:01:06. > :01:08.In the North West, this region's reaction to the spending review.
:01:09. > :01:18.And the next generation going for gold, but is the government playing
:01:19. > :01:19.
:01:19. > :33:18.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1919 seconds
:33:18. > :33:21.I'm Arif Ansari. Coming up in the North West: The next generation
:33:21. > :33:30.going for gold, but is the government playing ball with our
:33:30. > :33:33.Olympic legacy? These kids at the coalface are not going to be
:33:33. > :33:36.participating in sport. And joining us this week to discuss
:33:36. > :33:38.that and the Chancellor's spending review, Rosie Cooper, the Labour MP
:33:38. > :33:46.for West Lancashire and the Liberal Democrat MP for Manchester
:33:46. > :33:50.Withington, John Leech. Rosie, what did you make of the spending
:33:50. > :33:55.review? Very disappointing. Nothing in their tackling the real
:33:55. > :33:58.disappointing -- the real problems in the economy. Lot more talk, a
:33:58. > :34:04.lot more promises for the future but no action now. We need to move
:34:04. > :34:08.on now. I would say, given the state of the current economy, it
:34:08. > :34:11.was good to see a real focus on infrastructure with a particular
:34:11. > :34:14.emphasis on housing which is absolutely vital for the north-west.
:34:15. > :34:22.Let's look at some of the measures affecting the North West in this
:34:22. > :34:25.week's spending review. Work of a new �600 million Mersey
:34:25. > :34:29.gateway bridge between Runcorn at Widnes moved a step closer.
:34:29. > :34:34.Building should start in January after the guarantee of the project
:34:34. > :34:38.from the government. The budget for the high-speed rail line between
:34:38. > :34:42.Manchester and London was raised to �42 billion. There was a mixed
:34:42. > :34:50.reaction to plans to help people in Lancashire and Cheshire benefit
:34:50. > :34:53.from shale gas extraction. plans provide the framework to
:34:53. > :34:56.kick-start the industry in a way that protects the environment and
:34:56. > :34:59.supports local community. All of these concerns to have been
:34:59. > :35:05.addressing for last year, that all of this would go away if they pay
:35:05. > :35:11.us? That would divide Community. The region looks like it will take
:35:11. > :35:14.a big hit intent of the public sector. The Chancellor said 100 --
:35:14. > :35:24.more public sector jobs will go, and staff will not receive pay
:35:24. > :35:26.rises. Are there will be a 10% cut in funding of the Department of
:35:26. > :35:29.communities and local government. What effect will that have here,
:35:29. > :35:33.where there's a greater dependency on government support? Chris
:35:33. > :35:40.Rider's been talking to some local government leaders.
:35:40. > :35:45.It is more bad news for Burnley. Since 2010, we had taken a cut in
:35:45. > :35:49.funding of 30% of our total budget. Know your face with another 10%.
:35:49. > :35:53.was expected, there is less money around, we have to do our bit to
:35:53. > :35:56.get the deficit down. It was not a surprise that the Budget would be
:35:56. > :36:01.reduced. We have to see what the detail would be. We have got to
:36:01. > :36:04.look at different ways of working. I wish they would devolve more
:36:04. > :36:10.spending to local authority, because I think local government
:36:10. > :36:14.can spend it better than many of the central government departments.
:36:14. > :36:21.What will the impact be of Burnley? We are not as councillors, we are
:36:21. > :36:25.from the town, we care passionately Italy. I care about Burnley. Having
:36:25. > :36:31.to make cuts damaging the fabric of my home town is demoralising.
:36:31. > :36:35.a challenge, it is not easy. You get up to speed up to be the leader
:36:35. > :36:38.for 12 months. We are elected to make difficult decisions. It is
:36:38. > :36:41.disappointing that continually we are being cut by such a large
:36:41. > :36:45.extent, can think you -- particularly compared to some
:36:45. > :36:49.authorities in the south. Local government will continue to be
:36:49. > :36:52.transformed. We cannot keep on working the way we have. A future
:36:52. > :36:59.for Burnley were lies on about -- government that understands that
:36:59. > :37:02.these austerity measures are not working. We are all suffering the
:37:03. > :37:07.pain. We would put our shoulder to the will and accept that if we
:37:07. > :37:10.could see a light at the end of the tunnel but it is clear we are
:37:10. > :37:13.slipping further into problems. a local operator, we are having to
:37:13. > :37:18.become very different organisations have done what we were three or
:37:18. > :37:23.four years ago. We have to be more forward-looking and efficient. We
:37:23. > :37:27.have got to be smaller and more focused on what we do. We are
:37:27. > :37:32.joined in the studio by Professor Colin Talbot, professor of
:37:32. > :37:36.government at the University of Manchester. Let's start off with in
:37:36. > :37:41.the structure, or how significant was what the Chancellor had to say
:37:41. > :37:43.in terms of the north-west? very significant at all. The
:37:43. > :37:46.amounts the government are proposing to spend on
:37:46. > :37:49.infrastructure are lower than were spent in last two or three decades.
