17/06/2012 Sunday Politics South

In this out: There has been gold in the Olympics already - the money

being poured into the cultural side of things. But what happens to the

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1642 seconds

Welcome to Sunday Politics South - my name's Peter Henley. Coming up

in the next 20 minutes: The Olympics aren't just about

sport, there's also the Cultural Olympiad. Millions are being

invested this year to showcase all manner of artistic endeavours - but

what happens next year when all that Olympic gold has dried up?

Let's meet our guests, Jo Lovelock and David Pugh. Now, is almost

cultural business really cheering people up on the Isle of Wight?

Well, there is still some distance to go. Jo Lovelock? I think it does

cheer people up, having something to celebrate about. But Reading's

economy compared with many other places, we still do have some

issues. Youth unemployment is a big problem. It already looks like the

2012 football final, Spain and Germany at each other's roads and

the Bank of England saying there will be more money to lend. If they

do, will that help? We hope that would enable some businesses to

stay in business and do more than they are doing now, but

fundamentally, people have to have money in their pockets to spend in

order to make the businesses viable. So unless we have a recognition

from the government that we need to have some investment that will lead

to more jobs, I think it will be a very difficult road for a long time

to come. However much optimism might be created, you need

Investment. David? I think the money coming from the banks will be

helpful and hopefully will help businesses to do more to increase

jobs and productivity, but a lot of it still has to the public sector

driven. Some of the work we're doing about schools and PFI

infrastructure, that will help jobs and the growth of the economy.

he is the latest idea. The right to buy your council house

- it became an iconic Thatcherite policy, giving thousands of people

the opportunity to get on the housing market that they otherwise

wouldn't have had. One key element was the discount you got on the

council house, which was a maximum of �38,000. The trouble is that

with house prices having risen so sharply recently, 38,000 isn't that

much of a discount. So the government's raising the limit to

�75,000. On Friday, Portsmouth City Council signed up to the

government's new scheme - joining me now is Steven Wylie, who's the

cabinet member with responsibility for housing. Is this something you

have done reluctantly? Well, the deal is not good for people because

it is not one for one. This is how the government have been putting it

out, but especially in our region. You mean, you sell a house you

cannot build another? absolutely, not with the money.

With a heavy heart, I had to say yes to the scheme because otherwise

we would have got no money and someone else would have had this

money to build homes or try and build some homes. And that was not

fair to the people who are crying out for good family homes. So I

said yes, with Cabinet, could -- with cabbie gets, because people

need to be in cent devised. -- in centre buys. Idea may my government

has listened to this. I think it was never the right way to go

forward, the right to bite. Because it was always about individuals and

not about the wider implications. People are buying houses but there

is no way of putting in new housing. We see this across our whole region,

not just in Portsmouth, where people cannot get on to the

financial ladder to buy a home, cannot even afford to rent some of

the homes and the private sector. What we do like to be done?

idea we could look at is to look at council houses being bought through

different ways. Mortgage lending, financial gain. We can do some of

that, but it has not always been available. Earlier this year as

well for the Housing Finance Bill we're basically now self financing.

The government has done that after about 20 or 30 years of going

through that. So some housing departments have got more money to

do that, but not all councils can do that because they sold so many

houses during the 1990s. You made it clear you signed up to this

reluctantly. What will happen to waiting lists in your area?

believe they will go up at last we keep on building. Luckily we do

have a building programme and we do have room to borrow, but are the

councils do not have that, do not even have land, where we do.

Hopefully we can do up to 400 if not more in the next few years, but

it is not going to be instant, and matters are worried. We have

already seen more people coming in, but this gives us on average, we

will only get back from the government about �4,000. And then

they said we can only use 30% of that money to replace. You can't

even get a cattle shed for that. David, it seems a crazy idea. OK,

it is an expanded discount house to buy, but it will reduce the housing

stock? It will, but we mustn't get away from the principle that this

is about giving people the opportunity to own their own home,

quite often for the first time. The enabling of that through this

scheme is something that local authorities should not forget. Yes,

there are challenges and councils such as ours are looking at where

we can bring new affordable houses or part rent part by, which we have

been doing. And also a local letting schemes, so people with a

local connection which is particularly important to the Isle

of Wight. I don't and we should forget what one of the major

benefits is of right-to-buy, which is giving people their own home.

