Browse content similar to 10/02/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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And in the South East: Some town houses give themselves big rises. | :01:31. | :01:41. | |
:01:41. | :01:41. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2453 seconds | :01:41. | :42:34. | |
We asked if the system is ripe for Hello. This is the Sunday Politics | :42:34. | :42:39. | |
in the South East. Coming up: Putting military families before | :42:39. | :42:46. | |
the homeless. We asked who should be at the top of the housing list? | :42:46. | :42:53. | |
Joining me in the studio this week are a Conservative MP for Hove and | :42:53. | :43:01. | |
also with as is the prospective Labour Party for Chatham. Let us | :43:01. | :43:07. | |
talk about something that is quite relevant to your area. Boris | :43:07. | :43:12. | |
Johnson has sent his aviation adviser to tried to persuade some | :43:12. | :43:22. | |
locals to come on board over the Thames estuary the airport. He has | :43:22. | :43:28. | |
been given short shrift and sent packing, could you be persuaded by | :43:28. | :43:34. | |
the arguments for the estuary airport? Absolutely not. That is | :43:34. | :43:41. | |
the position of the Labour group I sit on as Councillor but also as a | :43:41. | :43:48. | |
parliamentary candidate. This has gone on for years. I suspect Daniel | :43:48. | :43:53. | |
is on manoeuvres in Kent because Boris is due at the Transport | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
Committee in the House of Commons on Monday. There is no groundswell | :43:58. | :44:04. | |
of support for it. What does his best to the airport idea mean to | :44:05. | :44:11. | |
you, what does it do to his credibility? I am in favour of the | :44:11. | :44:17. | |
idea, I think we need more capacity. I would like to see the regional | :44:17. | :44:22. | |
airports used more. In principle we must have the extra capacity and | :44:22. | :44:27. | |
Boris Island is a good idea for congestion and emissions across | :44:27. | :44:34. | |
London. So you would tell him you are on site? I would indeed. Do you | :44:34. | :44:40. | |
think he would be a good future leader of the party? I think he is | :44:40. | :44:49. | |
brilliant. Thank you very much indeed. Now how much should you be | :44:49. | :44:54. | |
paid if you are helping make important local decisions? The | :44:54. | :45:03. | |
amount has gone up every year, a 74% increase since 2008. While | :45:03. | :45:07. | |
public sector workers are under the cosh, how have they got away with | :45:07. | :45:17. | |
it? Our reporter went to find out. In the economic downturn, council | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
budgets have been cut. Frontline services have suffered and staff | :45:22. | :45:31. | |
have had pay freezes. Leaders at Tunbridge Wells borough councils | :45:31. | :45:39. | |
want their allowances to rise to �6,312. They want the leader of the | :45:39. | :45:45. | |
cabinet to get more than �2,000 extra per year. That is part of a | :45:45. | :45:51. | |
budget that would increase in council tax by nearly 2%. People | :45:51. | :45:56. | |
respond to in the town were not impressed. I think at this stage, | :45:56. | :46:01. | |
given the financial crisis we have been through, it is a bad idea. | :46:01. | :46:06. | |
They are doing a job for the community so the money side should | :46:06. | :46:12. | |
come secondary. They are not wonderful, are they, sort... | :46:12. | :46:16. | |
cannot charge people extra money and then fill your pockets with | :46:16. | :46:21. | |
that money. They should use it in schools or something. We are all in | :46:22. | :46:29. | |
it together! I think it is wrong, I think most taxpayers will think it | :46:29. | :46:35. | |
is wrong. If they do continued to ramp them up they will have to | :46:35. | :46:41. | |
account for it come election time. Elected councillors are volunteers | :46:41. | :46:45. | |
but they get an allowance to compensate them from her time spent | :46:45. | :46:53. | |
on their duties. In addition they need expenses like travel and even | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
childcare costs. Here at the Town Hall it is councillors themselves | :46:57. | :47:03. | |
to suggest how much the allowances should be. Recommendations are | :47:03. | :47:07. | |
based on the average earnings in the local area and how many hours | :47:07. | :47:14. | |
they are expected to work. In Tunbridge Wells allowances are set | :47:14. | :47:20. | |
to rise by more than what was recommended. To save costs | :47:20. | :47:27. | |
elsewhere the number of committees will be reintroduced. This will be | :47:27. | :47:36. | |
the 4th year of pay freezes. Councillors in Hastings have chosen | :47:36. | :47:43. | |
to freeze their allowances in line with their staff pay. Staff have | :47:43. | :47:53. | |
:47:53. | :47:56. | ||
suffered, in effect, a 20% peak/over the past five years. It | :47:56. | :48:06. | |
:48:06. | :48:06. | ||
