:01:28. > :01:31.In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, we investigate why some local councils
:01:31. > :01:41.are spending millions on regeneration site, which are
:01:41. > :01:41.
:01:41. > :43:57.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2535 seconds
:43:57. > :43:59.The morning. This is the Sunday Politics for Yorkshire and
:43:59. > :44:03.Lincolnshire. We investigate why some of the
:44:03. > :44:07.local councils are spending millions by Ian regeneration sites
:44:07. > :44:14.which were already owned by the public sector.
:44:15. > :44:17.We will be finding out why children with special needs a good for two-
:44:17. > :44:22.thirds of school exclusions in some areas.
:44:22. > :44:27.The guest today are Hilary Benn, Labour MP for Leeds Central, Nigel
:44:27. > :44:32.Adams, the Conservative MP for Selby and instead, and David Ward,
:44:32. > :44:39.the Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East. We have had the
:44:39. > :44:43.coalition's midterm report this week. Marks out of 10.
:44:43. > :44:47.presentation was a shambles. We discovered that there were lots of
:44:47. > :44:54.bits they did not want to publish because someone was photographed
:44:54. > :45:04.carrying the details. It failed their test because it did not do
:45:04. > :45:08.
:45:08. > :45:11.what it said on the 10th. It is not achieving much. -- on the tin.
:45:11. > :45:17.We're on the right track, we have reduced the deficit by a quarter.
:45:17. > :45:21.There are more than one million more people back in work.
:45:21. > :45:27.Unemployment is down by a quarter since the last election. There is
:45:27. > :45:31.lots more to do, but we are on the rate track. David, can I pressure
:45:31. > :45:41.for a figure, my axe out of 10. haven't read it. I have been too
:45:41. > :45:42.
:45:42. > :45:45.busy. It is work-in-progress. Hilary Benn is correct. In terms of
:45:46. > :45:49.growth, I am more interested in what is to come. I will judge the
:45:49. > :45:56.Government on how well it deals with the huge issue of social care
:45:56. > :46:00.and the funding thereof. You're not going to tell us that Bradford City
:46:00. > :46:07.only get to Wembley under a Liberal government, our youth? I am
:46:07. > :46:15.thrilled with this. I will take credit for that, but full tribute
:46:15. > :46:18.to the fantastic effort being made at Bradford City. Are taxpayers
:46:18. > :46:23.effectively being forced to pay twice for regeneration sites which
:46:23. > :46:26.are owned by the public sector? A BBC investigation found that
:46:26. > :46:30.millions of pounds have been spent by local authorities buying land
:46:30. > :46:37.which used to belong to the now- defunct regional development
:46:37. > :46:42.agencies, such as Yorkshire Forward. James Vincent has the story.
:46:42. > :46:47.Barnsley. In the best possible way, it can look a bit grim. They have
:46:47. > :46:52.been waiting for redevelopment for years. Key sites were bought by
:46:52. > :46:58.Yorkshire Forward with public money, so that work could go ahead.
:46:58. > :47:05.Barnsley has had a number of regeneration sites, here in the
:47:05. > :47:10.east, but the principal site, and the main site we need to regenerate
:47:10. > :47:14.is right here in the town centre. They were already publicly owned by
:47:14. > :47:18.one government agency, but after Yorkshire Forward was closed by the
:47:18. > :47:21.coalition, their land was given to the homes and communities Agency,
:47:21. > :47:27.another part of the government. Barnsley council did not have to
:47:27. > :47:32.bank -- did not bank on having to buy them again with �10 billion of
:47:32. > :47:35.public money. They said we want market value, and if you are not
:47:36. > :47:39.prepared to pay for it we will sell it somewhere else. That would have
:47:39. > :47:43.been a disaster. Councils thought they might be giving these pieces
:47:43. > :47:47.of land, ready to be redeveloped, and then only pay for them when
:47:47. > :47:53.they were successful. That did not happen, and the money has had to be
:47:53. > :47:55.found up front, much more of a risk. The council has bought carriage
:47:55. > :48:01.works near the railway museum in York.
:48:01. > :48:06.It is reasonable to assume that land owned by the public would be
:48:06. > :48:09.passed on to people and to the public after the demise of regional
:48:09. > :48:15.development agencies. I wrote to Vince Cable about this issue,
:48:15. > :48:19.asking for the land to Transco over, and I was told no, so we have to
:48:19. > :48:22.buy the land that we thought was important for Europe.
