Browse content similar to 10/02/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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$:/STARTFEED. We are told an increase in the number of people | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
unable to keep up with their rent could threaten the viability of | :01:31. | :01:41. | |
:01:41. | :01:41. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2459 seconds | :01:41. | :42:40. | |
Hello and on Sunday Politics Wales: Could rent arrears threaten the | :42:40. | :42:46. | |
viability of housing associations? Are we doing enough to maximise | :42:46. | :42:51. | |
overseas markets? Joining me are two appears of the | :42:51. | :42:54. | |
Ron - Baroness Randerson from the Liberal Democrats and Lord Dafydd | :42:54. | :43:00. | |
Elis-Thomas, the Plaid Cymru assembly member. Let's start with a | :43:00. | :43:08. | |
discussion on the horsemeat scandal. You are the chair of the | :43:08. | :43:10. | |
Environment sustainability committee. We have discussed the | :43:10. | :43:16. | |
food chain. Are you surprised by the headlines? In one sense I am | :43:16. | :43:23. | |
not because the market throughout Europe in food product does not | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
have the kind of traceability that we are used to in the labelling in | :43:26. | :43:31. | |
Wales. The important issue is that people know what they are buying, | :43:32. | :43:38. | |
when they buy a product. I shall have some Welsh lamb for lunch and | :43:38. | :43:43. | |
a couple of hours. We will not keep you that long! By the time the lamb | :43:43. | :43:48. | |
has rested, I am ready to carve it. I know where it comes from and I | :43:48. | :43:53. | |
know the butcher and probably the farmer. There is the red tractor | :43:53. | :43:59. | |
which you can look for. It is important to look for product which | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
you know you can trust and buy your product in a place you can trust. | :44:03. | :44:07. | |
This is about the supermarkets policing as well as the Food | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
Standards Agency. Is there anything your committee can do to | :44:11. | :44:20. | |
investigate this? Food safety is a UK government matter but we are | :44:20. | :44:25. | |
intending to look at the whole question of the food industry and | :44:25. | :44:31. | |
the food chain in Wales. We had the terrible incidents which were | :44:31. | :44:36. | |
investigated a few years ago and as a result of that, food hygiene has | :44:36. | :44:44. | |
been much improved. Recent legislation has been going through | :44:44. | :44:50. | |
the assembly. This is a huge story that people are very much concerned | :44:50. | :44:56. | |
about. What can the government to? You are a Welsh Office minister | :44:56. | :45:01. | |
with the UK government - is there a big job for the government two | :45:01. | :45:04. | |
there is going to be a massive job as the government identifies the | :45:04. | :45:09. | |
scale of the problem. The police will almost certainly be involved | :45:09. | :45:12. | |
internationally. But the thing we need to worry about in Wales is | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
that we rely a great deal for our prosperity on our farm and | :45:16. | :45:22. | |
community. Life is not so easy in the farming community and the food | :45:22. | :45:27. | |
production industry in Wales at the moment. Anything like this which | :45:27. | :45:33. | |
sends a shock through the whole of the food industry is not good for | :45:33. | :45:38. | |
farmers. But I think, as Dafydd says, shoppers need to look for the | :45:38. | :45:43. | |
label. If you see the Welsh label, you have a guarantee of good | :45:44. | :45:49. | |
quality. In six weeks, changes to the | :45:49. | :45:53. | |
benefit system will come into force, affecting thousands of people in | :45:53. | :45:56. | |
Wales and this programme has had the viability of housing | :45:56. | :45:59. | |
associations could be under threat because of people falling behind on | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
their rent. One South Wales charity has told us that the number of | :46:03. | :46:07. | |
people contacting them about rent arrears in the current financial | :46:07. | :46:15. | |
year has more than doubled. On this box it says... To times are | :46:16. | :46:20. | |
hard for Mary Cox and sh he relies on her family collecting pennies to | :46:20. | :46:25. | |
be able to afford to buy flowers for her husband's grave. Affording | :46:25. | :46:30. | |
the rent on her house is a struggle, to. She has been behind with a run | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
before but pay back what she owed. She is concerned that changes to | :46:34. | :46:38. | |
the welfare system could leave her with less money. From April, | :46:38. | :46:42. | |
families in council homes, people renting from a housing associations | :46:42. | :46:45. | |
