:01:45. > :01:49.and Lincolnshire, claims that flood hit neighbourhoods could be
:01:49. > :01:59.abandoned if the government fails to reach a deal with the insurance
:01:59. > :01:59.
:01:59. > :37:34.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2135 seconds
:37:34. > :37:38.for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Coming up. We look at claims that
:37:38. > :37:44.flood hit neighbourhoods could be abandoned if the government fails to
:37:44. > :37:49.reach a deal with the insurance industry. Plus, an influential
:37:49. > :37:59.minister tells us that no should mean no for those who do not want
:37:59. > :38:09.wind turbines near their homes. Let us speak to our guests. And
:38:09. > :38:14.Macintosh and Mary Cray. You caused a bit of a stir during the week when
:38:14. > :38:20.you suggested that women doctors who have children and go part-time place
:38:21. > :38:30.a burden on the NHS. Do you stand by those comments? Can I put it into
:38:31. > :38:30.
:38:31. > :38:34.context. In the week my father died, I called the NHS helpline and could
:38:34. > :38:39.not raise any body through the television at -- the telephone
:38:39. > :38:43.response system and then I contacted an ambulance and he was attended to
:38:43. > :38:48.four hours later. There was a serious issue. In response to a
:38:48. > :38:53.question from a Labour colleague who said there appeared to be huge
:38:53. > :38:58.queues forming outside GP surgeries in her area, a potential shortage of
:38:58. > :39:02.GPs, I stated what was in the public domain, the Royal College of
:39:02. > :39:10.physicians, the General medical Council and the Royal College of
:39:10. > :39:12.General practitioners is alert to the fact that we need to train more
:39:12. > :39:15.doctors going forward for a very good reason, a very happy reason,
:39:15. > :39:21.that there are more now GPs coming through who are women, who choose to
:39:21. > :39:31.work part-time for part of their career. Wattage you make of this?
:39:31. > :39:33.do not think having children should be a barrier to any of this. It is
:39:33. > :39:39.unfortunate that women are blaming other women for the crisis in
:39:39. > :39:46.casualty departments. That was how it was read in some areas. It is
:39:46. > :39:49.unfortunate, because there have only ever been 369 MPs, we are
:39:49. > :39:57.celebrating suffragettes, we need more women in public life and it
:39:57. > :40:05.gives the impression that you cannot have a career and a family.
:40:05. > :40:10.apologised for her comments. I was simply repeating what she said as
:40:10. > :40:14.recently as Friday of last week. That is entirely what I did. I think
:40:14. > :40:17.all parties applaud that there are more women going into professions,
:40:17. > :40:23.but the medical profession is acutely aware of the fact that if
:40:23. > :40:27.women are working up to 25% of their working lives part-time, then we
:40:27. > :40:32.have to adapt to these new realities. We want to talk about
:40:32. > :40:36.flooding. I Yorkshire Council leader claims that whole neighbourhoods
:40:36. > :40:46.could crumble if householders can no longer afford flood insurance. A
:40:46. > :40:53.
:40:53. > :40:56.deal between the industry and the government which guarantees cover
:40:56. > :40:58.for flood hit areas is due to expire at the end of next month. Some fear
:40:58. > :41:01.they could be forced to abandon their homes. It is a scenario of
:41:01. > :41:03.dereliction which may be a long way off, but it is concerning some
:41:03. > :41:07.political leaders now. Property could be left to crumble and houses
:41:07. > :41:13.become impossible to sell, without insurance no building society will
:41:13. > :41:17.offer a mortgage on a property. there is no scheme in place, the
:41:17. > :41:21.risk is that there will be areas of towns in the upper valley where
:41:21. > :41:31.people cannot get insurance, world will be almost impossible for people
:41:31. > :41:34.to buy and sell those properties. They will be abandoned or become an
:41:34. > :41:39.increasingly poorer conditions. failure to reach an agreement
:41:39. > :41:43.between British insurers and the government is worrying building
:41:43. > :41:47.societies. This document reveals, if a resolution is not reached to
:41:47. > :41:51.ensure the provision of all UK homeowners, the consequences of
:41:51. > :41:55.moving to an open market could be grave for both consumers and
:41:55. > :42:00.mortgage lenders. Consumers could be left with a house they cannot sell
:42:00. > :42:05.and mortgage lenders will be saddled with tens of thousands of them on
:42:05. > :42:09.their books. People told me that their access has gone from �100 to
:42:09. > :42:19.�10,000 and businesses are reporting the same. In the worst case, a
:42:19. > :42:24.