:37:49. > :37:53.The government has been boasting that this is the biggest
:37:53. > :38:01.infrastructure expenditure for years, actually I was crunching the
:38:01. > :38:05.numbers this morning. If you go back there for decades before 2010,
:38:05. > :38:09.in the structure spending, that public investment was 2.1% of GDP.
:38:09. > :38:14.The next decade, it will be 1.7%. It is actually lower than previous
:38:14. > :38:20.decades. Is it less that work -- that what Labour would have spent
:38:20. > :38:23.if their plans were put through? Labour initially planned quite a
:38:23. > :38:28.big reduction in capital spending. All governments do this when they
:38:28. > :38:31.get into a crisis, they slash capital expenditure. It went down
:38:31. > :38:34.lower than Leader had planned. It has come back up again, closer to
:38:34. > :38:37.what they had planned. But both of them have been spending
:38:37. > :38:42.historically low amounts on infrastructure and public
:38:42. > :38:46.investment. So how come the government keeps saying that in the
:38:46. > :38:50.structure is so important, and yet you are not spending on it? Before
:38:50. > :38:54.the last general election, Alastair Darling, as has been pointed out,
:38:55. > :38:59.slashed the proposals for capital spending. But you have cut further.
:38:59. > :39:03.We have actually put some back in. Given the current economics
:39:03. > :39:06.situation, it is not that surprising that things like
:39:06. > :39:10.infrastructure projects which we are trying to focus on are still
:39:10. > :39:14.not going to be funded to the kind of level that we would like to see.
:39:14. > :39:20.One of the things announced in the comprehensive spending review was
:39:20. > :39:24.one large and 65,000 extra social homes to be built, -- 165,000. That
:39:24. > :39:27.will certainly hope the problems we have in the north-west. On the one
:39:27. > :39:31.hand, you are saying investment in of the structure is important and
:39:31. > :39:35.on the other hand, you're not begin in the money, putting in less than
:39:35. > :39:40.Labour was planning. You have to cut your cloth. In the current
:39:40. > :39:46.situation, we are putting in as much in infrastructure spending as
:39:46. > :39:49.we possibly can add this Britain can. Rosie Cooper? I would much
:39:49. > :39:52.rather be spending money on buildings have become a would
:39:52. > :39:58.rather pay someone to go to work and do something cooler than pay
:39:58. > :40:01.them unemployment better if -- do something, than pay them
:40:01. > :40:06.unemployment benefit. Infrastructure is important, we
:40:06. > :40:09.need to put people to work. We do not once roads full of potholes, we
:40:10. > :40:15.need to deal with the of the structure problems we have.
:40:15. > :40:21.government has announced funding for the Mersey gate Weybridge, the
:40:21. > :40:25.northern hub, rail electrification, and high-speed two. But we have
:40:25. > :40:29.heard, a massively not enough. that will apply to certain parts of
:40:29. > :40:35.the not -- north-west. My constituency Warp C virtually their
:40:35. > :40:42.benefit from that. -- will see virtually no benefit from that.
