:01:35. > :01:45.In the South West, nurses hope that the threat of regional papers over,
:01:45. > :01:46.
:01:46. > :37:20.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2134 seconds
:37:20. > :37:24.but now teachers say they are about Hello, IM Martyn Oates. Coming up.
:37:25. > :37:29.The teachers to fear the government is about to give them regional pay
:37:30. > :37:34.by the back door. I have got a Plymothian panel of guests this
:37:34. > :37:37.week. Alison Seabeck and Baroness Fookes who sits for the
:37:38. > :37:44.Conservatives in the House of Lords but for a long time was the MP for
:37:44. > :37:47.the now vanished seat of Plymouth Drake. Welcome to you both. The row
:37:47. > :37:53.over the government's plans for minimum alcohol pricing continues
:37:53. > :37:56.to rumble on. On Thursday Ben Bradshaw made a game at but
:37:56. > :38:03.unsuccessful attempt to take the cider industry's concerns to the
:38:03. > :38:07.Farming Minister. Does he accept that the government's plan to
:38:07. > :38:13.regulate for a minimum alcohol prize will have a devastating
:38:13. > :38:17.impact on a West Country cider farmers? Well, he is very well
:38:17. > :38:24.aware that because of my constituency interests I cannot
:38:24. > :38:28.answer that question in a ministerial capacity. I can say...
:38:28. > :38:37.He appears not to know the procedure of the house. I cannot
:38:37. > :38:43.sit down and ask my honourable friend to stand up in my place sex
:38:43. > :38:48.macro --!. Could you advise him on the procedures of the House? What I
:38:48. > :38:54.will say is that we take the matter seriously and my honourable friend
:38:54. > :38:58.is that I'm sure taking the appropriate measures. He is a big
:38:58. > :39:04.opponent of minimum alcohol pricing and you do not agree. Have you been
:39:04. > :39:09.persuaded that there is a problem for cider producers? There is an
:39:09. > :39:14.interesting issue around this and a micro-breweries in general. English
:39:14. > :39:19.cider is very strong. If you have a minimum price, we will be
:39:19. > :39:23.particularly hit. Whether or not there is another formulation that
:39:23. > :39:29.would suit micro-breweries or cider makers, I do not have a quick
:39:29. > :39:33.answer. I do believe we have to do something about the pricing levels.
:39:33. > :39:37.It is far too easy to get poor- quality, but very high-volume
:39:37. > :39:44.alcohol cheaply in supermarkets and we need to stop that and encourage
:39:44. > :39:48.people to drink in pubs. Are you an advocate of this? Yes I am. I think
:39:48. > :39:53.there is a very real problem with heavy drinking and I think we have
:39:53. > :39:57.to use every means that we can to try and help this. Of course, it is
:39:57. > :40:03.not the irrevocable. If we find it does not work and there are effects
:40:03. > :40:08.that we do not like... Or an exemption? I suspect that the
:40:08. > :40:13.people who are producing a decent side or or not the ones who are
:40:13. > :40:20.selling it very cheaply to people who are drinking too much. It is
:40:20. > :40:24.very strong, isn't it? You know a lot about parliamentary procedure,
:40:24. > :40:29.Ben Bradshaw said is it not strange we have a Farming Minister who can
:40:29. > :40:34.talk about every farming in the -- issue at length apart from cider?
:40:34. > :40:38.If I could jump in. I would question the advice he got prior to
:40:38. > :40:42.answering that question. It looks as if that was advice from a
:40:42. > :40:49.parliamentary council and on that basis, I could not answer questions
:40:49. > :40:54.on defence. It is a nonsense! Clegg when -- said when he
:40:54. > :41:00.appointed David Heap he said it was a good thing he came from a farming
:41:00. > :41:06.background. Anyone who has a vested interest is usually the person hint
:41:06. > :41:10.knows a great deal about it. He is not making cider as far as we know!