and working age recipients of housing benefit will be assessed to | :46:45. | :46:48. | |
see how many benefits they need. Those who have too much living | :46:48. | :46:53. | |
space will get less benefit, a change dubbed the bedroom tax by | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
the UK government's political opponents. Although Mary's grandson | :46:57. | :47:01. | |
regularly stays with her, her benefit will be reduced because of | :47:01. | :47:06. | |
the other two bedrooms she has. I have been told that from 1st | :47:06. | :47:09. | |
April dabble have to pay for the two bedrooms that are not being | :47:09. | :47:12. | |
used. They asked me if I would think about a smaller property | :47:12. | :47:18. | |
which I will not because this is my home and it has a lot of memories. | :47:18. | :47:22. | |
My husband has just died and my grandson sleet see every night | :47:22. | :47:26. | |
because of my illnesses. Rather than feed myself, I would pay the | :47:26. | :47:29. | |
rent because this is my home and I have no intention of giving my home | :47:29. | :47:33. | |
up. Mary is not the only one concerned about falling behind with | :47:33. | :47:42. | |
the red. Figures from the Citizens Advice Bureau show 165% in the | :47:42. | :47:48. | |
number of winter Rea's enquiries. Across Wales, the figure for | :47:48. | :47:57. | |
housing associations is only 12%. We have seen significant increases | :47:57. | :48:01. | |
in the number of people coming to us with rented villas and that is | :48:01. | :48:04. | |
giving us big cause for concern as the welfare reform changes start to | :48:04. | :48:13. | |
impact. The fact that we are already working with the most | :48:13. | :48:16. | |
deprived communities mean that other parts of Wales are going to | :48:16. | :48:19. | |
see the catch-up effect and we are going to see increases across the | :48:19. | :48:24. | |
whole of Wales next year. That increase in people fallen behind | :48:24. | :48:28. | |
with the rent will have implications for the tenants. And | :48:28. | :48:32. | |
also for some of the landlords. Housing Association model has been | :48:32. | :48:36. | |
probably the most successful public private partnership in the whole of | :48:36. | :48:40. | |
Western Europe and these changes we need to threaten the viability of | :48:40. | :48:49. | |
that model. We have leathered a �1.5 million into housing in Wales. | :48:49. | :48:55. | |
-- levered. To meet housing need, we have to make sure that resources | :48:55. | :49:05. | |
:49:05. | :49:23. | ||
are available to service the debt. The spokesman added that money was | :49:23. | :49:25. | |
available from local authorities to help support disabled people and | :49:25. | :49:31. | |
foster carers. For Mary, welfare reform will mean finding more money | :49:31. | :49:35. | |
to pay the rent but or housing association landlords, welfare | :49:35. | :49:41. | |
reform could mean a drop in their income. | :49:41. | :49:47. | |
Jenny, the situation outlined by the Citizens Advice Bureau was a | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
big surprise, seeing a big jump in the people in rent arrears. But | :49:51. | :49:54. | |
they say it is going to get worse from a poor when the changes come | :49:54. | :50:00. | |
in. -- from April. Are you find in these changes are difficult to | :50:00. | :50:04. | |
communicate? Everyone accepts it is not something the government would | :50:04. | :50:09. | |
have wished to have to do. But the truth of the matter is that housing | :50:09. | :50:17. | |
benefit now costs the nation, the UK, �23 billion. If you think that | :50:17. | :50:21. | |
the Welsh government runs Wales fought roughly �15 billion a year, | :50:21. | :50:26. | |
that puts that in perspective. The savings that the UK government is | :50:26. | :50:32. | |
making on that 23 billion is 2 billion. There is still an awful | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
lot of money going out. The vast majority of housing benefit will | :50:36. | :50:41. | |
still be paid in the same way. But savings have to be made because of | :50:41. | :50:46. | |
the financial mess that we inherited. The way in which we are | :50:46. | :50:51. | |
trying to do it is the fairest possible way and we are providing a | :50:51. | :50:56. | |
cushion for those who find themselves in difficulty. There is | :50:56. | :51:00. | |
the discretionary housing payments, which are going to go up. They are | :51:00. | :51:05. | |
being tripled in value so that there is a cushion for people who | :51:05. | :51:08. | |
find themselves in the sort of difficulties that were referred to | :51:08. | :51:14. | |
in that piece. Dafydd Elis-Thomas, there appears to be a knock-on | :51:14. | :51:21. | |
effect. We heard the man from the Housing Association say that the | :51:21. | :51:24. | |
viability of housing associations across Wales could be challenged | :51:24. | :51:28. | |
because their rent might drop and that is a frightening thought | :51:28. | :51:31. | |
because it is not just the house as they provide but the jobs they | :51:31. | :51:40. | |
