17/11/2013 Sunday Politics West Midlands

Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics.

Downing Street announces an inquiry into allegations of hardball tactics

and intimidation by unions in industrial disputes. That's our top

story. Thousands dead. Hundreds of

thousands without homes. Millions affected. What is Britain doing to

help the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan? We'll ask

International Development Secretary Justine Greening.

Winter is coming and so, it seems, is another crisis in England's

hospitals. I'll be asking the Shadow Health Secretary how he'd put a stop

to In the Midlands, missed targets,

U`turns and climb downs. Successive governments have

fatalities on the capital's streets, and renewed calls to get lorries off

the roads in peak hours. With me, the best and brightest

political panel that money can buy. Janan Ganesh, Nick Watt and this

week, Zoe Williams, who'll be tweeting their thoughts throughout

the programme. The Government has announced a

review to investigate what the Prime Minister has called "industrial

intimidation" by trade union activists. Bruce Carr QC will chair

a panel to examine allegations of the kind of tactics that came to

light during the Grangemouth dispute, when the Unite union took

their protests - replete with a giant rat - outside the family homes

of the firms' bosses. Earlier this morning the Cabinet office minister,

Francis Maude spoke to the BBC and this is what he had to say. To look

at whether the law currently works and see if it is ineffective in

preventing the kind of intimidatory activity that was alleged to have

taken place around range mouth during the previous disputes --

Grangemouth. We make no presumptions at the beginning of this. I do think

it is a responsible thing for the government to establish what

happened and really do a proper review into whether the law is

adequate to meet the needs. That was Francis Maude. This is a purely

political move, isn't it? Unite did this a couple of times, it is hardly

happening all over the country but the government want to say, we are

prepared to investigate Unite properly, Labour isn't. This seemed

a lot worse when I thought it was a real rat. I thought it was a giant

dead rat. I am not sure if you know much about rats but real rats are

not this big, even the ones in London. The thing is, obviously it

is naked politics but I think it is more intelligent than it looks. They

are trying to taint Miliband as a week union puppet and that doesn't

really wash. They hammer away with it and it might wash for some

people. But it really castrates Miliband in the important issues he

has to tackle. Zero hours, living wage, all of those things in which

he needs to be in concert with the unions, and to use their expertise.

He is making them absolutely toxic to go anywhere near. It keeps the

Unite story alive, have to kill -- particularly since Mr Miller band is

under pressure to reopen the investigation into what Unite are up

to -- Mr Miliband. They are frustrated, not only at the BBC but

the media generally at what they think is a lack of coverage. I see

the political rationale from that respect. There is a risk. There are

union members who either vote Tory or are open to the idea of voting

Tory. All Lib Dem. If the party comes across as too zealous in as --

its antipathy, there is an electoral consequence. Ed Miliband has been

careful to keep a distance. Yes they depend on vast amounts of

money. When Len McCluskey had a real go at the Blairites, Ed Miliband was

straight out there with a very strong statement. Essentially Len

McCluskey wanted Blairites in the shadow cabinet sacked and Ed

Miliband was keen to distance himself or for that is why it is not

quite sticking. Another story in the Sunday papers this morning, the Mail

on Sunday got hold of some e-mails. When I saw the headline I thought it

was a huge cache of e-mails, it turns out to be a couple. They peel

away the cover on the relationship between Ed Miliband and Ed Balls,

with some of Ed Miliband's cohorts describing what Mr balls is trying

to do as a nightmare. How bad are the relations? They are pretty bad

and these e-mails confirm the biggest open signal in Westminster,

which is that relations are pretty tense, -- open secret. That Ed

Miliband doesn't feel that Ed Balls is acknowledging the economy has

grown that Labour needs to admit to past mistakes. The sort of great

open signal is confirmed. On a scale of 1-10, assuming that Blair-Brown

was ten. I think it is between six and seven. They occupy this joint

suite of offices that George Cameron and -- David Cameron and George

Osborne had. It is not just on the economy that there were tensions,

there were clearly tensions over HS2, Ed Balls put a huge question

over it at his conference. There will be more tensions when it comes

to the third runway because my information is that Mr balls wants

to do it and Ed Miliband almost resigned over it when he was in

government. I don't think Ed Miliband is thinking very

politically because he has tried live without Ed Balls and that is

not tenable either. -- life without. He has defined a way of making it

work. That is where Tony Blair had the edge on any modern politician.

He didn't want to make Ed Balls his Shadow Chancellor, he had to.

Somebody said to him, if you make Ed Balls Shadow Chancellor, that will

be the last decision you take as leader of the Labour Party. Is it as

bad? I was surprised at how tame the e-mails were. At the FT it is

compulsory, one French word per sentence! To call him a nightmare,

compared to what they are willing to say in briefings, conversations

bits of frustrations they express verbally come what is documented in

the e-mails is actually pretty light. It has been a grim week for

the people of the Philippines as they count the cost of the

devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan. HMS Daring has just arrived

near the worst hit areas - part of Britain's contribution to bring aid

to the country. It has been one of the worst natural

disasters in the history of the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan hit the

country nine days ago, leaving devastation in its wake. The numbers

involved are shocking. The official death toll is over 3600 people, with

many thousands more unaccounted for. More than half a million people have

lost their homes and the UN estimates 11 million have been

affected. David Cameron announced on Friday that the UK government is to

give an extra ?30 million in aid, taking the total British figure ?250

million. An RAF Sea 17 aircraft landed yesterday with equipment to

help aid workers get too hard to reach areas. HMS Illustrious is on

its way and due to arrive next weekend. The British public have

once again dipped into their pockets and given generously. They have

given more than ?30 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee.