:42:24. > :42:27.business that was affected, the XS increased from a few hundred pounds
:42:27. > :42:29.to a quarter of �1 million. This couple live in North Yorkshire and
:42:29. > :42:32.they were flooded repeatedly last winter and an insured and unable to
:42:32. > :42:36.afford the XS they were quoted. They want the government to act now.
:42:36. > :42:40.have been ignorant to people. We are aware of the problem. There are
:42:40. > :42:47.thousands of people in this situation, were we cannot afford
:42:47. > :42:51.insurance premiums and we are being left with nothing and have to rely
:42:51. > :42:55.on charities and people who are doing things of their own back, if
:42:55. > :43:00.official governing bodies, who should be coming in at a time of
:43:00. > :43:06.need, have completely ignored us. have the talks stalled? What help
:43:06. > :43:10.does the industry want from ministers? There are concerns if the
:43:10. > :43:16.deal is not done, it could mean high premiums are people unable to get
:43:16. > :43:20.insurance at all. You get a lot of flooding happening in big events,
:43:20. > :43:24.which are pretty difficult for insurers. Equally, those events are
:43:24. > :43:31.not easy for the government to get involved in and leads to quite
:43:31. > :43:36.difficult issues around who takes on responsibility for managing flood
:43:36. > :43:41.claims when you have very big flood events. This community has already
:43:41. > :43:47.seen XS is quoted of more than �10,000 and homes for sale not
:43:47. > :43:51.reaching more than their asking prices. In 2007, up to five feet of
:43:51. > :43:56.water poured into homes near Barnsley forcing the fire service to
:43:56. > :44:01.rescue people by boat. The Environment Agency carried out work
:44:01. > :44:05.close to the nearby river and installed protection equipment. The
:44:05. > :44:10.community was so concerned, they started their own flood water group
:44:10. > :44:17.and got themselves their own boat. People want to move in and people
:44:17. > :44:22.want to move out, it is impossible. Only two houses have been sold, but
:44:22. > :44:26.they can only go to cash buyers. They are only prepared to pay half
:44:26. > :44:32.the value and in one case, a third of the value of the property. You
:44:32. > :44:37.cannot afford to lose that amount. The government has until the end of
:44:37. > :44:46.July to agree a deal and surely for ministers, the warning from Tim
:44:46. > :44:50.Swift is the starkest of all, homes left abandoned because they are on
:44:50. > :44:54.insurable and unsellable. How seriously should we take those
:44:54. > :45:00.claims that whole neighbourhoods could be abandoned if people can no
:45:00. > :45:06.longer afford flood insurance? seriously. I saw the devastation
:45:06. > :45:10.that floods can cause in 2007. 1000 homes were flooded. We have had
:45:10. > :45:16.flood defences put in, �13 million invested in the city, but the fact
:45:16. > :45:19.that this government chose to cut investment on flood defences by
:45:19. > :45:24.28%, it meant that the insurance industry has said it will walk away
:45:24. > :45:29.from the deal that we did back in 2007 with them. That could mean
:45:29. > :45:33.areas will be left blighted, people will be paying higher mortgage rates
:45:33. > :45:37.and it could be real effect on the economy as the banks need to hold
:45:37. > :45:42.more capital against those higher risk houses if people cannot get
:45:42. > :45:50.insurance. You saw that couple in your constituency, they have had to
:45:50. > :45:54.turn to charities to pay for repairs to the property. I have met the
:45:54. > :45:59.couple. My heart goes out to them. They only rent that property and
:45:59. > :46:04.they were offered to be rehoused. For personal reasons, the chose not
:46:04. > :46:10.to move at that time, which is understandable. The house does need
:46:10. > :46:15.to be completely refurbished. The area does have flood defences. What
:46:15. > :46:20.we are seeing is that the Labour government changed the points system
:46:20. > :46:26.so it is really only urban areas, like Wakefield and leads that are
:46:26. > :46:29.qualifying for the big projects. The way we can help test is by looking
:46:29. > :46:35.for affordable insurance, not just for building, but for contents as
:46:35. > :46:39.well. On many of the visits I have made, this is worried the system has
:46:39. > :46:44.broken down. We are not getting the insurance companies to offer
:46:44. > :46:51.affordable insurance. One of the difficulties that we have faced over
:46:51. > :46:54.the last three years is the economic deficit that we are trying to reduce
:46:54. > :46:57.the debt and which if the other government was in power, you would
:46:57. > :47:00.not have had the same amount. What is happening now is revolutionary
:47:00. > :47:05.and I am delighted to say it is happening in my constituency, that
:47:05. > :47:09.we are seeing a partnership funding in rural areas which is really
:47:09. > :47:13.working. We have got a pilot project that will go ahead and it will
:47:13. > :47:19.retain water upstream, there will be a mini reservoir and it will save
:47:19. > :47:24.the areas from future flooding. That is one way around the system.
