02/12/2012 Sunday Politics East

Do hard-working families forced to use food banks to keep their

children fed. And the growing numbers of students trying to keep

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2136 seconds

Welcome to Sunday Politics. Coming up: The food banks help feeding

more families who have jobs, but cannot make ends meet.

People perhaps would not have come piquantly, people who are in and

out of work. Those periods out of work they do not have the money to

feed themselves. And it is cheaper, it is beautiful

and the classes are in English. Small wonder students from here are

going over there to study. You have not got the large bet you will have

to pay off for the next 30 years if you are in the UK.

First, let's meet the guests for this week's. Gavin Shuker, the

shadow minister for water, and Dave Hodgson, Liberal Democrat mayor for

Bedford. The region's only elected mayor.

Let us start with the story that has affected everyone, flooding.

They have devastated parts of the region. Many roads became

impassable, people were evacuated, many of which were -- had badly

damaged homes. You have been warning of how serious it is of the

government fails to reach an agreement with insurance company.

Absolutely. The concerns are with people clearing up after some

devastating floods across the country and the region. This

Government are failing on flood insurance, we need a deal where

200,000 homes are appropriately protected after June next year.

They are failing on flood defences, and failing on the clear up,

because local authorities do not have the money they used it.

Central covered -- government is not go in today. Bedford was hit

badly. Has there been a busy we? was busy, and you worry when it

starts to rain again. We are lucky, there were only a handful of houses

that had to be offered evacuation, but none evacuated. It was very

close and some claim -- cases. Now, to the plight of hard-working

families in the East who are struggling simply to feed their

children. Since the start of the recession we have seen food banks

springing up in the towns and cities to help people having a hard

time. Now, they are being used by an increasing number of people in

work and yet cannot manage to support their loved ones.

We are out of recession, employment is at record levels, but that is

not evident here. I have a passport for one of the

children. In Milton Keynes, they expect to

hand out 8,500 bags of food this year, 1,000 more than last year.

Eight times more than four years ago.

There has been a big change in the sort of people coming here. They

are people who would perhaps not have come previously, people in and

out of work. Those people do not have the resources to pay their

bills and feed and sell. previously they would have had

something to fall back on? DE&S, last week we had four children with

the family, and they had a large bill for gas and electricity coming,

and they had to choose whether to pay it or feed their children.

In this family, Kay works at the local college and Simon wanted to

stay at home to bring up the children. They have lost �150 a

month in tax credits and their food bill has gone up �20 a week. She is

still on a pay freeze, and Simon is looking for a part-time job. They

understand the need for austerity but say it is painful. We are

trying to do something for the better good but you cannot see an

end result. If you see an immediate result, it inspires you to carry on.

But it is being on a diet on not losing weight. -- and not losing

weight. We're not actually seeing any results, and I cannot see how

we can see results. It is the middle to the lower band of people

taking a lot of the brunt of these austerity measures. They have got

pay freezes because they are not the ones who have private

businesses, they have not got second homes, and it seems to me

that the rich do not seem to have had as much pressure put on them.

According to a recent report it is those on low and middle incomes

most feeling the pinch at the moment. There is no sign of things

getting any better. It is putting families in a very tough position.

It is also in terms of their borrowing habits, so we are seeing

household's struggling with debt, unable to save the amount they

would like, and also households unable to spend and what we think a

essentials. Then there are those on higher incomes, like this lady. She

runs her own publishing company, and a website where big cost of

food and fuel are constant complaints. Next year she will

probably lose her child benefit. Would it be the end of the world

have we lost it? No, we would make do and mend, we would get by, but

the Government wants us all to be this community of people starting

their own businesses, then we are penalised as soon as we start to do

well. But does not make sense. government says it is doing what it

can to help. Council tax will be frozen for a third year, and it

seems the Chancellor has listened to the campaign by the Harlow MP to

do something about fuel duty. But at the Milton Keynes food bank,

they expect to help even more people next year as the benefit

changes start to bite. Austerity is hurting and making people angry.

The pain is set to continue. Is there any help at hand? The big

event this week will be the Chancellor's Autumn Statement.

