:01:28. > :01:31.In the South: With councils struggling to provide enough
:01:31. > :01:41.affordable housing, we hear about one that's actually knocking down
:01:41. > :01:41.
:01:41. > :29:44.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1682 seconds
:29:44. > :29:48.substandard flats. They reckon Welcome to Sunday Politics South.
:29:48. > :29:51.My name's Peter Henley. On today's show: The flats that the council
:29:51. > :29:54.wants to knock down and replace with a mix of brand new social
:29:54. > :29:59.housing and self-build homes. They're willing to hand over the
:29:59. > :30:03.land at reduced prices to make building your own more affordable.
:30:03. > :30:07.More on that a little bit later. First let's meet the two
:30:07. > :30:09.politicians who will be with me for the next 20 minutes. Zoe Patrick is
:30:09. > :30:16.the Lib Dem leader of the opposition on Oxfordshire County
:30:16. > :30:24.Council and George Hollingbery is the Conservative MP for MeonValley.
:30:25. > :30:31.Lot in the news this week about banks. How do people, why do people
:30:31. > :30:35.say to you about getting tough with banks? What people see is that they
:30:35. > :30:42.have been part of some of the economic problems we are having.
:30:42. > :30:47.More than that, of what they have been angry about is the issue with
:30:47. > :30:51.RBS and NatWest when they haven't been able to access payments. I
:30:51. > :30:55.have mentioned before they have been people who have mentioned they
:30:55. > :31:03.have had problems with this. When it hits them at home it makes them
:31:03. > :31:08.think, what is the government doing about the bank's? Should we be
:31:08. > :31:15.paying bonuses to people who are not performing? It has become a bit
:31:15. > :31:22.of a witch-hunt. People do generally want to see something
:31:22. > :31:27.done. RBS is in public ownership and it feels like Fairbank. We
:31:27. > :31:36.should be doing something about it. You have lots of experience
:31:36. > :31:45.developing different companies but you started in the city. I had
:31:45. > :31:50.quite enough of that and moved on. It is a serious... They create
:31:50. > :31:55.wealth for the country. 11% of all tax take comes from financial
:31:56. > :32:05.businesses. There is no doubt that the casino side of banking, the
:32:06. > :32:07.
:32:07. > :32:12.investment side, has been a real problem. It needs dealing with. A
:32:12. > :32:17.report is going to see the casinos side of banking been separated away
:32:17. > :32:24.from regular banking. That is blameless. Les not blame all the
:32:24. > :32:28.bankers. From the people who earn most to some of those who have the
:32:28. > :32:36.least. This weekend hundred of young carers from all of the
:32:36. > :32:39.country have been at the Young Carers Festival. It is a chance for
:32:39. > :32:42.some fun and a bit of respite from their very adult responsibilities.
:32:42. > :32:46.According to the 2001 census, there were 175,000 carers aged 5-18 in
:32:46. > :32:49.the UK but the real figure could now be several times that. Joining
:32:49. > :32:55.me now are Ellen Broome from The Children's Society which is one of
:32:56. > :33:02.the organisers of the festival, and Abbey Bartley, who is a young carer.
:33:02. > :33:07.I used 17? Yes. My mother had a brain haemorrhage followed by a
:33:07. > :33:11.stroke. A very sudden for you and your family. She had been
:33:11. > :33:19.complaining for headaches and then suddenly one morning at 3am she
:33:19. > :33:27.woke up screaming. It was horrible. You were the oldest at 13. My older
:33:27. > :33:30.sister wasn't around at that time because we were on holiday.
:33:30. > :33:38.have been left to cope over the last few years. Do you mind doing
:33:38. > :33:42.it? In some ways it made me a better person, I have become more
:33:42. > :33:47.mature and confident. But I have missed out on some things like
:33:47. > :33:52.normal teenage things like sleep covers and things. If I leave my
:33:52. > :34:01.mum, something is going to happen but if you young carers think if
:34:01. > :34:05.they're going to go away something will happen. You have been brave to
:34:05. > :34:11.come on television and talk to us about it but not everybody wants to
:34:11. > :34:16.talk about it. That is good about this festival. There are about
:34:16. > :34:21.1,800 people there. The you can all talk about your shared experiences.
