:01:28. > :01:32.And in the East Midlands, the fight to save our paths. MPs line up to
:01:32. > :01:42.call for more protection for them but with a team closing per week,
:01:42. > :01:42.
:01:42. > :43:56.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2534 seconds
:43:56. > :44:06.In the East Midlands, what is the future for our pants closing at the
:44:06. > :44:08.
:44:08. > :44:14.rate of 18 Aref -- at each week? do reception, and then and I do get
:44:15. > :44:20.cleaning job to try and make ends meet. Joining me this week, the
:44:20. > :44:27.Conservative MP Patrick Mercer and Jon Ashworth. It looks like being
:44:27. > :44:30.at bay the year for rail transport. Network Rail will spend �500
:44:30. > :44:35.million Electa find the Midland mainline meaning faster and more
:44:35. > :44:41.reliable trains to London. The Transport Secretary is expected to
:44:41. > :44:46.confirm that that there will be as station on a high-speed line. A
:44:46. > :44:50.electrification of the Midland main line has to be good news? And I am
:44:50. > :44:55.pleased about this. I have been campaigning on this. It is great
:44:55. > :45:00.news for Leicester. It is important for these Midlands economy. I hope
:45:00. > :45:03.we can get on with it as quickly as possible. We know the economy has
:45:03. > :45:13.been in the doldrums, this investment is great for economic
:45:13. > :45:13.
:45:14. > :45:19.growth. It has been in the pipeline for a long time. What benefits will
:45:20. > :45:25.us bring to the area? I think he is spot on. This is an extremely
:45:25. > :45:30.important project. We must make progress. We have seen in the new
:45:30. > :45:36.work, ten years ago when I was first elected, travelling time to
:45:36. > :45:40.London was slightly faster. With this improvement, I hope they will
:45:40. > :45:46.be back to where they were five or six years ago and we can get to
:45:46. > :45:54.London in just over an hour. That is amazing. Have more people
:45:54. > :45:59.relocated? I would like to say yes with businesses that I am not so
:45:59. > :46:05.Stuart. I was on the train the other day with a man who said he
:46:05. > :46:10.had moved there because he used to live in Brighton and travelling
:46:10. > :46:16.from brighten up to London is slow were now. We are definitely getting
:46:16. > :46:20.more commuters. Are you concerned about being cut off because the
:46:20. > :46:25.other side of the country is getting the benefit? It is
:46:25. > :46:29.definitely going to benefit us. I do not care about of the west side
:46:29. > :46:37.of the country. We are doing well. We are extremely lucky with our
:46:37. > :46:42.relics. It is a huge amount of money, �500 million. That will make
:46:42. > :46:47.a difference of five minutes from Leicester to London. Is it worth
:46:47. > :46:55.that Investment? It is important for the economy. We are the slowest
:46:55. > :47:05.line north of London and that is ridiculous. It is only five minutes.
:47:05. > :47:05.
:47:05. > :47:11.It is important. It will improve connections to London. We need that
:47:11. > :47:17.investment. I am a supporter of the high-speed line, but the worry is
:47:17. > :47:22.that it will suck all the funding and we will get two years down the
:47:22. > :47:28.road, there will not be enough for us. You will see a difference in
:47:28. > :47:34.house prices in Leicester. It worked wonderfully in my area.
:47:34. > :47:39.us hope it does wonders for the economy? All of our MPs agree on
:47:39. > :47:43.the need to save our pubs. MPs played a leading role on the cross-
:47:43. > :47:48.party debate on the future of the local and it was led by Toby
:47:48. > :47:52.Perkins. They called for a setting up of an independent adjudicator to
:47:52. > :48:02.protect landlords from unfair practices. Is it enough to save
:48:02. > :48:14.
