Browse content similar to 13/01/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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And in the South West: A government promise to tackle the crisis in | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
care for the elderly. But the Prime Minister still isn't saying exactly | :01:28. | :01:38. | |
:01:38. | :01:38. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2549 seconds | :01:38. | :44:08. | |
Hello and welcome to Sunday Politics in the South West. | :44:08. | :44:11. | |
And for I am joined by Neil Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton | :44:11. | :44:14. | |
and Honiton and Jude Robinson, who sits in solitary splendour as | :44:14. | :44:16. | |
Cornwall's only Labour councillor. Until this year's elections at | :44:16. | :44:26. | |
:44:26. | :44:28. | ||
least. Welcome back to both of you. This week the Planning Minister | :44:28. | :44:31. | |
admitted he is happy to bribe councils to build houses on | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
greenfield sites. And if it turns out they are above bribery, it is | :44:34. | :44:37. | |
clear he is happy to force them. they build more houses, which will | :44:38. | :44:40. | |
help their children have somewhere to grow up, they will get some | :44:40. | :44:45. | |
money that they can then spend on something for the community. If | :44:45. | :44:53. | |
they get a few hundred �1,000, they can open up local parks and open up | :44:53. | :44:58. | |
a community park. If you get them at an incentive, they are more | :44:58. | :45:06. | |
likely to approve more development. The minister is being called the | :45:06. | :45:12. | |
terror of Middle England. What do you make of this? We have to give | :45:12. | :45:17. | |
people a choice. If we can encourage them to take some | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
development in the little villages where some properties would be most | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
acceptable, the idea is to encourage them to go for it. We | :45:25. | :45:31. | |
have got people always objecting at the moment. By at the government | :45:31. | :45:41. | |
:45:41. | :45:42. | ||
will take away the local discretion. But the whole idea is to... It is | :45:42. | :45:46. | |
better off being a straight forward and going for something that you | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
want to see happen rather than force something. But when the | :45:51. | :45:55. | |
Conservatives were in opposition, he went on about how Labour were | :45:55. | :45:58. | |
forcing houses on people and you are essentially doing the same | :45:58. | :46:04. | |
thing. If the local authorities do not come up with a number you think | :46:04. | :46:10. | |
is a bright... I still think there are villages that could do with | :46:10. | :46:13. | |
some houses and if we can get people to agree with them it would | :46:13. | :46:18. | |
be much better if they go for it. We have to give people incentives. | :46:18. | :46:22. | |
People always say they want affordable homes until we want to | :46:22. | :46:29. | |
put them in a particular spot. They have to be given encouragement. | :46:29. | :46:37. | |
Jude, are you a plodding them for getting on with what you did not? | :46:37. | :46:44. | |
You were effectively doing this with your strategies. We asked the | :46:44. | :46:51. | |
Government to come up with target areas. What we have not done is | :46:51. | :46:55. | |
what the Conservative government is doing, giving the power to | :46:55. | :47:01. | |
developers to say we're the Houses will go, by -- to say where the | :47:01. | :47:09. | |
houses will go, by developing a framework. There is a great unease | :47:09. | :47:14. | |
about the the countryside as people see it. The people who really need | :47:14. | :47:19. | |
the houses are not the people who are getting them. How do you make | :47:19. | :47:24. | |
houses really affordable? We keep going around endless loop of | :47:24. | :47:27. | |
affordable housing, and actually, people who really need housing | :47:27. | :47:34. | |
cannot afford it at all. Affordable homes have to be properties to rent | :47:34. | :47:40. | |
more than to buy, because they are only affordable once. I think we | :47:40. | :47:44. | |
can have these schemes and I am working on that. We will have to | :47:44. | :47:50. | |
leave that for now. For years, governments have been saying that | :47:50. | :47:54. | |
something must be done to help the elderly pay for long-term care, and | :47:54. | :47:58. | |
on Monday, David Cameron said it again, to the December event of | :47:58. | :48:03. | |
those who had he would say how and when he might actually tackle the | :48:03. | :48:08. | |
problem. -- to the disappointment. No one knows what had they will be | :48:08. | :48:15. | |