There will be some good news for motorists on fuel duty with some

money for infrastructure projects in the region, but there is likely

to be an admission that things will not improve until 2018. In London

is Matthew Hancock, the Conservative MP for West Suffolk,

George Osborne's former chief of staff. Now he is a business

minister looking after apprenticeships, skills and further

education. Families are telling us we cannot go on like this. You have

already moved your targets for austerity from five years to seven

years. Are we going to hear it is moving to eight years? As you say,

we all know what is tough across the country. The reasons for that

are well rehearsed, we had the biggest deficit in peacetime

history. We are on the right road and making progress, the deficit is

down by one quarter, and it is coming down, but is this easy?

Absolutely not. Is there still further to travel? Of course there

us. When you have a debt problem as a country, it is very difficult to

work your way out of it, but the argument that I have been making is

that we have got to make sure that everybody plays their par at. --

plays the part. The richest are paying the biggest proportion of

dealing with the deficit. If you could let me interject, let of the

new. -- let me deal with these issues. The figures do not bear out

what you are saying. You're going to fill your debt repayment target.

How hard we get for these families? As I said, the deficit is down by

one quarter, and everyone knows that you do not get out of a debt

problem by borrowing more. We have got to deal with it has a country

and live within our means, and anyone who is offering magic

solutions is frankly not telling the truth. But there is a positive.

We are making progress. In the same way we heard this week that

immigration is down by a quarter, we are making progress. When people

say they are making sacrifices, I entirely understand that. We have

to make sure that everyone plays the part. Let me ask you a question.

Let me put the case of these families. They do not feel like

they are in it together. These people are losing. They are losing

their child benefit next month and are being hit hard and the

wealthier people. People losing their child benefit are in the top

15% of earners. It is the people right at the top who are paying the

largest contribution, but of course everyone is affected because as a

nation, we were borrowing �1 for every �4 the government spent. I

understand it is difficult and hard, but the crucial point is that we

are one-quarter of the way through bringing the deficit down. I do not

think anyone expected this to be easy. Let us bring the other guests

in. Gavin Shuker, we're not doing badly, we still have a triple-A

rating, and you have heard what Matthew Hancock said. Unemployment

and inflation is falling. couldn't have heard a more

complacent answer on this issue. The reality is that borrowing is

going up and the debt is going up. This government are borrowing more

than five years than the last Labour government borrowed and 13.

To say we're making progress, I do not agree. And the family in the

film put it very well. They're willing to share -- take their fair

share of the pain. If they believe that we are going to make progress,

that is fine, but we're not doing that. Dave Hodgson, are the Liberal

Democrats failing the people? They have promised it would be the

welfare they paid for this. 80% of deficit reduction is coming from

cuts, which affects those with lower incomes. We know the people

are being affected. We have seen it in Bedford where we have a food

bank. We have more people turning up to a place where we can get

meals for �1 for people who have to work. We know it is austere, but we

need to talk about how we deal with it, and we have to say that we are

taxing the rich are more. We are taxing them 45%, and we would like

50% of the rich, and we think that is right. We have taken too many

people out of tax entirely, -- We have taking people out of tax

entirely, and nothing that is the right thing. If we have spent money

on a stimulus package, that money has to come from somewhere, and it

will be expensive. This Government said it would close the deficit in

four years, now it looks like Kate. -- looks like gategate. It is clear

that the plan is not working, and I think a plan has said very sensibly,

not pulling out resources in the economy is the right way to go, and

to get growth. Matthew Hancock, what is your reaction? One of the

area as the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have come together is

on stopping the poor people from the paying income tax. If you are

on a minimum wage, you pay half the income tax now that you did under

Labour, because as the mayor said, we are raising the level at which

you start to pay tax. But to fix the least well-paid the most. There

are 2 million people, the lowest paid people, who are not paying

income tax when they used to pay income tax under Labour. If you are

on a minimum wage and doing a full 35 a week, you are doing half of

the income-tax I did it. There is support therefore people on the

lowest wages, but is it this -- as it difficult? Yes, it is. The

deficit being down by one-quarter is very important, and the fact

that unemployment is coming down and inflation is coming down shows

that things are moving in the right direction. Let's bring Dave Hodgson

back in. What about locally, like Bedford, can you stimulate growth

locally? We rely on central government to an extent. We have

some new projects in place, this time last year George Osborne

announced the East Coast rail line and we want that to go ahead as

quickly as possible. We want western bypass to be completed as

well. When way to help save some money

might be to study abroad. -- one way. A growing number of students

are going to the Continent to take their degrees. Universities they

are doing all they can to encourage them. Kevin visited an open day in

Maastricht, where the intake from the UK increased by Sodade % last

Fortified in the years to keep outsiders at bay, the city is

facing a mini invasion from British students, and this women is one of

them. She started at Maastricht University in the autumn, studying

liberal arts. Languages are big thing I am interested in, so I am

close to Belgium and Germany here, which is exciting. I friends are

all from different countries in the world, so this is something I do

not think I would have exposure to violent a UK university. Tuition

fees were a key factor, and back home she would have paid �9,000 a

year. Here the basic cost is 1,500 pounds, it is deliberately kept low

by the Government. -- �1,500. And the rent is law. In Exeter that

would have been �540 a month, here she pays �290 a month for a than 10

minutes away. -- for a run which is 10 minutes away.