:34:21. > :34:26.Why don't people want to come forward? I think people are afraid
:34:26. > :34:33.to say they are not normal, they don't have the normal set-up. They
:34:33. > :34:38.have to care for a parent for such a stigma can be attached. I think
:34:38. > :34:43.it is the way ever appears a few areas, they might think it is
:34:43. > :34:49.strange. There is a lot of pressure on children at school anyway. I
:34:49. > :34:55.have mentioned maybe we don't know how many people are young carers.
:34:55. > :35:00.You mention that figure but the BBC has done some research which shows
:35:00. > :35:05.700,000 children might be young carers. That might be one in eight
:35:05. > :35:11.of secondary school age children. There are many reasons why children
:35:11. > :35:14.don't disclose they are young carers. There is stigma attached.
:35:14. > :35:18.Children don't necessarily tell at school they are a young carers.
:35:18. > :35:23.That means they were not be getting the support they need. The teachers
:35:23. > :35:26.need to find out. Teachers need to find out that schools need to be
:35:26. > :35:35.better at identifying and picking up the signs that someone is a
:35:35. > :35:38.young carer. Do you hear that sort of thing? I have heard from some
:35:38. > :35:42.people that schools are not great at identifying and supporting young
:35:42. > :35:48.carers. If they need to be a identify so they Ken carry on doing
:35:48. > :35:55.their role. The government will be paying for carers. You are doing a
:35:55. > :36:05.lot of work. What would you like to be seen Dan? We would like to see a
:36:05. > :36:08.
:36:08. > :36:18.number of things done. we need to look at the whole family structure.
:36:18. > :36:18.
:36:18. > :36:21.I would like to see they knew benefit system supporting disabled
:36:21. > :36:24.adults with children been restructured. We would like to see
:36:24. > :36:27.the government looking at that against a young carers and their
:36:27. > :36:35.families are supported. We need to look at the whole family structure.
:36:35. > :36:38.Looking across at our politicians here? You are on the Welfare Reform
:36:38. > :36:44.Committee. You need to make sure that the people who need help get
:36:44. > :36:50.it was up you don't want a bog them down with bureaucracy. It clears up
:36:50. > :37:00.the huge number of benefits and put them into one pot. It makes the
:37:00. > :37:03.whole house sold assessed and the tame -- the same time. It is a
:37:03. > :37:08.multi-agency approach and a whole family approach, what I was talking
:37:08. > :37:14.about. There is a designated teacher in most schools across the
:37:14. > :37:18.county whose job it is to identify young carers. Adults and children
:37:18. > :37:23.services are tasked with come out when they find a young person, the
:37:23. > :37:29.whole family is assessed as one unit. One is to be done for the
:37:29. > :37:33.adult who is being cared for has an assessment done a round that person
:37:33. > :37:36.that includes the need of the young Ceri at the same time. They need to
:37:36. > :37:46.deal with the psychological, emotional and living is used dead
:37:46. > :37:53.
:37:53. > :37:58.young carers face. -- that young carers face. Do you think there is
:37:58. > :38:07.a point where you want to influence national government and say maybe
:38:07. > :38:12.some of this blaming people fall needing welfare. People who
:38:12. > :38:16.genuinely need their benefits regattas for a start in the case of
:38:16. > :38:20.young carers it is an exceptional case because sometimes you are
:38:20. > :38:27.having to deal with the adults are having to deal with. You need that
:38:27. > :38:32.extra support. Looking at the whole family is an important thing.
:38:32. > :38:38.it is not easy to is the deserving case and who is receiving too much
:38:38. > :38:41.help. This is why we need to look at the whole system and to have
:38:41. > :38:44.reform to do it better. In Oxfordshire it is interesting to
:38:44. > :38:49.hear what you're doing in your county but we did a review on young
:38:49. > :38:54.carers some years ago and we have been doing a lot of work and
:38:54. > :38:59.Oxfordshire particularly in support. One of the things young carers told
:38:59. > :39:04.there's a you need time to yourself to mix with your peers and to share
:39:04. > :39:09.some of the things you are doing and also to have a bit of respite.
:39:09. > :39:16.The festival is a great idea. You are able to share your common
:39:17. > :39:21.ground. That is the sort of thing we are trying to do in Oxfordshire.