dealt when they reach old age. These people live in shared housing. | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
84-year-old Barbara still lives independently, but she is worried | :48:18. | :48:23. | |
about the financial impact if she needs to go into care. Light most | :48:23. | :48:28. | |
people, we have worked -- like most people, we have worked very hard | :48:28. | :48:32. | |
for our property, and to relinquish the whole of that property for my | :48:32. | :48:37. | |
care, when other people who have not worked and have not contributed | :48:37. | :48:44. | |
at all to society, I do not feel that we should be penalised for | :48:44. | :48:52. | |
working. That is what we feel, we are being penalised. Barbara's is | :48:52. | :48:57. | |
not a new problem. 16 years ago, the new Prime Minister set out his | :48:57. | :49:02. | |
vision for children of the future. I do not want them brought up in a | :49:02. | :49:06. | |
country with the only way they can get long-term care is to sell their | :49:06. | :49:13. | |
homes. But the nettle has still not been grasped. The Conservative | :49:13. | :49:17. | |
government asked for some answers, but hope for detailed commitment | :49:17. | :49:26. | |
from the Prime Minister were dashed this week. We were certainly hoping | :49:26. | :49:30. | |
for more detail this week, so we are a disappointment that the | :49:30. | :49:40. | |
:49:40. | :49:41. | ||
Government did not choose to set out... A set out some things are | :49:41. | :49:48. | |
but we wanted to see detail at this stage. Currently, an elderly person | :49:48. | :49:52. | |
who has �21,000 in assets, the council will pay for their care. | :49:52. | :49:55. | |
More than a quarter of the people who are over 65 are expected to | :49:55. | :50:01. | |
spend more than �50,000 on care. A report has said that the current | :50:01. | :50:07. | |
system is confusing, unfair and unsustainable. It suggests setting | :50:07. | :50:12. | |
a carer bill limit at under �35,000, and recommends that the asset | :50:12. | :50:20. | |
threshold is raised to one added �1,000. This comes with an | :50:20. | :50:26. | |
estimated �1.7 billion price tag. - - raised to �100,000. Social care | :50:26. | :50:34. | |
is not free. It is something that is means tested in a very mean way. | :50:34. | :50:41. | |
We need to find a way of assuring people. There were some proposals, | :50:41. | :50:46. | |
but we have to find a way of paying for them. That is why I think the | :50:46. | :50:50. | |
winter fuel allowance is the right candidate. It has been rumoured | :50:50. | :50:53. | |
that the Treasury is toying with setting the maximum amount that | :50:53. | :50:59. | |
someone can pay for care at �70,000, not including accommodation costs. | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
Some analysts say that it is hardly worth doing. This man found that a | :51:05. | :51:09. | |
string of care homes and says that waiting around is not an option. | :51:09. | :51:13. | |
The country has got to find a way of delivering more money into the | :51:13. | :51:21. | |
sector. Some of it will come from products that the financial | :51:21. | :51:25. | |
authorities will provide. But whatever happens, we need more. | :51:25. | :51:31. | |
More than one in five people in the South West is over 65 and that | :51:31. | :51:37. | |
figure is rising. For now, the portion of assets the government is | :51:37. | :51:44. | |
prepared to protect is unclear. Was it right to say that the battle has | :51:44. | :51:49. | |
not been grasped? We know everybody thinks something needs to be done. | :51:49. | :51:54. | |
The it is affordability of the whole thing, that of the argument. | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
I think that people who have worked hard to keep their homes, I think | :51:58. | :52:05. | |
what we have got to do, we are putting forward for... By 2015 | :52:05. | :52:09. | |
people should not be able -- should not have to sell their homes in | :52:09. | :52:19. | |
their lifetime. �7,000 has been rumoured. Whichever figure -- | :52:19. | :52:23. | |
�70,000 has been rumoured. Whichever figure you plug out of | :52:23. | :52:29. | |
the air, it has got to help. People want their pension increases and | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
winter fuel allowance. There has got to be a balance. In terms of | :52:34. | :52:40. | |
the cap, the report was saying �35,000. The Government is talking | :52:40. | :52:48. | |
about �75,000. That figure of �75,000 seems to be in the equation | :52:48. | :52:56. | |
at the moment. But who knows? In the next spending round, we will | :52:56. | :53:01. | |
actually look at the cost of all of this. We still have a large deficit | :53:01. | :53:05. | |