makes no sense at all. What would make sense would be to link any | :48:06. | :48:12. | |
councillors allowances to that of the pay of staff working for the | :48:12. | :48:19. | |
local authorities. They are responsible for looking after our | :48:19. | :48:24. | |
streets and leisure facilities, bin collection and housing. Since the | :48:24. | :48:30. | |
recession began most councils have frozen allowances but in six | :48:30. | :48:40. | |
councils there have been rises of up to 45%. Four councils have | :48:40. | :48:46. | |
decided to reduce allowances. Allowances here have been reduced. | :48:46. | :48:56. | |
Councillors now get �700 less than they were six years ago. It is a | :48:56. | :49:02. | |
saving of �300,000. Our staff are taking the friezes and in effect we | :49:02. | :49:09. | |
are reducing staff because of the limitations of finances at the | :49:09. | :49:14. | |
central Government. We are feeling the three's the same as everyone | :49:14. | :49:23. | |
else. There will be mergers of councillors. Less councillors. I | :49:23. | :49:28. | |
think that is the trend that will come so it will drive some of these | :49:28. | :49:34. | |
changes. With councillors allowances driving so much | :49:34. | :49:38. | |
controversy and some paying themselves more than others, is it | :49:38. | :49:44. | |
time to take them out of their own hands and move to a more | :49:44. | :49:51. | |
standardised independent system? We are joined by at Tunbridge Wells | :49:51. | :49:58. | |
counsellor. Do you think you should get another increase? If this is | :49:58. | :50:05. | |
voted through it will be up by 74%, is it really needed? It is a | :50:05. | :50:09. | |
deferred payment for staff that was spotted on three years ago. It is | :50:09. | :50:16. | |
quite easy to single out extra payments to the areas people but | :50:16. | :50:21. | |
the whole budget has been reduced by �40,000 this year. The tax payer | :50:21. | :50:28. | |
will actually be paying �40,000 less this year. They could pay less | :50:28. | :50:34. | |
altogether if you were not taking this rise. I think that is true. | :50:34. | :50:40. | |
The arguments are understandable. The union person was talking about | :50:40. | :50:46. | |
the dead. He would be a candidate for low pay. This is very low pay | :50:46. | :50:53. | |
we are talking about. It is about how to pay for our democracy and | :50:53. | :51:02. | |
what we as residents get for our money. You heard the voices in the | :51:02. | :51:07. | |
report there, are you not concerned about how it looks? | :51:07. | :51:14. | |
recommendations are based on the average pay of -40 % of the | :51:14. | :51:24. | |
:51:24. | :51:25. | ||
Tonbridge burr. The councillors pay is estimated on that. I think it is | :51:25. | :51:31. | |
very easy and very understandable that there is a story but what it | :51:31. | :51:37. | |
paid should be used at is an opportunity to look at how we pay | :51:37. | :51:42. | |
for our democracy, who does it and how to extend the possibilities of | :51:42. | :51:48. | |
who we choose to do that. It is very limited at the moment. Let us | :51:48. | :51:56. | |
get on to that but first of all you will ask the youngest councillor. | :51:56. | :52:06. | |
What is your allowance? I get slightly more than �9,000. We have | :52:06. | :52:13. | |
a single layer of local Government. We ourselves this year voted | :52:13. | :52:19. | |
through a 5% pay cut. What do you think about what is happening in | :52:19. | :52:24. | |
Tunbridge Wells? I am slightly concerned. The increases should be | :52:25. | :52:30. | |
proportionate to the wages in the public. I think the public want to | :52:30. | :52:34. | |
see that all are equal in local Government, especially when | :52:34. | :52:44. | |
:52:44. | :52:47. | ||
services are being cut and jobs are having to go. It is interesting | :52:47. | :52:57. | |
:52:57. | :52:58. | ||
that he gets �9,000. I get �6,000. How many hours do you do? It is | :52:58. | :53:03. | |
hard to work out. We will not be able to work out if he gets more | :53:03. | :53:12. | |
or! �6,000 is not a salary but who should decide how much it is? | :53:12. | :53:22. | |
:53:22. | :53:23. | ||
Should we have a standardised amount? Nobody likes to pay for | :53:23. | :53:28. | |
Government but at the end of the day you have to and you must pay a | :53:28. | :53:35. | |
realistic wage to attract the right sort of candidates. I do think we | :53:35. | :53:42. | |
need to pay the correct level. Let us not let Labour get away with | :53:42. | :53:49. | |
talking in tongues here. Labour voted against reducing the cost of | :53:49. | :53:54. | |
Parliament now I do not see them doing the same locally as they did | :53:54. | :53:59. | |
nationally which is what they should do. The biggest point is | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
that there is no consistency. It looks like brilliant value for | :54:03. | :54:08. | |
money when you look at Dartford council where the reader gets | :54:08. | :54:15. | |
