04/03/2012 Sunday Politics South

Sunday Politics in the South... One in three children living in poverty.

All parties signed up to eradicate child poverty by 2020 but will they

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1773 seconds

Hello, I'm Peter Henley, and coming up on the Sunday Politics in the

South... Lord Coe said he wants the Olympic legacy to be about improved

sports provision across Britain - but in Dorset, cuts to the county's

sports budget make that look a bit of a non-starter. First, we will

meet the two politicians that be will -- that will be with us for

the next 20 minutes. You are on the defence Select Committee. You are

off on a trip to the Falklands? later today. It is a routine visit.

The committee has not been there for a long time and there is

nothing provocative about it. is what they said about Prince

William. I think whatever is being done now, Argentina is reacting

hysterically, I think to very routine things. William is there to

do a job. We are they to go and see things like the assets we have got

out there. Nothing provocative about that. Allen, what do you

think about the situation? It is terribly worrying on the south

coast because of the history of the Navy had been to take down there

before. It is different because of the presence in the Falklands and

around it. That would deter any serious invasion attempt. But it is

the sabre rattling. The general atmosphere and the closing of

possible flights and shipping. that all coming from them or could

we is back a little bit? -- pulled back. I do not think we will be in

the situation that we were again. Argentina said they will not use

military force and that they want a long-term change in the status of

the islands. But the trouble is, you either say that the Falklands

can go in one direction or another. Actually there is not that much

room for negotiation. But that is about it. It is a bit of a dead end

as far as the present situation is concerned. You will be checking on

the defence facilities. Are you happy or have you got questions?

That is a routine part of our job. We go to all parts of the world

where we have got military assets. But the problem with the last

Falklands war was that we were almost encouraging dialogue with

Argentina. We are not doing anything provocative. We have had a

very gentle debate and we have in fact praised servicemen that died

in Argentina. We are doing a job and we have got to have a firmer

line and that is not up for Four million children are living in

poverty in Britain. That's one in three - one of the highest rates in

the developed world. Tomorrow night's Inside Out has been filming

on one estate in Southampton with families that really know what

those statistics mean. My daddy worries about the bills and us

children and it is a bit hard with the parents. I go without said that

the children can have things, basically. It is getting harder

because the price is going up. We are talking about cutting benefits.

I have got to do that for the best of my family and that is what I am

here for. I hope they will grow up in a good way, get good schools and

good jobs and I do not want them to become part of the benefit

dependency. Not everybody pays their rent and we have got to pay

rent and we need food. We got a call from the housing office saying

that it is more important to put a brick on your head than feed your

children and I am saying it is not. -- CROWD SINGS on your head.

Is it getting worse? Are people really feeling the pinch in ways

that you cannot measure rather than people are just not having enough

money and not getting a job? Yes, things are getting worse and

families are struggling to make ends meet. The bills are going up

week by week. Electricity, gas, water. It takes money away from

what they would normally spend on family life. When you see children

with expensive trainers, trips to McDonald's, flat-screen televisions,

do you think they could economise a bit more? You must think that

sometimes. Sometimes you might think that, yes. But we do not

often nowhere beats that screen televisions and trainers have come

from. You would be surprised what you can get from charity shops and

organisations supporting you. it is a pressure to get these

things for children, apart from anything else. And also, I heard

one of the fathers saying that they tried to keep up appearances. The

children want to go to school and say, we have not got any money

problems when they are not getting enough to eat. Children are quite

escheat. They understand when mummy and daddy are struggling. They

understand when purse strings are getting tighter but they do not

want to admit that two friends. You are open to all sorts of bullying.

Well, not bullying, but comments being made and children do not want

that. They want to be like their friends. And an awful lot of people

are packed into housing that is not good enough. There are families

packed into a two-bedroom flats that are waiting for bigger houses

and we have obviously not got enough housing stock for all of

them to be housed appropriately. You are doing what you can but I am

sure the politicians can help. would be wonderful if they could

give a bit of a hand to some of these families. What would you say

to these two? One Conservative and one Labour. Labour have been in

power for a long time before. think about the children. It is

easy to blame the parents and the adults. But actually, they do not

necessarily suffer as much. It is the children who supper. Some of

these people are right to go to people that are defrauding but a

lot of families are not defrauding and are being penalised and the

children suffer. It is tough, isn't it? You are bringing in welfare

changes to get people back to work but he will hit innocent people,

would you not? First of all, we are going to try and lift three and and

50,000 families out of poverty by introducing the Universal credit. -

- 350 thousand. You get weeks where people are not getting money and it

is pretty chaotic. We are having won at Universal credit which will

simplify the benefit system dramatically. The other thing it is

making work really paid. The average income for a household in

Portsmouth is actually less than the benefit cap we are proposing.

We have got to get back to having a giggle bit of perspective and to

really make certain that it is not about people being lazy. -- a

little bit. We need to encourage that behaviour and that is what we

are tackling. Do you see it that way? The latter part of the Bill is

extraordinary, frankly in terms of saying that benefits are going to

be capped so people will get into work. That work pays. Of coursework

should pay. But work needs to be there in order to do that. Secondly,

what I think the Bill completely is missing as far as child poverty is

concerned is that these families normally live on a very marginal

cash economy and a small matter of change in the cash coming into

household can have a devastating effect. The sort of changes that

are going through the housing benefits where these are encamped

at a level that would probably put a number of people into homes and

that is putting pressure on local authorities and destroying the

family fabric. They cannot cope with that situation. We might

actually spend more money as far as welfare is concerned as a result.