The International Development Secretary, Justine Greening, joins

me now for the Sunday Interview Good morning, Secretary of State.

How much of the ?50 million that the government has allocated has got

through so far? All of it has landed on the ground now. HMS Daring has

turned up, that will be able to start getting help out to some of

those more outlying islands that have been hard to reach. We have

seen Save the Children and Oxfam really being able to get aid out on

the ground. We have a plane taking off today that will not read just

carrying out more equipment to help clear the roads but will also have

their staff on board, too. We have ?50 million of aid actually on the

ground? We instantly chartered flights directly from Dubai where we

have preprepared human Terry and supplies, and started humanity work

-- humanitarian supplies. A lot of it has now arrived. I think

we have done a huge amount so far. We have gone beyond just providing

humanitarian supplies, to getting the Royal Air Force involved. They

have helped us to get equipment out there quickly. We have HMS

Illustrious sailing over there now. Why has that taken so long? It was

based in the Gulf and is not going to get there until two weeks after

the storm first hit and that is the one ship we have with lots of

helicopters. The first decision we took was to make sure we could get

the fastest vessel out there that was able to help HMS Daring. HMS

Illustrious was just finishing an exercise and planning to start to

head back towards the UK. We have said to not do that, and diverted

it. Shouldn't it have happened more quickly? We took the decisions as

fast as we were able to, you can't just turn a big warship around like

the HMS Illustrious. We made sure we took those decisions and that is

while it will be taking over from HMS Daring come and that is why HMS

Daring is ready there. It will be able to provide key support and

expertise that has not been there so far. The US Navy is doing the heavy

lifting here. The US Navy had the USS Washington, there is an aircraft

carrier, 80 planes, 5000 personnel and they have the fleet, they are

doing the real work. We obviously helping but the Americans are taking

the lead. It is a big international effort. Countries like the US and

the UK, that have a broader ability to support that goes beyond simply

call humanitarian supplies -- have made sure we have brought our

logistics knowledge, we have sent out our naval vessels. It shows we

are working across government to respond to this crisis. Why does

only just over 4% of your aid budget go on emergency disaster and

response? A lot depends on what crises hit in any given year. We

have done a huge amount, responding to the crisis in Syria, the conflict

there and the fact we have 2 million refugees who have fled the country.

We are part of an international effort in supporting them. Shouldn't

we beginning more money to that rather than some of the other

programmes where it is harder to see the results question of if we were

to give more money to the refugees, it would be a visible result. We

could see an improvement in the lives of children, men and women.