:39:21. > :39:27.That is what they're doing with his big weekend. It must be quite
:39:27. > :39:34.appalling in some ways, so many youngsters running around. I feel
:39:34. > :39:39.sorry for the leaders to go with the group's! It is loud and Mackie
:39:39. > :39:46.and it is great fun! When you go back to your families, you have had
:39:46. > :39:53.a bit of a break, I bet you are relaxed. Yes. I am glad you had the
:39:54. > :39:58.break. Children are allowed to be Trojan, first and foremost. Not
:39:58. > :40:01.young carers, just to be with children have that bit of child it
:40:01. > :40:04.for a weekend. The problem of providing enough
:40:04. > :40:08.affordable homes to meet the demand is something every council in our
:40:08. > :40:11.region wrestles with. One of them, Wokingham, is taking the maybe
:40:11. > :40:14.counter-intuitive root of knocking down some of its existing stock to
:40:14. > :40:18.make way for new council houses and even self-build homes on council
:40:18. > :40:28.land. As Tiffany Foster reports, destroying in order to create could
:40:28. > :40:35.
:40:35. > :40:40.In the summer these blocks of flats on the Norreys Estate in Wokingham
:40:40. > :40:44.have an air of space and community. But inside the buildings, it is a
:40:44. > :40:49.different story. Wokingham borough council leader David Lee took me on
:40:49. > :40:53.a tour of one recently vacated flat in Eustace Crescent. If you look at
:40:53. > :40:57.this one you can see how it is rising up in the corner, how it is
:40:57. > :41:01.coming up from the base. Water coming up from the broken
:41:01. > :41:06.foundations is just one problem. The copper piping has been stolen
:41:06. > :41:10.and leaking water joins do not help. Council tenants living above and
:41:10. > :41:14.beside these conditions have complained more should be done.
:41:14. > :41:22.Tarmac has bemoaned his lack of money to fix things. Up until
:41:22. > :41:25.recently we have had to give 50% of the rent away. All the rent we were
:41:25. > :41:32.receiving 50% was paid to other parts of the country was left
:41:32. > :41:36.little money for major repairs. Wokingham has borrowed �90 million
:41:36. > :41:41.to buy out the government's 50% share. We have spent millions of
:41:41. > :41:46.pounds trying to patch it up. We have had little money to do this.
:41:46. > :41:52.We decided we have got to the stage where demolition is the only answer.
:41:52. > :41:58.That is welcome news for Diane Lee who has lived here with her family
:41:58. > :42:06.for 13 years. I out constantly cleaning the window frames with
:42:06. > :42:11.bleach. Every other day, I am changing beds because they at damp.
:42:11. > :42:16.I have had my walk fixed because it fell down because of damp. All the
:42:16. > :42:21.plaster has fallen down again. will be cleaning for some months
:42:21. > :42:25.yet. The regeneration of this at will not start until next April. In
:42:25. > :42:30.the meantime, of the 76 council owned flats and maisonettes 18 are
:42:30. > :42:35.empty meaning the council still has to rehouse 58 families before
:42:35. > :42:42.demolition can begin. It they do seem there is an impetus for change
:42:42. > :42:46.to give people a clean, damp free affordable home. The fact that the
:42:46. > :42:52.borough council is going to take on a huge debt to make it happen shows
:42:52. > :42:56.it is a challenge they will embrace. Wokingham council is not alone.
:42:56. > :43:00.Local authorities across the South want more freedom to meet housing
:43:00. > :43:04.need and are doing their best to find solutions. There are
:43:04. > :43:14.significant downside to this process. Not least on the point of
:43:14. > :43:15.
:43:15. > :43:21.view of tenants. They're going to be new homes and far better designs
:43:21. > :43:25.for their needs. So that vision in Wokingham is social rental and
:43:25. > :43:31.shared equity homes Pless self- build where local people can build
:43:31. > :43:35.their own home on TV council land released by the demolition. -- on
:43:35. > :43:39.cheap council land. This creative thinking is what David the police's
:43:39. > :43:42.key to the affordable housing scheme. We have moved out of the
:43:42. > :43:47.normal routine. We have considered all options and they are moving
:43:47. > :43:55.away from the attitude that flats are best. We are looking back at
:43:55. > :44:02.family homes. It helps everybody, children with their education. It
:44:02. > :44:05.is a bit of blue-sky thinking. may be blue-sky thinking better
:44:05. > :44:11.Wokingham and other local authorities hope that is the answer
:44:11. > :44:14.to the housing crisis. I hope they are coming down a we would go
:44:14. > :44:18.somewhere decent to live. I would like to get a nice house out of it
:44:18. > :44:28.at the end of the day. My children have been brought up in a flat and
:44:28. > :44:36.
