Browse content similar to 03/02/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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�32 billion has been set aside for high-speed rail. Has the Government | :01:30. | :01:40. | |
:01:40. | :01:40. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2424 seconds | :01:40. | :42:05. | |
loan to any lessons from Kent's Hello, I am Natalie Graham. Coming | :42:05. | :42:14. | |
up later: Adriana resources or if it falls source of labour? | :42:14. | :42:22. | |
-- and drain on resources. Joining me to date Gareth Johnson | :42:22. | :42:29. | |
and Trudy Dean. First, Tunbridge Wells City Council is amongst the | :42:29. | :42:34. | |
local of priorities which have been called democracy dodgers By Eric | :42:34. | :42:39. | |
Pickles. They're planning to raise council tax without a local | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
referendum. The Conservative leaders have written to the Prime | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
Minister protesting at the negative comments being directed at hard- | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
pressed local authorities by government ministers. Trudy Dean, | :42:52. | :42:56. | |
you must have some sympathy with your opposite number in this | :42:56. | :43:04. | |
situation. All free authorities are pushing in a legal budget. Eric | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
Pickles is saying he wants to change the rules. What has shocked | :43:09. | :43:15. | |
me about Mr Carter's letter is it was written with 30 other | :43:15. | :43:18. | |
conservative leaders across the country and it pleads for a better | :43:18. | :43:24. | |
councillors pensions and it pleads for the survival of the | :43:24. | :43:30. | |
Conservative Party at the next election. He should be asking for a | :43:30. | :43:35. | |
better welfare, benefits and the unfair council tax changes to be | :43:35. | :43:41. | |
dumped. They will all be affecting the poorest people in society. | :43:41. | :43:46. | |
Gareth Johnson, either way you look at it, you grassroots members, the | :43:46. | :43:52. | |
people you will need at the next election are being given negative | :43:52. | :43:56. | |
comments by a government minister. It will not look good. It is quite | :43:56. | :44:01. | |
natural for any local authority to say they want more money. I think | :44:01. | :44:06. | |
there is no excuse for any council not to freeze its council tax this | :44:06. | :44:14. | |
year. Kent County Council has done that. I commend them for doing so. | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
They have managed to do so without affecting frontline services which | :44:18. | :44:23. | |
is vital as well. You are not concerned about the tone of | :44:23. | :44:29. | |
language being used by Eric Pickles? I think it is perfectly | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
understandable when local-authority leaders say, we need as much | :44:32. | :44:36. | |
assistance as you can give to us a resort with the problem is that we | :44:36. | :44:46. | |
:44:46. | :44:47. | ||
have both got. The Government has announced plans for the North to | :44:47. | :44:53. | |
South HS2. It will cost �32 billion but we are promised economic | :44:53. | :44:58. | |
regeneration. Similar claims were made when HS1 was launched a decade | :44:58. | :45:08. | |
:45:08. | :45:15. | ||
The Government is going full steam ahead with plans for HS2. But has | :45:16. | :45:22. | |
HS1 put the South East on the fast track to economic boom? It promised | :45:22. | :45:27. | |
London to the -- in less than an hour. And economic regeneration | :45:27. | :45:33. | |
with billions to the South East economy. So, have journey times | :45:33. | :45:39. | |
reduced? It is 37 minutes from Ashford to reach London and the | :45:39. | :45:44. | |
service is reliable. Although the new trains run from stations around | :45:44. | :45:48. | |
the east Kent, mainly get faster when they joined the high-speed | :45:48. | :45:55. | |
line. For commuters, St Pancras is not a convenient destination for | :45:55. | :46:02. | |
working in the city. I have taken that journey and I got to my desk | :46:02. | :46:05. | |
20 minutes after I would have done that if I had taken my regular | :46:05. | :46:12. | |
service. John's MP promises the high-speed says -- says promises | :46:12. | :46:20. | |
the high-speed line would join more lines has not been kept. This was | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
done on the understanding that that behind east Kent would benefit, we | :46:24. | :46:32. | |