What we need to do is alongside that is stop those situations from

happening in the first place. A lot of our development spend is helping

countries to stay stable. Look at some of the work we are doing in

Somalia, much more sensible. Not just from an immigration but there

is a threat perspective. There is a lot of terrorism coming from

Somalia. You only have to look at Kenya recently to see that. Which is

why you talk about what we do with the rest of the spend. It is why it

is responsible to work with the government of Somalia. Should we

give more, bigger part of the budget to disaster relief or not? I think

we get it about right, we have to be flexible and we are. This Philippine

relief is on top of the work in Syria. Where can you show me a

correlation between us giving aid to some failed nation, or nearly failed

nation, and that cutting down on terrorism? If you look at the work

we have done in Pakistan, a huge amount of work. Some of it

short-term. It is written by terrorism. That is -- ridden by

terrorism. That is not going to fix it self in a sense. Look at the work

that we do in investing in education. The things that little

girls like Malala talk about as being absolutely key. We are ramping

up our aid to Pakistan, it will be close to half ?1 billion by the time

of the election. Why should British taxpayers be giving half ?1 billion

to a country where only 0.5% of people in Pakistan pay income tax,

and 70% of their own MPs don't pay income tax. It is a good point and

that is why we have been working with their tax revenue authority to

help them increase that and push forward the tax reform. You are

right, and I have setup a team that will go out and work with many of

these countries so they can raise their own revenues. You really think

you will raise the amount of tax by sending out the British HRM see How

many troops I we sending out to protect them? They don't need

troops. We make sure that we have a duty of care alongside our staff,

but we have to respond to any crisis like the Philippines, and alongside

other countries we have two work alongside them so that they can

reinvest in their own public services. If they can create their

own taxes, will we stop paying aid? We need to look at that but the new

Pakistan Government has been very clear it is a priority and we will

be helping them in pursuing that. Let me show you a picture. Who are

these young women? I don't know I'm sure you are about to tell me. They

are the Ethiopian Spice Girls and I'm surprised you don't know because

they have only managed to become so famous because your department has

financed them to the tune of ?4 million. All of the work we do with

women on the ground, making sure they have a voice in their local

communities, making sure they have some control over what happens to

their own bodies in terms of tackling FGM, female genital

mutilation... Did you know your department has spent ?4 million on

the Ethiopian Spice Girls? Yes, I do, and we have to work with girls

and show them there is a life ahead of them with opportunity and

potential that goes beyond what many of them will experience, which

includes early and forced marriage. It is part of the work we do with

local communities to change attitudes everything you have just

said is immeasurable, and they broadcast on a radio station that

doesn't reach most of the country so it cannot have the impact. It only

reaches 20 million people and the project has been condemned saying

there were serious inefficiencies. That aid report was done a while ago

now, and it was talking about the project when it first got going and

a lot of improvements have happened since. I would go back to the point

that we are working in very difficult environments where we are

trying to get longer term change on the ground and that means working

directly with communities but also investing for the long-term,

investing in some of these girls start changing attitudes in them and

their communities. Why does the British taxpayers spend ?5 million

on a Bangladesh version of Question Time? We work with the BBC to make

sure we can get accountabilities... That is bigger then the BBC Question

Time Normal -- budget. That includes the cost of David Dimbleby's

tattoo! We are working to improve people's prospects but also we are

working to improve their ability to hold their governments to account so

that when they are not getting services on the ground, they have

ways they can raise those concerns with the people who are there to

deliver services for them. In your own personal view, should the next

Conservative Government, if there is one, should you continue to ring

fence spending on foreign aid? But it is critical that if we are going

to spend 7.7% of our national income, we should make sure it is in

our national interest and that means having a clear approach to

humanitarian responses, in keeping the country safe, and a clearer

approach on helping drive economic development and jobs so there is a

long-term end of the dependency Do you believe in an shrine in the

percentage of our GDP that goes on foreign aid in law? Yes, and that is

a coalition agreement. There have been a lot of agreements that you

are sceptical about ring fencing. We are focused on shaking up the

economy and improving our public finances. Why haven't you done that?

At the end of the day we will be accountable but we are committed to

doing that. You are running out of time, will you do it? I hope we can

find the Parliamentary time, but even if we don't, we have acted as

if that law is in place and we have already met 0.7% commitment. If you

are British voter that doesn't believe that we should enshrine that

in by law, which means that with a growing economy foreign aid will

rise by definition, and if you think we should be spending less money on

the Ethiopian Spice Girls, for whom should you wrote in the next

election? I think we have a very sensible approach. I don't know what

the various party manifestoes.. The only party who thinks we shouldn't

be doing this is UKIP. I think you have to look at the response to both

the Philippines crisis and Children In Need. Of all the steps we are

taking to get the country back on track, it shows the British people

will respond to need when they need it and it is one of the things that

makes Britain's special. Thank you. "It's always winter but

never Christmas" - that's how doctors describe life inside

accident and emergency. The College of Emergency Medicine have warned

that this year could bring the "worst crisis on record". If that

dire prediction comes, expect a spring of political recriminations,

but how prepared are the NHS in England? And what do they make of

this autumnal speculation? Giles has been to Leeds to find out.

This winter has already come to our hospitals. It had an official start

date, November the 3rd. That is when weekly updates are delivered to the

NHS's most senior planners, alerting them to any sudden changes in

patient numbers coming in. Where do they numbers register most then

A They are the barometer for what is going on everywhere else, and

they are the pressure point, so if the system is beginning to struggle

then it is in the A department that we see the problems. It is not

that the problems are the A departments, but they are the place

where it all comes together. Plans to tackle those problems start being

drawn up in May and they look at trends, even taking notice of any

flu epidemics in New Zealand. They also look at the amount of bets But

the weather, economic realities structural reforms, and changes to

the general health of the population, are all factors they

have to consider. We get huge amounts of information through the

winter in order to help the NHS be the best it can be, but we had to

redouble our efforts this year because we expected to be a

difficult winter. We know the NHS is stretched so we are working hard to

be as good as we can be. That means they are looking at winter staffing

levels, plans to ask for help from neighbouring hospitals, and

dovetailing help with GP surgeries, and still having the ability to move

up an extra gear, a rehearsed emergency plan if the NHS had to

face a major disease pandemic. You spend any time in any of our

hospitals and you realise the NHS knows that winter is coming and they

are making plans, but you also get a palpable feeling amongst health

workers across the entire system that they do get fed up of being

used as a political football. Doctors and all health care

professionals are frustrated about the politics that surrounds the NHS

in health care. They go to work to treat patients as best as they can,

and the political knock-about does not help anyone. I find it

frustrating when there is a commentary that suggests the NHS

does not planned, when it is surprised by winter, and wherever

that comes from it is hard to take, knowing how much we do nationally

and how much our hard working front line staff are doing. When the

Coalition have recently tried to open up the NHS to be a more

independent body, it is clear the NHS feel they have had an unhealthy

dose of political wrangling between parties on policy. The NHS is not

infallible or making any guarantees, but they seem confident that they

and their patients can survive the winter.