This could be more expensive? have got transitional arrangements

in place. A lot of things that are wrong with the current system is

that you have got a big dropping off point. If you work more than a

certain number of hours per week, you get clobbered with benefits. We

are trying to get away from that and have a gentle running him to

the new regime. But we have got to change the way we operate. One of

the fathers in that clip said he did not want his children to be in

a benefit trap. We have got to change dramatically how welfare

works. We have got to provide support for people to get them into

work and stop form-filling and box ticking and courses. We need to get

them into a job. And you are saying the jobs are not there? People are

trying to get jobs and state into jobs and one of the things the last

government did was change the circumstances under which people

are supported when they are in the process of getting into a job so

that job is secured and Family Finance is secured. The problem is

how you change family circumstances so they can think of getting into

work and staying in to work but at the same time, not making it

difficult for them by capping benefits and making them possibly

worse off than before. Good luck with all your work with these

And you can see the rest of that film on Inside Out tomorrow night

at 7.30pm on BBC 1 With less than six months to the Olympics, it's

probably not too early to be wondering what legacy the Games

will leave behind. We've been promised better facilities and

increased participation, but as Tristan Pascoe reports from Dorset,

for some the legacy will be gold, England has taken the silver!

want local provision for people to have the opportunity to experience

sport. Not necessarily at the highest level but to have habits

and patterns in sport. Lord Coe in 2006. In 2012, investment in local

sport is in the two camps, the hounds and have-nots. You can

almost smell the investment in Portsmouth. 60 million spent on the

Sailing Academy behind me. -- �16 million. �26 million spent on the

marina. A cross the water behind me from where the events will take

place would be sailing, �3 million worth of an observation platform

and more than �90 million spent on a relief road bringing people into

Weymouth and Portland. Loads of money for high profile Olympic

sailing events but what about other sports? Swanning, for example?

would be wonderful if we could at investment. -- swimming. We could

teach them not just to compete but to save lives and also unique to be

able to swim before saving. But the money is not step. County Council

funding has been slashed by 11 %. The sport but it has always been

very small inside the county council. It is all to encourage and

facilitate groups in order to work together and bring down external

funding. Easier said than done. This is the aim of Weymouth at Les

Six Club. -- Weymouth athletics club. It is hardly surprising that

many local athletes are having to travel hundreds of miles away and

trained elsewhere. They are not likely to produce the next Jonathan

Edwards it. All of his children are athlete but because of poor local

conditions, they train many miles away from home. We would love some

funding to get a proper track laid. Nothing fancy. Just the bare

minimum and then people can train and schoolchildren can use it. Lots

of people come here every year and it is dependent on these facilities.

The atmosphere is fantastic and the children love it and it would be

great to carry that arm. The ABS had said they are delivering on the

Olympic legacy. We have been using this facility to get young people

into sailing. You can sail for a cheap programmes. We have had 9,000

people in the water for the first time. I am very confident that we

will have a long-term legacy. is well and good for the next

generation. But what about other sports locally? Is a reduction in

future funding the real Olympic legacy in south Dorset? It is not.

The legacy is that people will be working very closely together with

communities and various groups. We have kept the funding in place for

the staff this year to give us time to make sure we can work with

communities in order to continue the work that historically, we have

always done. No cash for community facilities them? What about this?

Is was given to us by the relief fund and that is supposed to be the

legacy. They have lost what the Olympics is all about. They got the

site on Portland but they have lost it elsewhere. They are

concentrating on the ceiling and not much on anything else. --

sailing. However well the team does, Lord Coe's hopes that more people

will get a taste for sport are A bit hit and miss? More than that.

We have always got a balance between what you do for Olympic

sports and community sports but actually they are linked. Unless

children get a good deal for Sport and wants to get enthusiastic and

go to the next stage, where are the elite sports coming from? That is

the problem. And learning to swim could save a life? Absolutely. You

have got to find ways of funding these projects. When it swimming

was pulled in Portsmouth, a company's debt him and enabled that

to be funded. -- stepped in. One hospital was built under private

finance initiative and it has got a swimming pool which any staff can

use at the moment. Only staff?! That is correct. But actually it

could be used for other things and I am very pleased to say the

hospital is considering opening the doors to do that facility to local

schools. We have got to make better use of what we have got and we have

got to bring in extra money. This Now, our regular round-up of the

political week in the South in 60 seconds and this week, it's all

Fed up with theft of lead from church roofs and a thunderbolt from

on high? Insurers are providing free alarm systems. We had

activated the alarm system. Street lamps are too bright, according to

some local people. They put off burglars but to save electricity,

councillors agreed to turn some damp. Theresa May said a balance

must be struck with the rowing lake in Berkshire between security and

excitement. We need to ensure security but enable the invent to

be enjoyed. HMS victory. The MoD confirmed they are thinking of a

change of ownership while keeping the tight ship as a Second Sea Lord.

98 doggy detectives are being taken on by the Wiltshire police. Eight

local officer spotted the way that dogs and walkers can sniff out

Volunteers and fresh men and these dogs have not had any proper

training! But anyway, we will leave that to one side. But what about

the bright lights of Hampshire being dimmed? I suppose you're a

campaign for energy-saving. Well, they can be dimmed a little bit,

they do not have to be and that is a good thing because that saves a

lot of energy. One of the bigger risks is that at the base., which

way do the lights face? -- based point. They are usually pointing

towards the road and dealing with traffic. Maybe if you turn them

around and they were not facing the road? Dimming the lights at night

as they stand at the moment is a good thing and it will probably not

have a great effect on burglary or anything else other than saving a

lot of energy. Looking at low- energy light bulbs and where the

lights are facing might be the factors of the future. Victory? It

does not matter, yes or no? should be a flagship. But not

having it just funded by the defence budget and opening it up to

other sources, like the teacher will be more secured and it will be