27/05/2012 Sunday Politics West

Is And here in the West: will the Government be forced to do a U-turn

on plans to put VAT on static caravans like these? The campaign

is growing amid fears that the poor damage the tourist industry. --

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1666 seconds

that it would damage the tourist Welcome to the Sunday Politics in

Bristol. The Sun has been shining. Perfect excuse to pop down to the

caravans. But the Chancellor is putting VAT on static caravans like

these, and is it another pasty tax targeting the working-class? I am

joined by the Conservative MP from Bristol NW, Charlotte Leslie. She

knows about tourism from her time as or Life Guard, and Dan Norris,

former Labour MP for one stake who has had more time for holidays by

the sea after losing his seat at the last election. But his

political vacation could be over if he secures the Labour nomination

for mayor of Bristol. Welcome to you both. Westthorp about the

Olympic torch, which is going through our patch. Is that feel-

good factor going to reflect politically, kindly, on the

Government. Yes, the feel-good factor has been fantastic. The

torch went past my office. It felt like this is a special you. This is

an historic event. I hope that the Olympics leaves a legacy of

optimism and sporting opportunity for young people. An important

event in a time of austerity? has been gone well, people have

been happy to spend the money, but what's lovely to see was Blair

Hannan coming along with the torch, they were cheering, it was a

wonderful event. You cannot put a price on that. It will be a

brilliant advert for Britain a round the world. It has certainly

been a special week. The main story this week, the caravan tax. If you

won a caravan that can be towed, he will have paid VAT on it, and the

Government is extending VAT to static caravans that you see by the

1,000 in West Country all the parts. The accusation is that the

millionairess who already in the Bahamas are hammering the working-

class who take their be occasions in places like a Bream. These two

couples are not well the and buying more belongs has been a big

commitment and they are stunned that VAT may be imposed. We will be

looking to produce a new one, but that could restrict us and the

purchase of a new van. definitely will. It will make a big

difference. We would not have been able to afford a new caravan. It

has taken all other savings. From on high, you get an idea of how

important static caravans are on the stretch of coastline. The vast

majority are second homes, which the Budget is sitting with the tax

hike. It is the contrast between the different styles of holiday

warm that upsets people. If you have the money for a real house u p

stamp duty at 1% but that you can only stretch to a new mobile home,

next door, from October, you will be Payne VAT at 20%. The says a

typical example of the caravans we sell. Opposition has mounted.

almost �30,000 and from the 1st October this will be almost �36,000.

It will be priced out of the market. She showing a representative around

from Somerset tourism is Alan House, most of this static caravans in his

park are privately owned. The Government admits that the industry

will be hit. So my sect is the second largest camera van

destination after Skegness in the UK. We think that the industry will

be hit by 50%. If you take that market a way this is going to have

a massive impact on the local and national tourist economy. He pulled

do not budget for that sort of thing that is entirely arbitrary.

Which people are not going to be affected. David Cameron's whole

holidays are not going to be disrupted. The controversy has

reached the Prime Minister. Think again about this tax which will

Kapoor and already suffering industry. It MPs of all parties

opposed it. I do not think it is fair that immortal caravan pays VAT

but a stationary caravan does not. -- that I'm mobile caravan. At an

event aimed at boosting the local economy, this Somerset MP was

unapologetic. The Government does not expect anybody to like it, but

frankly, we are short of money and we are trying to get a more

rational, sensible VAT system and close the massive gap in the public

finances left by the last government. The so called caravan

tax should start in the autumn, unless it is blown off course Barry

government changes of backbench rebellion. -- by government changes.

