:01:28. > :01:33.The councils with money in the tobacco industry. A good investment
:01:33. > :01:43.for their pension pots, but soon those same councils will be urging
:01:43. > :01:43.
:01:43. > :43:53.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2530 seconds
:43:53. > :43:56.Hello once again from the Midlands, I'm Patrick Burns. And our guests
:43:56. > :44:00.today represent our part of the country at Westminster and in
:44:00. > :44:04.Brussels. Mike Nattrass is the UK Independence Party MEP for the West
:44:05. > :44:14.Midlands region. Valerie Vaz is the Labour MP for Walsall South and a
:44:15. > :44:15.
:44:15. > :44:21.member of the Commons Health Select Committee. Let us begin with
:44:21. > :44:26.Stafford hospital, as my latest blog Post explains, a report could
:44:26. > :44:32.well have a bearing on the wider debate on the NHS as a whole until
:44:32. > :44:39.the next general election. Valerie, you are in a position to have the
:44:39. > :44:46.inside track on this. Him a Robert Francis has said he will deliver it
:44:46. > :44:55.to the Secretary of State for Health on January. We are hoping
:44:55. > :45:02.that will be the case. So, you would hope very soon after that.
:45:02. > :45:07.There is going to be a major issue of confidence. What will be the UK
:45:07. > :45:13.Independence Party approach? have always advocated the return of
:45:13. > :45:17.the matron. It means supervision takes place, and that is what has
:45:17. > :45:21.happened. One of the major problems is the element of care has
:45:21. > :45:29.disappeared because matrons have disappeared. There are other
:45:29. > :45:35.aspects as well. The first calls for a public inquiry came from a
:45:35. > :45:39.campaign group, told the NHS. Now, as she waits for the report to be
:45:39. > :45:45.published, she hopes the Government would take its time implementing
:45:45. > :45:50.the changes. We have been happy with the inquiry so far, and we
:45:50. > :45:56.have heard criticism of the amount of time there has taken. This is an
:45:56. > :46:06.examination of the whole of the NHS. This needs to take time. We want it
:46:06. > :46:06.
:46:06. > :46:14.done properly so this never, ever happens again. She is suggesting
:46:14. > :46:22.this will be a very wide ranging focus. Issue right? -- is she
:46:22. > :46:30.right? It is difficult to comment on the report when it has not been
:46:30. > :46:35.published yet. But I did read your blog, and I agree with you,
:46:35. > :46:39.although there has been NHS reorganisation, I feel a bit more
:46:39. > :46:49.optimistic, and I think the report could provide a framework of how we
:46:49. > :46:50.
:46:50. > :46:55.move forward with the NHS. It at Julie's thinks the Government
:46:56. > :47:03.should take its time, how long do you think Mr Hunt should sit on it?
:47:03. > :47:10.I do not think it has anything to do with Mr Hunt. It is a bit like
:47:10. > :47:16.the Prime Minister did with the bloody Sunday inquiry. I am hoping
:47:16. > :47:20.it will be sooner rather than later. The issue is what we cannot have a
:47:20. > :47:26.health service that lurches from one crisis management to another.
:47:26. > :47:30.Absolutely, and a lot of it has been because of targets. What they
:47:30. > :47:37.cannot target is the kindness and care you should be getting from
:47:37. > :47:44.nurses. We should be involving supervision of there, something to
:47:44. > :47:48.bring back the element of care into nursing and hospitals. There has
:47:48. > :47:54.been a lot of bullying also in the NHS in order to achieve targets.
:47:54. > :47:58.That has to stop. We will do a report into nursing and nursing
:47:58. > :48:02.care, but you need targets to find out what is going on. Maybe we need
:48:02. > :48:04.different targets. Coming up a little later, we reveal
:48:04. > :48:07.the investments held by local councils in tobacco companies, but
:48:07. > :48:11.from April, "Stop Smoking Courses" will be run by those self-same
:48:11. > :48:19.councils. Some of them tell us they're now re-thinking their
:48:19. > :48:24.investment strategies. Find out which ones a little later.
