09/06/2013 Sunday Politics Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

and Lincolnshire, claims that flood hit neighbourhoods could be

abandoned if the government fails to reach a deal with the insurance

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2135 seconds

for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Coming up. We look at claims that

flood hit neighbourhoods could be abandoned if the government fails to

reach a deal with the insurance industry. Plus, an influential

minister tells us that no should mean no for those who do not want

wind turbines near their homes. Let us speak to our guests. And

Macintosh and Mary Cray. You caused a bit of a stir during the week when

you suggested that women doctors who have children and go part-time place

a burden on the NHS. Do you stand by those comments? Can I put it into

context. In the week my father died, I called the NHS helpline and could

not raise any body through the television at -- the telephone

response system and then I contacted an ambulance and he was attended to

four hours later. There was a serious issue. In response to a

question from a Labour colleague who said there appeared to be huge

queues forming outside GP surgeries in her area, a potential shortage of

GPs, I stated what was in the public domain, the Royal College of

physicians, the General medical Council and the Royal College of

General practitioners is alert to the fact that we need to train more

doctors going forward for a very good reason, a very happy reason,

that there are more now GPs coming through who are women, who choose to

work part-time for part of their career. Wattage you make of this?

do not think having children should be a barrier to any of this. It is

unfortunate that women are blaming other women for the crisis in

casualty departments. That was how it was read in some areas. It is

unfortunate, because there have only ever been 369 MPs, we are

celebrating suffragettes, we need more women in public life and it

gives the impression that you cannot have a career and a family.

apologised for her comments. I was simply repeating what she said as

recently as Friday of last week. That is entirely what I did. I think

all parties applaud that there are more women going into professions,

but the medical profession is acutely aware of the fact that if

women are working up to 25% of their working lives part-time, then we

have to adapt to these new realities. We want to talk about

flooding. I Yorkshire Council leader claims that whole neighbourhoods

could crumble if householders can no longer afford flood insurance. A

deal between the industry and the government which guarantees cover

for flood hit areas is due to expire at the end of next month. Some fear

they could be forced to abandon their homes. It is a scenario of

dereliction which may be a long way off, but it is concerning some

political leaders now. Property could be left to crumble and houses

become impossible to sell, without insurance no building society will

offer a mortgage on a property. there is no scheme in place, the

risk is that there will be areas of towns in the upper valley where

people cannot get insurance, world will be almost impossible for people

to buy and sell those properties. They will be abandoned or become an

increasingly poorer conditions. failure to reach an agreement

between British insurers and the government is worrying building

societies. This document reveals, if a resolution is not reached to

ensure the provision of all UK homeowners, the consequences of

moving to an open market could be grave for both consumers and

mortgage lenders. Consumers could be left with a house they cannot sell

and mortgage lenders will be saddled with tens of thousands of them on

their books. People told me that their access has gone from �100 to

�10,000 and businesses are reporting the same. In the worst case, a

business that was affected, the XS increased from a few hundred pounds

to a quarter of �1 million. This couple live in North Yorkshire and

they were flooded repeatedly last winter and an insured and unable to

afford the XS they were quoted. They want the government to act now.

