10/07/2011 The Politics Show South East

Will East Sussex miss out on an Olympic business contract? We

examined the ways in which parts of the cities have fought hardest to

make money out of London 2012. And there is your high street

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2365 seconds

resemble a ghost town? Should the Hello and welcome to the Politics

Show and the South East. Coming up: will the South East miss out on

Olympic business contracts. We look at what parts of the cities that

have fought hardest to win contracts for 2012.

The sure high street look like a ghost town. We asked that the

Government could do more to save independent shops.

And a relaxing summer break? Not likely. We look at what her MPs

will be doing as they prepare for their party conferences in the Hon

Tom. Is the city's going to miss out on

business contracts for the Olympics? Thames and so addicted to

Ten Tors had been fighting hard to stick your millions of Pounds of

deals for local companies. East Sussex seems to be left on the

sideline. So as the county council failed local buses and it is -- is

it too late to change tack? And a moment, I'll be speaking to the

leader of the council, but first Primary school children enjoying

the sports facilities during the King et des at Tonbridge School in

Kent this week. One of the aims is to get children in Bolton sport in

the lead-up to the Olympics. Do you think people see something in the

Olympics that makes them want to do it themselves. Yes. I am really

excited. I want to play more sports when the Olympics come. Are you

glad the Olympics is going to happen in this country? Yes. A one

up the main benefits of the UK getting the Olympics is supposed to

be the creation of a lasting legacy. But will there be a legacy here in

the cities to? Across the region, different countries have very

different approaches to 2012. Whilst East Sussex County Council

seems to be sitting on the sidelines when it comes to the

Olympics, Kent County Council is very much in the race. They had

decided to throw everything at it. It is vitally important that Kent

is part of the Olympics. We identified this before London had

won the bad. We were up and running within seconds sending messages

worldwide, saying come to Kent for tourism, come to get for pre-Games

training camps. A much will tend to get through this? We believe they

are due a win full of millions of pounds. That is absolutely huge.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. More than 140 Genk

businesses have now won contracts associated with the Games. We

believe that is worth tens of millions of pounds. It is hosting

one event. At Brands Hatch will be used for the road cycling. So far

they have outpaced six Olympic teams to train in Kent in the lead-

up. It is one of the most successful stations in the UK.

Tonbridge Gill is one of the locations. We're thrilled that we

have the us Julian Field and Trek team and that is about 100 people

in total. Almost as many support as there are athletes. We have to judo

teams from Eastern Europe, from Belarus and Ukraine. The county

council have been hugely supportive and her success in attracting three

countries already had to be the one or two more in the pipeline, is

very much into the county council's involvement as well. Well these

Kent children are getting to grips with rock climbing, in Surrey, the

county has also done well in attracting foreign teams to train

in the could she. -- the county. Kent and Sussex seems to beat --

seemed to be making as much money is the can for the Olympics.

However, in East Sussex, any help to boost the economy would help.

But East Sussex is a little slow off the mark.

With me is their Deputy Leader of East Sussex County Council. You

heard Kent County Council saying that they had secured tens of

millions of pounds of business contracts. It sounds like Surrey

have stolen a march on them. Do you think that you have made a mistake

not fighting harder for business contracts? We made a conscious

decision very early on to consult with their burrows and districts to

see what opportunities there were four East Sussex. We decided that

we would work through education and sport to see what we could achieve.

We have some awards for projects in East Sussex. Clearly, we hope that

that along with all the other efforts that we have made will

attract people into East Sussex. And I am sure that our businesses

will benefit. We have but then the analysis that Kent and Surrey have.

But of our fingers crossed approach, isn't it? We had a statement from

the county council that spoke of a financial challenges, additional

capacities and diverting resources. It all seemed complicated. Booted

into simple language. Why did you not want to stump up? We have

agreed that everything has to be linked to a long-term economic

regeneration and clearly the analysis was done and we saw no

benefits in that for going to bed against the likes of Kent and

Surrey. They are much bigger at a authorities with much bigger

resources and in fairness, much better geographically placed.

Possibly for tourism, but the business contracts could be one by

anyone. You businesses should have had more support. The support has

been through the economic regeneration team. The

consultations have gone on. What has happened in the other counties

is that they had been more proactive in putting together at

their results. I am not sure that we are without success, I think we

have not collated hour results. have not appointed an Olympics

court maker. -- co-ordinator. Hard to compete with your neighbours

when you do not have one person whose focus is is to generate

Olympic business. We are people within sport and education and the

economic development team that take that role, but we have not

appointed one person. You have not lost anything yet. It is a low-risk

strategy. There will not be the trend of rewards that we're seeing

him that Surrey. You could still change tack, would you? We are

continue to work with any opportunities that will present

themselves. We are re-evaluating on a daily basis any opportunities

that come on, but they must fit with long-term economic

regeneration in or area. But if you can do what Surrey are doing, that

must be a good investment. If I felt that was the way, we would

have taken that stance early on. contacted the Olympic organising

Committee today and they have come from to us that about half of the

total Olympic contracts are still up for grabs. There is still --

there is still time, isn't there? Absolutely. I went at any

opportunity to urge businesses to take these opportunities. There is

a rule that the contents of can play, and there is a further role

for businesses themselves. If you go to any high street in any

town in the South East, you'll find the empty shops, boarded-up windows

or to let signs. According to the retailers Association, a region has

seen its second highest increase in the number of vacant shops in the

country. Thorntons, the chocolate people are in trouble and pink high

street names like wharfs are at distant memory. -- big high-street

names like Walworth's. What exactly do you want the Government to do?