Joining me now from Salford in the Shadow Health Secretary, Andy

Burnham. Tell me this, if you were health secretary now, you just took

over in an emergency election, what would you do to avoid another winter

crisis? I would immediately halt the closure of NHS walk-in centres. We

heard this week that around one in four walk-in centres are closed so

it makes no sense whatsoever for the Government to allow the continued

closure of them. I would put nurses back on the end of phones and

restore an NHS direct style service. The new 111 service is not in a

position to provide help to people this winter. I think the time has

come to rethink how the NHS care is particularly for older people so I

propose the full integration of health and social care. It cannot

make any sense any more to have this approach where we cut social care

and let elderly people drift to hospitals in greater numbers. We

have two rethink it as a whole service. So you would repeal some of

the Tory reforms and move commissioning to local authorities

so the NHS should brace itself for another major top-down health

reorganisation? No, unlike Andrew Lansley I will work with the

organisations ie inherit. He could work with primary care trusts but he

turned it upside down when it needed stability. I will not do that but I

will repeal the health and social care act because last week we heard

that hospitals and health services cannot get on and make sensible

merger collaborations because of this nonsense now that the NHS is

bound by competition law. Let me get your views on a number of ideas that

have been floated either by the press or the Coalition. We haven't

got much time. Do you welcome the plan to bring back named GPs for

over 75s? Yes, but it has got harder to get the GP appointment under this

Government because David Cameron scrapped the 48-hour guarantee that

Tony Blair brought in. He was challenged in the 2005 election

about the difficulty of getting a GP appointment, and Tony Blair brought

in the commitment that people should be able to get that within 48

hours. That has now been scrapped. Do you welcome the idea of allowing

everyone to choose their own GP surgery even if it is not in our

traditional catchment area? I proposed that just before the last

election, so yes. Do you welcome the idea of how a practice is being

rated being a matter of public record, and of us knowing how much,

at least from the NHS, our GP earns? Of course, every political party

supports transparency in the NHS. More information for the public of

that kind is a good thing. Do you welcome this plan to make it will

form the collect in an NHS hospital -- make wilful neglect a criminal

offence. It is important to say you can't pick and mix these

recommendations, you can't say we will have that one and not the

others. It was a balanced package that Sir Robert Francis put forward.

My message is that it must be permitted in full. If we are to

learn the lessons, the whole package must be addressed, and that includes

safe staffing levels across the NHS. Staff have a responsible to two

patients at the government also has responsible at T2 NHS staff and it

understaffed, unsafe conditions -- a understaffed, unsafe conditions -- a

responsibility to NHS staff. Is there a part of the 2004 agreements

that you regret and should be undone? A lot of myths have been

built up about the contract. When it came in, there was a huge shortage

of GPs across the country. Some communities struggle to recruit.

This myth that the government have built, that the 2004 GP contract is

responsible for the AM decries is, it is spin of the worst possible

kind -- the A crisis. You would redo that contract? It was redone

under our time in government and change to make it better value for

money. GPs should be focused on improving the health of their

patients and that is a very good principle. Not so great if you can't

get 24-hour access. I agree with that. We brought in evening and

weekend opening for GPs. That is another thing that has gone in

reverse under Mr Cameron. It is much harder to get a GP appointment under

him and that is one of the reasons why A is an oppressor. -- under

pressure. What do you make of the review into intimidatory tactics by

unions? If there has been intimidation, it is unacceptable,

and that should apply to unions as well as employers. Was Unite wrong

to turn up and demonstrate? I don't know the details, this review will

look into that presumably. I need reassurance that this is not a

pretty cool call by Mr Cameron on the designed to appear near the

election -- that this is not a political call. Are you sponsored by

unite? No. Do you get any money from Unite? No. What have you done wrong?

It seems others are getting money from Unite. Can I tell you what I

think is the scandal of British party political funding, two health

care companies have given ?1.5 million in donations to the Tory

party, they have ?1.5 billion in NHS contracts. I wonder why you don't

spend much time talking about that and obsess over trade union funding.

We are happy to talk about that. We see from e-mails that Mr Miliband's

closest advisers regard Mr Ed Balls as a bit of a nightmare, do you see

a bit of a nightmare about him as well? I don't at all, he is a very

good friend. I can't believe that you are talking about those e-mails

on a national political programme. My goodness, you obviously scraping

the barrel today. I have been in front-line labour politics for 20

years. I can't remember the front bench and the wider party being as

united as it is today and it is a great credit to Ed Miliband and Ed

Balls. We are going into a general election and we are going to get rid

of a pretty disastrous coalition government. It was worth spending a

few seconds to establish your not having nightmares. Thank you for

joining me. It's just gone 11:30am. You're

watching the Sunday Politics. Coming up in just over 20 minutes, I'll be

talking to the MP accused Hello once again from the Midlands.

is needed. Hello once again from the Midlands.

I'm Patrick Burns. And our guests today share a passion for music. But

will they be singing from the same song sheet here today? Somehow I

doubt it. Jack Dromey, Labour MP for

Birmingham Erdington, became the shadow police minister in the recent

Opposition reshuffle. John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham

Yardley, is his party's leader here in the West Midlands.

And they were both embroiled in a heated Commons debate last week,

called by Labour to demand the immediate scrapping of what they

call "the bedroom tax" and the Government call the "under`occupancy

penalty". Two Liberal Democrats voted with Labour and several others

abstained. But for the record, John Hemming was among 31 Lib Dems who

supported the Government. So did our local Tories. Instead of conducting

a campaign of misinformation against the reforms to housing benefit,

reforms that Labour accepted were necessary at the last election,

local authorities should instead be helping people to downsize, to

accommodation that meets their needs, and so free up much`needed

housing stock. 11,000 people are on the waiting list in Stoke`on`Trent.

Where are these one`bedroom flats, two`bedroom flats? They do not exist

in Stoke`on`Trent. Lots of places like Stoke, single

bedroom, double bedroom accommodation, very thin on the

ground. If you have a couple who have got a child who is becoming an

adult it is now worth keeping that child at home because they do not

get penalised financially. In my constituency I have a 3`way exchange

which the council is blocking because one of the doors is warped a

certain amount. That is ludicrous. What happened in the past was houses

were converted into two units, which were smaller. That is what they

should be doing, making sure the housing we have fits the demand.