:41:10. > :41:13.Equally, if he had any sort of financial interest he would have
:41:13. > :41:19.declared it and he would not be answering the question in the first
:41:19. > :41:23.place. The government has abandoned the idea of introducing local pay
:41:23. > :41:26.across the public sector, that was announced by the Chancellor of the
:41:26. > :41:30.Exchequer in the Autumn Statement. Here, we still have a grip of
:41:30. > :41:33.health trusts to say they might do it anyway. Meanwhile, a major
:41:33. > :41:40.teaching union says teachers could now be saddled with something even
:41:40. > :41:45.worse. Throughout this year, NHS unions in the South West have kept
:41:46. > :41:50.up a protest campaign against plans to introduce regional pay. There is
:41:50. > :41:55.a roundabout 68,000 people who will be affected by these proposals and
:41:55. > :41:59.the need to think about the impact of reducing salaries of those
:41:59. > :42:03.people and their spending power in the region. We will see a local
:42:03. > :42:08.businesses are being affected because of this. The Autumn
:42:08. > :42:12.Statement seemed to suggest things are going up their way. This means
:42:12. > :42:16.continuing with national pay arrangements in the NHS and prison
:42:16. > :42:20.service and we will not make changes to the civil service
:42:20. > :42:24.arrangements either. The comments have delighted the region's MPs,
:42:24. > :42:29.but while the pressure to abandon plans for regional pay is mounting,
:42:29. > :42:32.but Chancellor has not removed the pressure on NHS budgets and if
:42:32. > :42:38.Health bosses are about to abandon these plans they might be wondering
:42:38. > :42:44.how they will find the money. the next few years we will have to
:42:44. > :42:48.make approximately around 40-�45 million worth of efficiency
:42:48. > :42:51.improvements and our staff costs alone, if we did nothing else, to
:42:51. > :42:58.have the same staff working in the same way with the same issues that
:42:58. > :43:01.we have got that will cost another �7 million more next year. I spoke
:43:01. > :43:05.to the press officer after the statement and he told me that the
:43:05. > :43:09.government's announcement on regional pay changes nothing for
:43:09. > :43:12.them. He pointed me to their response and it says that they are
:43:12. > :43:16.legally entitled to set local pay and conditions and they are still
:43:16. > :43:20.exploring this as a way of meeting the unprecedented challenges that
:43:20. > :43:24.they face. When the Deputy Prime Minister was asked to clear this
:43:24. > :43:28.that he said the Government was sending a clear message to the
:43:28. > :43:32.South West Health Trust, but he acknowledged that they are doing
:43:32. > :43:36.something separate from the announcement. They are entitled to
:43:36. > :43:40.explore options under the existing legislation as provided for by the
:43:40. > :43:45.last Labour government. We have announced that we are not going to
:43:45. > :43:50.go ahead with local regional pay in the public sector across the
:43:50. > :43:53.country as a whole. Whether or not nurses can breathe a sigh of relief,
:43:53. > :43:58.what the Chancellor said next is worrying for the South West
:43:58. > :44:01.teachers. But the School Teachers' Review Body does recommend much
:44:01. > :44:06.greater freedom to individual schools to set pay in line with
:44:06. > :44:10.performance. In a region with some of them was poorly funded education
:44:10. > :44:15.authorities and the country, teaching unions say this could mean
:44:15. > :44:19.regional pay by the back to work. Of a group of Head Teachers get
:44:19. > :44:29.together and say we are only going to pay the laws demand, which is a
:44:29. > :44:34.possibility, he will have teachers being paid the lowest amount at the
:44:34. > :44:38.lowest common denominator, so it is regional pay by the back door, only
:44:38. > :44:43.worse. The government says the schools will give schools greater
:44:43. > :44:46.flexibility to respond to specific conditions and reward their best
:44:46. > :44:53.teachers. A consultation will have to be carried out but the changes
:44:53. > :44:57.could come in in time for the start of the next school year. We're
:44:57. > :45:02.joined by Adrian Saunders, the Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay. A
:45:02. > :45:06.lot of MPs last week were rushing to declare the death of regional
:45:06. > :45:10.pay in the NHS before it had even been born, but that seems a bit
:45:10. > :45:16.premature when you listen to the consortium, still coming out of a
:45:16. > :45:21.lot of fighting top? They would be unwise not to listen to what many
:45:21. > :45:26.Conservative MPs as well as Liberal-Democrat MPs are saying.
:45:26. > :45:30.this face-saving? I hope that is what it is. The reality is there
:45:30. > :45:34.may be some good reasons for different trusts to come together
:45:34. > :45:39.looking at procurement and ways they might be able to save money.
:45:39. > :45:44.We're not saying it disband the consortium, we are saying it do not
:45:44. > :45:49.touch pay and conditions, leave that to be a national negotiations.