:48:24. > :48:28.Relief at last for hard-pressed rail commuters. That light at the
:48:28. > :48:31.end of the tunnel may be coming from a shiny new electric train.
:48:31. > :48:33.After a straight ten years of above-inflation fare rises,
:48:33. > :48:36.passengers from Stafford to Redditch, Leamington to Rugeley are
:48:36. > :48:43.finally being promised a �250 million upgrade to the lines they
:48:43. > :48:46.travel on. And as Cath Mackie explains, they're even planning to
:48:46. > :48:50.do something about a station that sounds like something out of Thomas
:48:50. > :48:58.the Tank Engine. The morning commute from Bromsgrove
:48:59. > :49:03.to Birmingham. Reliability has always been at an issue, especially
:49:03. > :49:08.in the last six months, the trains are more often let them on time.
:49:08. > :49:10.When they don't work, you resent having to pay prices. And it's a
:49:10. > :49:17.frustration shared by the town's political leaders. For eight years,
:49:17. > :49:23.they've been campaigning for a new station. The trains are absolutely
:49:23. > :49:27.packed. They are not enough of them. As you can see, it will take a two
:49:28. > :49:32.carriages on the side, and on the other side, four. That is a
:49:32. > :49:35.ludicrous! But there are promises from Network Rail that things will
:49:35. > :49:39.improve. They're increasing services from two trains an hour to
:49:39. > :49:42.three. And yes, there will be a new station as well. And that's not all.
:49:42. > :49:45.In the next five years, �550 million will be spent across the
:49:45. > :49:49.million will be spent across the West Midlands. Half will go on
:49:49. > :49:52.improvements in the stafford area. Other plans include an upgrade for
:49:52. > :49:54.Coventry to Nuneaton with a new station at the Ricoh arena,
:49:54. > :50:01.electrification and new tracks between Coventry and Leamington,
:50:01. > :50:11.and elecrictficiation between and elecrictficiation between
:50:11. > :50:12.
:50:12. > :50:16.Network Rail's calling it the biggest investment in our railways
:50:16. > :50:18.since the Victorian age. Trouble is, it's going to cost a lot more than
:50:19. > :50:27.two and six. So passengers can expect more above-inflation fare
:50:27. > :50:36.rises for years to come. But commuters are being reassured they
:50:36. > :50:40.will be met halfway along the line. We have to be more efficient. But
:50:40. > :50:45.we have a good building block to start on - over the last number of
:50:45. > :50:48.control periods, we have delivered efficiency. Passengers will be
:50:48. > :50:50.hoping the upgrades provide a service which runs on time at a
:50:50. > :51:00.price they can afford, equipping an analogue railway for the digital
:51:00. > :51:17.
:51:17. > :51:22.I thought the whole story of his modernisation process is higher
:51:22. > :51:30.above-inflation fares for as far as the eye can see. That is right, and
:51:30. > :51:36.that is what the Government can see. But we need to improve the railway
:51:36. > :51:40.and ensure we have more passengers on the rare way. That is the way
:51:41. > :51:47.forward. That is why we are talking to government about ensuring we can
:51:47. > :51:54.specify it and manage the bow wave locally, rather than in Whitehall.
:51:54. > :52:01.We get a flavour of this, but give us a sense from your point of view
:52:01. > :52:07.of what it's significant is. can come at it from a different
:52:07. > :52:14.angle. We have proposed a two government a package of seven
:52:14. > :52:24.improvements. They have a �1 billion impact Panama annum in the
:52:24. > :52:25.
:52:25. > :52:33.West Midlands. The package at the moment that the Government are
:52:33. > :52:36.putting together delivers 2000 jobs, so there is a lot more to go. While
:52:36. > :52:41.we welcomed the investment that is coming, it is not enough.