Rather than jeering from the sidelines, shouldn't Labour councils

be constructively helping more people downsize? That is what

councils have done for a long period of time. One generation is taxed so

bad, the next generation looks back at it and asked why it did they do

it? It is unfair and iniquitous. In Birmingham there are 30,700 homes

that are affected, only 130 available one`bedroom homes. It is

causing pain, even driving some to suicide, and the only other point I

would make is all the evidence is it will end up costing the taxpayer

more. If you move a disabled family into a home that is not adapted, you

have to pay for the adaptation. But at the last election, Labour

acknowledged aspects of housing benefits needed to be altered. You

were looking at something fairly similar to this. We would not in a

month of Sundays have gone down the path of the bedroom tax, because if

you look at Birmingham, the impact it is having has been absolutely

dramatic. I have a couple in my constituency, he is a paraplegic as

a result of an operation that went wrong. The wife has given up work to

care for him. She cannot sleep in his bedroom because of all his

equipment, and therefore sleeps in the spare room and she is having to

pay the bedroom tax. Just to deal with that point, on 19th January

2004 the labour minister said, we hope to commence a flat rate housing

benefit system in the social sector, similar to that anticipated in the

private rented sector. In 2013 you did stand up for your constituents.

But this was Labour's policy in Government. You have both made

Europe point perfectly clear. `` your point.

Coming up: The recovery has finally taken hold, says the Bank of England

Governor. But what kind of a recovery, when unemployment remains

significantly higher here than the national average? Our part of the

country was first into the downturn, and we appear to be last out. We'll

have more on this a little later. But let's stay with housing for the

moment. Because successive governments have tried, and

generally failed, to deliver enough affordable housing where it's so

desperately needed. From proposed "eco`towns" like Middle Quinton in

Warwickshire to the Regional Spatial Strategy for almost 400,000 new

homes here, housing targets have come and gone, usually to a

resounding chorus of "not in my backyard". And all the time, as our

Coventry and Warwickshire political reporter Sian Grzeszczyk discovered,

a real social crisis just keeps`on getting worse.

It's been a frustrating few months for Becky Francis. She's not having

much luck finding a new home for her family in Warwick. Finding

affordable housing, even housing that is available, that is more than

two bedrooms, is really difficult. There's a real, and were finding the

more we look, a shortage of houses. And it's proving to be a bigger

headache for Becky's estate agent, who's struggling to find properties

for families across Warwickshire. If I compare to 12 minutes ago, our

stock levels are 30% less than they were then, and compared to some of

this year we are 25% less. That brings with it its own issues. The

lack of supply means that the demand is high. High demand, lack of

supply, equals prices rising, which brings its own issues for people.

But over in Southam it's a different story. Developers are eager to build

here. They've got their eyes on these fields in Holywell ` but are

facing opposition from those living nearby. I think we really do feel

that Southam is under siege. There are lots of different applications

that are going to be going in to build houses, and whilst we do

support the development in the town we really do want new housing,

affordable housing, but we do think it needs to be in certain areas and

not on these fields, which are an area under restraint. The developers

are trying to cherry pick the best hits of land, what they think they

have the window opportunity `` the window of opportunity.

There are plans to build more than 70 homes here, and elsewhere in the

town plans for more than 200. The conservative leader of the district

council is frustrated with the way his own Government are handling

planning policy for housing. We must be allowed to take back

local control. Nick Boles recently said, get your local plan in place.

But he had just signed off a new set of regulations which have found that

process `` made that process more taxing.

It is estimated more than 9,500 homes wanted to be built over the

next decade, the biggest question is where?

And just following on from what Councillor Saint was saying there,

the Planning Minister Nick Boles told me the other day there could be

"no excuse" for councils not getting their housing plans in place.

Sian Grzeszczyk reporting. A reminder that before Labour's recent

reshuffle Jack Dromey was their Shadow Housing Minister. And we're

also joined here today by Gemma Duggan from the National Housing

Federation, the umbrella organisation representing social

landlords including housing associations. Nick Boles told me as

well that councils had to get on with it in terms of delivering

housing development plans. You have got to welcome that. Yes, we are

seeing moves to port housing up the agenda, but not fast enough. Timing

is great to move things forward, but a lot more needs to be done, and a

lot more investment in homes. We have rising house prices, rising

homelessness and rising rents. At one point we say, stop, we cannot

have this? Housing is just as important as health and education.

People need affordable, suitable homes.

So thinking of that proposed development in South Warwickshire,

presumably you want to see more like that, because red Rose say a

proportion of the new homes will be affordable housing? We would

obviously prefer housing to be built on Brownfield sites, but forum or

communities to continue to thrive, we have to build homes in the green

belt area. `` for rock amenities. There is a real democratic issue,

because successive governments have been trying to deliver, but you get

a storm of protest, like Middle Quinton. Councils have to make it

clear where you can and cannot do, so developers do not get caught up

with problems. Some people would call it sensitivity to green spaces,

but also Brownfield 's, contaminated land, much more expensive for

developers to deal with. Yes, but then it is worth reusing that land

for development. You can also as a council negotiate to make sure that

those expenses are taken into account.

Jack, you spent the first half of this Parliament beating the

Government up over its house`building records. Surely you

know cannot stand against the efforts that make balls and others

are making to accelerate this progress towards new houses? `` Nick

all is. House`building last year sunk to its lowest level since the

1920s. We have got the biggest housing crisis in a generation. That

is why we have committed to build in excess of 200,000 homes a year.