create. As a third sex to provider of all sorts of activities, not | :51:40. | :51:50. | |
:51:50. | :51:51. | ||
just housing but extra care homes - - third sector, the housing | :51:51. | :51:58. | |
associations are dependent on a higher market in rent. If the | :51:58. | :52:01. | |
support is reduced, that is bound to affect the viability of the | :52:01. | :52:05. | |
organisations. I would say it is essential that we investigate this | :52:05. | :52:10. | |
from the receiving end in Wales. Whenever there are changes in UK | :52:10. | :52:19. | |
government policy on income support that affect our population, it | :52:19. | :52:22. | |
affects us worse because we have a higher proportion of people on | :52:22. | :52:25. | |
benefits. It undermines the activity of world government very | :52:25. | :52:33. | |
often. One of your jobs within the Wales Office is dealing with of the | :52:33. | :52:36. | |
UK government departments and the Welsh government. Are these | :52:36. | :52:41. | |
discussions you have been having with the Welsh government? Wales | :52:41. | :52:45. | |
Office ministers have been discussing the issues and | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
particularly the way in which changes to the benefit, with | :52:50. | :52:53. | |
universal credit, are going to be rolled out. We are very conscious | :52:53. | :52:59. | |
that a higher proportion of people in Wales fan across the UK as a | :52:59. | :53:07. | |
whole rely on benefits. We had Mary says she would rather starve | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
because she did not want to lose her home. That is rather stark. | :53:11. | :53:16. | |
people are very worried about something in advance, or rather | :53:16. | :53:19. | |
more worried about something in advance in many cases than the | :53:19. | :53:26. | |
problem will actually arise. There are those emergency payments that | :53:26. | :53:31. | |
the government is determined it will help the most vulnerable. | :53:31. | :53:35. | |
Nobody wants people to feel like that but there are systems in place | :53:35. | :53:40. | |
to ensure that, in reality, it does not happen. This is something we | :53:40. | :53:45. | |
will keep a watch on after April. This week, the first minister heads | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
off to San Francisco in the latest of a series of trade missions, | :53:49. | :53:54. | |
which has led to various parts of the globe. He has been to Ireland, | :53:54. | :53:58. | |
China and Turkey this year already. One leading Welsh academic police | :53:58. | :54:02. | |
there was government is missing a trick by not focusing enough of the | :54:02. | :54:07. | |
trade opportunities offered in the countries of central Europe. Our | :54:07. | :54:09. | |
political correspondent has been looking at how Wales could benefit | :54:10. | :54:14. | |
from its relationship with Romania. After the troubled past, Romania is | :54:14. | :54:18. | |
now back at the very heart of Europe. It has retained the | :54:18. | :54:22. | |
elegance and sophistication that meant that the capital, Bucharest, | :54:22. | :54:28. | |
was once known as the Paris of the East. In the decades following the | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
second world war, Romania was plunged into the grey sludge of | :54:31. | :54:35. | |
political paternity and the oppressive rule of Nicolae | :54:35. | :54:39. | |
Ceausescu and his cronies. The twilight years of communist rule | :54:39. | :54:44. | |
came to an end in 1989. The revolution here was the bloodiest | :54:44. | :54:50. | |
of all the revolutions that hit eastern Europe. But the country | :54:50. | :54:54. | |
emerged onto the European stage for the first time since the end of the | :54:54. | :55:02. | |
World War II. Romanians joined the European Union in 2007. In Europe, | :55:02. | :55:08. | |
almost all countries need to be better known or to know better | :55:08. | :55:14. | |
other members of the European Union. We are a family now, in the largest | :55:14. | :55:18. | |
sense of the word. But her family, it is quite normal to exchange | :55:19. | :55:24. | |
views, to exchange ideas, to exchange values and against this | :55:24. | :55:29. | |
background, we have to do a lot. One of recent trip to Cardiff, the | :55:29. | :55:33. | |
Romanian ambassador stressed that his government wants to improve | :55:33. | :55:39. | |
ties in Wales. He has met the first minister on three occasions. He has | :55:39. | :55:48. | |
been to Scotland half-a-dozen times. As power shifts towards the former | :55:48. | :55:54. | |
Eastern bloc countries, countryside Romania will play a greater role in | :55:54. | :55:59. | |
economic affairs. The question is whether it Welsh Government's -- | :55:59. | :56:04. | |
the Welsh government is playing its part. A one of the interesting | :56:04. | :56:09. | |
aspects when you think about the worst situation is that Wales is in | :56:10. | :56:17. | |
two thirds of structural funds. One of the things the government cannot | :56:17. | :56:21. | |