to get on top of that we inherited from the last government and we | :53:05. | :53:12. | |
cannot just increase it to cover the cost. Jude, Labour has been | :53:12. | :53:20. | |
very critical of putting this off yet again. But you are not coming | :53:20. | :53:28. | |
up with a solid commitment yourself. Actually, the Labour government did | :53:28. | :53:32. | |
tackle some of the big issues, and the idea that people still have to | :53:32. | :53:38. | |
sell their houses to pay for care is just wrong. Tony Blair said that | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
a long time ago. That was sorted. People do not have to sell their | :53:42. | :53:47. | |
houses. They can defer payment until after they die at the moment. | :53:47. | :53:51. | |
That is nothing new. Before the last election, the Labour | :53:51. | :53:55. | |
government did offer cross-party talks to but Liberal Democrats and | :53:55. | :54:04. | |
Conservatives on how to Sir -- sort that out. Do you can -- you could | :54:04. | :54:08. | |
say that the report has brought forward some brilliant ideas, but | :54:08. | :54:14. | |
none of you want to commit. We saw what happened and the last election. | :54:14. | :54:20. | |
There are they have to be cross party? -- in the last election. | :54:20. | :54:27. | |
Does it have to be cross party? have to get through the period... | :54:27. | :54:33. | |
That was a strong economy. That was a time when the money was there. We | :54:33. | :54:41. | |
have got to find a solution. The situation is much more difficult. | :54:41. | :54:45. | |
We agree on cross-party support, but if Labour wants to come forward | :54:45. | :54:51. | |
with an idea, let us see it. We are not getting any policy from Labour. | :54:51. | :54:57. | |
We are getting a lot of criticism but no real policy. Whether he | :54:57. | :55:07. | |
:55:07. | :55:10. | ||
speaks for David Cameron and Nick Clegg, I do not know! Probably not. | :55:11. | :55:14. | |
Bobby -- probably not. This week the government announced | :55:14. | :55:16. | |
a new pub ombudsman to police the relationship between pub companies | :55:16. | :55:19. | |
and their tenants. MPs of all parties think tenants are currently | :55:19. | :55:22. | |
getting a raw deal. The mood has pleased almost everybody, except | :55:22. | :55:24. | |
the pub companies themselves. And Labour thinks the government needs | :55:24. | :55:27. | |
to go much further. Around half of all pubs in the UK | :55:27. | :55:31. | |
are owned by pub companies, large companies who leased pubs out to | :55:31. | :55:36. | |
tenants to run as a business. Often, these landlords are contractually | :55:36. | :55:40. | |
obliged to buy beer from that company and not from the open | :55:40. | :55:45. | |
market. Campaigners say that this makes it extremely difficult for | :55:45. | :55:52. | |
mallards. -- landlords. Last year, I was doing the cooking and the | :55:52. | :55:56. | |
shopping and filling in the bar shifts whenever I could, but really | :55:56. | :56:00. | |
enjoying it. Add some point, you have to realise that you cannot | :56:00. | :56:05. | |
enjoy something that is not giving you a return. Until November, | :56:05. | :56:11. | |
Russell ran this pub in Cornwall. In the 10 years he was here, he | :56:11. | :56:20. | |
invested �70,000 of his end money. But the owners, it Punch Taverns, a | :56:20. | :56:26. | |
make it difficult for him. The was paying nearly twice the price -- I | :56:26. | :56:31. | |
was paying nearly twice the price for my stock from British Beer and | :56:31. | :56:41. | |
:56:41. | :56:45. | ||
Pub Association. -- from British Beer and Pub Association. -- from | :56:45. | :56:54. | |
Punch Taverns. A new statutory code to regulate the relationship | :56:54. | :57:02. | |
between public and Lloyds and publicans... It is hard to see how | :57:02. | :57:06. | |
you can ensure a change. It is hard to ensure that their Lloyd's will | :57:06. | :57:12. | |
be better off. The spirit of the Government's intentions... There | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
has to be eight option for the tenants, because, as I have said | :57:17. | :57:27. | |
:57:27. | :57:30. | ||
earlier, the Ian Lloyd are taking - - the landlords er taking... | :57:30. | :57:37. | |
think many will be bludgeoned by the pub companies into taking this | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
option, so I think that the default should be that there is no tie | :57:41. | :57:46. | |
unless they are opting for a tie. But that idea now seems hopelessly | :57:46. | :57:51. | |
optimistic, given that even the optional arrangement was rejected | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
by coalition MPs earlier this week. Consultation on the Government's | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