Although I am critical of this Government, the problem of housing

is it has not been sufficiently centrestage for 13 years, so we have

put it centrestage because it is not just about a decent home and are ``

at a price you can afford, but the best way to get a sluggish economy

moving is to invest in house`building. One key problem is

if you look at the rules of supply and demand on housing, it doesn't

necessarily bring the housing to where it is most needed, parts of

the city, it tends to take it towards those green fields. They are

easier for the developers and it is a question of land values, but the

help to buy scheme will at least mean that more houses will be sold

and there will be more cash in the system in the private sector side to

build more houses. I agree housing is an important issue because if you

have unstable housing, children move from school to school which is not

good for the children. So there are a lot of knock on effects. And bad

housing damages health. It is the unstable Tanya I worry about. How do

you get to the bottom of this problem, that successive governments

have tried to deliver on this and whatever different projects have

come along, you have this fundamental problem of democratic

sensitivity to the wishes of local communities, concerns about the

environment, it seems like the holy Grail trying to find the answer. It

is correct that you build on Brownfield land, but you have two

also build on greenfield land. You have to engage local communities to

win their consent. But the evidence is that they are reluctant. I will

give you one example, if you ask people do they want more homes in

the area where they live, the majority say no. If you ask them do

they want them so young people can live locally including their sons

and daughters, a majority say yes. It is how you convince communities

that development is good for the future. On that point, your

federation has been campaigning for a couple of years for local

authority is particularly to say yes to homes, but on the evidence of

what you are seeing, the tenor of the debate is not really shifting.

We are seeing a shift in the debate, it is rising up the political

scale. And we are seeing councils take motions to adopt the campaign

themselves to say they will positively move towards promoting

more developed `` of allotment, Ashfield for example in the East

Midlands. If viewers think there is a housing issue that they know

somebody struggling with housing costs, they should go on our website

and lobbied their own counsel, their own MPs. `` lobby.

Thank you all for coming in here today.

The Chancellor's still warning of "serious challenges ahead". So it

fell to the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, to tell us, "You no

longer have to be an optimist to see the glass is half full". Inflation:

down. Growth: up. Unemployment: down, for the second quarter running

in our part of the country. But it's still almost 2% above the UK

average. So is Mr Carney right to say "the recovery has taken hold"?

Here's our Business correspondent Peter Plisner.

Are these really the green shoots of recovery we've been waiting for so

long? Andy Plester and Graham Bird started their tree felling business

while they were still studying. They're in work and turning a

profit. We qualified in July. We have gone from strength to strength

from there. We have been working all through the summer and now into the

winter. We have the determination to be successful, and we will continue

to work at it and hopefully expand the business into further things.

The latest figures show unemployment fell by 15,000 in the West Midlands

in the last quarter to 257,000. But that figure is still 22,000

higher than it was this time last year. And at 9.5%, the West Midlands

rate of unemployment is well above the national average of 7.6%.

Part of the answer to getting that jobless total down even lower and

encouraging economic growth is for companies in our region to export

more. That's what this event in Birmingham, organised by UK Trade

and Investment, is all about. Exports are the things that will

grow our economy and move us forward. The companies here today

that are going out there looking for export markets are the ones that

will be driving growth, creating jobs, creating the new products and

driving the West Midlands forward. The question now is whether we're

seeing sustainable growth after a series of tough years, or whether it

will be cut off before it takes root.

Not just any recovery, apparently, but an export`led one. Peter Plisner

reporting. Jack, surely the lesson of that

report is that really the best way to improve people's living standards

is to get an overall growth uplift in the economy with real jobs in

real businesses of the sort we were seeing there. Of course, but if you

talk to people in Erdington, they will say, recovery, what recovery?

From `` from their point of view wages and down, energy bills are up.

Any signs of recovery are welcome, but there have been three wasted

years because the Government has cut too far, too fast, we are only

now... But your Government if they came in with have to deal with

austerity as well. If you are going to have sustainable economic

recovery, exports, house`building. Is `` isn't that the nub of the

issue, but the Government can't talk about recovery, but in real terms

with wages being squeezed, people still worrying about jobs,

unemployment, it does not feel real to people on the ground. You know I

am concerned about energy prices, and my view is if wholesale prices

go up globally that will cause us a problem. There are issues about

driving down the wage rates, not just being static compared to

inflation but been driven down. Those are factors we need to be

concerned about. We have to make sure that the recovery is shared,

but the system works to do that. We have to have a better quality of

life for people in lowering incomes. `` in lower incomes. We need to aim

to build up wages so people are not rushed down to the minimum wage. I

think the TUC proposals of wages councils are things we should look

at, because it could be different in different areas. George Osborne says

even during what he called the debt fuelled home of the Labour years,

productivity in the West Midlands region was still going down, silver

are still structural issues beyond one Government to the next. `` so

there are still. Mrs Thatcher tore the heart out of manufacturing in

the 1980s, and the abolition of our regional development agency by this

Government has not helped, which is why you have to much opportunity is

a skill. The work I am doing with Jaguar Land Rover, what we are doing

is ensuring that the kids in the estate across the road from the

factory are getting opportunities in that factory.

Now our regular round`up of the political week in the Midlands in 60

seconds, brought to us this week by our mid`morning presenter on BBC WM

95.6, Adrian Goldberg. Wrekin Tory MP Mark Pritchard's been

told there's "insufficient evidence" to open an inquiry into newspaper

claims that he wanted money to broker business deals using his

political contacts in Albania. Stratford Conservative Nadhim Zahawi

is to pay back his electricity expenses in full after it emerged

part of his claim was for the bill in the riding school stables at his

constituency home. Labour says the West Midlands has some of the

highest levels of fuel poverty in the country. What will happen if you

threaten to freeze energy bills is that the energy companies will put

their prices up. Children's services at Birmingham

City Council could be taken over by the Department for Education before

Christmas if standards do not improve.

And a survey for the BBC suggests more than a third of people don't

know they have a Police and Crime Commissioner ` not great news for

these men. But undaunted, the Police Minister Damian Green marked the

first anniversary of the Police and Crime Commissioner elections by

announcing a further ?20 million in funding for them.