The House been a consultation and it is difficult. People who have

mobile caravans and will be looking at static caravans and thinking

that that is unfair. Will people be thinking it is unfair? It is always

difficult when you ask people to pay any tax. We are looking at what

it is doing to the industry, and the sadness of it, that has to be

looked at. I would ask the Government to look at it. You have

a Cabinet of millionaires. Static caravans are not on David Cameron's

radar, or George Osborne. That is not it at all. There are many

anomalies in the tax system. The minute you start to tackle those,

it becomes difficult, because the people who have had a good deal, it

hits them heart, and there is a case to be made about whether this

will save as much money as we think. For 45 million come over five years,

I think. What hundred and 70 million, but there is a point about

the entire Minister. I think it is 170 million. Diane Lawrence, any

sympathy with the Government over this? The Government has got to be

imaginative and this is not a way to raise tax effectively. It is a

nonsense that somebody who works in the city can buy a second home for

240 doesn't towns and Payne much less tax than someone who buys a

static caravan for �13,000. That is nonsensical. That is just not

thinking things through properly. You have got to use imagination and

energy and think things through carefully. Consultation, great, but

these are two very daft ideas, at the beginning and I bet you that

this does not go through. Can we see Ed Miliband pretending to take

caravan holidays and eat Cornish pasty is? I cannot answer for that,

but this is a serious matter. Caravans are associated with moving

around and these are more like second homes, and that is the best

comparison, therefore, it is unfair. People who enjoy a static caravans

see them as good for families, retired people, all the rest of it.

Well they see this as an attack on the working-class? People save for

them, they a modest, they enjoy him, and now they are being hammered.

Nobody is going to like tax being raised on it. I completely

sympathise with people. I agree that it might need to be looked at

again. We must look at the effect on the industry. If we need growth,

we need to be proud of British Industry, it is not intuitive to

clobber one of our indices. I agree. Somerset does have a

disproportionately high number of these static caravans. Why isn't

the Government's radar working? It's Conservative and Lib Dem

members in places like Somerset, why are the alarm bells not ringing,

because it is not worth the trouble for them to do this? As a

government trying to raise money in difficult times, you have got to

look at unfairness in the tax system. But you are giving

millionairess a tax break. difference between static caravans

and proper homes is a bit of an issue. We should look at it. That

is why the consultation is there. you're not going to commit whether

you going to vote against it. issue is when people can only

afford a static caravan they cannot afford a second proper home, and

that is why it is unfair and we need to put pressure on the

Government to do something about this. I will be making

representations. For thousands of people all over the West Country,

catching a bus is the only way to get around. But as Somerset county

council struggles to balance the books, it has taken the axe to

around 40 bus was. We spoke to campaigners who are refusing to

give up the fight over their bus was. Queuing for the bus. For

Eileen and her friends, it is the weekly trip from Jeddah to Bristol.

She has been catching this bus for more than 20 years -- from Cheddar.

But this is the last time they will be catching this bus. Their

lifeline is being cut. The council is stopping paying for the 490, so

this is its final run. For years, councils in rural areas have paid a

bus companies subsidies to one bus was like this. It will not make a

profit but the council says that it is socially necessary. Somerset

County Council is cutting the amount of its subsidies by more

than 50%, meaning dozens of bus routes like this.. It you try to

get private transport it is �75 return, and I cannot afford that.

Shopping and going to hospital. am diabetics why need appointments

in hospital at Bristol. I cannot drive. The buses packed for his

final voyage, that sometimes only gets ample passengers and with

almost all of them being over 60 they used free passes, making it

more difficult for the sums to add up for a bus company. That is why

it has fallen to the council to underwrite costs. This woman, Terry

King, has become the then leader of the passengers from Cheddar. Don't

cry. It is our last on at the moment, but do not give up hope. I

have got friends in high places. I have a friend on Somerset County

Council and she is working for us and she said, tell them all not to

giver yet, and hopefully, this will come back eventually. Thank you for

listening and thank you for coming out. APPLAUSE. The Conservative-run

council said that this route costs more than �10 per passenger and the

council is spending �2 million, still, on bus subsidies,

prioritising Bruce for students in rural areas. But one Lib Dem MP

says that the council priorities are wrong. The council has got �34

million in his bank account this year, for a rainy day. It is

raining. I know that it is sunny right now, but in financial terms,

it is raining, it is pouring, and they should be spending money on

this. The bus might have stopped on now, but, for these passengers, the

wheels are still in motion. They are put in the best route forward,

and refusing to give up the fight. I am joined by Tim Gardner,

managing director of a company that Bonn's some of the subsidised bus

routes in Somerset that have been cut. Do you have a moral duty to

keep the services going, subsidy or not? I think so, but you have to

bear in mind that these cuts come up in addition to cuts in the bus

service operators grant, particularly with in Somerset

County Council, a reduction in the concessionary reimbursement scheme.