:40:42. > :40:50.There is no railway station in one of my towns, there Connectivity two
:40:50. > :40:52.cities. -- there is no Connectivity. We need to that. You missed out in
:40:52. > :40:59.education, there is a lot of electrification work going on in
:40:59. > :41:03.the north-west. May I just say? One of the issues is the government
:41:03. > :41:07.nationally is making its -- find it difficult to deliver these project,
:41:08. > :41:11.for a simple reason. In 2010, they more than half the public sector
:41:11. > :41:15.investment. At the same time government departments got rid of
:41:15. > :41:18.staff. They got rid of people who were capable of managing the
:41:18. > :41:22.investment project. Now they are finding they are underspending on
:41:22. > :41:26.investment because they cannot get project at the door. A lot of the
:41:26. > :41:30.products which were shot already in 2010 are not any more, -- they were
:41:30. > :41:37.ready to go into the 10th are not any more, they have got to start
:41:37. > :41:40.again. In terms of public sector worker cuts, if you like, we are
:41:40. > :41:45.going to see a lot more of that. What will the squeeze be like on
:41:45. > :41:50.local government in the region? estimated in a project we did for
:41:50. > :41:54.the BBC a couple of years ago that the cuts in the 20 tense spending
:41:54. > :41:59.review were going to take about �10 million out of the Greater
:41:59. > :42:04.Manchester economy, and that has gone up as a result of subsequent
:42:04. > :42:09.cuts. We are talking about massive impact on the local economy. And
:42:09. > :42:13.can of course, local government in particular has been one of the
:42:13. > :42:17.hardest-hit sectors of public spending. There is only one or two
:42:17. > :42:21.other areas that have been hit worse. But is having a big effect
:42:21. > :42:24.on local employment. The figure that I saw that the beginning of
:42:24. > :42:28.the squeeze to the end, but the product of communities which
:42:28. > :42:36.basically means local councils, will have seen 60% of its budget
:42:36. > :42:40.disappeared. You cannot be happy about that. It is certainly the
:42:40. > :42:44.case that local government has been hit hard. But when spending is
:42:44. > :42:47.being protected in the health service and on schools, and
:42:47. > :42:52.spending is being increased on international development which I
:42:52. > :42:58.absolutely support, there are other budgets which are going to take a
:42:58. > :43:02.big hit. Local government has been one of those. It is important that
:43:02. > :43:07.it whether local councils are not getting the kind of revenue that
:43:07. > :43:11.they are getting before, that they use their reserves. Hang on, John,
:43:11. > :43:15.you cannot get away with some of those things. You have talked about
:43:15. > :43:20.protecting the health service. The Treasury snaffled back �2 billion
:43:20. > :43:23.last year. You have wasted �3 billion on pointless
:43:24. > :43:27.reorganisations. And now you are taking 3 billion actually out of
:43:27. > :43:30.the health service and putting it into local government. Putting it
:43:30. > :43:35.into social care to save money in the health service. To cover the
:43:35. > :43:42.cuts to have made in local government. To have more trying
:43:42. > :43:45.DUP... I would like to interrupt you. Very simply, they are hiding,
:43:46. > :43:49.papering over the cracks in local government and social care. This
:43:50. > :43:56.breaks the coalition agreement. Let me say to you, in my view, a
:43:56. > :43:59.further 10% cut in local authority budgets is eye-watering. This will
:43:59. > :44:03.have a dramatic effect on the north-west of the structure, on the
:44:03. > :44:07.fabric of our society. Rosie, why are you criticising the
:44:07. > :44:12.government's plans went Labour says it would stick to the St dead --
:44:12. > :44:16.spending plans itself? The same spending limits? Let's see when we
:44:16. > :44:20.are -- where really have to make those decisions. Are you saying you
:44:20. > :44:23.are being misled by the Labour Party? I am saying the Labour Party
:44:23. > :44:27.will make their decisions when they get there. They have already made
:44:27. > :44:30.the decision, they have told us they will stick to the Stent --
:44:30. > :44:33.spending limit. That will be when they look at what is going on. The
:44:33. > :44:37.truth is, our choices will be very different to the choice is the
:44:37. > :44:44.coverage -- coalition government are making. They are actually
:44:44. > :44:47.putting workers and families on the front line. Let me interrupt,
:44:47. > :44:57.awards to show you what's Jo Anderson the Mayor of Liverpool
:44:57. > :45:08.
:45:08. > :45:11.He is pretty angry. That is a his position, I do not accept that.
:45:11. > :45:15.believe that what the coalition are doing today, they are not dealing
:45:15. > :45:25.with growth, they are not putting anything into the economy. But his
:45:25. > :45:32.
:45:32. > :45:37.what he thinks, but he is not happy Another Labour leader in the north-
:45:37. > :45:42.west that says that your party is on the wrong track. I am not a
:45:42. > :45:48.front Bencher, and I am saying to you that we need to stand up to the
:45:48. > :45:54.Lib Dem coalition, Tory-led government, and we can and we will.
:45:54. > :45:59.I genuinely think that they are used Ink fair this as an excuse.
:45:59. > :46:04.They are saying that the -- they are using feathers as an excuse.
:46:04. > :46:08.They are saying the top 5%, the top 5th of people are being affected,
:46:08. > :46:12.there in pip -- in cubs are affected worst. The truth is that
:46:12. > :46:16.what we now that is the bottom 5th are being affected by the same
:46:16. > :46:20.amount. They are the people who use the services that they are cutting.
:46:20. > :46:25.Cologne, what is the future for the north-west economy as a result of a
:46:25. > :46:28.all this? To be fair for the Labour Party, one of the things they have
:46:28. > :46:33.said it is they would potentially borrowed more money for investment.