As shadow police Minister, Damian Green also makes the point that for

all its imperfections, this new system of Commissioners is an

improvement on what went before with those faceless police authorities.

They spent ?100 million on this experiment, 90% of people do not

know who the police commissioner is, and whilst we have a good one here

in the Midlands, across the country there have been all sorts of

tensions, for example police commissioners cycling their chief

constables. Democratic accountability, without doubt, what

I suspect the people in the West Midlands would prefer that ?100

million to have been spent on more police officers on the beat. You had

a lot to say against them, but would Police and Crime Commissioners be

safe under Labour? On Monday week we will be publishing out a landmark

review `` publishing a landmark review on the future of policing in

our country and our Police and Crime Commissioners in particular. John,

what is your verdict? We have to give it a bit more time but I am not

massively enthusiastic about them. My thanks to John and Jack. And

we'll be following`up on our discussion about the housing crisis

and what's to be done about it on Midlands Today tomorrow evening.

I'll have an overview of how successive governments have

struggled to deliver affordable housing to the people who most need

it, where residents least want it, with reports from the latest front

line on the housing battlefield. Midlands Today is at 6.30 tomorrow

evening here on BBC One. This, though, is where we rejoin Andrew

Neil. receiving it. We will return to this

if we hear more. Thank you. Andrew, it is back to you.

Who'd be an MP? It's a good question. Certainly something Mark

Pritchard must have asked himself when his picture graced the front

page of the Daily Telegraph, with allegations that he had offered to

set up business deals overseas in return for hundreds of thousands of

pounds. Mr Pritchard dismissed the claims as hurtful and wrong. He

referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner

who has now said there is insufficient evidence to

investigate. In a moment we'll talk to Mr Pritchard, but first let's

take a look back at how the story unfurled. A Conservative MP has

denied allegations that he used his Parliamentary contacts for financial

gain... The daily Telegraph says Mark Pritchard offered to broker

investments overseas. In a statement he said the allegations made by the

Telegraph are false. Mr Pritchard was secretly filmed... What do you

make of these allegations? He has referred himself to the

Parliamentary Commissioner for standards to clear his name and I

suspect this story will reopen the debate about what MPs should be

allowed, having business interests elsewhere. Is it not clear that you

did ask for money in consultancy services? First of all I would like

to apologise for the sunglasses I have had a lot of comments about

that. On a serious point, these claims by the Telegraph of false.

You didn't ask for ?3000? They are false, hurtful and malicious. It is

known widely that I have sued the Telegraph previously. I have also

been critical of their coverage of the plebgate affair, their reporting

of that. I have been supportive of the cross-party Royal Charter and I

know that some people in the media don't like my position on that. That

is why it is malicious. I believe in a free press. That free press also

has a responsibility to be fair accurate and lawful. In discussions

with this business who turned out to be a Telegraph reporter, it is true

that you ask for ?3000 a month consultancy fee. The point is..

That is the point. No. That video has been cut and pasted to serve the

Telegraph's story. The story was that we want to get Mark Bridger,

for whatever reason, at any cost. -- Mark Bridger hard. I would not go

down the line they were hoping I would go down. Everything I own

outside of Parliament is openly declared. We are allowed to have

outside witness interests. The Telegraph need to say clearly

whether they accept that or they don't. I think you need to say

clearly whether you asked for the money or not. You then went on to

ask for ?300,000 if it was a 10 million deal, you asked for 3%

commission. Let me be clear, if I was asking for income in return for

lobbying, or raising issues in Parliament, or setting up

Parliamentary groups, or going to ministers, writing to ministers

that would be completely inappropriate. I was approached by

somebody to advise them on business. It is entirely proper and entirely

within the rules for members of Parliament to have outside

consultancies and interests. Did you or didn't you? I am answering the

question in the way that I want to answer it, not in the way that fits

a particular narrative. The narrative, unfortunately, of some

parts of the Telegraph and to be fair, there are some very good

journalists, I know there is a dispute about the direction of that

paper at senior parts. Do they want to return to being a Catholic,

objective newspaper or do they want to slip into the slippery slope of

being an agnostic rag, looking for sensationalist headlines? Part of

this has come from your membership of these all-party Parliamentary

groups. You were in Malta when you are first approached, I think you

were on a trip there, Hungary is another one, there is an

uncomfortable overlap between your political and business interests. I

have no business interests in any of those countries. Some of the country

is the Telegraph mentioned, let me be clear, I have not even visited.

You were boasting that you knew the Albanian Prime Minister and the

Mayor of Teheran and the previous prime minister. I make no apology

for making foreign trips. I think it is unfortunate we have a narrative

developing in some parts of the press that if a politician goes

abroad at the taxpayers expense it is wrong. If they go abroad at a

host government's expense it is wrong. If they go abroad with a

charity, NGO and private company, even if it is declared, it is wrong.

We want people with an international perspective in Parliament. Look at

this map. You are a member of 5 country groups. I don't know what

Canada has done not to deserve you, or Australia. 54 groups, you are a

part of. You're like... This is the Mark Pritchard British Empire. That

is very kind. If I had global interests that white I would not be

in Parliament. No, no, no. That is the point... It is the suspicion,

that you used these groups to drum up business for your consultants.

Prove it, that is the trouble. These sorts of headlines, create

suspicion. I am suing the Telegraph... Have you issued a writ?