:47:24. > :47:28.claims they are working. Not at all. The fact that in the last autumn
:47:28. > :47:36.statement they said they were putting another �120 million into
:47:36. > :47:39.flood defences show that they realise they cut too far and too
:47:39. > :47:44.fast. Police are planning approved ready to go construction projects,
:47:44. > :47:49.these are jobs, this is tax income, these are sensible infrastructure
:47:49. > :47:59.spending for the government. If we get to a situation where there is a
:47:59. > :47:59.
:47:59. > :48:01.free market, which will happen on August if there is no deal done, we
:48:01. > :48:04.will end up with over 140,000 people paying more than �1000 a year just
:48:04. > :48:10.for the flood element of their insurance. There is a briefing that
:48:10. > :48:14.came out, up those people in the high flood risk areas will pay more
:48:14. > :48:21.than �1000 and 1 million could be paying more than �500. That is a
:48:21. > :48:26.disaster. This statement was going to expire no matter who was in
:48:26. > :48:30.power. Your government has done nothing! Insurance companies are
:48:30. > :48:36.being tough. I would like to see more money being allocated to
:48:36. > :48:42.maintenance. At the moment, everything goes into capital. We
:48:42. > :48:48.have got to maintain... You cut maintenance! Same macro she has not
:48:48. > :48:52.mentioned that the insurance industry are proposing to things.
:48:52. > :48:57.The main proposal is a subsidy that all of us would pay, a levy, an
:48:57. > :49:01.additional levy of �8 on our insurance policy and on top of
:49:01. > :49:06.that, they want the government to underwrite the policy. We have taken
:49:06. > :49:11.evidence and we hope we will be in the position to report to the House
:49:11. > :49:15.with some positive recommendations, looking at alternative schemes, for
:49:15. > :49:18.example, looking at the insurance industry, rather than asking the
:49:18. > :49:22.government, what we have no funds, whoever is in power in two years
:49:22. > :49:29.time, will have this problem, so whether it should be the insurance
:49:29. > :49:32.industry picking up what will be a shortfall... It will mean higher
:49:32. > :49:37.insurance bills. Climate change will mean this weather volatility will
:49:37. > :49:41.become more frequent. If we do not get something underwritten by
:49:41. > :49:51.government, people will end up being an insured and government is the
:49:51. > :50:02.
:50:02. > :50:05.insurer of last resort if people are homeless. Talking about climate
:50:05. > :50:07.change, note should mean no for those who do not want wind turbines
:50:07. > :50:10.in their backyard. That is according to an influential Tory minister who
:50:10. > :50:12.is said to have had a major influence on proposals that will
:50:12. > :50:14.give rural communities more power to back wind farm applications. John
:50:14. > :50:19.Prescott has described the move as a victory for NIMBYs. In the leafy
:50:19. > :50:24.lanes of North Lincolnshire, campaigners have been fighting plans
:50:24. > :50:28.to build a new wind farm. The application has been rejected by the
:50:28. > :50:35.local planning committee. Residents fear that the odds remain stacked in
:50:35. > :50:39.favour of the wind industry. I cannot help being cynical about the
:50:39. > :50:44.announcements. It is hard work fighting multinational corporations.