have not got that benefit. The Kent Coast line is slower still to make | :46:32. | :46:38. | |
way for the fast trains from Ashford. By that time domestic | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
trains were added to Eurostar services four years ago, building | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
the high-speed line had already gone 18% over budget. Passenger | :46:48. | :46:53. | |
numbers were overestimated with less than a third of the predicted | :46:53. | :47:00. | |
Eurostar travellers. As a result, it is taxpayers were picking up the | :47:00. | :47:08. | |
cost. They are expected to reach �10.2 billion in 60 years. That is | :47:08. | :47:14. | |
compared to an estimated value up on journeys savings of �6 million. | :47:14. | :47:18. | |
South-east commuters have borne the brunt with increased fare ticket | :47:19. | :47:26. | |
prices. As a commuter, we are taxpayers, we are also funding real | :47:26. | :47:31. | |
trouble. We're being hit with high taxes, higher rail fares. It is not | :47:31. | :47:37. | |
fair. There are no firm figures to show how many jobs have been | :47:37. | :47:43. | |
created. But experts say lack of joined-up thinking means towns in | :47:43. | :47:48. | |
Kent have not enjoyed the regeneration they were promised. | :47:48. | :47:54. | |
New developments have yet to materialise. In Ashford, employment | :47:54. | :47:59. | |
and house prices have risen slower than in neighbouring towns. | :47:59. | :48:03. | |
problem with Ashford is you have the station and the railway which | :48:03. | :48:09. | |
divide the town. It creates a bit of a waste land here. If you had | :48:09. | :48:15. | |
development close and a rounded it would create a business environment. | :48:15. | :48:19. | |
This Economist says the Government has not done enough to attract | :48:19. | :48:25. | |
private investment to Kent. There are lessons to be learned, but it | :48:25. | :48:29. | |
shows that you need to have some sort of additional planning | :48:29. | :48:34. | |
development that goes around it. Just putting in a new rail line | :48:34. | :48:39. | |
does not create development in itself. With HS2 connections from | :48:39. | :48:44. | |
London to the north in place, would Kent's are a club get any better? | :48:44. | :48:51. | |
lot would depend on whether HS1 is properly linked to HS2. How many | :48:51. | :48:55. | |
services from the North of England would be allowed to go through, | :48:55. | :49:02. | |
would they be economic revival? The original plan with HS1 was for | :49:02. | :49:07. | |
services to run through to Manchester and Leeds. With | :49:07. | :49:10. | |
questions over its value for money and economic benefits, shouldn't | :49:10. | :49:15. | |
the Government sought out the problems of high speed one before | :49:15. | :49:19. | |
spending �32 billion of taxpayers' money on a project that could go | :49:19. | :49:25. | |
off the rails? Earlier I spoke to the transport | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
minister and Norman Baker in his constituency about the claims made | :49:29. | :49:37. | |
in that report. Do you agree that HS1 has not | :49:37. | :49:41. | |
delivered all benefits week that were promised. It has been very | :49:41. | :49:51. | |
:49:51. | :49:52. | ||
good for Kent and the UK. A report suggested it created 100,000 jobs, | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
and brought �20 billion of benefit to the UK plc. The National Audit | :49:56. | :50:02. | |
Office last year had a different view of HS1. Financially it is | :50:02. | :50:07. | |
predicted to be a disaster. �10 billion to the taxpayer in 60 | :50:08. | :50:13. | |
years' time. It is not in a disaster. The Eurostar has more and | :50:14. | :50:19. | |
more passengers. We are seeing more destinations coming on line. The | :50:19. | :50:23. | |
intention is to link through to Amsterdam and Frankfurt and | :50:23. | :50:30. | |
portance cities such as that. With HS2, we will see trains going from | :50:30. | :50:34. | |
places like M there right the way through to Frankfurt. Most people | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
in the South East are worried about getting to London and doing their | :50:37. | :50:42. | |
job. We heard the commuter who said it takes 20 minutes longer any goes | :50:42. | :50:46. | |
to the wrong station. It is a worse service but they are paying more | :50:46. | :50:51. | |
for a it. I have sympathy for people who feel they're being | :50:51. | :50:58. | |
disadvantaged. We embarked upon, as a government, the largest rail | :50:58. | :51:06. | |