proposals will begin in the spring. Meanwhile, any new measures will be | :57:59. | :58:04. | |
too late for Russell. He is still trying to pay off debts from his | :58:04. | :58:08. | |
time in the pub trade. The pub company mentioned in that | :58:08. | :58:14. | |
report, Punch Taverns, says it works hard to resolve -- resolve | :58:14. | :58:19. | |
problems with tenets. They say that most of their tenants are satisfied | :58:19. | :58:24. | |
and the relationship with them. We are joined now by the chief | :58:24. | :58:28. | |
executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, Brigid Simmonds. | :58:28. | :58:33. | |
Welcome to the programme. This double whammy of high rents and | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
high beer prices looks as if it gives the punters be poisonous | :58:37. | :58:45. | |
cocktail. If you bought your pub, you would be investing between | :58:45. | :58:51. | |
�500,000 and �1 million. This tie offers a low-cost way to run your | :58:51. | :58:54. | |
own business at a relatively young age, and the deal is that you pay | :58:54. | :58:58. | |
less in what we would call variable prices for a beer, and you would | :58:58. | :59:03. | |
pay more for a variable prices. You pay for the fixed rate prices, | :59:03. | :59:07. | |
which is indeed for the rent, that is how it works, and we would be | :59:07. | :59:13. | |
mad to get rid of that system. We would close more pubs. What about | :59:14. | :59:17. | |
the tenants that we heard in the package? He claims that his beer | :59:17. | :59:23. | |
costs twice as much as it would otherwise if he had a free house. | :59:23. | :59:27. | |
We put this to Punch Taverns and they have not disputed any of this. | :59:27. | :59:35. | |
By cannot commence -- I cannot comment on that aspect, but there | :59:35. | :59:40. | |
are benefits that he would have received from that or any other pub | :59:40. | :59:44. | |
company. They do a lot of marketing and there is work around insurance | :59:44. | :59:53. | |
and there could be free wi-fi. We are closing more pubs without the | :59:53. | :59:57. | |
tide and with the tide. If you are tied, the pub company is doing a | :59:57. | :00:03. | |
lot. We have introduced a system that we thought would work. We have | :00:03. | :00:07. | |
had about 10 complaints on rent and other issues this year, which will | :00:07. | :00:13. | |
be resolved as a result. We would have reserved -- preferred to go | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
one of the self regulation system. We believe that system is working. | :00:16. | :00:23. | |
I am not convinced that a different system will be better for publicans. | :00:23. | :00:27. | |
The argument from the pub houses is that they are helping people get | :00:27. | :00:31. | |
into the industry and that they are self-regulated and that is working. | :00:31. | :00:39. | |
They would say that, wouldn't they? The pubs are closing regularly. The | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
profits are being squeezed, and I think we are seeing that in all | :00:43. | :00:49. | |
walks of life, corporate companies, big companies have the company -- | :00:49. | :00:56. | |
power and the abuse it. You have got to give some kind of mechanism | :00:56. | :01:02. | |
for the small business people to stand up to that. We have seen a 42 | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
% increase in beer taxation in the last four years. The Labour Party | :01:08. | :01:15. | |
put in a beer duty escalator which goes up at 2% plus inflation. | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
Publicans are suffering because of government policies on beer | :01:20. | :01:25. | |
taxation. No other industry could cope with that sort of increase. | :01:25. | :01:35. | |
:01:35. | :01:36. | ||
have got a lot of sympathy! And I think Neil has as well. Let's take | :01:36. | :01:46. | |
:01:46. | :01:47. | ||
a local example. There is a wonderful local brewery. It is a -- | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
it has a short term a brewery ties that keeps it open. They were | :01:51. | :02:00. | |
probably only making a penny a pint in terms of the Act will be a. | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
in terms of the actual beer. They do provide tenants with good income. | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
But we must have an adjudicator to make sure that the companies do not | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
take most of the income. You have to expect that the companies will | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
have some return on their investment, but you have to make | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
sure that the tenant has a reasonable living. If the pub | :02:19. | :02:23. | |