:52:41. > :52:46.strikes me that this presupposes these predictions of growth are
:52:46. > :52:52.reliable, and some times forecasts turn out to be less than reliable.
:52:52. > :52:59.I agreed. What we have done in the West Midlands is whilst Network
:52:59. > :53:03.Rail have been producing forecasts, we have been getting eight and 9%
:53:03. > :53:08.growth a mile railway. In fact, we are more successful in the West
:53:08. > :53:13.Midlands them has been the case of their forecasts. Actually, we are
:53:13. > :53:20.over getting more passengers on a railway as the years go by.
:53:20. > :53:26.should warn you we are indeed presence of one of the most voluble
:53:26. > :53:32.opponents of high-speed rail! Network Rail say to make this
:53:32. > :53:38.system work, it is not a question of if but when. It is, and about
:53:38. > :53:42.how quickly. What we have got locally is more and more
:53:42. > :53:48.requirements for more and more local trains. The only way we will
:53:48. > :53:53.get them in the network is by moving the InterCity trains offer
:53:53. > :53:59.no work locally, and we do that by preparing an building the new high-
:53:59. > :54:05.speed railway. �35 billion as a lot of money, and already, commuters
:54:05. > :54:10.are being charged too much for welfares. We are putting up the
:54:10. > :54:14.capital cost the whole time. did the Victorians had a lot like
:54:14. > :54:18.that, we would not have got started! You cannot say the
:54:18. > :54:26.railways have not improved since Victorian times. I am not a
:54:26. > :54:29.trainspotter, but the West Coast mainline route will be full. So why
:54:29. > :54:37.build a slow one? Be if you want to improve capacity, there are
:54:37. > :54:45.different ways of doing that. There are various ways of doing that.
:54:45. > :54:51.Also, the East Coast main line is a better route because it is a
:54:51. > :55:01.plateau, it easier, disturbs plus villages and towns. That was not
:55:01. > :55:03.
:55:03. > :55:06.commercially viable, so the Government had to take it back. The
:55:06. > :55:12.feeling from my constituents is they want to be able to travel by
:55:12. > :55:16.rail, they want an alternative to road transport. Might only plea is
:55:16. > :55:20.er it should not be those passengers back to pay for it. You
:55:21. > :55:30.would not expect air travellers to pay for improvements and airports.
:55:31. > :55:31.
:55:31. > :55:36.I am very pleased with this package. Having heard those opinions, how
:55:36. > :55:44.would you react? We have looked very hard at all the alternatives
:55:44. > :55:49.for building more capacity into a railway system. We have a mixed use
:55:49. > :55:53.railway. We can't get more capacity without building high-speed to. I
:55:53. > :55:59.know a lot of people do not want to see that built, but it is the only
:55:59. > :56:04.way we can have a thriving railway. As someone who serves on the
:56:04. > :56:10.European Parliament's transport committee, you have seen the use of
:56:10. > :56:13.high-speed trains there. Absolutely. It has just given money to Italy
:56:13. > :56:21.for a high-speed, so you can't say they are not any policies from
:56:21. > :56:27.Europe. The Government deny it because they say it is nothing to
:56:27. > :56:30.do with Europe. The European countries have shown they have a
:56:31. > :56:40.fantastic infrastructure in the rail service, and that is what we
:56:41. > :56:41.
:56:41. > :56:47.want. It brings jobs and growth, and high-speed two will create
:56:47. > :56:57.22,000 jobs and increase the economic activity in the area or by
:56:57. > :57:01.a �1.5 billion a year. 20 minutes not of the time it did get a London
:57:01. > :57:09.it is neither here nor there. It means you cannot prepare for a
:57:09. > :57:13.meeting, you could up got there 20 minutes earlier. Just remember, the
:57:13. > :57:17.high-speed railway is about getting to Manchester, at Leeds and
:57:17. > :57:24.Birmingham, right at the heart of the high-speed realm that work. We
:57:24. > :57:30.are already at the heart of the road network. Everything leads to
:57:30. > :57:37.This programme's discovered that local authorities right across the
:57:37. > :57:41.Midlands invest nearly �130 million in tobacco companies. The cash is
:57:41. > :57:43.held in council workers' pension funds. But from April, those same
:57:43. > :57:52.authorities become responsible for public health issues, including
:57:52. > :57:56.help and advice on, yes, stopping smoking. One council's told us it's
:57:56. > :58:00.now reviewing its investments. With an exclusive report, here's our
:58:00. > :58:04.Hereford and Worcester political reporter, Tom Turrell.