:46:33. > :46:37.Not for current spending, but for investment. It is perfectly
:46:37. > :46:41.feasible at the moment. At the moment the Bank of England is
:46:41. > :46:46.buying back government debt and it owns 300 to be �5 billion of
:46:46. > :46:49.government debt. On which the government pays interest, and the
:46:50. > :46:53.Bank of England gives it back to the Treasury. We are literally
:46:53. > :46:57.boring money for nothing. And that can be used for investment purposes.
:46:57. > :47:00.-- borrowing money for nothing. Now, this time last year, the
:47:00. > :47:03.Olympic Torch had passed through the North West and local athletes
:47:03. > :47:05.were preparing for glory. But 12 months on there's concern that
:47:05. > :47:08.councils are cutting leisure budgets and there's not enough PE
:47:08. > :47:18.in schools. Stuart Pollitt's been asking, what's the real Olympic
:47:18. > :47:19.
:47:19. > :47:23.legacy? Victoria Pendleton has done it!
:47:23. > :47:29.is the Olympic sprint champion! He wins the Gold Medal! Gold medals
:47:29. > :47:32.were won on this track were created on this track. This national
:47:32. > :47:39.cycling centre is home to elite riders but it is also the home to
:47:39. > :47:42.people who peddle a to moan -- more sedate pace. Social cycling has
:47:42. > :47:46.soared over last year's, with more and more people like Victoria
:47:46. > :47:49.getting on their bikes. Before the Olympics, I do not think anyone had
:47:49. > :47:53.seen a bike track like this. It is something new and Britain --
:47:53. > :47:58.different, and Great Britain are the best of it. It was like, I want
:47:58. > :48:03.at the base of that. The Velodrome got 20 calls a day before the
:48:03. > :48:13.Olympics, after that, it was 200 calls a day. It was a massive
:48:13. > :48:16.uplift in interest in cycling. how much did me into her!
:48:16. > :48:20.Handball men nothing to these children a year ago. They had never
:48:20. > :48:25.heard of let alone played the sport until the Olympics. Now they are
:48:25. > :48:31.the best school site in Manchester. It made you want to be there and
:48:31. > :48:40.play it. We have no clue before, we did not know how to play. Two Leeds
:48:40. > :48:44.later, we were champions. playtime, you see them playing, we
:48:44. > :48:50.have got football that and basketball nets, but they only
:48:50. > :48:54.choose to play handball. At this school, pupils are plenty
:48:54. > :49:02.of time to play sport but that is not the big to every level stop it
:49:02. > :49:10.is less than the air since the Now we have got 60% of each
:49:10. > :49:14.school's saying that fewer people are playing sport. There are few
:49:14. > :49:19.Prada Sport in towns in the region than we give. These boards on an
:49:19. > :49:23.epic heroes. -- that we him. But for local authorities in towns like
:49:23. > :49:30.this, it is becoming increasingly difficult to help champions of the
:49:30. > :49:36.future. Children are struggling to pay the fees and get it. These kids
:49:36. > :49:39.at the coalface are not going to be participating in sport. The council
:49:39. > :49:49.says it is Barratt risings bald and blame central government for
:49:49. > :49:53.
:49:53. > :49:57.There are cutbacks, but we have tried to keep things going. Even
:49:57. > :50:03.football, or watched by millions each week at the top level, has
:50:03. > :50:07.seen participation trapped by 11%. I can see the reasons why it there
:50:07. > :50:12.has been a drop, there are so many other opportunities as well as
:50:12. > :50:16.football. The amount of activities my children do is unbelievable
:50:16. > :50:21.compared to the opportunities that I had, so we need to keep people
:50:21. > :50:25.involved in sport. A year ago, sporting success was measured in
:50:25. > :50:30.medals. But while politicians debate have to measure the game's
:50:30. > :50:37.legacy, will our future medallists have the call -- tools and legacy
:50:37. > :50:42.to achieve their goals? Some sports are proving popular, other less so,
:50:42. > :50:47.what is the problem? It is in places like West
:50:47. > :50:50.Lancashire where the Olympic torch passed through, Ormskirk, it passed
:50:50. > :50:57.through and it was extinguished one month after the Olympics finished
:50:57. > :51:03.when the council demolished the sports centre in Skelmersdale, with
:51:03. > :51:08.no replacement envisaged. It was quite old, it would have cost money
:51:08. > :51:14.to keep it going. Absolut Lee, but was it a surprise that it needed
:51:14. > :51:18.work doing to it? I don't think so. That is not an Olympic legacy. West
:51:18. > :51:23.Lancashire has a reputation for badly drained sports field, we are
:51:23. > :51:26.finally going to rescue one lot, with the help of local people and
:51:26. > :51:31.the Football Association. Those football pitches are not used by
:51:31. > :51:39.local children, they are having to go and visit other areas. It is
:51:39. > :51:44.ridiculous from a cow will have got tens of millions in the bank. Would
:51:44. > :51:49.you prefer that we did not have the a Olympics?
