:00:48. > :00:52.Thousands of stack and hen parties head for Brighton and Hove every
:00:52. > :00:57.year. Many rent homes in residential areas. Should the
:00:57. > :01:07.increase in party houses be curtailed? And his 11 to young for
:01:07. > :01:07.
:01:07. > :25:48.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1481 seconds
:25:49. > :25:53.children to be set up -- sitting Hello, and welcome to the Politics
:25:53. > :25:56.Show in the south-east. Coming up in the next 20 minutes. If more and
:25:56. > :25:59.more Brighton and Hove houses are being rented to stag and hen
:25:59. > :26:04.parties. Businesses welcomed the trade, but
:26:04. > :26:07.some residents are less inviting. A if I was in a position to go out
:26:07. > :26:12.and remonstrate or even attack these people, sometimes I feel as
:26:12. > :26:17.if I would. The UN agency worker constantly
:26:17. > :26:22.work -- moving from job to job. The new rule intended to give you more
:26:22. > :26:25.rights may backfire. And his 11 too young for children
:26:25. > :26:31.to sit exams that will affect the rest of their education? We will
:26:31. > :26:34.discuss. Brighton and Hove is home to an
:26:34. > :26:39.ever increasing number of party houses. There are rented out to
:26:39. > :26:42.large groups, mainly stag or hen parties. Some residents do not
:26:42. > :26:46.appreciate the non-stop partying of their temporary neighbours, and
:26:46. > :26:52.once the authorities to rein them in. But stag and hen parties inject
:26:52. > :26:56.millions into the local economy. To in a moment, I will be asking
:26:57. > :27:06.councillor Ben Duncan, who is on Brighton and Hove city council. But
:27:07. > :27:12.
:27:12. > :27:16.Brighton and Hove is the stag and hen capital of the South. Over
:27:16. > :27:20.20,000 people come to the city every year to celebrate are coming
:27:21. > :27:25.weddings. In turn, the area has a lot of party houses. These are big
:27:25. > :27:29.properties like this purple one. The owners do not live at party
:27:29. > :27:33.houses, instead choosing to rent them out on short-term lets, mainly
:27:33. > :27:37.at weekends and maybe to stag and hen groups.
:27:37. > :27:41.Local Conservative MP Simon Kirby is campaigning for tighter
:27:41. > :27:45.regulations. More of them have opened recently, and some residents
:27:45. > :27:49.are happy. As you can see, my dear -- my
:27:49. > :27:54.garden is still being developed. This man has lived in one of the
:27:54. > :27:58.most expensive parts of the city for 40 years. He has seen three
:27:58. > :28:03.nearby properties turned into party houses in the last 18 months, and
:28:03. > :28:07.is extremely upset. They do not all stay together in a
:28:07. > :28:12.blocked throughout the night, they get split up. Therefore they get
:28:12. > :28:22.coming back in an dribs and drabs. Say get woken up three or four
:28:22. > :28:22.
:28:22. > :28:26.times. It is really sometimes quite distressing. If I was in a position
:28:26. > :28:33.to go out and remonstrate or even attack these people, sometimes I
:28:33. > :28:39.feel as if I would. If I had a baseball bat or something, if I was
:28:39. > :28:42.that sort of person, I'm sure there would be injuries on the street.
:28:43. > :28:48.Inside the hen house, there are five bedrooms sleeping 25 people,
:28:48. > :28:52.and it rents out for up to �2,700 a weekend. There is an argument to
:28:52. > :28:55.say that party houses and the people who stay in them are not a
:28:55. > :28:59.bad thing. They bring money into the city's economy as well as
:28:59. > :29:04.providing local jobs. This house on its own is a cottage
:29:05. > :29:10.industry. It employs 23 people directly associated with this one
:29:10. > :29:16.house. So you imagine how many people are employed across the city
:29:16. > :29:20.with hour over 100 properties. Anything that would jeopardise any
:29:20. > :29:25.measure that would stop this kind of growth for small businesses in
:29:25. > :29:30.this economic climate, after all, we're in a recession, and this is
:29:30. > :29:36.one segment of the wrist -- of the industry which is doing very well.
:29:36. > :29:41.I think it would be a big shame to try and thought that.
:29:41. > :29:45.Another company that employs lot of local people is this one. It is one
:29:45. > :29:49.of the city's biggest stag and hen party organisers. Its owner
:29:49. > :29:53.explains that it is not just the usual pubs and clubs that benefit.