:58:04. > :58:07.Last year, smoking killed around 80,000 people in England. And
:58:07. > :58:14.latest figures show it cost the NHS more than �5 billion treating
:58:14. > :58:23.related diseases. That's why the NHS are keen to get the message
:58:23. > :58:28.across to smokers like Jo Spooner once and for all. I tried on my own
:58:28. > :58:35.first, but I was never successful. Having someone to come and talk to
:58:35. > :58:38.and encourage you was the better way of doing it. But because of the
:58:38. > :58:40.way the NHS is being re-organised, come April, it'll be your local
:58:40. > :58:43.council who'll be responsible for running "stop smoking" services,
:58:43. > :58:46.encouraging people to kick the habit for good. But I've discovered
:58:46. > :58:48.through Freedom of Information requests that in the Midlands, our
:58:48. > :58:57.councils are currently investing almost �130 million in tobacco
:58:57. > :59:07.companies via their pension pots. It's left some labelling the local
:59:07. > :59:11.
:59:11. > :59:15.authorities hypocrites. If they are investing in this, and at the same
:59:15. > :59:23.time trying to persuade people to give up the product, what is the
:59:23. > :59:29.point? You could argue they are campaigning against their own
:59:29. > :59:31.interests. They have got to get rid of that conflict of interest.
:59:31. > :59:34.Councils across Herefordshire and Worcestershire are currently
:59:34. > :59:40.investing �21 million in tobacco firms. They say they've got to get
:59:40. > :59:46.the best deal possible for their pensioners. Some people would think
:59:46. > :59:50.there is a conflict here, but I do not think there is. We have an
:59:50. > :59:58.administrative function here rather than a political one. We
:59:58. > :00:05.administered the pension fund, it is pensioners' money, to try and
:00:05. > :00:08.get the best return we can. course, there's method in - what
:00:08. > :00:11.some are describing as - the council's madness. Over the past
:00:11. > :00:15.decade, tobacco stocks have done twice as well as the rest of the
:00:15. > :00:21.market. And they're helping pay for a happy retirement for many workers.
:00:21. > :00:26.Across Warwickshire, councils hold tobacco shares worth �7.9 million.
:00:26. > :00:36.Councils in Staffordshire hold �31 million. And the councils of the
:00:36. > :00:38.
:00:38. > :00:40.Metropolitan West Midlands have almost �60 million. But the pension
:00:40. > :00:43.fund managers in Staffordshire have told this programme they're now
:00:43. > :00:53.reviewing that investment as a result of the changes in public
:00:53. > :01:02.
:01:03. > :01:08.Rod says local authorities have a conflict of interests, but someone
:01:08. > :01:12.else said there is a separation. doesn't matter. It looks like there
:01:12. > :01:16.is a conflict of interest because there is a financial commitment,
:01:16. > :01:21.and if that will drive what they do in terms of health outcomes, there
:01:21. > :01:27.is a possibility that might be part of the agenda. So it is about
:01:27. > :01:34.perception? He says he administers it, but it is right for council
:01:34. > :01:38.taxpayers to know exactly where their investments are. You were a
:01:38. > :01:42.council worker yourself. You would want your pension to be as well
:01:42. > :01:48.invested as it should be. And there are many places they could invest
:01:48. > :01:55.in equally well, the example, a high-speed one. They are invested
:01:55. > :02:01.by the pension funds of the Canadians. There are very good
:02:01. > :02:10.organisations that have transformed some Pancras International station.