have been ignorant to people. We are aware of the problem. There are

thousands of people in this situation, were we cannot afford

insurance premiums and we are being left with nothing and have to rely

on charities and people who are doing things of their own back, if

official governing bodies, who should be coming in at a time of

need, have completely ignored us. have the talks stalled? What help

does the industry want from ministers? There are concerns if the

deal is not done, it could mean high premiums are people unable to get

insurance at all. You get a lot of flooding happening in big events,

which are pretty difficult for insurers. Equally, those events are

not easy for the government to get involved in and leads to quite

difficult issues around who takes on responsibility for managing flood

claims when you have very big flood events. This community has already

seen XS is quoted of more than �10,000 and homes for sale not

reaching more than their asking prices. In 2007, up to five feet of

water poured into homes near Barnsley forcing the fire service to

rescue people by boat. The Environment Agency carried out work

close to the nearby river and installed protection equipment. The

community was so concerned, they started their own flood water group

and got themselves their own boat. People want to move in and people

want to move out, it is impossible. Only two houses have been sold, but

they can only go to cash buyers. They are only prepared to pay half

the value and in one case, a third of the value of the property. You

cannot afford to lose that amount. The government has until the end of

July to agree a deal and surely for ministers, the warning from Tim

Swift is the starkest of all, homes left abandoned because they are on

insurable and unsellable. How seriously should we take those

claims that whole neighbourhoods could be abandoned if people can no

longer afford flood insurance? seriously. I saw the devastation

that floods can cause in 2007. 1000 homes were flooded. We have had

flood defences put in, �13 million invested in the city, but the fact

that this government chose to cut investment on flood defences by

28%, it meant that the insurance industry has said it will walk away

from the deal that we did back in 2007 with them. That could mean

areas will be left blighted, people will be paying higher mortgage rates

and it could be real effect on the economy as the banks need to hold

more capital against those higher risk houses if people cannot get

insurance. You saw that couple in your constituency, they have had to

turn to charities to pay for repairs to the property. I have met the

couple. My heart goes out to them. They only rent that property and

they were offered to be rehoused. For personal reasons, the chose not

to move at that time, which is understandable. The house does need

to be completely refurbished. The area does have flood defences. What

we are seeing is that the Labour government changed the points system

so it is really only urban areas, like Wakefield and leads that are

qualifying for the big projects. The way we can help test is by looking

for affordable insurance, not just for building, but for contents as

well. On many of the visits I have made, this is worried the system has

broken down. We are not getting the insurance companies to offer

affordable insurance. One of the difficulties that we have faced over

the last three years is the economic deficit that we are trying to reduce

the debt and which if the other government was in power, you would

not have had the same amount. What is happening now is revolutionary

and I am delighted to say it is happening in my constituency, that

we are seeing a partnership funding in rural areas which is really

working. We have got a pilot project that will go ahead and it will

retain water upstream, there will be a mini reservoir and it will save

the areas from future flooding. That is one way around the system.

claims they are working. Not at all. The fact that in the last autumn

statement they said they were putting another �120 million into

flood defences show that they realise they cut too far and too

fast. Police are planning approved ready to go construction projects,

these are jobs, this is tax income, these are sensible infrastructure

spending for the government. If we get to a situation where there is a

free market, which will happen on August if there is no deal done, we

will end up with over 140,000 people paying more than �1000 a year just

for the flood element of their insurance. There is a briefing that

came out, up those people in the high flood risk areas will pay more

than �1000 and 1 million could be paying more than �500. That is a

disaster. This statement was going to expire no matter who was in

power. Your government has done nothing! Insurance companies are

being tough. I would like to see more money being allocated to

maintenance. At the moment, everything goes into capital. We

have got to maintain... You cut maintenance! Same macro she has not

mentioned that the insurance industry are proposing to things.

The main proposal is a subsidy that all of us would pay, a levy, an

additional levy of �8 on our insurance policy and on top of

that, they want the government to underwrite the policy. We have taken

evidence and we hope we will be in the position to report to the House

with some positive recommendations, looking at alternative schemes, for

example, looking at the insurance industry, rather than asking the

government, what we have no funds, whoever is in power in two years

time, will have this problem, so whether it should be the insurance

industry picking up what will be a shortfall... It will mean higher

insurance bills. Climate change will mean this weather volatility will

become more frequent. If we do not get something underwritten by

government, people will end up being an insured and government is the

insurer of last resort if people are homeless. Talking about climate

change, note should mean no for those who do not want wind turbines

in their backyard. That is according to an influential Tory minister who

is said to have had a major influence on proposals that will

give rural communities more power to back wind farm applications. John

Prescott has described the move as a victory for NIMBYs. In the leafy

lanes of North Lincolnshire, campaigners have been fighting plans

to build a new wind farm. The application has been rejected by the

local planning committee. Residents fear that the odds remain stacked in

favour of the wind industry. I cannot help being cynical about the

announcements. It is hard work fighting multinational corporations.

We have to do it part-time, and paid with very little funds, so we need a

more level playing field. -- unpaid. Ministers say too many rural

communities are being railroaded into accepting wind farm

developments against their will. However, under new proposals

announced by the government, energy firms would be forced to offer

greater incentives, such as cheaper electricity for residents or money

for new facilities, such as the lead halls. No means no and the reason

for that is that we are issuing new guidance which allows councils to

take into account Joomla! To give impact, below compartment, local

amenities and we are saying that if the development goes to appeal, the

planning Inspectorate cannot use policy to trump local opinion.

man who is not impressed with the government's proposals is the former

Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Prescott. The man who was in charge

of Labour's policy on the environment says ministers are

pandering to a named the agenda. What they are trying to do is build

them in urban areas, not in rural areas, because in the rural areas,

the old bank managers who worked in the city, come out into the rural

areas and do not like their view being spoiled. They do not mind the

towers for electricity being somewhere else, they don't mind the

TV masts, but it is their quality-of-life. It is the view from

the back window that these people have. It is a victory for them in

these, nothing to do with energy policy. Not for the first time, the

government is caught between those who see wind power as the problem

and those who see it as the solution to our energy needs. Is John

Prescott right, by the wind farm proposals a victory for those who do

not want them in their back garden? I welcome the announcement. It is

great news for the countryside, great news for the environment and

local communities in rural areas. What has not been realised, it also

includes, which is a great benefit to my constituency, we had a line of

pylons added and we were told that the first line would be taken down.

