:01:30. > :01:33.Here in the East, the MP who finally succeeded in getting the
:01:33. > :01:43.fuel duty escalator scrapped. And, a blight or a blessing? Would
:01:43. > :01:43.
:01:43. > :37:18.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2134 seconds
:37:18. > :37:23.Welcome to Sunday Politics, I'm Etolle George.
:37:23. > :37:32.Later, controversy over planning decisions to build solar farms on
:37:32. > :37:37.prime agricultural land. The price of localism, which was given to
:37:37. > :37:42.communities in at the last election, has promised -- has proven to be
:37:42. > :37:48.but false promise. And George Osborne grunts the wishes of this
:37:49. > :37:53.MP, and makes the dream of motorists come true. Fuel duty
:37:53. > :37:59.affects every man and woman in the country because it impacts on food
:37:59. > :38:05.prices and transport prices. It is a toxic tax, and the Government has
:38:05. > :38:08.said, we have at Palma de Mallorca rises.
:38:08. > :38:10.First let's meet our guests, Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge,
:38:10. > :38:14.Julian Huppert, and Peter Bone, the Conservative MP for Wellingborough.
:38:14. > :38:17.Let's begin with the news that the boss of the first private company
:38:17. > :38:20.to run an NHS hospital has stepped down. Ali Parsa founded Circle in
:38:21. > :38:24.2004. The company took over the running of Hinchingbrooke Hospital
:38:24. > :38:27.in Huntingdon in February. It has incurred a �4 million deficit in
:38:28. > :38:34.its first six months. Steve Melton is taking Mr Parsa's place as
:38:34. > :38:37.interim chief executive. patients expect us to fix the
:38:37. > :38:41.quality first. Meanwhile, behind the scenes we are working on long-
:38:41. > :38:43.term sustainable economics. This is a ten-year contract, and we are in
:38:43. > :38:46.our first year. So we are absolutely focused on getting
:38:46. > :38:50.quality right first, and then a sustainable hospital in economic
:38:50. > :38:57.terms second. Julian Huppert, are you reassured, or are there alarm
:38:57. > :39:01.bells ringing? There are definitely alarm bells.
:39:01. > :39:07.There have been problems with a hospital for a long time. People
:39:07. > :39:10.who live there have to face the uncertainty for many years. This
:39:11. > :39:15.approach of having a private company running it is an
:39:15. > :39:19.interesting approach. I hope it works out, because what is more
:39:19. > :39:29.important than any discussion is what sort of health care do people
:39:29. > :39:29.
:39:29. > :39:35.get when they need it? Peter, what about private companies running it?
:39:35. > :39:39.The quality is what matters first. Let us but the economics second. It
:39:39. > :39:45.would have been wrong if they cut the quality of service to make the
:39:45. > :39:50.books balance. In the NHS, the one thing that seems wrong is that we
:39:50. > :39:57.broke -- wobbly too much about balancing the books... But don't we
:39:57. > :40:02.have to think about balancing the books? If you are taking over a
:40:02. > :40:07.hospital that has not been run very well, met us but the quality right
:40:07. > :40:12.first. This Chief Executive may have resigned, but he will still
:40:12. > :40:19.have to go in front of the select committee, so the public accounts
:40:19. > :40:24.committee will look into that. - is it a time for experimenting?
