is the lack of agreement in the country on what reforms we might like. The offer of elected Mayors in several cities was firmly rejected, just as elected regional government for England was rejected when Labour offered it. A different voting system was rejected. Any particular type of Lords reform, if offered in a referendum, might also be rejected.

The English majority feels frustrated. After all, the English elected a Conservative government in 2010, but the UK has a Coalition government owing to the distribution of seats outside England. That makes decent devolution for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and nothing for England even more unfair and harder to accept. The English feel they pay more than their fair share of the bills, but get a less good deal. Why do Scottish and non UK EU students in Scotland get free higher education, yet our English students going to Scottish universities have to pay? How can Scotland afford a better approach to care for the elderly than England? Why do Scottish MPs at Westminster get to vote on English education, health and environment, when English MPs cannot vote on the Scottish approach to those issues?

There are referenda in the air, but no decisive move to give us the one we want on the EU. There is discussion of a referendum if Lords reform goes ahead. Many more will say if we can have a vote on creating a Mayor, if we can have a vote on how many people to put into the Lords, surely we could have a vote on the UK’s relationship with the EU? Scotland will get the constitutional referendum it wants – should it stay in the UK? Why can’t England have the referendum it wants, on our relationship with the EU?

Parliament could always get back to concentrating on sorting out the economy. If it wishes to carry on with constitutional change it has to recognise that England is getting a bad deal. This is the elephant in the constitutional room. It needs tackling soon.

The Jubilee went well despite the rain. I saw a large number of impressive cakes, decorations, and the amazing painted story of the Queen’s reign displayed to such good effect in Wokingham Town Hall. We were spoilt for choice with fetes, lunches, services, a concert and a march past. I would like to say a big thank you to all those who gave so much time and effort to organising all these events. They brought the community together, and enabled us to celebrate in good spirits.

Parliament is now back to the tougher realities. The continuing difficulties of the Euro take up a lot of the government’s time. The collapse of activity in countries like Spain, Greece and Portugal is not helpful, as we do need our export markets. The government is rightly encouraging companies to think more about selling outside Europe. There are large and growing markets in Asia and the Americas. The government is giving help to those who want to build their business up in these areas, or who need some assistance with first contacts and introductions to new targets for their export drive.

I am working with some colleagues on more ideas to speed recovery in the UK, whatever happens on the continent. There are more things that can be done at home to stimulate activity and generate more jobs. The government has work to do to get the banks into a strong position to finance a recovery. More needs to be done to make it easier to set up a business, and to recruit your first staff. Reform is underway for our schools, and in welfare, where the government has ambitious plans to help more people into jobs and make it more worthwhile working.

Some of you have written to me wanting better controls of our borders. I have taken up the issue of sending prisoners back to their own countries where visitors here have committed crimes. I am pleased to say the government is now taking steps to ensure more can be sent home after they have served their term. I am also pressing for more serious criminals to serve their sentences in their own countries, as we are short of prison places and they are costly. The government now says it too wishes to do this more often.

I am also working with a group of MPs on what a new relationship with the EU might look like, if the EU races ahead with far more integration to try to save the Euro. Most agree we do not wish to be drawn into an EU government deciding our taxes, spending and borrowing. We will want trade and friendship whilst staying outside the large common government they may need to form.

What a wet drought we are having. No sooner did they impose the hosepipe bans than down came the rain, for the wettest April and wet May. I have been urging the local water companies to relax their restrictions on some local businesses that need water to do their jobs. I will keep up the pressure for more water storage, so we can take full advantage of the rainy seasons when they come.

We have  also lived through a very cold spring and early summer. People had  to run their heating systems for longer, when family budgets are already hard pressed by energy price rises, tax rises to cut the deficit, and more general imported inflation. We need more cheaper energy in the UK. I have been holding meetings with Treasury and Energy department Ministers to explore the options for delivering such a policy.

At the beginning of this Parliament I urged the government to have a Growth strategy as well as a deficit reduction programme. I was granted one of the first ever Backbench all day debates in the Commons to set out what a Growth Strategy should look like. Over the last few weeks governments have become more interested in just this crucial topic.

Mr Hollande was elected as French President on a ticket of wanting more economic growth. The US President says the same, knowing later this year he has to face electors who will want answers to questions like Will there be more jobs? Will my pay go up by more than prices? When will living standards rise?  The Greek people, after five years of hard pounding in recession, are keen to find a political answer which can start to reverse their loss of income. The G8 last week-end saw  eight of the most powerful world leaders sitting round a table trying to work out how to get more growth. Their press statement at the end said they all wanted more growth, but they have different views of how to deliver it.

In the UK we need an end to tax rises, which have hit people’s incomes. Indeed, some tax cuts would be helpful and might even increase revenues as growth accelerates.  We need the government to change its approach to the banks, so we have more competitive banks on the High Street with money to lend.  We need cheaper energy, to curb inflation and cut industry’s costs.

Throughout the public sector we need to get better at doing well with less, and at keeping down or cutting public sector costs and charges. When incomes are being squeezed, every little, as they say, helps.

This week we are awaiting some important figures to tell us whether the UK economy went forward in the first three months of this year or not. We already know that prices went up more than the Bank forecast, that wage increases are very low and household budgets are still being squeezed.

I have been stressing to government Ministers that more needs to be done to ease the pressure on family bills, and more needs to be done to move the economy forwards more rapidly. I welcome the measures the government has taken to keep Council Tax down for the last two years, and welcome the increase in Income Tax Thresholds. Every little helps. Our local Council has to work hard to keep its bills down when it receives much less grant than many other Councils for services other than schools.

This week the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury has come out with an important paper striving to get more value for every pound spent by national government. He rightly thinks a lot more can and should be done to ensure public money is spent wisely, and confined to those things which only the public sector can do and where there is general public enthusiasm for the public service. I aim to keep the costs of my Parliamentary office well below the level of the average MP, to show that you can run parts of the public sector for less and still deliver a good service. I am hoping it was around half the average last year.

I do not think this year is a good time to be discussing setting up a new House of Lords, with salaried Senators backed by expensive offices putting a new charge on the taxpayer. I have been urging Ministers to delay any such idea. I have also had numerous emails against any change to the marriage laws. I recommend that all who feel strongly about it should respond to the government’s consultation. Again, I am not keen to see such contentious legislation coming forward as a priority when we need to concentrate government energy on securing a good economic recovery.

I am getting used to my blue bag for the refuse. It turned out to be bigger and tougher than some feared, and seems to do the job just fine. It is good to have weekly recycling collections, so you can keep more materials for reuse without space and bin problems.