:48:14. > :48:19.your local pub that? According to research, �5,800 like this one have
:48:19. > :48:25.closed in the last four years. Last year they were closing at a rate of
:48:25. > :48:30.18 a week. At this handbook, a gathering of a local preservation
:48:30. > :48:36.society. They want to preserve their local and that thousands of
:48:36. > :48:40.other homes are threatened with closure. If I want to have a quiet
:48:40. > :48:47.drink, it is great, but on the other hand I like to come out and
:48:47. > :48:57.meet people. Beer sales in pubs are down by one-third. The average pint
:48:57. > :48:59.
:48:59. > :49:04.here costs between �3 and three pounds 50. Tax has increased by 40%.
:49:04. > :49:08.That beer escalator means that 30% of what you paid goes to the
:49:08. > :49:15.government. A lobby of Parliament before Christmas warned MPs of
:49:15. > :49:19.another threat to the pub. This estate used to have its own a local
:49:19. > :49:25.and some regulars. The beer was out of this world but not enough, it
:49:25. > :49:29.closed last year and it is now a supermarket. This local councillor
:49:29. > :49:38.led a campaign and organised petitions to block a supermarket
:49:38. > :49:42.sweep of so many pubs. What were you told? They said they had
:49:42. > :49:47.decided to reduce the number of pubs they had in the area, they did
:49:47. > :49:52.not take any account of the wishes of people in the area. He in the
:49:52. > :49:56.last two years alone, 200 former pubs have been converted into
:49:56. > :50:03.convenience stores. It has been taken over by a supermarket, is
:50:03. > :50:11.that more welcome? Yes. I think so. A lot of people have said has much.
:50:11. > :50:15.Do you miss it? I think everyone misses it who used to it. Back here,
:50:15. > :50:22.and concentration on the pint has been replaced by looking to
:50:22. > :50:28.Parliament. A last year beer and pubs contributed millions to the
:50:28. > :50:33.economy and it is estimated that the average pub employs 11 people.
:50:33. > :50:37.We want to introduce a relationship that is market-based, whether it is
:50:37. > :50:44.genuine competition or a genuine choice for people entering the
:50:44. > :50:51.industry. Debates on government proposals to give pub tenants
:50:51. > :50:56.greater freedom from the companies that dominate the trade. I am tied
:50:56. > :50:59.to Marsden's for my products. As a company, they supply us with a
:50:59. > :51:06.different range of beers but we have to purchase them through that
:51:06. > :51:10.company. They are saying let's freeze duty, let's legislate that
:51:10. > :51:14.pubs cannot be demolished to retail used without permission and I think
:51:14. > :51:19.there will be some hope. Tax, rising prices and supermarkets, the
:51:19. > :51:28.pressure is on, could it be last orders for the traditional pub?
:51:28. > :51:34.Something has to be done, but what? It is a dire situation. In towns
:51:34. > :51:39.like the ones that we represent, especially in my town, where there
:51:39. > :51:47.is a huge Korean tradition and a whole series of micro-breweries who
:51:47. > :51:52.are independent, the local pub is terribly important. I think the
:51:52. > :51:57.debate made a great deal of sense and I think the government's idea,
:51:57. > :52:02.the beer escalator, is that the right phrase? It cannot continue
:52:02. > :52:06.like this because it is driving people out of business. We heard a
:52:06. > :52:13.woman saying she would rather have a supermarket. There are a lot of
:52:13. > :52:22.things that have gone on. Their other supermarkets, the smoking ban,
:52:22. > :52:26.but it has hit hands. There is taxation. It has focused on
:52:26. > :52:31.landlords, the rent that they pay and the beers that they come by,
:52:31. > :52:38.this is tied down. Vince Cable said he would look at that. He has
:52:38. > :52:43.ignored are debates that we have been having. I am a member of a
:52:43. > :52:49.working men's club, they have been under pressure as well. The
:52:49. > :52:53.Government needs a strategy to support pubs and are working men's
:52:53. > :52:58.club. Is there a case where the minimum price for alcohol would be
:52:58. > :53:04.a benefit? There could be. The subject earlier, I think it
:53:04. > :53:09.probably makes sense. As an Ombudsman between the big and small
:53:09. > :53:14.firms, this would have an effect. This is not just about what MPs can
:53:15. > :53:20.do, it is also about a change in society? Some people will go to the
:53:20. > :53:24.pub willingly, but you cannot force people. There is a change in how we
:53:24. > :53:31.get our alcohol. Yes there is. There is a change in the face of
:53:31. > :53:35.pubs. Pubs used to be purely and simply about the consumption of
:53:35. > :53:39.alcohol with the vast proportion of individuals going in there the men.