:40:24. > :40:29.can understand why three or four years ago the then Government
:40:29. > :40:36.decided to stay but trying something different. Do you think
:40:36. > :40:40.it will be followed elsewhere? it works well. If not, we will have
:40:40. > :40:49.to say that was a mistake and it should not have happened. The key
:40:49. > :40:53.is the quality, and what happens to patients. The industrialisation of
:40:53. > :40:57.our countryside is an allegation that levelled at the growing number
:40:57. > :41:01.of solar farm is in our region. Many have been given the go ahead
:41:01. > :41:05.without applications being discussed more widely. Opponents
:41:05. > :41:14.say the Government's determination to make green targets is at the
:41:14. > :41:22.expense of our countryside. Solar farms, the answer to our
:41:22. > :41:28.energy woes, or at desecration of the countryside? The height, there
:41:28. > :41:34.is going to be 40,000 panels over this area. It will absolutely
:41:34. > :41:40.transform the landscape. 35 years here are coming to an end for Roger
:41:40. > :41:48.and his family. They are selling up, musing, they say, a quarter of the
:41:48. > :41:53.value of their farm -- home. this is a rural setting, and it is
:41:53. > :41:56.being turned into an industrial setting. In at a world where we
:41:56. > :42:02.cannot feed the people on the planet, we should not be taking
:42:02. > :42:08.agricultural land out of use. This is driven entirely by subsidies. If
:42:08. > :42:13.you think about it practically, we do not need energy in the middle of
:42:13. > :42:19.the summer when it these panels will be producing the main energy,
:42:19. > :42:24.we need it in the depths of the winter. Be owner of the land
:42:24. > :42:27.declined to comment, but the Government says that if planning
:42:27. > :42:33.applications do not adversely impact on the environment, they
:42:33. > :42:37.should be approved. Proposals for solo farms like this one in Weston
:42:37. > :42:41.Longville can simply be decided on by his single planning officer.
:42:41. > :42:46.They do not have to be discussed at council meetings. Once given the
:42:46. > :42:52.go-ahead, there is not a lot anybody opposed to the plans can go,
:42:52. > :42:56.unless they are willing to take proceedings to the High Court.
:42:56. > :43:01.Going to a High Court is extremely expensive, and David Cameron has
:43:01. > :43:05.recently announced that he is going to become -- it is going to become
:43:05. > :43:09.more expensive and more difficult. That means that the promise of
:43:09. > :43:15.localism, which was given to local communities in the run-up to the
:43:15. > :43:25.last election, has proven to be a false promise, one at that has not
:43:25. > :43:27.
:43:27. > :43:35.been kept to. The Prime Minister has twisted the localism agenda to
:43:35. > :43:40.sit other purposes. Lack energy has just got approval for the country's
:43:40. > :43:50.largest solar farm. Much of what you see in the countryside has been
:43:50. > :43:51.
:43:51. > :43:56.grown for energy. Solo it is a far more effective use of the land.
:43:56. > :44:01.Opponents argue Solar farms are expensive, that solar energy cannot
:44:01. > :44:07.be stored, and that we get it when we need it least. But farmers say
:44:07. > :44:13.it makes economic sense. We are in it to make a profit, but also there
:44:13. > :44:18.is a need for food and energy, and water, and farmers have to do the
:44:19. > :44:23.best they can and diversify. current spate of solar forms take
:44:23. > :44:27.advantage of a terrace that are expected to change in the spring.
:44:27. > :44:30.The reason there is a rush to get some of those sold of forms
:44:31. > :44:36.completed by the end of March is that everybody is aware that the
:44:36. > :44:40.Government is going to change the support but Solar receives in April.
:44:40. > :44:45.At the moment we do not know what that support level will be.
:44:45. > :44:50.level of support Solar Energy receives from the Government may
:44:50. > :44:54.determine whether this becomes the landscape of the future.
:44:54. > :45:00.Dunion, is it right that these decisions do not go before for
:45:00. > :45:07.council? Are unsurprised there is not a role for a planning committee
:45:07. > :45:12.involvement. In Cambridge City Council, the normal thing would be
:45:12. > :45:18.that the planning application would go to an area committee. People
:45:18. > :45:23.should have a say. Having said that, as we panned out from that image,
:45:23. > :45:31.from further away I thought the solar farm it looked very much like
:45:31. > :45:36.another farm. Bit is not growing food, though. It is not, and the
:45:36. > :45:41.world does actually produce enough food to feed everybody, but we do
:45:41. > :45:47.not produce it in at the right places. We can have a balance
:45:47. > :45:53.between eight -- energy creation and food grows from. If people are
:45:53. > :46:00.concerned about having these farms built near by, the only recourse is
:46:00. > :46:03.going to the High Court. That is completely undemocratic. We said we
:46:03. > :46:09.were going to bring in that localism, but local councils were
:46:09. > :46:14.going to decide, and the recent White local councils are proving
:46:14. > :46:18.these things is that because if they do not approve them, the
:46:18. > :46:24.development will go to appeal, and the council will have cost awards
:46:24. > :46:30.did against it. The Government has to do what it said it would do,
:46:30. > :46:36.have localism. The reason we do not have it is because the Liberal
:46:36. > :46:41.Democrats are in favour of this wishy-washy climate change rubbish.