�27,000. He considers it to be a job. Should you get a salary? | :54:15. | :54:21. | |
would like to see it as more of a professional service we get from | :54:21. | :54:29. | |
our representatives. When I looked around. If you are a county | :54:29. | :54:33. | |
councillor you are a candidate in the elections. I look around the | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
county council and Tunbridge Wells Council and I see it is largely | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
drawn from the retired, the unemployed and the idle rich. There | :54:43. | :54:50. | |
are very few women. Almost nobody of working age who is a man in the | :54:50. | :54:56. | |
council because they cannot afford to do it. If we create a job where | :54:56. | :55:02. | |
they should be in the office five days per week. At the moment I can | :55:02. | :55:06. | |
say I cannot do a committee meeting because I have my daughter's | :55:06. | :55:16. | |
:55:16. | :55:16. | ||
birthday. That would not happen if you go to a professional thing. | :55:16. | :55:21. | |
Would you go for that? Absolutely. We do have an independent | :55:21. | :55:28. | |
renumeration panel in our area. I have personally taken decision- | :55:28. | :55:34. | |
making out of the politicians' hands. I want to clarify that we do | :55:34. | :55:39. | |
need to be very sensitive to the public. They are suffering real | :55:39. | :55:45. | |
wage cuts. A lot of people work part-time at the moment as well. We | :55:45. | :55:52. | |
have to reflect on the fact that they are not getting pay increases. | :55:52. | :56:00. | |
We have got councillors in some cases paying 21,000 in allowances | :56:00. | :56:05. | |
that they do not even know what about. There are issues around | :56:05. | :56:10. | |
expenses and people are very sensitive to this fact. If you do | :56:10. | :56:20. | |
get elected it is �12,800 which is more than what this man gets. | :56:20. | :56:27. | |
leader of Tunbridge Wells put 64 70 hours. It is a full-time job even | :56:27. | :56:37. | |
:56:37. | :56:38. | ||
at 40 hours per week. Now who needs a council house most? If you are ex | :56:38. | :56:43. | |
military you may get a house even though a homeless person has been | :56:43. | :56:52. | |
waiting for years. There are currently 340 homes available, 600 | :56:52. | :57:01. | |
applicants queueing up for them. That is a nightmare. We have David | :57:01. | :57:05. | |
green with us. Why would you want to move homeless people further | :57:05. | :57:13. | |
down the list? It seems strange logic to say homeless people are | :57:13. | :57:22. | |
not in need of a home. They are. We have 6,000 people on our housing | :57:22. | :57:30. | |
waiting list. The housing stock generates only 300 houses per year. | :57:30. | :57:39. | |
We have a problem. Also what will affect us are the Government | :57:39. | :57:46. | |
benefit changes. Universal credit for example. But why a move | :57:46. | :57:50. | |
homeless people further down the list? I think you need to | :57:50. | :57:56. | |
distinguish between the housing list and housing stock and | :57:56. | :58:02. | |
homelessness. Yes, homeless people need our attention and are getting | :58:02. | :58:11. | |
our attention. Our duty to statutory homeless is very | :58:11. | :58:19. | |
important. There are not people on the streets, we do house them. That | :58:19. | :58:24. | |
is a different situation to how we manage our own housing stock. We | :58:24. | :58:29. | |
give priority to people with the really serious medical and social | :58:29. | :58:39. | |
:58:39. | :58:39. | ||
need. Management transfers includes domestic violence. You are giving | :58:39. | :58:44. | |
high priority to military individuals and families, it is | :58:44. | :58:49. | |
intriguing why they are treated differently. They would be allowed | :58:49. | :58:53. | |
to have significant assets and still come into the council housing | :58:53. | :58:59. | |
list. They would be a higher priority than local homeless people. | :58:59. | :59:06. | |
How is that fair? Because just through being military personnel it | :59:06. | :59:13. | |
makes it very difficult for them to fulfil the other qualifications. | :59:13. | :59:20. | |
They would otherwise be excluded from our housing stock. We needed a | :59:20. | :59:30. | |
:59:30. | :59:31. | ||
way to prioritise them and that is what we have done. We have also | :59:31. | :59:36. | |
given as priority people who need to downsize their homes because | :59:36. | :59:41. | |
they cannot afford where they are living after the bedroom tax in | :59:41. | :59:49. | |
April. That is two categories who are in higher category than a | :59:49. | :59:54. | |
homeless people. Thank you. I suspect we could do a whole debate | :59:54. | :00:00. | |
about the bedroom tax and that is likely to come. Obviously the | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
shortage of council properties is the real story behind all of this. | :00:04. | :00:09. | |