I expect an apology. Have you issued a writ? I have just answered your

question. It is yes or no, have you issued a writ? I am in final legal

discussions tomorrow about issuing a writ. You have raised something for

top the fact is that is inaccurate. I am a member of 40-something

Parliamentary groups, of which I make no apology. We have got 54 Let

me answer the question if I may It would be very useful. There are 196

countries around the world, it is less than a quarter of the country

groups on my figures. I make no apology. One of my regrets is not

having visited Syria, I don't know if I am a member of the Syria group,

part I should become a member, I make no apology. -- perhaps I should

become. When it came to the Syria vote, I was blind sided foot of yes,

we have excellent briefings. I had to make a judgement based on part

knowledge with nothing beats being on the ground, as even BBC

journalists recognised this week. Nothing beats being on the ground.

You posted about your connections in Albania to getting a business

contract. You meet these people through these all Parliamentary

groups. That is where there is an unhealthy overlap. That is what the

Telegraph said, let's wait and see. Look... You are a newspaperman, you

know lots of people in the newspaper industry, as well as being a

respected broadcaster. I am not going to prejudice my legal

proceedings against the Telegraph. I make no apology. A good politician

has to be local am a national and international. Hang on hang on -

has to be local, national and international. We need politicians

who get out of the Westminster bubble, who have a business

hinterland, who keep their foot in the real world and have an

international perspective. And ask for 3% commission? I have answered

the question. It was a cut and pasted video, photo shopped to suit

the agenda of the Telegraph. They need to get back to serious news

reporting and I wish those well at the senior part of the Telegraph who

want to get to those days. We look forward to the writ. Thank you.

Now - there's been more good news on the economy for George Osborne this

week - inflation's down, growth forecasts have been revised up and

unemployment has fallen again. On Friday the former Bullingdon boy

donned a head torch and went down't pit for just one of many photo

opportunities ahead of the Autumn Statement, which he'll deliver in

the Commons on fifth December. And, who knows, he might even take his

hard hat off for that. # Going underground.

# Let the boys all saying and let the boys all shout for tomorrow

# Lah, lah, love, love. # I talk and talk until my head

explodes. # Make this boy shout, make this boy

scream. # Going underground.

# I'm going underground. # I'm going underground.

George Osborne in his heart out he probably sleeps with it on. This

Autumn Statement is becoming a more important part of the political

calendar for the coalition. It looks like this is where they are finally

going to come up with some kind of response to Ed Miliband's game

changing electricity price freeze. The idea which is mooted is they

will move people's green tax on two general bills which is not an answer

but cosmetically it could have apolitical impact. George Osborne is

receiving a lot of representations from lobby groups, business, MPs on

his own side, for tax cuts and extra bits spending and he has to spend

the next two weeks reminding people of something that has been skewered

by the economic recovery. This country has a fiscal deficit which

is twice that of France, supposedly the crisis economy in western Europe

or if you accept it will take another parliament again to

eliminate this deficit, we are not even halfway through the age of

austerity. He is in no position to give anything away. He has to hold

the line. Danny Alexander has been useful but this is his real

challenge. He is going to give stuff away. When the Autumn Statement

comes away, 15 months from an election, Nick Clegg has been

talking about raising the tax allowance threshold even further,

talk of moving green levies of the electricity bills, he is going to

give stuff away. We will get funding for free school meals that Nick

Clegg mentioned in his party conference. The significance of the

Autumn Statement is twice a year, a Chancellor stands up and we all look

at the state of the economy. If you talk to members of the Chancellor's

circle, it is interesting how nervous they are. They say, don t

assume we are going to have this wonderful growth for ever, don't

assume everything is fine in the eurozone. I think what would help

the Chancellor is if somebody was able to see some of that humility in

public. It is recognised that he was far too triumphalist

speech he made on the 9th of September, when he said to Ed Balls,

we have one and you cannot make an economic policy on the cost of

living -- we have... Won. economic policy on the cost of

people don't seem to learn from Norman Lamont's green shoots. Labour

has moved from complaining there is no growth, now there is, to say

has moved from complaining there is is gross but living standards are

not rising. If the economy grows by nearly 3% next year, even the bank

is saying it will grow by 2.8%, living standards could start to

rise. It does but everybody in a difficult position politically if

the economy starts growing, ironically. We need to remind

ourselves that economy, the natural direction of an economy is to grow.

Unless the politicians screw up Unless you have some idiot in

charge! It is not a cause for the Morris dance that they seem to be

doing, certainly on the Tory side. Osborne is put in a difficult

position goes he will have to stop giving stuff away, he cannot push

the austerity line at the same time as jangling his magical growth - he

will have to start giving stuff away. It puts Labour in a difficult

position, it is very unlikely that living standards will match GDP Not

since 2003, GDP has been a great indicator. Wages have stagnated for

ten years, food has gone up 17% energy has gone up 24%. That is a

decade in which everybody has got poorer. The real sweet spot comes

when wages start to outstrip inflation. It is a sweet spot and

will be a huge challenge for Ed Miliband. As ever on the economy

with a sweet spot, you have a danger moment because that is when the

governor of the Bank of England will have to look at interest rates.

Everything he was saying last week was when we move toward 7%

unemployment come that is not the trigger for raising interest rates,

it is the moment when we look at it. Everything was saying he did not

want to do that. When do you anticipate wages outstripping

inflation? It hasn't happened for so long. The second half of next year.

Wages and prices are not the sole measure of living standards, there

are broader measures which no one seems willing to use.

That's all for today. The Daily Politics will be back at tomorrow at

midday on BBC Two and I will back here on BBC One at 11:00am next

week. Remember if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics.