Browse content similar to 18/03/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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In the East: What hope can the forthcoming budget of the family's | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
desperate for better times? And the battle is on to save our high | :01:41. | :01:51. | |
:01:51. | :01:51. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1815 seconds | :01:51. | :32:06. | |
Perhaps this week's budget may do something for some much needed a | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
job creation. But what about help for our high streets? Rows of | :32:10. | :32:14. | |
discount stores and charity shops are now commonplace. What can be | :32:14. | :32:20. | |
done? After the number of vacant shops doubled last year? Mary | :32:20. | :32:28. | |
Portas tried to turn things around. The government has announced that | :32:28. | :32:33. | |
12 High Street will have the opportunity to become Mary Portas | :32:33. | :32:40. | |
pilots. Mary Portas, shopping expert, offering her advice to one | :32:40. | :32:44. | |
high street retailer. She has been given �1 million to spend on a | :32:44. | :32:48. | |
pilot project to take 12 High Street and see if she can return | :32:48. | :32:57. | |
them to the heart of their communities. This one is hoping to | :32:57. | :33:05. | |
beat one of them. We are looking at things like arts and Kraft shops. | :33:05. | :33:12. | |
It is a social experience as much as anything. We speech is an old | :33:12. | :33:17. | |
market town, but not particularly affluent. As a shopping area, it | :33:17. | :33:23. | |
has serious competition from Peterborough and King's Lynn. This | :33:23. | :33:28. | |
woman to go with his high street flower shop 18 months ago. The rent | :33:28. | :33:37. | |
is a big chunk of Fife fixed cost, so is the business rates. -- Mike | :33:37. | :33:42. | |
fixed cost. We are delivering day- in and day-out, so a huge amount | :33:42. | :33:50. | |
goes on the running of the van with diesel costs. Mary Portas once it | :33:50. | :33:55. | |
to be easier to become market traders. This town has the market | :33:55. | :34:02. | |
at its heart. But the leader of the council says they're going to have | :34:02. | :34:09. | |
to be even more radical. The whole of the shopping area, it stretches | :34:09. | :34:14. | |
way down the High Street. Behind me, way down to Norfolk Street, another | :34:14. | :34:19. | |
half a mile down there in that direction. It is unrealistic and it | :34:19. | :34:23. | |
is not sustainable in the long term. We have to look at contraction. | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
People are not just going to browse around, buying the odd nick knack | :34:28. | :34:33. | |
in places like this. On Wednesday, all eyes will be scrutinising the | :34:33. | :34:43. | |
:34:43. | :34:45. | ||
Chancellor's Budget for growth. would love to see even a small | :34:45. | :34:48. | |
sustained growth over the next three years. I would love to take | :34:48. | :34:53. | |
on apprentice. All that has to be coupled with the public having | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
confidence in the economy, and without that, we're not going to be | :34:57. | :35:06. | |
:35:07. | :35:07. | ||
able to grow. Joining us in the story -- in the studio is the head | :35:08. | :35:14. | |
of the Federation of Small businesses. The banks have to be | :35:14. | :35:22. | |
mentioned. They say they are giving support to small businesses. But | :35:22. | :35:31. | |
that is not necessarily the case. People are being told there is | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
support but that systems of getting us aboard a not easy. When you | :35:34. | :35:39. | |
actually look at the support, there are so many options are. And a | :35:39. | :35:42. | |
small business is trying to run a business, we don't have time to go | :35:42. | :35:47. | |
out and did the research that the big guys do. One of the issues is | :35:47. | :35:51. | |
around it not only making support available but making it easy to | :35:51. | :35:57. | |
access. The lady with the flower shop, it is that thing about fuel | :35:57. | :36:05. | |
costs. If I as an individual, choose to go from A to B, I choose | :36:05. | :36:13. | |
to do that. As a business, I have to use transport. So you would like | :36:13. | :36:20. | |
to see that addressed in the Budget? Absolutely. I pay VAT or my | :36:20. | :36:25. | |
fuel costs as well as everything else. What about business rates? | :36:25. | :36:35. | |
yes. Where I am in Chelmsford, I had not paid business rates for a | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
year and it looks like I won't pay them again this year. But I am | :36:38. | :36:43. | |
unusual and Chelmsford is unusual. It is looking at what support can | :36:43. | :36:47. | |
be made available and making that support up fierce and making it | :36:47. | :36:54. | |
easy to access. Let me bring in our other two guests. Dr downpour to | :36:54. | :37:01. | |
come on that question of consumer confidence, how do we start to | :37:01. | :37:08. | |
restore that? The first thing is to make sure that as much as possible, | :37:09. | :37:15. | |
we support businesses and the Mary Portas report is a good step in the | :37:15. | :37:19. | |
right direction. It is about making sure we have local a authorities | :37:19. | :37:23. | |
and councils that have proper plans about how to bring alive the | :37:23. | :37:26. | |
vibrancy of town centres in terms of commerce and trade and also | :37:27. | :37:36. | |
making sure that we have locally sensitive business rates to support | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
shops in struggling areas. There are not any easy answers for it. In | :37:40. | :37:46. | |
terms of the fuel costs, the government has made steps to reduce | :37:46. | :37:52. | |
the fuel that would have been 10 pence higher under the previous | :37:52. | :38:00. | |
government. Money to move dependancy away from fossil fuels | :38:01. | :38:04. | |
and support green energy and other technology to reduce home fuel | :38:04. | :38:10. | |
bills. The government's policy has been endorsed, hasn't it, Richard | :38:10. | :38:20. | |
:38:20. | :38:21. | ||
Howard? By the European Commission? Well, Britain is cutting out | :38:21. | :38:25. | |
services and our jobs and spending at a rate which is the second worst | :38:25. | :38:28. | |
in the whole of Europe. David Cameron has been in America this | :38:28. | :38:31. | |
week where they are not cutting as hard and employment is growing and | :38:31. | :38:36. | |
there is growth in the economy. The sort of complacency we had earlier | :38:36. | :38:46. | |
from down, the Federation of Small Business as well. They ask every | :38:46. | :38:53. | |
quarter, are things getting better? 3/4 say in Suffolk, Essex, and a | :38:53. | :39:02. | |
region, they're getting worse. has job creation? Apparently, if | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
every self-employed person in Britain employed one person, there | :39:06. | :39:12. | |
would be no unemployed people. Now, if you think that in this area, the | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
number of small businesses, I think in Essex, we have the largest | :39:16. | :39:21. | |
number of self-employed people anywhere in the country. If you | :39:21. | :39:26. | |
give support to small businesses, it is about supporting the | :39:26. | :39:30. | |
unemployment, about support in the economy, it is about making sure | :39:30. | :39:36. | |
that the hall clock starts to work within... How are you going to do | :39:36. | :39:46. | |
:39:46. | :39:48. | ||
that? It is about supporting small businesses. The government has made | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
sure we get broadband investment in Suffolk and Norfolk and other | :39:52. | :40:01. | |
counties, which is so vital for small businesses. About National | :40:01. | :40:05. | |
Insurance, Labour wants to help people with small businesses by | :40:05. | :40:12. | |
saying they should have a National Insurance holiday. We want to have | :40:12. | :40:22. | |
:40:22. | :40:23. | ||
companies like hares but want to employ apprentices. We want out-of- | :40:23. | :40:30. | |
town shopping to do about it up... Let me give the last word to this | :40:30. | :40:34. | |
lady. Are you optimistic about the future? Absolutely, because | :40:34. | :40:39. | |
otherwise we may as well just pack up and go home now. More from both | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
if you in a moment. Were want to move on now to a new phrase | :40:42. | :40:49. | |
rehearing a lot of. It is the squeezed middle. It is being used | :40:49. | :40:55. | |
by all the parties now and it is a recognition that where we may be | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
all in it together, middle-class families seem to be bearing the | :40:58. | :41:07. | |
pain of the Cup's most. -- the cuts. This is Milton Keynes, and in the | :41:07. | :41:11. | |
eyes of the politicians, this is the heart of aspirational England. | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
People who want to work and better themselves and their family. But at | :41:15. | :41:21. | |
the moment, many here do not feel aspirational, they feel squeezed. | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
It is the extras, the bits like holidays that we can't afford any | :41:25. | :41:31. | |
more. We have had to sell all of our cars. And petrol is so | :41:31. | :41:34. | |
expensive that we have to think really carefully before we do any | :41:34. | :41:42. | |
long journeys. Simon and K at they life has become much more of a | :41:42. | :41:47. | |
struggle. Kay works at the local college. Simon, a teacher, gave up | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
work to look after their children because it was cheaper than using | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
child care. They are on a fixed rate mortgage. Child benefit has | :41:54. | :41:58. | |
been frozen and next month they expect to lose up to �200 a month | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
in tax credits. They can't afford repairs to their home and they | :42:02. | :42:12. | |
:42:12. | :42:13. | ||
think very carefully about shopping. In the 12, the kids ask for things. | :42:13. | :42:23. | |
:42:23. | :42:25. | ||
-- the Tory I'll. I can't afford to just put my hand in my pocket. | :42:25. | :42:30. | |
country, we are broke, but we can't sit around just doing nothing. I do | :42:30. | :42:33. | |
think that in some ways, all the focus has been put on people who do | :42:33. | :42:38. | |
not have a job at all. And so the people who are working like | :42:38. | :42:44. | |
ourselves, we do seem to be suffering is a bit more. We don't | :42:44. | :42:50. | |
get help with this -- prescriptions, council tax, fees for courses. | :42:50. | :42:55. | |
There is no extra help. Milton Keynes, like many seats in this | :42:55. | :43:01. | |
area, used to be Labour, then it went over to the Conservatives. | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
Aspirational middle England will probably hold the key to the next | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
election. At the moment, we are having the second year of the | :43:09. | :43:14. | |
council tax freeze. In the Autumn Statement, and the Prime Minister | :43:14. | :43:18. | |
announced that the Chancellor announced that fares would not be | :43:18. | :43:25. | |
going up as much as they were. government is doing its best to | :43:25. | :43:29. | |
clobber those people who are in work and doing their best to get on | :43:29. | :43:35. | |
a life. And the withdrawal of the educational maintenance allowance | :43:35. | :43:40. | |
etc, if you're a long -- a young family in Milton Keynes try to get | :43:40. | :43:48. | |
on, life is a lot harder. This week's budget is about all about | :43:49. | :43:53. | |
putting more money back into people's pockets. The tax cut will | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
probably be paid for by some sort of new tax on the very well-off. | :43:57. | :44:02. | |
The aim will be to make things a little less painful for | :44:02. | :44:04. | |
aspirational middle England. For this family, and the thing that | :44:04. | :44:07. | |
gives them extra spending money would be welcomed. But the | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
Chancellor has little room for manoeuvre. So will any of always be | :44:11. | :44:18. | |
enough SMAC real people facing real problem. Richard Howard, do you | :44:18. | :44:24. | |
feel any responsibility when you see things like that? Absolutely. | :44:24. | :44:29. | |
Ed Miliband raised this issue and has put it right at the centre of | :44:29. | :44:35. | |
British politics. That family is absolutely typical of 200,000 | :44:35. | :44:38. | |
families in Britain who were having their working tax credits taken | :44:38. | :44:42. | |
away from them this week. Labour says and the government -- in the | :44:42. | :44:46. | |
Budget, the government should reverse that. It is cutting the tax | :44:46. | :44:51. | |
owed the people on over �150,000 a year to add on to a pension tax | :44:51. | :44:58. | |
relief for the same group of people of �1.6 billion. They are not | :44:58. | :45:04. | |
helping them. Buddied tolerated high-spending, you tolerated other | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