:53:39. > :53:43.That has changed, they now give food and entertainment and has a
:53:43. > :53:49.broader appeal. It is not a question of forcing people in, it
:53:49. > :53:56.is a case of keeping them out! saw a lot of MPs there. You say it
:53:56. > :54:01.is important, but are you jumping on the bandwagon. Be it is popular
:54:01. > :54:11.and I have had meetings in Parliament. I am having a dry
:54:11. > :54:16.January, but I enjoy a pint. I think people would be really
:54:16. > :54:24.disappointed if the great British pub disappear. That is why we have
:54:24. > :54:30.to save them. It has got to be one of the biggest political issues of
:54:30. > :54:34.the year, what should we pay people in benefits? MPs have voted to cap
:54:34. > :54:44.increases to 1%, but as well as that there are cuts on the way.
:54:44. > :54:44.
:54:44. > :54:51.What is the view of people who rely on benefits to get by? Even for
:54:51. > :54:55.those with a job, benefit still play a role of? Best players offers
:54:55. > :54:59.advice but it also offers jobs. Most of the workers here are
:54:59. > :55:03.recruited locally and the project includes a building firm which
:55:03. > :55:08.carries out renovations and takes on unemployed people to carry out
:55:08. > :55:13.the work. It means that the people here are in work that many still
:55:13. > :55:17.rely on benefits. This woman works as an administrator and she is a
:55:17. > :55:21.single mother and could face cuts of up to �50 per month in her
:55:21. > :55:27.income because of changes to housing benefit and reductions in
:55:27. > :55:31.council tax rebates. You go to work and work hard and obviously been a
:55:31. > :55:36.single parent, you need help, but to be penalised for actually going
:55:36. > :55:40.to work, you think he would be better off still staying on
:55:41. > :55:46.benefits. This woman is an administrator, she has two jobs to
:55:46. > :55:52.make ends meet but still relies on housing benefit. She is facing a
:55:52. > :55:57.cut of �44 per man. They do reception in the daytime and in the
:55:57. > :56:02.evening I do a cleaning job to make ends meet, but it looks like when
:56:02. > :56:08.this tax comes in, whatever spare time I have, I will have to find
:56:08. > :56:12.myself another job. You are a managing director of that project
:56:12. > :56:19.and it is a very common story, people working but still needing
:56:19. > :56:23.benefits? Yes. A huge number of people are very poor. They work
:56:24. > :56:28.extremely hard and require the benefit system to ensure that they
:56:28. > :56:34.can sustain their work. Do you think that politicians get that? Do
:56:34. > :56:39.they understand the sort of struggle that people are facing?
:56:39. > :56:44.do not know. I do not want to talk about what politicians know and do
:56:44. > :56:50.not know. The facts are that the huge number of very decent people
:56:50. > :56:56.get up every morning and work for low wages. These are people like
:56:56. > :57:03.carers, hospital porters, hospital workers, a huge list of people who
:57:03. > :57:09.are at the core of our society and are the people who make it tick.
:57:09. > :57:14.And they are the ones who will be struggling. You heard it from her.