:44:36. > :44:43.they would like a garden now. it about people taking itself
:44:43. > :44:46.responsibility? It is that responsibility because I know this
:44:46. > :44:51.scheme in Milton Keynes, people are able to design and help build their
:44:51. > :44:56.own property. You are right, it gives them as sense of initiative
:44:56. > :45:00.and being a part of it. That is something they can contribute to
:45:00. > :45:05.the and we will have value for them. It will mean something for them. It
:45:05. > :45:11.is not expect the council was somebody else to do something. It
:45:11. > :45:15.is getting them involved. I think about Diane who was in the film
:45:15. > :45:21.there who was dealing with a damp, she is not going to build her own
:45:21. > :45:25.home. Do you think she should take more responsibility? It is not
:45:25. > :45:30.going to suit everybody, not a one size fits all. There has to be
:45:30. > :45:35.other ways of dealing with this. We do have a situation where we need
:45:35. > :45:44.more housing, more affordable housing. It is trying to get that
:45:44. > :45:54.balance. A balance between those people who can build their own and
:45:54. > :45:56.
:45:56. > :46:00.people like Diane who can't personally do that. One size fits
:46:00. > :46:09.all is what we have with council housing but at least they knew
:46:09. > :46:13.where they stood. I sit on the committee which is a panel of MPs
:46:13. > :46:17.to ask hard questions to different departments and we have done a
:46:17. > :46:21.report on housing supply. There is a variety of models that will allow
:46:21. > :46:25.us to build more affordable housing. One of the greatest tricks we have
:46:25. > :46:28.to achieve is to release the huge value that sits in existing housing
:46:28. > :46:32.stock and allow money to be borrowed against that so we can
:46:32. > :46:37.attract more money into building more housing. There is lots of
:46:37. > :46:42.appetite out then the private sector to fund a new housing. If we
:46:42. > :46:48.can liberate that cash out there to come into the social sector we can
:46:48. > :46:51.make a difference. I hate to say it, some things like safe -- self-build
:46:51. > :46:54.I'm very useful and have a contribution to make but in
:46:54. > :46:57.relative terms they are not going to solve the problem.
:46:57. > :47:07.Now our regular round-up of the political week in the South in 60
:47:07. > :47:13.
:47:13. > :47:17.Another week, another royal jubilee river pageant. But in Henley the
:47:17. > :47:23.sun shone and the Thames sparkled for the Queen's visit. The clock
:47:23. > :47:29.tower at parliament is to be renamed the Lisabeth tower. It was
:47:29. > :47:35.suggested its bite to buy his L- word. I am delighted so many
:47:35. > :47:44.colleagues supported the idea. It has been fantastic. The comments
:47:44. > :47:49.had been visit from the former you accountant. She says taxpayers'
:47:49. > :47:54.cash is safe at Westminster. They are closer to the people, closer to
:47:54. > :47:59.the Budget, they understand better the needs of the British people.
:47:59. > :48:02.Wheelie bins are coming to Dorset, always partnership taking over
:48:02. > :48:07.recycling from six district council. There is a mind-boggling array of
:48:07. > :48:14.different bins but they are turning down Eric Pickles pleas to provide
:48:14. > :48:20.a weekly collection. We talked about bankers do people get upset
:48:20. > :48:25.about bins! Do you think we are going to end up with fortnightly
:48:25. > :48:33.elections everywhere? We have a great scheme which has 60, 70%
:48:33. > :48:35.recycling. Every week we put out our food and that is recycled. It
:48:35. > :48:42.is a fortnightly for you recycler balls like last, cardboard and
:48:42. > :48:51.things like that. The thing that people get upset about is their
:48:51. > :48:54.food waste, that happens every week. It is an excellent scheme. In last
:48:54. > :49:02.comment 2 U George Hollingbery. It is an Englishman's right to have
:49:02. > :49:08.fared bins collected every week! Councils are exercising their right
:49:08. > :49:13.to localism. It should not be lost on Eric Pickles. In Winchester it
:49:13. > :49:19.was controversial when we do it about seven years ago. It is well
:49:19. > :49:23.understood and liked. Recycling rates have gone through the roof.
:49:23. > :49:26.Very much -- thanks very much for joining us.
:49:26. > :49:29.That's the Sunday Politics in the South. Thanks to my guests Zoe
:49:29. > :49:32.Patrick and George Hollingbery. Don't forget you can keep up to