:02:10. > :02:16.You are taking the top of Pandora's box their! Ethical investments. You
:02:16. > :02:21.have got to really look at the pensions, invest in what is legal.
:02:21. > :02:25.Tobacco companies contribute �15 billion a year to the Exchequer,
:02:25. > :02:35.and they are illegal. They are trying to diversify any way into
:02:35. > :02:35.
:02:35. > :02:40.other products. But never mind that what a --. I have absolutely no
:02:40. > :02:44.sympathy with what you say! Local authorities have been given this
:02:44. > :02:48.role to look after public health issues, and this is the new
:02:48. > :02:55.responsibility. They have a role, but the directors of public health
:02:55. > :03:05.have to produce a report. 80,000 people died a year. What about
:03:05. > :03:06.
:03:06. > :03:10.beefburgers?! What about obesity? What about oil? You cannot do all
:03:10. > :03:15.these ethical investments and please everybody because the next
:03:15. > :03:24.programme will be on about fish and chips or whatever else! 80,000
:03:24. > :03:26.Now our regular round-up of the political week in the Midlands in
:03:26. > :03:35.60 seconds. Here's the BBC West Midlands's political reporter,
:03:35. > :03:40.Prisons in Gloucester and Shrewsbury are to shut. A 2,000-
:03:40. > :03:43.cell super-prison will be built somewhere else in the country.
:03:43. > :03:47.Some unemployed people in Birmingham will have to start
:03:47. > :03:50.paying a slice of council tax for the first time. The local authority
:03:50. > :04:00.says it can no longer afford to help them out but safeguards will
:04:00. > :04:01.
:04:01. > :04:05.be in place. We have developed our own council tax benefit scheme,
:04:05. > :04:08.requiring unemployed people to make a contribution towards council tax.
:04:08. > :04:11.But we have sought to protect the Most Honourable.
:04:11. > :04:14.The colour's purple but the problem's red. The Business
:04:14. > :04:17.Minister was at Cadbury in Bournville to launch a cut on
:04:17. > :04:19.business red tape. Sales of the Land Rover are up by a
:04:19. > :04:25.third. Jaguar's doing well, too. But sales of Aston Martins have
:04:25. > :04:28.dropped. And taking the Potteries to China.
:04:28. > :04:38.A trade mission's flying East to drum up more business in new
:04:38. > :04:45.
:04:45. > :04:51.China to China sounds good! Absolutely wonderful! Midlands
:04:51. > :04:58.exports to China are ahead of those to Germany. Is that right? That is
:04:58. > :05:05.excellent. Someone in my office has introduced Indian makers of China
:05:05. > :05:09.to bring them to the Stoke area to have a unpainted and sent back
:05:09. > :05:14.again because the schools are in Stoke-on-Trent. It is this more
:05:15. > :05:22.situation, but those sort of things can expand. We have got to keep the
:05:22. > :05:28.basic trade in the area. Maybe we can bring some industries back.
:05:28. > :05:32.Some of them are coming back. In my constituency, we have got fantastic
:05:32. > :05:38.skills and engineering. A lot of companies are coming back to
:05:38. > :05:47.Britain. Porcelain actually started in China, so it is good we are
:05:47. > :05:52.shown them how to do it! Quick word on red tape. This Government has
:05:52. > :06:01.decided to get rid of some of the red tape brought in when your
:06:01. > :06:05.administration was empower, Valerie. We need some of it. Someone in my
:06:05. > :06:13.constituency is trying to develop a business that cannot even get a
:06:13. > :06:19.small loan. It is the blue table of yellow stars I despise, coming out
:06:19. > :06:26.of Brussels! You should resign, you should not be an MEP if you do not
:06:26. > :06:30.like Brussels! I think you will stand for the job again in the next
:06:30. > :06:33.Parliament! Thanks to Valerie Vaz and Mike