things, do not feel the responsibility that you have | :45:08. | :45:16. | |
created the plight of a family like that? This lady said that the banks | :45:16. | :45:23. | |
were at fault before. What I feel is that people like that family | :45:23. | :45:29. | |
need help now. The government has got absolutely the wrong priorities. | :45:29. | :45:36. | |
If you take working families, if one partner stays at home, they are | :45:36. | :45:39. | |
being discriminated against by the government's changes in child | :45:39. | :45:45. | |
benefit. First of all, you have rightly highlighted that we | :45:46. | :45:55. | |
inherited a record level of national debt. That is �2 that | :45:55. | :46:01. | |
everybody is pain in debt interest. I spend a lot of my last few weeks | :46:01. | :46:08. | |
with the family -- with a family, and we see that the biggest | :46:08. | :46:14. | |
frustration amongst that family and all the group's they meet is that | :46:14. | :46:17. | |
the benefits system is too complicated. Those people on | :46:17. | :46:20. | |
benefits are better off than people who were not on benefits, and that | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
should never be the case, but thanks to the Labour government the | :46:24. | :46:34. | |
:46:34. | :46:38. | ||
people of -- a better off on benefits than in work. It is a | :46:38. | :46:45. | |
clear priority... These people are working. But those people who were | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
in work will be �700 per year better off thanks to this | :46:49. | :46:55. | |
government's plans. That is lower paid families that are benefiting. | :46:56. | :46:59. | |
You saw that man there say he couldn't afford to buy in you | :46:59. | :47:04. | |
should for someone who is going to work. The cuts that your government | :47:04. | :47:10. | |
upbringing and is too far and too fast. The changes that your | :47:10. | :47:14. | |
government is bidding and to taking away the tax credit and taking away | :47:14. | :47:20. | |
child benefit actually is making it more expensive to work than to stay | :47:20. | :47:26. | |
at home. Your speculating that we are bringing in policies. We | :47:26. | :47:32. | |
haven't actually brought the men, because the current system is the | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
legacy of the Labour government as was highlighted earlier, and the | :47:36. | :47:42. | |
Labour government spent and spent and spent. The priority is were not | :47:42. | :47:45. | |
supporting hard working families. What this government wants to do is | :47:45. | :47:51. | |
take those families out of tax and make them better off. There will be | :47:51. | :47:55. | |
lots more to talk about on Monday night when I will be looking at the | :47:55. | :48:00. | |
economy with a special programme. 11pm. I will be talking to business | :48:00. | :48:04. | |
leaders and politicians to see what can be done to help this region | :48:05. | :48:08. | |
drive the economic recovery. Now, it is time for the weekly round-up | :48:08. | :48:14. | |
of all things political. This week, MPs break out in this wet but it is | :48:14. | :48:24. | |
:48:24. | :48:24. | ||
all in a good cause. -- in a sweat. MPs showing solidarity of running a | :48:25. | :48:32. | |
Sport Relief mile. The surprise announcement prompting Chelmsford's | :48:32. | :48:41. | |
winning city-state is has caused a rift among Essex MPs. There was a | :48:41. | :48:47. | |
success they Essex. Now, there wasn't! Chums would! Equally | :48:47. | :48:52. | |
unexpected was the backing for a third runway at Heathrow. It is | :48:52. | :49:02. | |
:49:02. | :49:03. | ||
more practical to build a third runway. Good news for this man who | :49:03. | :49:08. | |
has managed to make sure visitors will not be charged to see Big Ben. | :49:08. | :49:15. | |
But bad news for gardeners as a hosepipe ban is introduced. | :49:15. | :49:23. | |
water companies, Anglian Water, has a good drought plan. Hopefully, | :49:23. | :49:31. | |
there is enough water left to freshen up our MPs. Is the city | :49:31. | :49:37. | |
state his award a good thing? well done to Chelmsford. Also to | :49:37. | :49:43. | |
Luton who did a brilliant campaign. And coming mentioned to Labour by- | :49:43. | :49:53. | |
:49:53. | :49:53. | ||
election victories -- can we mentioned two Labour by-election | :49:53. | :49:59. | |
victories? Good news all round. Thank you very much indeed for | :49:59. | :50:03. |