:57:14. > :57:21.You haven't voted for this cat. What do you say to people like
:57:21. > :57:26.those women, they are working and cannot survive President Obama I
:57:26. > :57:33.hear what she says and I thought the points we heard work entirely
:57:33. > :57:38.fair. I applaud Iain Duncan Smith, I think he has the right idea, but
:57:38. > :57:41.I would remind all of us that the sort of points we were making in
:57:41. > :57:46.opposition, particularly about the administration and fairness of
:57:46. > :57:53.measures like this is very difficult to get right. They do not
:57:53. > :58:02.think it is fair, they will be worse off. I will say that we have
:58:02. > :58:07.got to save money. There are people who depend on these benefits, we
:58:07. > :58:13.have to take money away from those who are not in work and to try to
:58:13. > :58:17.avoid it. How... Are you saying that we do not have the money and
:58:17. > :58:23.cuts have to be made all over the place and this is one area that
:58:23. > :58:27.will have to be cut as well? problem is that the people who are
:58:27. > :58:32.being hit by these benefit cuts tend to be people on tax credits
:58:32. > :58:37.and the majority of them are in work. This is dinner ladies,
:58:37. > :58:42.primary school teachers, soldiers, police officers who will see their
:58:42. > :58:46.tax credits cut and you have got the very poorest in society are
:58:46. > :58:50.going to get their benefits cut and then on top of this, you have got
:58:50. > :58:56.this bedroom tax, where people who because they have an extra bedroom,
:58:56. > :59:01.have to pay in addition. A couple came to me, the wife is disabled,
:59:01. > :59:06.she has to have medication and to has been does not stay in the same
:59:06. > :59:11.room, unless they can find the extra money, they will be thrown
:59:11. > :59:16.out of the specially adapted bungalow. That is not fair. Carers
:59:16. > :59:21.are going to be massively affected by this. At the moment, foster-
:59:21. > :59:28.parents are not allowed to have and the spare bedroom and they will be
:59:28. > :59:32.paying this tax. It is the collateral damage, I think, and
:59:32. > :59:37.poorer people are being treated it like collateral damage. The issue
:59:37. > :59:44.is that these cuts will affect people who are working. They are
:59:44. > :59:49.working people. I think some of the rhetoric is difficult. It is not
:59:49. > :59:54.just the rhetoric! The application of it will have to be looked at
:59:54. > :59:57.carefully. I come back to the point that the application matters. I
:59:57. > :00:01.applaud the direction and I understand that those who do not
:00:01. > :00:04.wish to work, something has to be done for the amount of money that
:00:04. > :00:08.they are getting, but there are difficulties with this and I will
:00:08. > :00:12.not pretend it is uncontentious and they will not pretend that my
:00:12. > :00:16.sympathies lie with the many poor people in my constituency who are
:00:16. > :00:21.decent hard-working people. It is not just the changes to benefits,
:00:21. > :00:25.it is also implementing them and from April, local councils will see
:00:25. > :00:32.the new Universal Credit scheme being rolled out. One council
:00:32. > :00:38.leader was invited to Parliament as an expert on this subject. He told
:00:38. > :00:42.them it will not work. People are finding it very difficult to plan.
:00:42. > :00:52.As our other concern is that it will not work. The IT will not work,
:00:52. > :00:56.the systems are not going to integrate with the universal credit
:00:56. > :01:00.system and we're not going to be able to get them to talk to each
:01:00. > :01:05.other. We need that information in order to operate the system. We are
:01:05. > :01:10.concerned that that is not happening. What is the alternative
:01:10. > :01:15.plan if it does not happen? Our plan is it will not work on time
:01:15. > :01:20.and there is no alternative plan. The this is the concern. It is not
:01:20. > :01:25.going to work and he believes it will make the matter worse. I think
:01:25. > :01:29.he says a lot of things that I have been covering. If they cannot
:01:29. > :01:33.administer this, it will not look good. The fact remains that it has
:01:33. > :01:38.to be made to work and the government plans must be as
:01:38. > :01:48.resilient as they possibly can be. I take the. Macro about an
:01:48. > :01:48.
:01:48. > :01:56.alternative plan. Graham Chapman described this as a Europe poll tax.