A considerable amount of money. people over 65 automatically get

free trouble? That is an interesting question. We have to

bear in mind that many people who used concessionary cards regularly

are the elderly. I does not mean they cannot afford the bus there.

Yes, but at the end of the day, these are vulnerable people. They

might have just decided not to run a car. It is a universal benefit,

isn't it? Yes, but what about the environment? Should all these

people jump into their car and start polluting the Abbas you?

subsidies have doubled in recent years. -- polluting the atmosphere.

Let's bring in most other guests. Dan Norris, surely councils have to

save their money. I saw the unit cost their trip, and I thought, why

don't because will try to get that empty bus filled with other people,

unemployed people who want to sign on for example. When I was an MP,

that was something that people want it. They wanted to get around, go

to a hospital, whatever. But the elderly is a bust they can use the

free Pass. We should aspire to give all people dignity in retirement

and should give them a system where they might do not have to pay for

buses. They happy tax all their lives. Retired people make up the

poorest in society but also some of the richest. That is done through

the tax system. You should not stigmatise people by saying that

some people pay and some people don't. You should give dignity of

Europe -- dignity to older people, and this is a good way of making

sure that this need is met, because it there is often vulnerable people

there affected. Some people cannot get around any more because of

buses have been cut. It is tough, and brought communities suffer, but

the councils are struggling for money, buses require subsidies. I

agree with Daniel. You must protect the elderly, who are vulnerable,

from having to pay bus fares. If there was any change, it could not

come from politicians. It would have to come from them, themselves,

saying that we would rather have a bus and peer a little poorer, than

not, but that is not something that politics can do. Do the bosses

often an MP? Some of them do -- do the buses often when MC? -- run

empty? One of the first questions we asked Somerset County Council

was, what is the strategy, what are you trying to achieve? And the

response was, to save money. That is not unreasonable in these hard

times. We have a longer term objective to provide services to

the public. So what is the solution? Some bus services are

being paid a lot of money to one a red empty, particularly in role is.

There are community transport schemes. Buses which do not one at

regular times but do one regular routes. There are a host of

different schemes that can be used. We have to think of the bus service

as a mask transport solution. should be about meeting a genuine

need, efficiently as possible. we want to have a nationalised bus

industry? I don't, but... The if we had a decent will restructure the

buses become valuable to link up. We're back in the South West at

getting our fair share of that cash. Let's take a look back at some of

the other political highlights of The Bristol Lib Dem Stephen

Williams got an unexpected reaction at Prime Minister's Questions. He

wanted the Government to commit to more investment in housing and

infrastructure. After catcalls from the Shadow Chancellor, the Prime

Minister launched this attack. hard-won credibility that we would

have not had if we listen to the muttering idiot sitting across from

me. He was then asked if he would retract the statement by the

speaker. Conservative MP Clare Parry has called for more help for

people with epilepsy. She broke down in tears talking about the

death of her ten-year-old in her constituency the stock there is

nothing that I can say that will bring Charlie back, or give his

Some of the other stories. Let's talk about that muttering in the

remark from the Prime Minister to Ed Balls. -- muttering idiot. Do

you agree? Whether Ed Balls is a muttering idiot? I could not

possibly comment! Prime Minister's Questions is a funny old place. It

is something of a bear pit. It summarises the contest that goes on

in politics. It is not always that help poor, but you saw some genuine

passion there from Claire Parry. Balls deliberately wins up the

Prime Minister. You have to look at policies going back over a long

period, and prime ministers, and none of them are lost it, the way

that David Cameron does. He told Dennis Skinner to retire early when

he asked him a question. Labour represents a good cripple people