:46:41. > :46:48.Liberal Democrats claimed to be Democrats, but here it they want a
:46:48. > :46:51.centralised Government, Stalinist control. Beta is wrong on this. We
:46:52. > :46:59.are keener on that vocalist decision-making. The fact that we
:46:59. > :47:04.have to generate energy and be in favour of localism. Are you in
:47:04. > :47:11.favour of letting local councils make decisions? A set at the
:47:11. > :47:15.beginning that I am keen that local councils should be involved. I want
:47:15. > :47:22.to come back to our point that you made about the fact that you said
:47:22. > :47:26.it looked like any other form. Some would say this is building on
:47:26. > :47:30.greenfield and turning green field into brownfield. I can understand
:47:30. > :47:37.their concerns about that. I thought the farmer's comment was
:47:37. > :47:42.good. We have to supply food, and energy. We need to do far more on
:47:42. > :47:51.energy efficiency, and that is not talked about enough. The best thing
:47:51. > :48:01.to do is not to build accord plant, a gas plant... A gentleman, what is
:48:01. > :48:03.
:48:03. > :48:07.to stop these solar farms from popping up all over the place?
:48:07. > :48:12.does not matter what the local council says. If Gillian it was
:48:12. > :48:18.right that local councils could turn these damn, that is fine. But
:48:18. > :48:22.if they turn them down, they are automatically... A I think the key
:48:22. > :48:27.thing is what level the subsidy is at. I would like to see a gradual
:48:27. > :48:36.phasing out of subsidies. Hydro- Electric does not require a subsidy
:48:36. > :48:41.now, because it is a mature technology. Peter Bone, it is your
:48:41. > :48:45.Government that has brought in at the east terrace. It is the
:48:45. > :48:51.wretched Liberal Democrats who are forcing us to do it. But am going
:48:51. > :48:56.to campaign to have Tory values in this, and real localism. We also
:48:56. > :49:00.have a responsibility to our cells and the planet to make sure we have
:49:00. > :49:05.somewhere that is worth living in ten, 20 years. If we do not do
:49:05. > :49:11.something about climate change, our grandchildren will have far worse
:49:11. > :49:16.things than a solar farm are being built in the countryside. This
:49:16. > :49:21.week's Autumn Statement. How was it for you? The Chancellor had to
:49:21. > :49:26.admit that austerity will continue until 2018, and that will mean a
:49:26. > :49:31.more spending cuts and a squeeze on all our budgets. But there were a
:49:31. > :49:38.few crumbs of comfort. Super-fast broadband for Cambridge, and that
:49:38. > :49:43.announcement about fuel duty. From college yards of
:49:43. > :49:47.Northamptonshire to the isolated villages of the Fens, the rising
:49:47. > :49:53.price of fuel has become a major issue. In a mini-budget which had
:49:54. > :49:59.little to shout about, this was the announcement to delight MPs.