:01:56. > :01:58.We must make sure that it is not. Surely it is better in this case to
:01:58. > :02:06.have local councillors - macro councils administering a these
:02:06. > :02:09.benefits. A lot of people who have been getting it will lose that this
:02:09. > :02:15.benefit in the next few months and that will be a poll tax. They will
:02:15. > :02:19.be hit hard, there is a general unfairness. Let us remember, the
:02:19. > :02:25.richest in society are getting in this tax cut because the 50 pence
:02:25. > :02:29.rate has been reduced. The very poorest in society are being
:02:29. > :02:33.clobbered. It it is because David Cameron and George Osborne want to
:02:33. > :02:43.say they are getting tough on scroungers. How does your project
:02:43. > :02:50.work? And we make progress in a small way. We are a small social
:02:50. > :02:55.enterprise. We have huge social deprivation. It is complicated. I
:02:55. > :03:03.run an organisation that employs local people. I set up a
:03:03. > :03:08.construction company, right at the end of the recession, to try and
:03:08. > :03:17.use capital spend more effectively. I went right back to basics on
:03:17. > :03:23.procurement. A company has discovered that every pound they
:03:23. > :03:29.spend with us has doubled their money in local impact. Is this the
:03:29. > :03:34.way forward? We have got to stop demonising the poorer. To
:03:34. > :03:39.continuously do this, you end up with the collateral damage that we
:03:39. > :03:44.are experiencing. There is a huge amount of fear. People are
:03:44. > :03:51.frightened that they do not know how to cope. We have to stop
:03:51. > :03:56.demonising in the poorer and using policy to find nasty names for
:03:56. > :04:01.people. It is not helping, it is not useful and it alienates people.
:04:01. > :04:11.They are genuinely frightened. is talking about skivers and a
:04:11. > :04:14.drivers. They are strivers. Those points are well made and it is
:04:14. > :04:20.exactly what the coalition wants to try and avoid. The implementation
:04:20. > :04:30.of this has to be carefully done. We will leave it there. Time now
:04:30. > :04:31.
:04:31. > :04:34.for a round-up of some of the other stories in 60 seconds. The
:04:34. > :04:37.Conservatives on Derby City Council have pulled out of a cross-party
:04:37. > :04:43.approach to lobby the government for more money. The ruling Labour
:04:43. > :04:47.group says Darby is getting a raw deal. Tories originally backed the
:04:47. > :04:52.idea but their leader says they pulled out because Labour is using
:04:52. > :04:58.it as a party political campaign. Derbyshire's Police and Crime
:04:58. > :05:02.Commissioner has chosen his deputy after interviewing six candidates.
:05:02. > :05:07.He has -- opted for this man who will leave his job with the
:05:07. > :05:11.Nottingham probation trust. Patrick Mercer has this raided a government
:05:11. > :05:19.Minister to visit this hospital. He said there had been concern over
:05:19. > :05:26.its future but it was -- is confident it would remain open.
:05:27. > :05:36.is on major routes. They're always susceptible to casualties, which we
:05:36. > :05:46.see frequently during the year. the Health Minister said he will
:05:46. > :05:48.
:05:48. > :05:51.come to the hospital, you must be pleased? I am delighted. It is a
:05:51. > :05:57.Minister who understands of the nuts and bolts of health policy.
:05:57. > :06:02.he definitely coming? He has promised he will. The what
:06:02. > :06:09.difference do you think that will make? The difficulties are that
:06:09. > :06:14.health chiefs in the trust have said that if a clinical case can be
:06:14. > :06:17.made for further services are being opened in hospital, let us do it,
:06:17. > :06:21.where as GPs have been less optimistic. I hope the Minister
:06:21. > :06:27.will open the door for the first time and we will get more services.
:06:27. > :06:32.Next week we will be asking if local councillors should be paid
:06:32. > :06:36.more and Arab guests will include the Labour MP for at Ashfield. We