be accused of, regardless of the outcomes, is having problems with | :56:21. | :56:27. | |
spending European money. There is a trick been lost here in terms of | :56:27. | :56:33. | |
the links that we could set up, established, with the Romanian and | :56:33. | :56:39. | |
Bulgarian governments to see how: Basically, we could support them | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
and help them in addressing the this underspending of European | :56:44. | :56:50. | |
structural funds. The experience of the recent industrial past and | :56:50. | :56:54. | |
Wales is a commodity which something the Romanians would value. | :56:54. | :56:58. | |
Knowledge has a very high value. We are not talking about selling tea | :56:58. | :57:04. | |
cups or mugs or teaspoons. We are talking about taking 25 years of | :57:04. | :57:10. | |
hard earned recovery based knowledge to a country that can | :57:10. | :57:14. | |
benefit from that. They have further to recover than we have and | :57:14. | :57:19. | |
we can give them a thought up. That comes at a premium price and one | :57:19. | :57:24. | |
that you have to pay for. Welsh ministers have emphasised they are | :57:24. | :57:31. | |
keen to develop stronger overseas trade links. But what about Romania | :57:31. | :57:37. | |
and other countries in central Europe? In a statement, there was | :57:37. | :57:47. | |
:57:47. | :57:51. | ||
-- of the Welsh at government Between 2007-13, there were 30 | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
billion euros of project funding available on agriculture, | :57:55. | :58:00. | |
infrastructure, people development, and all of these are areas in which | :58:00. | :58:05. | |
Wales can provide genuine support. Currently, Romanians and Bulgarians | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
face trade restrictions but they will be lifted next January. This | :58:09. | :58:13. | |
has prompted fears that thousands of eastern Europeans can flood into | :58:13. | :58:18. | |
the UK but is also making people think about what business Wales | :58:18. | :58:27. | |
could do with Romania. Were there some points raised their | :58:28. | :58:32. | |
about markets that could be exploited by the Welsh government? | :58:32. | :58:35. | |
I am very interested in environmental goods and services | :58:35. | :58:40. | |
and the growth of rural as well as urban development by a green jobs. | :58:41. | :58:46. | |
I am sure there is a huge potential we need to look at and the idea | :58:46. | :58:53. | |
that we could do a knowledge transfer in relation to our | :58:53. | :59:00. | |
experience, and the opportunity for Welsh communities to benefit from | :59:00. | :59:07. | |
them as they grow up, is what the EU is all about. There has been | :59:07. | :59:10. | |
talk of putting adverts and papers to stop people from Romania and | :59:10. | :59:13. | |
Bulgaria coming here. This is perhaps a more positive side, isn't | :59:13. | :59:22. | |
it? There are great opportunities and Wales exports 40% of its | :59:22. | :59:29. | |
products that did exports to the EU as an whole. That means there is | :59:29. | :59:34. | |
great potential throughout the EU but also, the important thing we | :59:34. | :59:38. | |
need to bear in mind is that Wales has not been doing as well as it | :59:38. | :59:43. | |
should have done in recent years - not just in terms of exports but in | :59:43. | :59:48. | |
terms of attracting inward investment. Is that there was | :59:48. | :59:52. | |
government's fault? I am not going to attribute blame. Whatever the | :59:52. | :00:00. | |
cause, we need to have a stronger focus on Wales. -- of the Welsh | :00:00. | :00:07. | |
government's fault? The Wales offers is playing its part in that | :00:07. | :00:15. | |
liaison and it is really important that we seize the initiative and | :00:15. | :00:21. | |
that the Welsh government does follow through. Well we are talking | :00:21. | :00:26. | |
about the EU, we cannot not talk about the budget discussions. David | :00:26. | :00:31. | |
Cameron claimed success on cutting the EU's budget. You do not share | :00:31. | :00:36. | |
his delight. I do not. I am concerned about higher education | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
and other research and development budgets. I am deeply concerned | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
about the level of the Common Agricultural Policy because the | :00:45. | :00:50. | |
growth of Welsh agriculture depends a man. And the Rural Development | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
Programme, which the Welsh minister concerned is about to go at a | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
consultation on. But how can we consult on the spending of a | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
programme when we do not know the final figures? The sooner we get | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
the figures, the sooner we can see what damage one part of the | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