companies are acting properly, they have nothing to fear from an | :02:23. | :02:30. | |
adjudicator. I think we do actually need an adjudicator are likely to | :02:30. | :02:36. | |
in the food industry, to make sure that the -- adjudicator likely to | :02:36. | :02:43. | |
in the food industry, to make sure everything is balanced. Some people | :02:43. | :02:53. | |
are saying that the tide is the problem. Most pubs are owned by pub | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
companies and the tie is still there. It is still there, but you | :02:56. | :03:01. | |
can expect that the company, if they invest in pubs, they have got | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
to have a return on their income. We have to make sure that they do | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
not abuse their position. We have to bring in the right balance. | :03:12. | :03:18. | |
they could lose the tie. If those companies are overcharging for the | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
beer, the tenant should be able to make us -- make representation. | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
Where are you going to get the investment in, especially when you | :03:27. | :03:33. | |
have a good, a local brewery that can produce good beer and do a good | :03:33. | :03:39. | |
job for the tenant? Let's not cast everybody with the same brush. | :03:39. | :03:45. | |
have got to leave it there. Brigid Simmonds, thank you for leading -- | :03:45. | :03:50. | |
joining us. Now for the 62nd round up of the political week. -- now | :03:50. | :03:55. | |
for the round-up of the political weight in 60 seconds. Fire service | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
cuts for Devon and Somerset. So X machines will be missing that are | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
available -- six machines that we have now will be missing in the | :04:05. | :04:12. | |
future. And no improvement in the business plan, and no idea how to | :04:12. | :04:19. | |
stop this from happening again. this is not acceptable for local | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
passengers. It has not acceptable for the long-term interest of Our - | :04:24. | :04:31. | |
- it is not acceptable for the long-term interest of our country. | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
A lot of people could be walking around with Type 2 diabetes and not | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
knowing it. Car parks are being used as cash cows in some regions. | :04:40. | :04:50. | |
I do not think it is realistic. They were not interested in | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
Cornwall when they earn -- when they were in government and they | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
are not interested doubt that they are in opposition. -- and they are | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
not interested doubt that they are in opposition. That is the seat | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
that you fought at the last election. Have you been cut adrift | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
by Labour high command? Absolut the knot. To say that the Labour | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
government forgot about -- absolutely not. To say that the | :05:17. | :05:24. | |
Labour government forgot about Cornwall... For 48 seats, I think, | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
at the last election. The Liberal Democrats are trying to play a game | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
of being in a coalition and supporting the Tories and try to be | :05:33. | :05:39. | |
in opposition in Cornwall. I agree that the Liberal Democrats squeezed | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
the vote by claiming to voters that they would keep the Conservatives | :05:43. | :05:51. | |
out. I do not think people will fall for that twice. Neil, I will | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
not allow you to speculate! There has not been much about the | :05:56. | :06:05. | |
flooding problem in Exeter. We will have to deal with that. Getting the | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
flooding right and getting the railway put right and long-term | :06:08. | :06:16. | |
future is key. Asset in the House of Commons that the West Country | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
does not -- I sat in the House of Commons that the West Country does | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
not stop in Bristol. We are fighting for more because I believe | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
we have got to have a good railway that comes through the West Country, | :06:28. | :06:34. |