There are three things that we would like them to seriously

consider. The first thing is to look at the holiday that the

employers national insurance contribution can get. The system is

up in the North of England and we would like to see it extended down

into the South East. Somebody employing a person on a salary of

25,000 could save around 2.5 �1,000 per annum. -- �2,500. Anything else

you might be trouble could business relief for small businesses.

third one is the big one, and that is to put a bit more impetus behind

the consideration that the government currently have of fixing

thresholds for local authorities to pass on business rates to central

government. Once the threshold has fixed, the additional business

rates that local authorities can generate should be capped by the

local authorities themselves. -- kept by the local authority. Should

the government intervene when retailers up against it? Would you

go for any of those suggestions? Some of those ideas are practical.

It is the role of government to not run or managing in a detailed or

make a managing way but to create the sort of environment that can

see retail, particularly small retailers, thrive. As with this are

traits, there are some good news. The government has little to

repatriate some of the business rates so that local authorities

will have much greater control over how that money is spent. At the

moment, business rates go straight up to light all and then typically

in the experience of the South East, are redistributed to other regions

of the country and so we want to bring that system to an end. For

towns are do very well, like Maidstone and Crawley and others

across the South East, that could be a real opportunity. With regards

to the business rates holiday, sorry, at their National Insurance

all day, there is a case for saying that that could be extended further.

There are things that the Government could do. Finally, there

is a major piece of legislation going through which will give

significant powers to local authorities over planning and over

how they develop their town centres and their whole communities in the

future. By implementing that piece of legislation, the local

authorities have much greater control over doing the things that

will help the local businesses. is partly your responsibility to

help the shops. What is the picture in Maidstone? We have a successful

town. We're the biggest retail centre in Kent. We have a good

story to tell them there. We have 50% of the businesses on nationals

and 50% of them are independent. The nationals, you can go to any

High Street and find them. It is the independence that make the

difference to a town. We spend a lot of time and energy trying to

redirect the customers that come into Maidstone in to the slightly

off-pitch at is which is where it was small independents are. What is

the picture and Crawley? Things are cautiously getting better in terms

of the local economy. Do you have boarded-up shops? There are empty

shop units. The Citizens Advice Bureau are taken over one unit and

we're using the unit in a community sense. There are a boarded-up shops,

but this picture is improving and unemployment is going down now. It

is a cautious recovery, but we're not out of the woods yet. If the

restructuring of its economy means that we have to lead away from a

consumption led economy and let shops that are viable fail, that

his national market forces isn't it? Absolutely right. Of course we

have vacancies in our town. We're running at 10.5% against the

national average of 14.5%. Our picture is reasonably good. We have

to accept the high streets are changing. We had different

retailers there and constantly am being told that we have far too

many coffee shops and charity shops and phone shops. But they are all

making good money. Bank lending is a significant point here. UK's for

biggest banks have signed up to project Merlin, which promises to

lend more money to small businesses in 2011. Can the Government make

sure that that happens. Are the teeth really there to make sure

that that works? That project is very important. I think we'll see

big investors going into smaller investments -- businesses. The

government is determined that will banks will lend in a responsible

and sustainable ways so that we have a sustained growth but we do

it had the irresponsible lending that got us into the financial

crisis that we are now recovering from. On the subject of lending,

does that satisfy you? Is it happening? If you talk to the small

businesses, anecdotally it is not happening. The words are good, but

is it happening on the high street? Thank you for joining us. Summer is

here and it is almost end of the parliamentary session. Cuts and a

deficit have dominated the political landscape and Val local

election when you were giving you a first has to react to the coalition

government policies through up a few surprises in the South East.

There was increasing vote for the Tories. What happens over the

summer break? The summer recess, an opportunity for parties to reframe

the messages to decide what they want to tell us at the party

conference. What will the Conservatives to over the summer.

There was a time when MPs of all parties with school to Barbados on

their holidays. The Conservatives had a fantastic year last year and

it did brilliantly in the local elections. The cuts that the

implemented which they say they have had to implement will start to

bite. Defects and public services are going to start to be felt. They

have to remember that the other cities is their strong ground,

their home territory, 25% of the city's economy work in the public

sector and those cuts are going to bite. The need a message to explain

why they are necessary, how they will develop growth again and to

give people something to look forward to. A message of hope?

think the Conservatives need a message of hope that this plausible.

That becomes harder to deliver if the signals are not good. The

Conservatives need to know how they will present them as if things do

not look as good as they were hoping to a year ago. Let us turn

to Labour. Have they made any process a -- progress in the South

East? What the Labour have to do to penetrate the South East? Labour

has to recognise just how serious their problems are. The need to win

seats if they are going to form a government again. It is about the

old question that Labour has never been able to resolve. Are the old

Labour or new Labour? Were to be need to do to attract voters in the

South East? They are Blairite. Tony Blair won the vote in the South

East and the need to return to the aspirational message which

understands the public sector as well as the private sector, which

is not wedded in old fashioned views on trade unionism and the

manufacturing. They lost it under Gordon Brown and does not seem to

have recovered it under David Miliband. What will you expect you

hear from the Liberal Democrat? Desperate and plaintive cries that

they are different from the Conservatives. They want to be

treated as an independent party and taken seriously. They have an

extraordinarily different message to convey and the sparkle to world.

They are associated so close with the Conservative Party. They are in

coalition and they are finding it harder to market separate territory.

-- mark out. There is one party that has a hope. That is due kept.

-- UKIP. If they can sort out their internal problems, they could begin

to grow again here in the south. What are at their problems?

local cities MEPs that are at loggerheads. They are at each

other's throats at the moment. They will have to sort out that internal

argument and order to make process -- progress. To politicians enjoy

the summer recess? They used to. I suspect these days the note the

need to be seen to be working. -- denote that they need to be seen to