:50:44. > :50:52.We have to do it part-time, and paid with very little funds, so we need a
:50:52. > :50:55.more level playing field. -- unpaid. Ministers say too many rural
:50:55. > :50:58.communities are being railroaded into accepting wind farm
:50:58. > :51:03.developments against their will. However, under new proposals
:51:03. > :51:07.announced by the government, energy firms would be forced to offer
:51:07. > :51:12.greater incentives, such as cheaper electricity for residents or money
:51:12. > :51:16.for new facilities, such as the lead halls. No means no and the reason
:51:16. > :51:21.for that is that we are issuing new guidance which allows councils to
:51:21. > :51:31.take into account Joomla! To give impact, below compartment, local
:51:31. > :51:31.
:51:31. > :51:33.amenities and we are saying that if the development goes to appeal, the
:51:33. > :51:37.planning Inspectorate cannot use policy to trump local opinion.
:51:37. > :51:40.man who is not impressed with the government's proposals is the former
:51:40. > :51:45.Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Prescott. The man who was in charge
:51:45. > :51:52.of Labour's policy on the environment says ministers are
:51:52. > :51:57.pandering to a named the agenda. What they are trying to do is build
:51:57. > :52:03.them in urban areas, not in rural areas, because in the rural areas,
:52:03. > :52:08.the old bank managers who worked in the city, come out into the rural
:52:08. > :52:13.areas and do not like their view being spoiled. They do not mind the
:52:13. > :52:17.towers for electricity being somewhere else, they don't mind the
:52:17. > :52:21.TV masts, but it is their quality-of-life. It is the view from
:52:21. > :52:31.the back window that these people have. It is a victory for them in
:52:31. > :52:31.
:52:31. > :52:34.these, nothing to do with energy policy. Not for the first time, the
:52:35. > :52:42.government is caught between those who see wind power as the problem
:52:42. > :52:47.and those who see it as the solution to our energy needs. Is John
:52:47. > :52:53.Prescott right, by the wind farm proposals a victory for those who do
:52:53. > :52:57.not want them in their back garden? I welcome the announcement. It is
:52:57. > :53:00.great news for the countryside, great news for the environment and
:53:00. > :53:07.local communities in rural areas. What has not been realised, it also
:53:07. > :53:12.includes, which is a great benefit to my constituency, we had a line of
:53:12. > :53:15.pylons added and we were told that the first line would be taken down.
:53:15. > :53:20.We have now got an announcement from the government that if there are any
:53:20. > :53:26.new pylons to be built, there will be a moratorium until the first line
:53:26. > :53:30.has been brought down. I personally believe that successive governments
:53:30. > :53:39.have been too obsessed by wind power and I think that in North Yorkshire
:53:39. > :53:45.we should look at other renewables like growing crops. It is quite
:53:45. > :53:49.wrong to take imported woodchip, when we can grow crops locally.
:53:49. > :53:53.you accept that too many communities have had wind farm is foisted upon
:53:53. > :53:57.them? We are not saying that that should be wind farms across the
:53:57. > :54:02.country, but the figures are that the number of planning applications
:54:02. > :54:06.being approved has dropped from 75% to just 30% today. The announcement
:54:06. > :54:10.also said that the energy companies have to give more money to local
:54:10. > :54:20.communities, that is good news for the communities, but the more
:54:20. > :54:28.
:54:28. > :54:31.expensive that you make this energy generation, you will end up losing
:54:31. > :54:33.out to the old, dirty industries like coal and shale gas. Will this
:54:33. > :54:36.apply to Shell gas as well? Nobody wants nuclear, power stations...
:54:36. > :54:38.They have nuclear in Hartlepool and everyone accepts it. It is also in
:54:38. > :54:41.Cumbria. We have got to have a broader discussion on what the
:54:41. > :54:47.implications are for our energy policy going forward. Renewables
:54:47. > :54:54.should be a local choice and if it is good for local farmers to
:54:54. > :55:00.actually supply the staff, that will help local farmers. We should not be
:55:00. > :55:04.obsessed with one type of energy. need all sorts of clean energy, but
:55:04. > :55:11.my concern is that this will price wind turbines out and do nothing to
:55:11. > :55:21.get the green jobs and growth that we need. Siemens will decide to
:55:21. > :55:22.