improvements since the 19th century. There is a huge investment and I | :51:06. | :51:16. | |
:51:16. | :51:17. | ||
want to make sure everyone across the country benefits. As part of | :51:17. | :51:21. | |
this multi-billion pound investment in the railways, could people have | :51:21. | :51:26. | |
that extension they were promised all those years ago? I do not know | :51:26. | :51:32. | |
who promised them or what point, but I'm not quite sure of a high- | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
speed extension is likely to occur. It is important we do what we can | :51:36. | :51:40. | |
to help people in the commuter areas around London to make sure | :51:40. | :51:46. | |
the local train does not get worse, and of course in terms of fares. | :51:46. | :51:52. | |
The Government is committed to ending the above-inflation | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
increases. Of you see the impact of commuter fares is higher on my | :51:57. | :52:03. | |
agenda. Many people feel they are paying higher fares, the taxpayer | :52:03. | :52:08. | |
has been saddled with nearly �5 billion of debt because of HS1, and | :52:08. | :52:12. | |
they're not getting any benefits. Slower trains now going where they | :52:12. | :52:19. | |
want. The point I had just made you is there has been a significant | :52:19. | :52:25. | |
increase in jobs and houses in the Kent area as a consequence of a HS1. | :52:25. | :52:28. | |
The environment will downsize we were told about when HS1 was | :52:28. | :52:34. | |
planned, they have not materialised. I remember seeing on the news it | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
would destroy Kent countryside. We have heard no complaints about the | :52:39. | :52:42. | |
environmental impact. Kent should be buoyant about the fact they have | :52:42. | :52:47. | |
a high-speed line there, it is a showcase for the country. It has | :52:47. | :52:52. | |
been good for Kent and good for the UK. There have been issues around | :52:52. | :52:56. | |
the Kent line and we are not oblivious to them. When it comes to | :52:56. | :53:01. | |
HS2, people will hear what you're saying about economic benefits to | :53:01. | :53:05. | |
the north. These disgruntled people in the South East would argue they | :53:05. | :53:10. | |
are not getting the benefits from HS1, might they feel -- might they | :53:10. | :53:15. | |
not feel that HS2 will not do anything economic league for the | :53:15. | :53:21. | |
South East of England? It will put Ashford in a position where the | :53:21. | :53:24. | |
connections are simpler to the Continent and better connections | :53:24. | :53:32. | |
north. There will be trains from Ashford for, say, Edinburgh. They | :53:32. | :53:40. | |
will be part of a high-speed network, rather than a single line. | :53:40. | :53:45. | |
Gareth Johnson, I will put the same point to you. Most people in north | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
Kent are not seeing the benefits of HS1, but they have to pay more for | :53:49. | :53:55. | |
it. I remember when HS1 was first envisaged, and we had the same | :53:55. | :54:01. | |
argument then as we are having now with HS2. Most of the fears people | :54:01. | :54:11. | |
:54:11. | :54:11. | ||
had with HS1 have not materialised. I accept that there are some issues. | :54:11. | :54:15. | |
Would you not rather see the Government's spending 32 billion on | :54:15. | :54:20. | |
an extension to the HS1 and improve the whole network rather than | :54:20. | :54:24. | |
putting one controversial line through the North? I can understand | :54:24. | :54:28. | |
why people would want that. I would like to see CrossRail out of | :54:28. | :54:38. | |
:54:38. | :54:39. | ||
Dartford. But if you look at what has happened at HS1. Blue water | :54:39. | :54:44. | |
came in part because of it. I accept there is down sides like | :54:44. | :54:48. | |
parking and fares to use the service, but generally it has been | :54:48. | :54:55. | |
a good thing for the area. Trudy Dean, where do you stand on this? | :54:55. | :55:01. | |
You were in the west of the area. Have you seen any benefits? I have | :55:01. | :55:06. | |
seen at a loss of domestic services on the Maidstone line. At the same | :55:06. | :55:11. | |
time, we can go and pick up the high-speed rail line which reduces | :55:11. | :55:16. | |
the time into London for just over an hour and a quarter down to 40 | :55:16. | :55:22. | |
minutes. There are some lessons to be learned in Kent, we need to look | :55:22. | :55:27. | |