:45:49. > :45:54.I think you have reservations like most of the Conservative MPs in the
:45:54. > :45:58.South West about the idea of regional pay. Was it a bit of a
:45:58. > :46:02.waste of time at setting civil servants to look into this for a
:46:02. > :46:07.year for it to come to nothing? All of the voices were saying it would
:46:07. > :46:13.not work in a recession. I do not think so. If you start shutting the
:46:13. > :46:16.door or on a particular approach, you are cutting of possibilities,
:46:16. > :46:21.if at the end you decide it is not a good idea, that does not mean it
:46:21. > :46:25.was a waste to look at it. We have had the Chancellor say he wants
:46:25. > :46:31.civil servants to be more efficient and they might say if you are
:46:31. > :46:37.sending us on an errand like this, it is not using her time efficiency.
:46:37. > :46:41.That is over-egging the pudding. is Christmas! I do have
:46:41. > :46:45.reservations. It is a very good idea in theory, but when you
:46:45. > :46:51.actually come up to work it out in practice, you get so many
:46:51. > :46:55.difficulties, it is probably not what that. Had you think a hospital
:46:55. > :46:59.like Derriford Hospital will save the money it needs to save? There
:46:59. > :47:05.are many other ways in which they can operate more efficiently. I can
:47:05. > :47:10.give you an example of someone who turned up at a hospital in the
:47:10. > :47:16.South West thinking that she was going to have some examination of
:47:17. > :47:20.her spine, but the letter said it was at the shoulders. Instead of
:47:20. > :47:25.checking with whoever had sent her the letter as to which one it was,
:47:25. > :47:32.the insisted on doing the shoulders and she has to go back for a second
:47:32. > :47:35.appointment to do the spine. That is a waste of money. It seems that
:47:36. > :47:41.nurses are heaving a sigh of relief, teachers not though, what is your
:47:41. > :47:46.take on this? I was at school this morning Torquay into their head
:47:46. > :47:51.teacher about how she felt that this might work or not work. She is
:47:51. > :47:54.in a desperate place because at the moment there is a system for
:47:54. > :47:58.assessing staff and their performance within the school and
:47:58. > :48:04.whether or not they get increments through the process. That works
:48:04. > :48:11.reasonably well, it is well evidenced, she can make a judgment.
:48:11. > :48:16.The way this will operate now, she really was genuinely worried about
:48:16. > :48:20.how she would be able to properly assess performance and set that
:48:20. > :48:27.against perhaps a teacher who has come to the area on a much higher
:48:27. > :48:32.level, from another school or another region, and when you have
:48:32. > :48:38.got that person been paid more work, how does that fit into the existing
:48:38. > :48:43.structure? She may have been slightly more careful about the
:48:43. > :48:48.level she was putting people on. It is going to be a bit of a dog's
:48:48. > :48:54.breakfast, quite frankly, but the South West will see people leaving.
:48:54. > :48:59.We have heard the union say this is regional pay by the back door or
:48:59. > :49:05.something worse. I think there is a case for schools are being allowed
:49:05. > :49:08.to offer extra money for where there are a teacher shortages in
:49:08. > :49:12.importance objects. We have seen money made available for science,
:49:12. > :49:15.for mathematics and perhaps there are other subjects at there were
:49:15. > :49:23.schools ought to have that freedom. In terms of the practical
:49:23. > :49:29.difficulties, the fact that staff move around, the fact that in this
:49:29. > :49:34.area it is a high living area, high living cost area, high house cost
:49:34. > :49:39.area, if you want the best quality of staff, does that mean you pay
:49:39. > :49:42.more? Who pays for that at the end of the day? The bottom line is you
:49:43. > :49:47.do the same thing as with the health service, stick to national
:49:47. > :49:52.pay rates but to allow some flexibility for where there are
:49:52. > :49:57.shortages. Do you agree with the Chancellor? I am not sure where he
:49:57. > :50:03.is coming from on this one and I am not sure that he has made it clear
:50:03. > :50:06.as to what will happen within the education system. We must move on.