:51:49. > :51:53.No, but we wanted to keep our Olympic promise. We said that we
:51:53. > :51:57.would inspire a generation through sport and we are not doing it. John,
:51:57. > :52:03.most people clearly enjoyed the Olympics. It is fair to say that
:52:03. > :52:07.London benefited most. Have we benefited enough? Participation is
:52:07. > :52:13.up in Manchester, where as it is down across the country. This is
:52:13. > :52:16.the first Olympics weather has been an Olympic legacy. There -- that is
:52:16. > :52:24.testament -- testimony to the previous and current Govan for
:52:24. > :52:29.carrying on the legacy. Rosie is saying there has not been enough.
:52:29. > :52:32.At parties of the nation has gone down as budgets were attacked.
:52:32. > :52:37.There has been a legacy. We have got to protect our local leisure
:52:37. > :52:42.centres. When you got local councils of different political
:52:42. > :52:45.colours, threatening to close certain services, that is when
:52:45. > :52:55.people think, I am not going to continue to go there, I will go
:52:55. > :52:55.
:52:55. > :52:59.somewhere else. If they can.Some people can afford it, some cannot.
:52:59. > :53:04.We have got to maintain our local services, our football pitches, and
:53:04. > :53:09.keep our centres open. What about schools and P? I remember when the
:53:09. > :53:16.government came in, it's scrapped the schools publish it, was that a
:53:16. > :53:21.mistake? That was accepted that it was a mistake, but the money was
:53:22. > :53:27.put in. It was weird to break something and then a couple of
:53:27. > :53:31.years later to fix it. I think Michael Gove has some interesting
:53:31. > :53:37.ideas on education, I rarely agree with him. He recognised that was a
:53:37. > :53:42.mistake and that is why the money was put back him. Two years was
:53:42. > :53:45.wasted, the Olympic legacy was wasted. It is very is sad that we
:53:45. > :53:50.could have built on that. The whole country was behind the Olympics.
:53:50. > :53:56.The amount of people who got behind that, talked -- porches that ran
:53:56. > :53:59.through cities across the Sat -- country and the north-west, and
:53:59. > :54:05.then the government took money out, and then put money back, and wanted
:54:05. > :54:09.credit? I don't think so. Do not sit there and say that of a thing
:54:09. > :54:12.is OK. These cuts are having a dramatic effect on families,
:54:12. > :54:16.children and children across the north-west.
:54:16. > :54:17.Time for the rest of the week's news now. Here's a roundup in 60
:54:17. > :54:20.Seconds. Cumbria police will investigate
:54:20. > :54:23.whether staff at the Care Quality Commission broke the law when they
:54:23. > :54:30.allegedly covered up the content of an internal report into Morecambe
:54:30. > :54:34.Bay NHS Trust. They deny wrongdoing. Teachers abandoned their classrooms
:54:34. > :54:39.to join a regional one day strike over pay, pensions and conditions.
:54:39. > :54:41.National action could follow. The Conservative leader of Cheshire
:54:41. > :54:48.East Council attacked UKIP for welcoming this man, Brian Silvester,
:54:48. > :54:52.as a councillor. Mr Silvester quit the Tories after being fined for
:54:52. > :54:54.safety breaches as a landlord. Meanwhile, Liverpool's youngest
:54:54. > :55:04.councillor quit Labour following his row with local MP Luciana
:55:04. > :55:05.
:55:05. > :55:09.Berger. Jake Morrison now plans to stand against her. I have got real
:55:09. > :55:14.socialist values which are the think the Labour Party have not got
:55:14. > :55:17.at the moment. And back of the net, Liverpool City
:55:17. > :55:21.Council and football club revealed plans for a �260 million revamp of
:55:21. > :55:25.Anfield. The scheme includes a new hotel and better houses.
:55:25. > :55:30.Since we have been talking about sport, you have got a meeting this
:55:30. > :55:34.week with the FA to talk about homophobic chanting? The FA are
:55:34. > :55:38.coming in to talk about what they are doing to tackle the issue of
:55:38. > :55:42.homophobic chants in which as a major problem in football grounds,
:55:42. > :55:45.particularly for fans of Brighton, so they are coming in to talk about
:55:45. > :55:51.what is being done and what extra things can be done to tackle the
:55:52. > :55:57.problem. Is that a priority? It or bigger it to see the FA doing