at a faster planning system. It looks 16 years to get HS1 into | :55:27. | :55:33. | |
place, we do not want to see that replicated. We want to see higher | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
compensation so people Laura affected can be sorted more quickly. | :55:37. | :55:43. | |
Do you think there is anything that could have been done in retrospect | :55:43. | :55:47. | |
to make sure that regeneration at Ashford could have happened? It is | :55:47. | :55:52. | |
very difficult. We have to look set it in terms of the recession we are | :55:52. | :55:58. | |
now in. In that location there is double the number of people using | :55:58. | :56:06. | |
the high-speed line to get into London. We have all thought about | :56:06. | :56:09. | |
economic development as attracting business into Kent, there's very | :56:10. | :56:19. | |
:56:20. | :56:20. | ||
little evidence of that. But it has expanded London's commuter-belt. | :56:20. | :56:25. | |
Tens of thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians could come and settle in | :56:25. | :56:28. | |
the South East when EU labour restrictions are lifted at the | :56:28. | :56:32. | |
beginning of next year. The head of the Brighton Housing Trust has | :56:32. | :56:37. | |
reportedly concerned about adding to the City's housing problems. | :56:37. | :56:41. | |
Kent fruit farmers are worried they are going to lose their seasonal | :56:41. | :56:46. | |
agricultural workers if the Romanian and Bulgarian workers they | :56:46. | :56:49. | |
currently rely on decide to take better-paid long-term jobs | :56:49. | :56:57. | |
elsewhere. Joining us is the Bulgarian ambassador. Hello, I | :56:57. | :57:02. | |
wonder if you could answer a few questions for us. How many people | :57:02. | :57:05. | |
from your country do you think would want to come to the UK that | :57:05. | :57:15. | |
are not already here? This is very hard to predict. It is wrong to say | :57:15. | :57:19. | |
that there will be an opening of the markets from a situation of | :57:19. | :57:29. | |
four but then sectors, the year 2014 will see a limitation of the | :57:29. | :57:35. | |
current restrictions to a fuller access. It is very wrong to suggest | :57:35. | :57:43. | |
that people just out of the Pru will get away from its seasonal | :57:43. | :57:47. | |
work to a more highly qualified job as if they could get a miraculous | :57:47. | :57:53. | |
qualifications. Seasonal workers may continue to work the seasonal | :57:53. | :58:00. | |
work. Hire qualified work make fill posts that you're economy needs. | :58:00. | :58:04. | |
What you make of the idea that the British government will discourage | :58:04. | :58:10. | |
people from your country to come here? This has been disproved by | :58:10. | :58:16. | |
the acting ambassador for the UK. The ladies said Bulgarians and | :58:16. | :58:22. | |
Romanians are welcome to work legally in the UK in accordance | :58:22. | :58:27. | |
with the UK and European legislation before and after the | :58:27. | :58:37. | |
:58:37. | :58:39. | ||
first January, 20 fort team. -- 2014. Apparently the Romanians are | :58:39. | :58:44. | |
fighting back with their own advert. Maybe you would like to tell us why | :58:44. | :58:49. | |
people from your country would make good employees. Because this has | :58:49. | :58:54. | |
been the situation since the start of the democratic changes in Europe. | :58:54. | :59:00. | |
The Bulgarians at work like doctors, nurses and strawberry pickers. And | :59:01. | :59:06. | |
social workers caring for the elderly and children in the UK. | :59:06. | :59:12. | |
They are well integrated and have good speaking and linguistic skills. | :59:12. | :59:16. | |
Indeed their numbers are very low and could not represent any threat | :59:16. | :59:25. | |
to the labour market of the United Kingdom. Gareth Johnson, are you | :59:25. | :59:28. | |
concerned about the term the Government is adopting about being | :59:28. | :59:34. | |
so negative about encouraging workers to the UK? William Hague | :59:34. | :59:39. | |
made it clear last week in the House of Commons. There is no | :59:39. | :59:43. | |
intention of putting out videos in any way critical of Bulgaria or | :59:43. | :59:51. | |
Romania. Or vice versa. We have got to understand that of course people | :59:51. | :59:54. | |
are concerned we will have uncontrolled immigration coming | :59:54. | :59:59. | |
into this country. The Government must look if there are steps we can | :59:59. | :00:04. | |
take to mitigate any problems that may occur. There's also a danger we | :00:04. | :00:09. | |