:29:53. > :29:58.The boost the economy is felt far and wide.
:29:58. > :30:03.These weekends have been very key during the recession times when
:30:03. > :30:10.people were coming out less, hens and stags have continued and kept
:30:10. > :30:14.many businesses afloat. One of the things we organise his to keep the
:30:14. > :30:18.guys and girls of the drink during the day, so we fill their time with
:30:19. > :30:22.experiences and activities, so we spreads the economic benefits
:30:22. > :30:28.around the surrounding areas of Brighton and the South Downs.
:30:28. > :30:32.It is estimated that the total spend his �6 million a year. Simon
:30:32. > :30:39.Kirby's proposals to tighten the rules may mean a drop in revenue.
:30:39. > :30:42.It is the classic cost-benefit analysis.
:30:42. > :30:46.�150 a head has been talked about as an average spend. That is very
:30:46. > :30:51.good for the people of Brighton and Hove. It is good for the local
:30:51. > :30:57.economy, but you have to balance that against the impact on local
:30:57. > :31:01.communities, and the potential policing costs as well. This is a
:31:01. > :31:05.new subject for an awful lot of people, and we need to have a
:31:05. > :31:08.grown-up, adult debate about where the balance lies at the moment, and
:31:08. > :31:11.that might change over the coming years. The decree in administration
:31:11. > :31:16.has been in charge of Brighton and Hove city council for just under
:31:16. > :31:19.six months. This is a test of the dilemmas felt
:31:19. > :31:22.when in office. So where were they draw the line between residents
:31:22. > :31:29.getting a good night's sleep and the economy getting much-needed
:31:29. > :31:33.money? Joining us now is Councillor Ben
:31:33. > :31:37.Duncan, green cabinet member for communities and equality on
:31:37. > :31:40.Brighton and Hove city council. This is a difficult one. Would you
:31:40. > :31:43.like more powers to deal with party has his?
:31:44. > :31:48.I think you can have a debate about more powers, actually we already
:31:48. > :31:52.have quite a lot. Particularly in terms of dealing with noise
:31:52. > :31:55.nuisance and planning enforcement, where there are planning issues
:31:55. > :32:00.around how properties are being used. But what we really need are
:32:00. > :32:04.more resources. Let's go back to the powers, you
:32:04. > :32:10.say you already have them. Is that purely the problem? Simon Kirby MP
:32:11. > :32:14.would like an amendment in the localism Bell to give you more
:32:14. > :32:18.powers. I do not know what powers he would
:32:18. > :32:21.like us to have. We already work very closely with the police and
:32:22. > :32:25.with other partners, if people complain about the noise and the
:32:25. > :32:30.nuisance that party houses or any other activities are causing, we
:32:30. > :32:34.can provide a noise patrol service on Friday and Saturday night. That
:32:34. > :32:39.is all we can do. We would like to do more, but we have not got any
:32:39. > :32:45.money. We are facing a 15% cuts over the next two years in our
:32:45. > :32:48.budget as a direct result of government funding decisions.
:32:48. > :32:55.Let us talk theoretically. It does not sound like you would get more
:32:55. > :32:59.money. If you did, what would you I mentioned the noise patrol. We
:32:59. > :33:03.can send Our officers out who can immediately intervened in
:33:03. > :33:07.situations that are causing disturbances to residents.
:33:07. > :33:14.Will that be enough? We would like to do a lot more.
:33:14. > :33:17.Again, it comes down to money. We can use the planning rules of
:33:17. > :33:21.people doing what they want to do with their house. If the planning
:33:21. > :33:24.rules say they are using a residential property as a business,
:33:24. > :33:28.there are some circumstances in which permission is required. We
:33:28. > :33:31.have got powers in that regard. Again, we would like to be able to
:33:31. > :33:36.do more, but it is how we fund our work.
:33:36. > :33:40.It sounds like you would what like to clamp down on these houses.
:33:40. > :33:44.You have to remember that there was a figure of �6 million contributed
:33:44. > :33:48.to the economy by stag and hen parties. Brighton does have a
:33:48. > :33:52.reputation as a fun and diverse and safe place. That is why so many
:33:53. > :33:56.people come here. Of course, the real key is the balance, and we
:33:56. > :33:59.have to balance the interests of those who are resident here,
:34:00. > :34:04.particularly when it comes to noise nuisance, because it is absolutely
:34:04. > :34:07.clear that it is a community safety issue. We have heard about
:34:07. > :34:11.residents solving the problems with baseball bats. It is also clearly a
:34:11. > :34:15.public health issue. This is the problem. It is a boom
:34:15. > :34:20.industry, a very rare thing in a recession. You talk about the
:34:20. > :34:24.balance. How are you achieve that? What is your priority? The
:34:24. > :34:29.residents or the economic benefits, the huge benefits that this brings?