We have now got an announcement from the government that if there are any

new pylons to be built, there will be a moratorium until the first line

has been brought down. I personally believe that successive governments

have been too obsessed by wind power and I think that in North Yorkshire

we should look at other renewables like growing crops. It is quite

wrong to take imported woodchip, when we can grow crops locally.

you accept that too many communities have had wind farm is foisted upon

them? We are not saying that that should be wind farms across the

country, but the figures are that the number of planning applications

being approved has dropped from 75% to just 30% today. The announcement

also said that the energy companies have to give more money to local

communities, that is good news for the communities, but the more

expensive that you make this energy generation, you will end up losing

out to the old, dirty industries like coal and shale gas. Will this

apply to Shell gas as well? Nobody wants nuclear, power stations...

They have nuclear in Hartlepool and everyone accepts it. It is also in

Cumbria. We have got to have a broader discussion on what the

implications are for our energy policy going forward. Renewables

should be a local choice and if it is good for local farmers to

actually supply the staff, that will help local farmers. We should not be

obsessed with one type of energy. need all sorts of clean energy, but

my concern is that this will price wind turbines out and do nothing to

get the green jobs and growth that we need. Siemens will decide to

build in Denmark rather than here. believe that there are just as many

jobs in other forms of renewables such as biomass and nuclear. Let us

pause, there will be some who wish to take wind farms, but some who

don't, I do not see her being first in the queue, let us have a

discussion now, on what is the best source of energy for each community.

Let us get more of the political news. We have our round-up in 60

seconds. Claims of a north-south divide came with the news that the

National Media Museum in Bradford is one of three facing the possibility

of charging visitors or closing. Also hit by the cuts is the National

Railway Museum in York. The director said he was not crying wolf when he

claimed closure was a possibility. Only a fool would make such a

terrible threat and cause such anxiety to all my staff and the

people in the cities. Fresh calls have been made in Parliament for the

ease culls mainline to remain in public ownership. The government is

planning to re-privatise it but some say the service has improved while

it has been owned by the taxpayers and it should stay in public hands.

And most Yorkshire Labour MPs were backing a Commons revolt over

coalition plans to help protect the UK from bovine TB. The move however

failed on Thursday when MPs voted in favour of culling badgers. If it is

proven that the badger cull, the pilot, reduces the number of

incidence of TB, will you accept you were wrong? It will not be proven.

These pilot culls are not measuring that. They are just trying to see if

it is a humane way to do it. Labour's culls showed that culling

badgers could reduce bovine TB in cattle by 16% over nine years. We do

not think that reduction is acceptable in terms of going forward

with the cull and also, you have got to look at the cost of policing

these culls. It is �500,000 per year. We should remember that the

pilots are happening in Somerset and Gloucestershire. It has caused a

very bitter taste with many people across the country. We reported this

week on the availability of vaccines and it is quite shocking how long it

will take before any vaccine is available. It is broadly -- there

are broadly three types of vaccine. The one we would like to see is the

vaccination for cattle. We are going to have field trials, we will have

to negotiate whether made that has been vaccinated can enter into the

food chain. Only in Ireland and Australia and New Zealand, have they

tackled and reduced, not only the incidence of TB, but the spread of

TB, both in wildlife and other wildlife, badgers as well, have been

able to achieve that reduction, by having both limited and

vaccinations, because we still do not know how often you need to

administer the vaccine, but also by a limited coal and editors -- but it

is only by increasing bio-security, limiting cattle movements, tackling

the wildlife through a coal, regrettably, and through the use of

vaccine that it will work. So there is no alternative? No one is saying

that the cull will get rid of every badger. If you did, I am sure bovine

TB would fall. It is a cattle disease, it is spreading across the

country, out of the hotspot areas and into Derbyshire. Not because the

badgers are moving, they move no more than four miles, it is because

of cattle movements. If we do not get a grip on this disease, it will

continue costing money. The vaccine has been ready for three years.

Yellow macro what we say... You have to wait and see, how often it has to

be administered. Just read the report. We have a strategy going