:48:22. > :48:29.government would say local councils do not need to own places for them
:48:29. > :48:33.to be successful. This is owned by the homes and communities Agency.
:48:33. > :48:37.We have a Rolls-Royce moving in, wind turbines working here, and
:48:37. > :48:43.hundreds of jobs. It is seen as the future of South Yorkshire's economy.
:48:43. > :48:48.This is another of those sites. It is run by the homes and communities
:48:48. > :48:52.Agency, who say that it shows what can be done when they hold on to
:48:52. > :48:55.former Yorkshire Forward assets. have recently opened a scheme,
:48:55. > :49:00.which has been highly successful and a centre for digital creative
:49:00. > :49:04.media. We have spent �5 million in the last two years are continuing
:49:04. > :49:08.refurbishment. When the decision was taken to abolish Yorkshire
:49:08. > :49:13.Forward, we were asked to take on responsibility for the remaining
:49:13. > :49:19.property assets. Some of them were sold, where there is no development
:49:19. > :49:23.planned in the immediate future, and others, we are still working
:49:23. > :49:27.with the councils to bring forward schemes. In some cases, the local
:49:27. > :49:32.authority decided they wanted to keep their assets from us. The
:49:32. > :49:37.rules were clear that we would not be able to give those assets away
:49:37. > :49:41.for nothing. Others are still on the market and it will be up to
:49:41. > :49:44.their council whether they want to take the gamble on taking
:49:44. > :49:47.responsibility for land in their areas. Barnsley hope their
:49:47. > :49:53.purchases will turn into a brand new town centre.
:49:53. > :49:56.Hilary Benn, is it right that Labour councils in Yorkshire are
:49:56. > :50:01.spending millions of pounds buying land that has already publicly
:50:01. > :50:05.owned? Now, it is not. I can understand why they are feeling
:50:05. > :50:08.really cross. It was public money that bought the assets and the
:50:08. > :50:13.first place. Their budgets are being cut by the government, so
:50:13. > :50:17.they are being hit twice over. The thing that really riles is that
:50:17. > :50:21.when it came to London, Boris Johnson was given the assets of the
:50:21. > :50:25.development to an agency there for free, but in the west of the
:50:25. > :50:29.country, if councils want the land, they have to pay. It is one rule
:50:29. > :50:34.for London and a different role for of the one else. Nigel Adams, it is
:50:34. > :50:38.wrong that local authorities have to pay for land, isn't it? A lot of
:50:38. > :50:41.these assets will have been acquired many years ago, and
:50:41. > :50:47.despite what has happened in terms of land and property downturn in
:50:47. > :50:54.recent years, many of those assets will have grown in value, and to
:50:55. > :50:58.give local authorities a handout effectively, and say, you have won
:50:58. > :51:06.the lottery by getting this, questions would have be -- would be
:51:06. > :51:10.asked of the Treasury. It is not just Labour councils in my own --
:51:10. > :51:14.it is not just Labour councils. In my own patch, Selby council is
:51:14. > :51:17.bidding to produce some land for what they want to do with it, but
:51:17. > :51:21.they're also going to get a grant from central government to acquire
:51:21. > :51:31.its. David Ward, this will leave a bitter taste in many people's
:51:31. > :51:32.