:49:59. > :50:05.typical motorist in Kettering will from January be paying �5 less
:50:05. > :50:12.every time they fill up at the pump. Can I thank my honourable friend of
:50:12. > :50:18.my half of my colleagues for putting up the fuel back into the
:50:18. > :50:22.tank... Be MP for Harlow has spent the last two years leading the
:50:22. > :50:30.campaign against fuel duty. Finally he says, the Government has got the
:50:30. > :50:35.message. The fuel duty affects everybody, especially those in
:50:35. > :50:42.white vans who are trying to go to work. It also affects those taking
:50:42. > :50:49.buses. But the price of fuel is not coming down. No we also want fuel
:50:49. > :50:55.duty cuts, but I am happy that they have frozen fuel duty, a permanent
:50:55. > :51:01.freeze, not just a three-month freeze. Two long awaited road
:51:01. > :51:05.schemes were approved, one for the Afive in Bedfordshire and another
:51:05. > :51:11.widening scheme for their M25. Cambridge will get ultra-fast
:51:11. > :51:16.broadband, but there is also funding for research and biocides.
:51:16. > :51:21.And extra money for the Regional Growth Fund. All this on top of
:51:21. > :51:31.funding announced in it earliest -- earlier budgets for the Dr Foster
:51:31. > :51:32.
:51:32. > :51:41.end of the meat and A14. We have to rebuild an economic model. I am so
:51:41. > :51:45.excited about our science base, it will not create jobs overnight but
:51:45. > :51:49.it will build a sustainable future. Do is was also the week when the
:51:49. > :51:54.Chancellor had to announce further austerity measures, affecting all
:51:54. > :51:59.of us. There will be less money for policing and local councils, and
:51:59. > :52:07.benefits will rise less than the rate of inflation. In last week's
:52:07. > :52:13.programme, we visited the Milton Keynes phone bank. There've -- food
:52:13. > :52:22.bank. We have had a 20% increase on our demand and services this year,
:52:22. > :52:26.I can see it being in the same next year if not more. There are people
:52:26. > :52:32.who really want to try and find work at the moment, there are small
:52:32. > :52:37.businesses struggling. That is what we should be prioritising, not a
:52:37. > :52:44.tax cut for millionaires which seems to be George Osborne's out of
:52:44. > :52:52.touch priority. Next year at bay will start work on a widening to
:52:52. > :52:58.the A14 in Cambridgeshire. Peter Bone, are you happy about the
:52:58. > :53:04.fuel announcement? I thought it was a pretty good autumn statement.
:53:04. > :53:10.Every time you fill your tank, you will be saving �5. That is a real
:53:10. > :53:16.significance saving for hard- working families. For many people,
:53:16. > :53:20.especially people on benefits, it was not a good autumn statement.
:53:20. > :53:30.Benefits are going up. The idea they are being cut in cash terms is
:53:30. > :53:31.
:53:31. > :53:39.wrong. I listened, and because of the Labour Party we are in this
:53:39. > :53:43.mess. Given the cards that the Chancellor had, I think it was a
:53:43. > :53:48.pretty good statement. Why of the best things about the Autumn
:53:48. > :53:56.Statement was what was not in it. I have been pushing hard against the
:53:56. > :54:02.idea that David Cameron proposed, I think it would be lucky but much
:54:02. > :54:11.look lovely that people could live in -- live in a stable family, but
:54:11. > :54:15.I am pleased we have cut back on the number of cuts. Are you not as
:54:15. > :54:20.a party claiming a lot of credit for the parts of the Autumn
:54:20. > :54:26.Statement that are benefiting lower income families? That is not
:54:26. > :54:33.terribly coalition? There is no surprise that we have different
:54:33. > :54:38.priorities from the Conservatives. Peter and I disagree on a number of
:54:38. > :54:44.things. We are very pleased about reducing the amount of money that
:54:44. > :54:48.is being raided from welfare, we are very pleased we have managed to
:54:48. > :54:53.go further in terms of lifting poorly paid people out of income
:54:53. > :55:00.tax. Does that mean you are the good guys and the Conservatives are
:55:00. > :55:05.the bad guys? He always thinks that! We have a set of things we
:55:05. > :55:12.try to fight for, and that will continue through future Autumn
:55:12. > :55:16.Statement. Peter, you said it was a good statement. What about the
:55:16. > :55:22.gentleman at the food bank, he said a 20% increase in people wanting
:55:22. > :55:27.help. What about the language of the Chancellor, talking about the
:55:27. > :55:33.jobless being feckless and workshy? He made it clear that was a
:55:33. > :55:37.misrepresentation of his views. We are in a complete economic mess,
:55:37. > :55:42.that is for sure, and it is difficult for everyone. I am not
:55:42. > :55:47.saying we will not be having food banks in Wellingborough. But the
:55:47. > :55:54.coalition Government but doing their best to get us out of this
:55:54. > :55:58.mess in that the most equitable way. To be fair to the Chancellor, I
:55:58. > :56:06.think the Government have done a pretty good job this time. What
:56:06. > :56:10.about this ultra-fast broadband for Cambridge? I think that is exciting.