But to do you think should be top priority for council houses? | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
problem is acute. There is not enough social housing to survive. | :00:15. | :00:23. | |
Each local authority has to set its own priorities. I think what we | :00:23. | :00:28. | |
need to emphasise is that if you are homeless here is still a | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
statutory obligation to house you it may just not be in the social | :00:33. | :00:39. | |
housing register. Where? That is currently an unfortunate situation | :00:39. | :00:47. | |
where there is not a supply. If you are able through health | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
requirement... Who is the most needy? The individuals who I would | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
place are those who have health concerns, the elderly and infirm. | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
And who would be top of your list? The homeless people are extremely | :01:03. | :01:08. | |
vulnerable. What they have had by having this the year rule. They | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
should not push the problem away so it comes off their register. They | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
should fix the problem, used innovative techniques like Brighton | :01:18. | :01:24. | |
is using now. Let's talk about that imaginative idea in Brighton. Plans | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
to turn a car-park in to a homeless village where people are housed in | :01:29. | :01:35. | |
shipping area is -- shipping containers, are you all right with | :01:35. | :01:42. | |
that? We cannot turn it into a ghetto. It is just one example. I | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
think the local authority should talk to landlords who have their | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
buildings empty and turn them into homeless shelters, especially where | :01:51. | :01:57. | |
houses which have not been used for one year. Been really must use look | :01:57. | :02:03. | |
after the almost, get them off the streets. There is so much going on | :02:03. | :02:13. | |
:02:13. | :02:14. | ||
in politics this week. Let us get a round-up in 60 seconds. As the | :02:14. | :02:21. | |
Commons voted in favour of gay marriage someone who opposed the | :02:21. | :02:27. | |
bill put forward a new idea. Abolish civil marriage and create a | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
Civil Union belt that applies to all, irrespective of their | :02:32. | :02:39. | |
sexuality. And a police commissioner wants a �15,000 per | :02:39. | :02:46. | |
year youth Commissioner. And this lady once a deputy paid �45,000. | :02:46. | :02:54. | |
Sweeping reforms to the EU Commons fishery policy to prevent fish | :02:54. | :03:03. | |
being thrown back into the water. Water customers face a higher than | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
national average rise in their water bills. And Nigel for Ryeish | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
accused of being a Stalinist dictator. He calls the claims | :03:14. | :03:22. | |
laughable nonsense. Even when he is being criticised Nigel Farage | :03:22. | :03:30. | |
manages to make it into the show almost every week! Now I am hoping | :03:30. | :03:36. | |
you were one of the Conservatives who voted in favour of gay marriage, | :03:36. | :03:44. | |
is that too much of an assumption? I did vote in favour. I think | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
individuals who want to get married should be allowed to do so. | :03:48. | :03:53. | |
think the ban on Church of England managers for same-sex couples | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
should be lifted? I do not think the Church should impose their | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
rules on society in general and vice versa. It is about the balance | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
of rights. Do you think it was a significant day in our history? | :04:10. | :04:17. | |
Absolutely. It was a combination of perhaps two decades worth of action. | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
So much was done on the civil partnerships Act which was a step | :04:21. | :04:29. | |
towards this. An equal age of consent and the scrapping of | :04:29. | :04:34. | |
section 28, a lot of good things have happened. There are a lot of | :04:34. | :04:42. | |
things on which the Conservative Party is split. I think everyone is | :04:42. | :04:48. | |
very clear that the Conservatives were divided on this. | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
Conservatives brought this legislation in during their | :04:51. | :04:57. | |
parliament, it is a good thing, let's rejoice in it. Most MPs voted | :04:57. | :05:04. | |
in favour of it. A very quick thought on the police and crime | :05:04. | :05:11. | |
commissioners. Four to �5,000 for a deputy, should she be allowed? | :05:11. | :05:21. | |
:05:21. | :05:22. |