:51:32. > :51:35.mouths. They will be saying, why is my council tax payment going
:51:35. > :51:39.towards the square is to mark this is not straightforward. Many of
:51:39. > :51:44.these assets have a negative asset value. They were bought for
:51:44. > :51:48.regeneration purposes. I am sure some authorities would not like the
:51:48. > :51:51.transfer of assets to them that had a negative value. He showed a clip
:51:51. > :51:59.of the Odeon, which is being transferred to Bradford Council for
:51:59. > :52:02.�1, and it has had to funding on it. It is a question of consistency and
:52:02. > :52:06.approach we are looking for, without an appearance at some
:52:06. > :52:12.people are gaining an son are losing. Many regeneration projects
:52:12. > :52:19.have gone ahead without the local authority buying these assets. For
:52:19. > :52:23.example one project in Leeds. different developments we are
:52:23. > :52:27.talking about, and in the end local authorities make that judgment. The
:52:27. > :52:31.best developments take place in partnership, and in some cases the
:52:31. > :52:34.local authority owns land. It is wrong that they get charged. Why
:52:34. > :52:44.was one rule applied for Boris Johnson and a different role for
:52:44. > :52:47.us? I cannot answer for London, but we would be getting a lot of
:52:48. > :52:53.questions of these valuable assets were being transferred with nothing
:52:53. > :52:56.going back into Treasury coffers. We do not have a regional
:52:56. > :53:01.organisation looking after regional regeneration now, does that not
:53:01. > :53:04.sure that there is less of a joint a picture out there? There is lots
:53:04. > :53:13.of good work being done on a local level rather than a regional level
:53:13. > :53:17.now, through the Local Enterprise Partnership. I met with hours on
:53:17. > :53:23.several occasions, and they are doing good work. They are getting
:53:23. > :53:26.their teeth into the job. There are some very exciting plans in my part
:53:26. > :53:32.of the world, and the rest of Europe Show. But in Bradford, there
:53:32. > :53:36.are still a lot of work to do. There certainly is. We're aware of
:53:36. > :53:43.the much needed Westfield development. We managed to get
:53:43. > :53:51.�17.6 million of regional growth funding to support city centre
:53:51. > :53:53.funding. -- redevelopment. Some schools are adopting illegal
:53:53. > :54:00.tactics to keep challenging children out of their classrooms.
:54:00. > :54:05.It has prompted that is a lush accusations of elitism -- it has
:54:05. > :54:15.prompted accusations of elitism in some schools. In Lincolnshire,
:54:15. > :54:18.
:54:18. > :54:22.almost two-thirds of children are expelled from their schools with
:54:22. > :54:27.special education will meet. Some schools are choosing who they
:54:28. > :54:31.educate and who they do not. There is new evidence that
:54:31. > :54:36.vulnerable children are having a tough time in Lincolnshire's
:54:36. > :54:41.schools. A county council inquiry has found that all the children
:54:41. > :54:47.expelled in the last academic year, 65% had some form of special
:54:47. > :54:50.educational need. There is also evidence of illegal expulsions and
:54:50. > :54:53.some children being denied admittance into schools and the
:54:54. > :54:59.first place. First, the vast majority of children are faring
:54:59. > :55:04.well. However, as small number of education providers are playing
:55:04. > :55:08.with the rules. They are unofficially excluding children.
:55:08. > :55:12.Parents are told to collect their children at lunchtime, and they are
:55:12. > :55:17.sent home and given homework for a couple of weeks. They are kept out
:55:17. > :55:21.of the class system, which is totally wrong. Children with
:55:21. > :55:29.special educational needs are by far the most vulnerable to illegal
:55:29. > :55:35.tactics, such as interviewing page -- parents and discouraging them to
:55:35. > :55:39.apply. Also, only teaching a child for part of the school day. This
:55:39. > :55:43.mother from Lincoln has four children, including one with
:55:43. > :55:46.special educational needs. When the family moved, he started attending
:55:46. > :55:51.a mainstream school. Her identity has not been revealed to protect
:55:51. > :55:56.her as. I told the school about his problems, and they said that was
:55:56. > :56:01.fine. He gets disruptive and does not like change, but he settled at
:56:01. > :56:04.his previous school and was OK. five-year-old is waiting for a
:56:04. > :56:09.diagnosis of autism, and is on the special needs register. He was
:56:09. > :56:12.given one-to-one tuition but was expelled after one month. They kept
:56:12. > :56:18.saying he was being disruptive and they have done all they could. How
:56:18. > :56:23.can they say that after less than four weeks? The school declined to
:56:23. > :56:29.be interviewed but says it has not expelled any child with a diagnosis
:56:29. > :56:33.of autism recently. This head teacher gave evidence that the
:56:33. > :56:35.council inquiry. He accepts all pupils, but says schools fill
:56:35. > :56:38.pressurised to show good exam result.