:55:22. > :55:30.build in Denmark rather than here. believe that there are just as many
:55:30. > :55:35.jobs in other forms of renewables such as biomass and nuclear. Let us
:55:35. > :55:41.pause, there will be some who wish to take wind farms, but some who
:55:41. > :55:45.don't, I do not see her being first in the queue, let us have a
:55:45. > :55:50.discussion now, on what is the best source of energy for each community.
:55:50. > :56:00.Let us get more of the political news. We have our round-up in 60
:56:00. > :56:02.
:56:02. > :56:06.seconds. Claims of a north-south divide came with the news that the
:56:06. > :56:11.National Media Museum in Bradford is one of three facing the possibility
:56:11. > :56:17.of charging visitors or closing. Also hit by the cuts is the National
:56:17. > :56:21.Railway Museum in York. The director said he was not crying wolf when he
:56:21. > :56:25.claimed closure was a possibility. Only a fool would make such a
:56:25. > :56:29.terrible threat and cause such anxiety to all my staff and the
:56:29. > :56:34.people in the cities. Fresh calls have been made in Parliament for the
:56:34. > :56:37.ease culls mainline to remain in public ownership. The government is
:56:37. > :56:44.planning to re-privatise it but some say the service has improved while
:56:44. > :56:47.it has been owned by the taxpayers and it should stay in public hands.
:56:47. > :56:52.And most Yorkshire Labour MPs were backing a Commons revolt over
:56:52. > :57:02.coalition plans to help protect the UK from bovine TB. The move however
:57:02. > :57:03.
:57:03. > :57:07.failed on Thursday when MPs voted in favour of culling badgers. If it is
:57:07. > :57:13.proven that the badger cull, the pilot, reduces the number of
:57:13. > :57:17.incidence of TB, will you accept you were wrong? It will not be proven.
:57:17. > :57:25.These pilot culls are not measuring that. They are just trying to see if
:57:25. > :57:29.it is a humane way to do it. Labour's culls showed that culling
:57:29. > :57:32.badgers could reduce bovine TB in cattle by 16% over nine years. We do
:57:32. > :57:36.not think that reduction is acceptable in terms of going forward
:57:36. > :57:43.with the cull and also, you have got to look at the cost of policing
:57:43. > :57:47.these culls. It is �500,000 per year. We should remember that the
:57:47. > :57:53.pilots are happening in Somerset and Gloucestershire. It has caused a
:57:53. > :58:03.very bitter taste with many people across the country. We reported this
:58:03. > :58:16.
:58:16. > :58:18.week on the availability of vaccines and it is quite shocking how long it
:58:18. > :58:21.will take before any vaccine is available. It is broadly -- there
:58:21. > :58:24.are broadly three types of vaccine. The one we would like to see is the
:58:24. > :58:26.vaccination for cattle. We are going to have field trials, we will have
:58:26. > :58:29.to negotiate whether made that has been vaccinated can enter into the
:58:29. > :58:31.food chain. Only in Ireland and Australia and New Zealand, have they
:58:31. > :58:36.tackled and reduced, not only the incidence of TB, but the spread of
:58:36. > :58:41.TB, both in wildlife and other wildlife, badgers as well, have been
:58:41. > :58:46.able to achieve that reduction, by having both limited and
:58:46. > :58:52.vaccinations, because we still do not know how often you need to
:58:52. > :58:56.administer the vaccine, but also by a limited coal and editors -- but it
:58:56. > :59:02.is only by increasing bio-security, limiting cattle movements, tackling
:59:02. > :59:12.the wildlife through a coal, regrettably, and through the use of
:59:12. > :59:16.
:59:16. > :59:21.vaccine that it will work. So there is no alternative? No one is saying
:59:21. > :59:25.that the cull will get rid of every badger. If you did, I am sure bovine
:59:25. > :59:30.TB would fall. It is a cattle disease, it is spreading across the
:59:30. > :59:34.country, out of the hotspot areas and into Derbyshire. Not because the
:59:34. > :59:38.badgers are moving, they move no more than four miles, it is because
:59:38. > :59:45.of cattle movements. If we do not get a grip on this disease, it will
:59:45. > :59:55.continue costing money. The vaccine has been ready for three years.
:59:55. > :59:56.
:59:56. > :00:06.Yellow macro what we say... You have to wait and see, how often it has to
:00:06. > :00:09.
:00:09. > :00:14.be administered. Just read the report. We have a strategy going