:56:10. > :56:14.Parts of Cambridge already have good Connectivity, and working
:56:14. > :56:19.together with the County Council we should be able to roll out better
:56:20. > :56:25.connections with some of the rural areas. That is a good thing from
:56:25. > :56:33.the Autumn Statement. The idea of Wi-Fi across Cambridge City means
:56:33. > :56:38.that people will be able to work anywhere. Then there is the �6
:56:38. > :56:48.million in the research and innovation budgets. B Tech, a new
:56:48. > :56:49.
:56:49. > :56:59.road to link the Afive to the M1. When I drove past the huge new link
:56:59. > :57:00.
:57:00. > :57:04.road to Corby, I bought a serious effort into getting the bypass
:57:04. > :57:07.built. The Chancellor is recognising that are important
:57:07. > :57:12.infrastructure projects that are now going ahead which previously
:57:12. > :57:16.have been stopped. That is a good sign. A I have criticised the
:57:17. > :57:21.Chancellor before for not putting enough investment into capital, and
:57:22. > :57:31.it is good that he is making good steps.
:57:32. > :57:32.
:57:32. > :57:35.By now, it is all up in the air. 60 seconds. A new call for a second
:57:35. > :57:39.runway to be built at Stansted Airport this week came from the
:57:39. > :57:42.boss of Gatwick. And then, in due course, to have a second runway at
:57:42. > :57:49.Stansted. A more traditional form of transport for Matthew Hancock,
:57:49. > :57:52.named as Sports Parliamentarian of the Year for promoting horse racing.
:57:52. > :57:57.Welcomed by his fellow Tories, MP Richard Bacon used the ten-minute
:57:57. > :58:00.rule to argue that it was time to scrap the Human Rights Act.
:58:00. > :58:07.supranational court can impose its will against ours, and in my view
:58:07. > :58:12.this is fundamentally undemocratic. Good news for a school in Essex,
:58:12. > :58:15.nicknamed Shed City by its own head teacher. Does he share my delight
:58:15. > :58:21.that the Essex County Council has allocated �8.4 million to build a
:58:21. > :58:24.new school, and may I thank him for his support for that campaign?
:58:24. > :58:27.bad tidings for 50 disabled workers in Norwich, whose jobs are under
:58:27. > :58:37.threat after news that the Remploy packaging plant failed to find a
:58:37. > :58:44.
:58:44. > :58:53.B Tech, what about Stansted Airport? We do welcome a second
:58:53. > :58:58.runway? We need much more aviation capacity. A second runway, I am not
:58:58. > :59:06.so sure. I do think we need to increase airport capacity as soon
:59:06. > :59:13.as possible, as Stansted I am not so sure. Let us see it closer to
:59:13. > :59:23.capacity before we think about that. Is it any more pie-in-the-sky it
:59:23. > :59:25.
:59:25. > :59:33.than that Boris Ireland? Stay Unsted simply -- Stansted is
:59:33. > :59:39.running at half capacity. People don't seem to be, there are other
:59:39. > :59:44.schemes, but this one is sticking a round. By air is currently space
:59:44. > :59:48.for 60% increase in passenger numbers around the country without
:59:48. > :59:53.building any new terminals or runways. It does not make sense to
:59:53. > :59:59.start building new runways in an airport that is not being used.