:56:38. > :56:44.For whatever reason, if it looks as though the student is not going to
:56:44. > :56:49.be successful in their exams because of problems in the past, or
:56:49. > :56:52.educational needs. -- or special educational needs, that will affect
:56:53. > :56:57.the statistics we are judged on. We should not be thinking that, we
:56:57. > :57:00.should be wondering how we can best support the child. As special
:57:00. > :57:04.educational needs child in England is eight times more likely to be
:57:04. > :57:13.permanently excluded than any of their contemporaries. The
:57:13. > :57:18.Children's Commissioner is so concerned about that that she is
:57:18. > :57:23.conducting her own inquiry. Schools can no longer be compelled to
:57:23. > :57:30.reinstate a pupil. Some people also believe that the academy system has
:57:30. > :57:33.weakened accountability. This report relates to both state
:57:33. > :57:38.controlled schools and academies which are outside local authority
:57:38. > :57:42.control. This week the Academy's Commission accused some UK
:57:42. > :57:48.academies of covert police selecting pupils. Now schools are
:57:48. > :57:52.under notice. Break the rules and face the consequences.
:57:53. > :57:58.The accusation is that some schools and academies have an elitist
:57:58. > :58:03.agenda. Can that be just a fight? am no fan of over bearing targets
:58:03. > :58:07.which has been referred to. I do not have any academies in my
:58:07. > :58:14.constituency, but children with special educational needs should,
:58:14. > :58:20.in any school, it should be essential they are dealt with
:58:20. > :58:27.properly, if they have got special care requirements. The figures of
:58:27. > :58:36.65% are worrying. The fact that we have the sort of numbers in
:58:36. > :58:39.Lincolnshire would alarm me. The guidance given back in September
:58:39. > :58:46.was that academies have to it here to the same exclusion policies as
:58:46. > :58:51.maintained schools and pupil referral units. Within the children
:58:51. > :58:56.and families draft Bill, that is something that is being debated and
:58:56. > :59:01.looked at by the Education Select Committee. How widespread do you
:59:01. > :59:06.fear this practice is of schools and academies using effectively
:59:06. > :59:12.illegal selection process is? a very worrying report, and as we
:59:12. > :59:16.just heard, the Children's Commissioner is looking into this
:59:16. > :59:20.because she spoke about this same problem not too long ago. She said
:59:20. > :59:23.she had reports made to her of schools sending children home for
:59:23. > :59:29.the afternoon and telling them to go away for a week. This cannot be
:59:29. > :59:34.right. Plus, the appeals system has changed, which may make it more
:59:34. > :59:36.difficult for parents of children with special needs to challenge an
:59:36. > :59:40.exclusion if they think it is unfair. There is a lot of pressure
:59:40. > :59:46.on schools, but there is no justification for acting illegally,
:59:46. > :59:49.and there has to be accountability for all schools. How worried should
:59:49. > :59:57.we be that children with special educational needs our eight times
:59:57. > :00:01.more likely to be excluded? opposed Academy's under Labour, and
:00:01. > :00:05.if you have a system which determines the success of a school
:00:06. > :00:10.based on attainment, this is what is going to happen. Any failing
:00:10. > :00:14.school can be turned round, but it is a hard slog, teaching, learning,
:00:14. > :00:19.management, leadership. How much easier it is to manipulate the
:00:19. > :00:23.intake to the school and get a rapid increase in performance? The
:00:23. > :00:29.Education Select Committee is a very disturbed about how we judge
:00:29. > :00:34.the performance of schools, and a single determinant is simply
:00:34. > :00:36.distorting the behaviour of teachers within schools. What
:00:36. > :00:41.happens to the children who get kicked further down the system,
:00:41. > :00:45.what about the schools where they end up? It should not be happening.
:00:45. > :00:55.The idea that these children are being excluded because of lack of
:00:55. > :01:00.attainment is absolutely ridiculous. There are measures currently, but
:01:00. > :01:02.under the funding agreement to deal with academies, and I am not sure
:01:02. > :01:07.of any of these measures are being used in Lincolnshire, but we should
:01:07. > :01:13.not be having a situation where children, through their perceived
:01:13. > :01:18.lack of attainment, are being excluded from schools. Is this one
:01:18. > :01:24.of the floors of the Academy process? All schools need to be
:01:24. > :01:29.accountable, so we need to know what is going on. We also brought
:01:29. > :01:32.in the value-added measure, because if you look at just the score is,
:01:32. > :01:35.you do not get a sense of the progress schools make with children
:01:35. > :01:43.with special educational needs. But we need to know what is going on,
:01:43. > :01:49.and all schools need to be accountable. Let us get more of the
:01:49. > :01:56.political news. Here is the round- up and 60 seconds.