But the way the economy is at the moment, there is no confidence. Who

is going to get a mortgage at the moment? Nat is a fair point and

they will not be a huge amount of this. But what we're saying is the

opportunity should be there, and hopefully as the economy does

recover, there will be opportunity to do that. And that will reduce

the housing stock! Es but there is still a key role for the local

authority in bringing forward more housing stock, using initiative and

stock to do that. I appreciate it is more difficult in urban areas

such as Portsmouth. But we are not able -- we are not in the same

situation is that. There is still the right to acquire properties and

funding is available. It is not just a right to acquire. With the

housing benefit changes, you are getting rid of lifetime tenancies.

People are basically being pushed to leave their houses. I think that

is no bad thing. We need to recognise there are many on a

housing lists who have a far greater need in terms of a young

families than some of the people who have been in their properties

for many years whose kids may have moved away and who are no longer in

need of a three or four-bedroom house. Do you buy into this idea,

Jo Lovelock? We are still looking at what our options are and what

the government is going to allow us to do. The fundamental point is the

amount of money we might get from this will not replace the lost

stock. We used to have something like 12,000 council properties in

Reading, now we're down to 7,000. And a waiting lists are growing. We

need a proper approach to tackling homelessness and the long waiting

lists. This will not do that. And we do not have the land in Reading

on which to build the council housing. We do what we can, every

available site is used for partnership with housing

authorities or indeed some buildings. But we don't have a land

bank on which we can replace the lost stock. So it will do nothing

to help those people at the bottom of the housing ladder, if you like,

who have no chance. But some of this council stock in Reading is

high-maintenance, and maybe with that money you could build Deco

homes, more affordable flats. you have to have the land to do it

on. We are doing regeneration projects, we are building

sustainable homes in partnership with others, but in order to

increase the housing that is needed, particularly in the south-east, we

need a much more fundamental change which enables councils to have

powers with the private sector to improve that. That will be there

for a long time and will need -- and will be needed by people.

what will you say to those in government about sorting this out?

I have listened to the ministers, I'm writing a letter about

different schemes and how we can move things forward, not just

looking at this failed scheme, about just sit in people being able

to own properties and leaving the rest of society behind. Because

that is what has happened. And again we have a problem with the

stock, as you alluded to earlier. It tends to be the stock then no-

one wants, which then you have to maintain. So these are the things I

have taken up with the ministers already in government. It is

difficult. One side is trying to listen, the other is very blinkered

about where they want to go. Thanks very much.

Now, it has seemed a bit this year that as long as you use the word

"Olympics" in your plan, it's been a case of money no object. At a

time when general arts budgets have been cut back, funding for the

Cultural Olympiad - the celebration of the arts that goes alongside the

Games - has been a bit of a gold rush. But, as Tristan Pascoe

reports from Dorset, there are worries about whether it's all been

value for money, and about what happens to the arts when that pot

of cash is empty. If you are looking for something to

do between the 26th and 28th July, whatever you do, do not go to

Weymouth. An unusual trail ahead of the Cultural Olympiad, but he does

have a point. Thousands of people are expected to crowd the beaches

in Weymouth ahead of the Olympic sailing events and their opening

ceremonies. So apart from boats on the water, what is them -- their

fed them to see? There will be films, a circus, a thousand voice

choir singing new compositions, there will be spectacles in dance,

music, we have a broad range of all disciplines. Thanks to the Olympics,

there is Investment almost every way you look in this part of Dorset

from stop --. The National Sailing Academy and even Weymouth tower and

its observation platform. Thanks to the Cultural Olympiad, there is a

raft of investment in the art seen locally. We have had a lot of

investment from local authorities and other funders, local people

getting involved, a lot of community engagement. It is a

really exciting time. It has gone against the trend of austerity and

a think it is a great thing to be celebrating. If more than �2.3

million has been allocated to local projects under the umbrella of N

Cultural Olympiad, including these deck chairs designed by local

schoolchildren. Pupils at this arts college have varying degrees of

special educational needs. Thanks to funding from the Arts Council,

they will join hundreds of local schoolchildren in a spectacular

performance for the opening ceremony on the beach. It is

enormous for their social skills, just learning even basic things

about dance and counting in rhythm, co-ordination. It is huge for them,

really. It really helps with confidence as well, because they

will be in front of a lot of people who are happy and supporting them.