:50:06. > :50:10.Public sector pay was one thing in the mass of information announced
:50:10. > :50:15.by the Chancellor on Wednesday. We will be digging into some of the
:50:15. > :50:19.rest of that later. First here is one South West take on the
:50:19. > :50:23.statement from Scott Bingham. Given that the gloom and doom predicted
:50:23. > :50:27.ahead of the statement, many in the South West might be forgiven for
:50:27. > :50:30.thinking Christmas had come early. The Chancellor announced a �30
:50:30. > :50:35.million to remove one of the biggest bottlenecks on the main
:50:35. > :50:40.route into Cornwall, a single-lane stretch of the a 30 will become a
:50:40. > :50:46.dual carriageway. We are delighted to get this. It will help the
:50:46. > :50:51.tourist industry, it will have the manufacturing in, and we cannot
:50:51. > :50:56.wait to see that change. No next came the announcement that a rise
:50:56. > :51:02.in fuel duty was not just postponed, but scrapped altogether. Good news
:51:02. > :51:09.for motorists and a cautious welcome from this man. It will cut
:51:09. > :51:13.the company's costs. It is not an increased, but it is not a
:51:13. > :51:18.reduction. It is not a reduction, we're not having an increase that
:51:18. > :51:25.we would have to pass on. There could be more good news on the way.
:51:25. > :51:31.The government has also pledged to look at whether fuel duty rebate
:51:31. > :51:35.scheme might be extended to some rural areas although winning EU
:51:35. > :51:39.approval will be far from easy. What about kick-starting the
:51:40. > :51:43.economy and creating jobs? The Chancellor referred directly to the
:51:44. > :51:49.need for support for local enterprise partnerships set up to
:51:49. > :51:54.fill the gap left by a regional development agencies. We will
:51:54. > :51:57.provide new money to support the local enterprise partnerships and
:51:57. > :52:00.from 20th April 15 we will place more of the funding are currently
:52:00. > :52:05.goes to local transport has in skills and getting people back to
:52:05. > :52:09.work into a single pot that they can bid for. It is a boost for the
:52:09. > :52:14.confidence of them, smaller organise since with much smaller
:52:14. > :52:17.budgets and big boots to fill. We're happy to bid into the process
:52:17. > :52:22.and we are confident we would get an appropriate allocation of money
:52:22. > :52:26.for the projects we need. One way of boosting the economy is to get
:52:26. > :52:31.on with building that thousands of homes we are said to need here.
:52:31. > :52:36.This week and Major's scheme up for an Eco town stalled due to a lack
:52:36. > :52:41.of confidence in the system and concern of the economy. The
:52:41. > :52:45.Chancellor announced �146 million to build 9,000 homes across the
:52:45. > :52:50.region, the Chartered Institute of Housing said it was a small
:52:50. > :52:54.contribution but there is still hope it might help. My job as the
:52:54. > :52:59.local MP is to work with the government to see which parts of
:52:59. > :53:02.the scheme we can still deliver using some of the money which has
:53:02. > :53:09.been announced in the Autumn Statement. There were some
:53:09. > :53:14.disappointments, no super-fast prop banned for Plymouth and an expected
:53:14. > :53:18.confirmation for the share of flood defences in Exeter that never came.
:53:18. > :53:23.Cornwall council will need to find �30 million to match the government
:53:23. > :53:32.funding for the road scheme. In a region which is so often missing
:53:32. > :53:35.out in investment, there was and out of Christmas cheer. Unlike some
:53:35. > :53:40.budgets and Autumn Statement, I get the sense that Labour have not
:53:40. > :53:50.scented blood after this one. Is it fair to say he has made the best of
:53:50. > :53:53.
:53:53. > :53:59.a bad job? I would say no, with and I? -- with and I's he is carrying
:53:59. > :54:04.on on the path he has set himself. He is not prepared to budge. We
:54:04. > :54:10.heard about apparent money for housing, but it is not dealing
:54:10. > :54:13.with... Builders will build houses, there is not the market, there is
:54:13. > :54:19.not finance available, people cannot get mortgages. There is far
:54:19. > :54:24.more to this than making sweeping statements about money. He has to
:54:24. > :54:30.change direction. There are some Labour grumbling about the welfare
:54:30. > :54:36.cuts, but you are not saying they're definitely right or wrong.
:54:36. > :54:41.We need to move away from welfare. These are cuts that were hitting
:54:41. > :54:45.working people, people in low-wage jobs, they are being affected and
:54:45. > :54:52.particularly women. 80% of the changes to tax credits, they are
:54:52. > :54:56.hitting women. Were you still happy to wait and see what will happen?