could over react to this situation. In Ireland and France they lifted | :00:09. | :00:14. | |
their restrictions completely and have had no difficulties whatsoever. | :00:14. | :00:17. | |
They have not had the numbers coming into those countries they | :00:17. | :00:24. | |
were concerned about. Trudy Dean, I mentioned in the beginning a lot of | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
farmers are concerned about this seasonal agricultural workers they | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
rely on going for better-paid jobs, perhaps in care homes are in the | :00:34. | :00:39. | |
city. Is that something to worry about? I think it is fairly | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
unlikely. People who come over, usually come over for part of the | :00:44. | :00:50. | |
year and then go back again. I do think Gareth is right, we do need | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
to be concerned. The ambassador is correct, we do need skilled workers | :00:55. | :01:01. | |
to keep our services running, but when we are looking at the | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
situation in the UK we have a recession. A lot of people are | :01:05. | :01:11. | |
unemployed and clearly we are going to be concerned. No-one is | :01:11. | :01:20. | |
collecting reliable data. We do not have figures on any of this. We | :01:20. | :01:26. | |
have to get that data before we can have a sensible conversation. | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
Government does not want to do at the last government did and | :01:29. | :01:34. | |
underestimate the number of migrant workers. That is right. We had to | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
work very hard reducing the number of people coming to this country. | :01:39. | :01:47. | |
More needs to be done. It is time for a round-up of the week's | :01:48. | :01:57. | |
political -- events. Kent County Council wants 44 | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
primary schools to take on extra pupils next year to me to a severe | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
shortage of places. Parents say roads to village schools cannot | :02:06. | :02:13. | |
cope. Over 50% occupancy will be from outside the area. You can only | :02:13. | :02:21. | |
us in those people will drive. million a was spent on high a speed | :02:21. | :02:27. | |
of gambling machines in Medway last year. They say they are saving | :02:27. | :02:33. | |
taxpayers' money by not asking for council housing, but the council | :02:33. | :02:40. | |
wants so-called land Weller's band. There is relief for two MPs who | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
could sit -- whose constituencies will not be under threat after | :02:45. | :02:55. | |
:02:55. | :03:01. | ||
plans for boundary changes will not Good for communities and good for | :03:01. | :03:06. | |
some Liberal Democrat MPs. Gareth Johnson, you may be could have | :03:06. | :03:11. | |
afforded to lose Hugh Roberts in terms of the Conservative hold, but | :03:11. | :03:18. | |
the Lib Dems could not. It is absolutely right you have a member | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
of parliament representing the same number of people and that is our | :03:21. | :03:27. | |
intention with the boundary changes. At the moment we could beat that | :03:27. | :03:35. | |
Labour Party by 2 million but still only win one seat. It has ensured | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
that the weight of people's vote in one area is different to another. | :03:40. | :03:47. | |
Some MPs represent 50,000 people, some represent 100,000 people. That | :03:47. | :03:57. | |
:03:57. | :04:00. | ||
needed to change. People objected to these boundary proposals which | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
give us an extraordinary shipped constituency. It was very unpopular | :04:05. | :04:11. | |
locally, I am pleased to see it gone. One question about school | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
places, this is a big problem in this part of the world, is it right | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
to encourage people from outside the area to other schools? We have | :04:21. | :04:26. | |
an increase in the birthrate and we have to provide for those children. | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
Parents are quite right to be concerned about safety outside the | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
school gates. The Liberal Democrats have suggested in every manifesto | :04:35. | :04:41. |