It does help them with that. We're having a brilliant time. But some

projects like this one have proved controversial. This embodies the

global potential of a new borderless nation. This is a

floating visual sculpture that will be anchored off the port during the

Olympics. It is several tons of material from an island exposed by

a retreating glacier north of Norway, which the Arts Council

hopes will open up a debate on global warming. However one south

coast MPs' sense -- thinks the half a million quid the project is

costing could be better spent. would much prefer to have seen

individual artists, community arts centres, being supported with this

money. Not this astonishing folly. When we make this commitment to

invest this money, there was a lot more money around. There isn't so

much funding now and if we were to look at a project like this, we

would probably look at something very different. Trouble is, even at

the best of times, funding for the arts divides opinion. It has to be

supported, yes. It should fund itself. If people are so pushed the

money, maybe money should go into better places like policing and the

usual - healthcare and the rest of it. I think it has to be protected

but not increased. If you lose your arts you lose your culture. Recent

history suggests a funding increase is the last thing that will happen.

Many organisations have had grants reduced or even cut altogether. So,

once the Olympics have sailed away, will the funding go with them?

arts and culture more widely a really important for the well-being

of young people who are learning skills through art engagement,

through music, through being part of something they enjoy. Again we

really need to keep that at the front of the government's mind so

they don't think about cutting investment in the creative centre

just at a time when you need creativity and entrepreneurs.

is a voice of doom! David Pugh, this island, �0.5 million, it looks

like the Arts Council wishes they haven't spent -- they hadn't spent

that money. It may should have come to us. We have a proper island!

have new roads coming. Yes, we have a long cultural history with

carnivals and that sort of activity, we would have been more than happy

to host that. It is a shame when these ideas, however ambitious they

beat, come to fruition. Because ultimately what is going to, that?

Yes, it is an island, but I suppose, Jo Lovelock, it is highlighting

climate change. And if it does what we think it does, it doesn't matter

about the housing market. Well, you could argue that money could have

been spent on things to do with fuel poverty or new green

technology. But I don't want to, particularly on that because I

don't know enough about it. But in Reading we certainly use the

opportunity to bring together people from right across the arts

spectrum to network and make bids together for projects that have

really enables particularly young people but not just young people to

get involved in all sorts of projects. You would say it's good

to have creative ideas at a time of austerity? Particularly investing

in the community activities and activities with young people which

we can all celebrate and had fully will lead to ongoing opportunities.

-- and hopefully. Now, our regular round-up of the political week in

On the early train to the south Monday morning, arriving at

Southampton, and the new station. This is Justine Greening who is

still keen on a high-speed line. it is fundamental to our country's

future. It rained all week and the flooding in Worthing flush out

another Cabinet Minister, Caroline Spelman. The sheer volume of rain

that fell from the Skype - almost two months worth of it. Some

residents claim coastal defences have made it worse. I just saw a

digger cutting a hole in the Barry out there. It is pouring out of

there like a plant in the bath. Back in the barrier. And a wet --

at Westminster they were trying out a new sport you can play in the

rain. Cage cricket is being piloted in Portsmouth. And some reckoned

they could hit the ball away to the coast.

Page cricket! I might relegate that to my deputy. Justine Greening was

talking about high-speed rail. as a council have worked hard to

secure particularly the Investment for Reading station which is

happening as we speak. It's the jobs and the money but also just

improving the facilities. Absolutely, it has been a

bottleneck on the national network for many years. So it will improve

that but also make it better far can the knitters -- for our

commuters, and bring jobs locally. And you have got infrastructure

spending on the island. Yes, we have a highway scheme next year but

on top of that we have just got �4 million for sustainable transport,

which is improving facilities for walking and cycling. We had to get

more people coming to the island and taking part in that. Anything

about infrastructure that helps people move around better has to be

good for the economy. And of course it creates jobs in the actual work

improving it. It makes you think - in the structure is not as trains

and cars, it can be walking. That's both of you. That's the end of our

show this week. Many thanks to our guests, Jo Lovelock and David Pugh.