:01:56. > :02:01.-- in 60 seconds. The vote on the controversial 1%
:02:01. > :02:06.cap on increased the benefits was the big political story of the week.
:02:06. > :02:13.It emerged that two Lib Dem MPs, including David Ward, voted against
:02:13. > :02:17.the move. A House of Commons committee discussed the failure of
:02:17. > :02:20.social workers to tackle the grinning and sexual exploitation of
:02:21. > :02:25.young girls. It heard this from the chief executive of Rotherham
:02:25. > :02:27.council. I would certainly apologise to young people and
:02:27. > :02:32.families where they have been left bound.
:02:32. > :02:36.Meanwhile, the Jimmy Savile scandal continues. A police investigation
:02:36. > :02:41.confirmed he was involved in over 200 sexual assaults and should have
:02:41. > :02:46.been prosecuted. The Archbishop of York has backed keeping children's
:02:46. > :02:50.heart surgery in the region. He says he cannot understand the logic
:02:50. > :02:57.of plans to stop operations in Leeds and send sick children to
:02:57. > :03:05.Newcastle or Liverpool. So we have had to Jimmy Savile
:03:05. > :03:09.report. Could another situation like this happen? I sincerely hope
:03:10. > :03:14.not. With each passing revelation this becomes more appalling. What
:03:14. > :03:19.is clear is that young people need to be able to speak out and adults
:03:19. > :03:24.need to take what they have to say seriously. That was the lesson from
:03:24. > :03:26.what happened in some of the other authorities. It is about changing
:03:26. > :03:36.attitudes and listing to the evidence, and if people have broken
:03:36. > :03:37.
:03:37. > :03:43.the law, pursuing a M. David Ward, why did you rebel against the 1%
:03:43. > :03:47.cap? This is a reduction in benefits for the most vulnerable,
:03:47. > :03:56.for people who are unemployed, and a reduction in tax credits for
:03:56. > :04:01.people on the lowest incomes. Let us not dress this up. It is a
:04:01. > :04:09.reduction in benefits to some of the most formidable people.
:04:09. > :04:19.admire his stand on principle? we have seen in Yorkshire is
:04:19. > :04:19.
:04:19. > :04:25.people's wages going up by around 10.7% across the county, yet what
:04:25. > :04:29.we have seen is out of work benefits have gone up by 20%. This
:04:29. > :04:35.is an issue of fairness. You referred to that. I know from the
:04:35. > :04:40.people I speak to, and I read a recent national poll, that this
:04:40. > :04:46.policy was supported by over 80% of the population. No one likes making
:04:46. > :04:50.tough decisions, but we had to. It is a case of fairness. But you have
:04:50. > :04:54.not made a tough decision. For some non- jobseeker's allowance, this is
:04:54. > :05:02.an increase of 71p a week. There is a difference between someone
:05:02. > :05:06.reliant on benefits and someone who is working. Why are you doing this
:05:06. > :05:10.at the same time as giving people tax cuts from April? If you are
:05:10. > :05:17.going to take tough decisions, they have to be fair. This is profoundly
:05:17. > :05:22.unfair. I disagree with you. You have been in politics a long time.
:05:22. > :05:26.You will recognise a scam and are gone when you see it. He had
:05:26. > :05:29.brought in this tax band just before a general election, when
:05:29. > :05:33.Gordon Brown knew he was not going to be prime minister after that and
:05:33. > :05:39.whoever was going to come along, you said this trap. It is nonsense.
:05:39. > :05:44.Also, tax increase is supposed to raise money. That increase has lost
:05:44. > :05:51.the Treasury �7 billion. assumption behind this are that
:05:51. > :05:58.people in unemployment somehow think it is unfair. People in
:05:58. > :06:01.employment are thinking thank God I am not unemployed. Hilary Benn, are
:06:01. > :06:04.you in danger of falling on the wrong side of public opinion? How
:06:05. > :06:11.do you justify you are giving people on benefits more than they
:06:11. > :06:19.are getting in wages? They are not getting more. People are paying for
:06:19. > :06:24.food bills and gas bills in pans, not percentages. What has been
:06:24. > :06:29.revealed over the past few weeks, over two-thirds of the people being
:06:29. > :06:33.hit by this are those in work. That is why we have called it the tax on
:06:33. > :06:37.strivers. This is not about people trying to find a job, it is also