This university first focused on medicine when it opened, now it

broadens out. We're off to explore behind another grand Prasad to meet

other students. I won two to go on broadened meet a new culture, you

have obviously not got a larger debt to pay-off. Maastricht is

exciting, it is completely new, and the �9,000 a year I would not have

to pay something I will not miss. They are is an irony with tuition

fees because it is the second most expensive in Europe here, but it is

still cheaper than England. course you can party you, but it

has to be the learning that drive you, -- that drives you. Many

students believe that they could well remain in Holland and find

jobs to help the economy grow. This open day is designed to find the

next batch. This women is among those looking round, and like every

good scholar, she has done her homework. I have been to various

cities. They are all really nice and different. There are different

things about all of them. I met this man in the street by chance.

What does he think? I have just spent three RS and and the

engineering bit, with 10 or 15 students, and it is totally

different to England. University delivers virtually all

of its courses in English, it has 16,000 students, just over 300 come

from the UK, with 13 from this region. With such a gap between

tuition fees here and back home, officials and Maastricht believe it

is just the start of what will become a huge cross-Channel

contingent. Why should people have to go and

study abroad because they cannot afford a tuition fees? It is

freedom of movement between here and the Netherlands, and for many

years people have gone to universities across the world. Of

course, tuition costs money, and if the Dutch government wants to

contribute to the cost of British students going to university, that

is a decision for them. Here, there is not much money to go around, and

tuition fees have been rotten. It is a decision for every student to

apply where they want, within the European Union, and people can do

that. Is it a good thing or a bad thing people going abroad? It is a

good thing. My sister went abroad to study a language. It is

happening more frequently. I thought we were wrong to break the

pledge by tuition fees -- of tuition fees by the party. But we

must remember that over half of the students will not pay until they

have earned a -- over half of the people will not pay as much as

27,000. We have got to be realistic about how much it will cost. Gavin

Shuker, you went University in Cambridge. Would you have done that

if the judge and fees elsewhere were so low? -- the tuition fees?

It is a helpful measure to bring up in the House of Commons, and I

voted against trebling tuition fees to �9,000. Across Luton, it has led

to 500 fewer young people going to university. That is a tragedy.

There will be many people who will remember this at the ballot box.

Dave Watson, will we lose these people permanently abroad? There is

a danger of that. When the Labour Party brought in tuition fees, we

saw those numbers of recruitment dropping, and they picked up

slightly, never reaching the same target. Matthew Hancock, thank you

For Your a time. Finally, to the political round-up

of the week. She thought she would be OK. I had

a meeting with the cheek -- Chief Whip in the morning at 10 o'clock,

and I expected to beef line. But it was not. The Conservative whip

remain suspended until she has built bridges. Stuart Jackson

thought he would be orate addressing a UKIP meeting where he

said he was at one with them. -- he would be all right.

But there was success in Milton Keynes, with the Red Bull Formula

One team. Pointed out by the town's MP, which prompted the Prime

Minister's ending. I am delighted to pray -- paid tribute to the

Formula One team, which sadly be the Formula One team based in my

constituency! There were celebrations for 100

women vicars to a camp -- having a champagne breakfast, following the

church's decision not to allow Gavin Shuker, you a member of the

Christian shows Socialist Movement. -- Christian Socialist Movement.

Were you disappointed? This, my church has led by women, and I

believe in women at every level of the Church. I am not in the Church

of England, and it saddens me that many people have tried to give them

a kicking, when the same people they say they want to be appointed

to the Rolls, they do not agree with in terms of their own

religious beliefs. Dr thing the Bishop of Chelmsford is right to be

seeing two women in the church, do not give up? -- do you think?

amazes me is there are 36 bishops in the House of Lords, and they

have to be male. That has to be wrong. It is in evitable that this