coalition has done to Wales's prospects. As Dafydd raised the | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
point, one part of the coalition he says, I assume you are referring to | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
the Conservatives - this is not something the Lib Dems supported, | :01:21. | :01:27. | |
is it? The Liberal Democrats accept the fact that the EU has to spend | :01:27. | :01:33. | |
its money very wisely at this particular time. However, as | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
enthusiastic Europeans, we accept also that there are two sides to | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
the story. Wales is a net recipient of EU funds and is therefore in an | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
unusual position within the UK. You do have to accept that not just the | :01:50. | :01:57. | |
UK government but several other EU governments - a majority, otherwise | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
it would not have got through - wanted to bring their spending | :02:01. | :02:07. | |
under control. Wales, I hope, will one day very soon not be in a | :02:07. | :02:12. | |
position of relying on EU funds in the way it has done in the past. | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
Time now for a look back at some other political stories of the Week | :02:16. | :02:26. | |
:02:26. | :02:28. | ||
Opposition parties accused the Welsh Government of backtracking on | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
an election promise to introduce GP led health checks for the over- | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
fifties. Ministers want online checks instead. | :02:36. | :02:46. | |
:02:46. | :02:46. | ||
The Prime Minister asked a Welsh Minister to review NHS practices so. | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
But by Health Minister of Leslie Griffiths said the government would | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
look at the report on the mid- Staffordshire NHS Trust to see of | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
this as could be learned here. All Wells Conservative MPs voted | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
against gay marriage. David Cameron describes the bill as a step | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
forward. More than half of Conservative MPs and two Wells | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
Labour MPs opposed the legislation. The Welsh education minister | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
Leighton Andrews welcomed the decision not to scrap GCSEs in | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
England. The original proposals from the way education minister | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
Michael Gove would have a ladder to growing difficulties -- differences | :03:20. | :03:30. | |
:03:30. | :03:35. | ||
Baroness Randerson, Leighton Andrews describes Michael Gove as a | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
repentant sinner. Part of your role, with your response before education, | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
is managing the relationship between the Welsh government and | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
the UK government. I am sure that has been quite difficult over the | :03:46. | :03:53. | |
GCSE row. It is not the easiest situation but I think the important | :03:53. | :04:00. | |
thing is that we now need to focus our minds on how GCSEs in Wales are | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
going to mean something different, possibly, from GCSEs in England. | :04:05. | :04:13. | |
That is a problem, overwhelmingly, four Welsh young people. There I'm | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
awful lot more of the English people than there are Welsh people. | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
-- there are an awful lot. People assume the majority situation will | :04:23. | :04:29. | |
apply in Wales. Both of the ministers concerned are keen to | :04:29. | :04:37. | |
keep the name of GCSE. Leighton Andrews I suppose feels he has been | :04:37. | :04:44. | |
vindicated by the U-turn. What do you think of the debate? Not a lot. | :04:44. | :04:52. | |
But alas, we have got a system in Wales... But I agree with Jenny. | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
There has to be a proper marketing of the meaning of the Welsh system. | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
I have experience over the years that although employers say what | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
they want from a qualification, in reality they very often do not. | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
They have to be educated in what systems ought to be produced. | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
aware of what a GCSE means in Wales, rather than England. Being aware of | :05:13. | :05:16. |