:54:57. > :55:01.We will bring Adrian end. A number of Liberal Democrats have said
:55:01. > :55:07.because of the welfare cuts and because the budget is falling
:55:07. > :55:11.heavily on vulnerable people, this is toxic. The point she makes is a
:55:11. > :55:17.good one. The way that this was dressed up, of hurting people who
:55:17. > :55:22.are on welfare is wrong. Anyone on working tax credits, at a time when
:55:22. > :55:27.we are trying to encourage people into work, that is going to unravel
:55:27. > :55:30.and that is going to have to be looked at again. I do not think
:55:30. > :55:35.that will have any beneficial impact whatsoever. The fundamental
:55:35. > :55:39.problem that faces the Chancellor and would face the Labour Party is
:55:39. > :55:45.that the 18 pence in every pound of the government is spending is going
:55:45. > :55:49.on interest. So long as the markets accept the premise that we have a
:55:49. > :55:55.stable government, that interest rate will stay low. If it goes up,
:55:55. > :55:59.it will be 20p, 25p, over 50 pence in every pound they spend going in
:55:59. > :56:06.interest. That means you have to cut public spending even more than
:56:06. > :56:12.we are having to do so. That is the problem. He is right. On the
:56:12. > :56:18.housing issue, a lot of this has been announced already. A I am not
:56:18. > :56:23.sure that it has. There is an element of new money. A small one.
:56:23. > :56:26.Can I love that something else and that is the encouragement to small
:56:26. > :56:32.firms and let us remember that in the west Country there are many
:56:32. > :56:36.more at small and very small firms and there is definitely an
:56:36. > :56:44.indication that they want the banks to lend more and money to be set
:56:44. > :56:48.aside for that and in addition, writing off the cost of machinery
:56:48. > :56:52.for small firms can be pretty important and they are be much more
:56:52. > :56:55.generous about that. And is keen to talk about business, because his
:56:55. > :56:59.and this announcement that the local enterprise partnerships are
:56:59. > :57:05.to get more money, an admission that it was wrong to set them up to
:57:05. > :57:11.begin with's I am not sure I follow what you mean. They were set up
:57:11. > :57:18.with no budgets. Michael Heseltine has said that is nonsense, they
:57:18. > :57:26.need about it. They give him that job and he has done about job jolly
:57:26. > :57:31.well! They listened to Michael Heseltine on this. They are working
:57:31. > :57:36.very hard with the MPs. We were at Downing Street, a cross-party group,
:57:36. > :57:40.to get the Prime Minister to think about transition status, you from
:57:40. > :57:48.doing so that they can carry out some of the plans that they had no
:57:48. > :57:54.associated. They are variable. Ours is very proactive. We will be
:57:54. > :58:04.talking about funding in future. Thank you to Adrian. Time now for a
:58:04. > :58:06.
:58:06. > :58:11.round-up of the political week in 60 seconds. This gets its life
:58:11. > :58:15.extended yet again as we are kept waiting for news of its replacement.
:58:15. > :58:20.We are certain that it is safe to operate for a further seven years,
:58:20. > :58:25.if we were not certain, we would not go along with that. This energy
:58:25. > :58:31.may be green, but could it mean in Dorset's coast losing its World
:58:31. > :58:37.Heritage status. It is so much more than simply the rocks, it is about
:58:37. > :58:44.people coming to see it and the views from the site. The fight to
:58:44. > :58:49.save Portland search and rescue us but -- helicopter goes on. I am
:58:49. > :58:55.sure once they have heard the evidence hopefully they will change
:58:55. > :58:59.their mind. How are you feeling? In the week we year that there is
:58:59. > :59:01.another heir to the throne on the way, Prince Charles reminds us he
:59:01. > :59:11.is still pocketing the money of Cornish people who die without
:59:11. > :59:13.
:59:13. > :59:17.errors. - and an extension of the nuclear reactor, and the Spencer
:59:17. > :59:24.much time falling out with the Liberal Democrats you have taking
:59:24. > :59:30.your eye of the ball's I hope I haven't! We have had a worrying
:59:30. > :59:35.lack of policy, including during the Labour administration when we
:59:35. > :59:39.really should have been making some pretty firm decisions about future
:59:39. > :59:44.energy policy and unless we pull our fingers out, we are going to
:59:44. > :59:49.have power cuts. It is true, you tried your feet on nuclear power
:59:49. > :59:51.when you were in government? I sat on an energy bill that became an
:59:52. > :59:56.active towards the end of our government which was starting to
:59:57. > :00:01.put in place some of the processes that needed to happen in order to