:34:29. > :34:32.I would say, and I am sorry if this sounds like an not answering the
:34:32. > :34:37.question, that balances the answer. We have to be more strategic about
:34:37. > :34:42.it. It is not in our interest for bits of the economy not to grow in
:34:42. > :34:45.a recession, it might be in some residents interesting to see no
:34:45. > :34:50.stag and hen groups come to the city, but it is not in the
:34:50. > :34:56.interests of the residents employed servicing those visitors. We have 8
:34:56. > :35:00.million visitors a year coming to Brighton and Hove. Only about
:35:00. > :35:04.20,000 are associated with stag and hen parties. We do not specifically
:35:04. > :35:09.say Stack and hen parties come to Brighton, of course we don't, but
:35:09. > :35:15.anyone is welcome, and Our job is to balance interests of visitors
:35:15. > :35:20.with those of residents. This is a big problem. You have
:35:20. > :35:24.already upset residents by seeming to encourage travellers to the city.
:35:24. > :35:27.But this visitor is bringing in economic visitors. So if you are
:35:27. > :35:32.saying yes to travellers but discouraging stag and hen parties,
:35:32. > :35:39.it will not work economic aid. I agree. We are not encouraging
:35:39. > :35:43.more discouraging them. Our role is to ensure that those people that a
:35:43. > :35:49.resident in the City do not suffer undue nuisance as a result of the
:35:49. > :35:53.visitors that do come. Ben Duncan, Freddie for joining us.
:35:53. > :35:57.If you are employed by an agency, you are probably paid around two
:35:57. > :36:00.thirds of the salary of your permanent colleagues. But a new EU
:36:00. > :36:05.directive comes into force this month giving agency workers the
:36:05. > :36:08.same rights as permanent employees, as long as they have been working
:36:08. > :36:11.for 12 continuous weeks. It is proving controversial, and
:36:11. > :36:16.politicians are divided on the impact it could have on businesses
:36:16. > :36:23.here in the south-east. Supporters including this Labour MP, set think
:36:24. > :36:28.that it will make things say -- fairer. But others say it will just
:36:28. > :36:35.make agency workers more expensive. Henry Smith is in the studio and
:36:35. > :36:39.Peter Skinner is in Brussels. Mr Skinner, you support the changes.
:36:39. > :36:44.Why? I think it is fair and balanced up
:36:44. > :36:47.to the way in which employers want to employ staff flexible, and it is
:36:47. > :36:52.also fair for the staff who can enjoy the benefits of their
:36:52. > :36:55.colleagues around them. Mr Smith, lots of agency workers in
:36:55. > :36:59.your constituency. This is good news, surely?
:36:59. > :37:03.On the surface it might appear like good news, but ultimately it could
:37:03. > :37:07.mean that those agency workers are not employed at all because the
:37:07. > :37:13.cost of employing agency workers was this the directive comes in,
:37:13. > :37:16.which is about to take effect, will make it too expensive for employers,
:37:16. > :37:20.and so the ultimate result may not be more Venice in the workplace,
:37:20. > :37:25.but no work at all for those workers, and that is my concern.
:37:25. > :37:28.I am sure that is a concern you have heard before, Mr Skinner. It
:37:29. > :37:34.has been estimated it will cost businesses for �0.5 million to
:37:34. > :37:38.implement this legislation. A lot of talk was made about the
:37:38. > :37:41.minimum wage losing jobs, that proved not to be the case. The fact
:37:41. > :37:44.that the economy is stagnant and jobs are not being put on and we
:37:44. > :37:50.cannot find that growth really is not the fault of low-paid workers,
:37:50. > :37:53.it is the fault of economic governance in this country. I would
:37:53. > :37:57.not want to blame the directive coming in for causing loss of
:37:57. > :38:00.employment, frankly. One problem that surely you must
:38:00. > :38:04.have anticipated, as well as the increased costs to business, is
:38:04. > :38:09.that a lot of employers are going to want to terminate contracts
:38:09. > :38:14.before that 12 week contract -- 12 week period is up. Had to stop them
:38:14. > :38:18.doing that? You have got problems with all
:38:18. > :38:23.sorts of laws when they come in. Some employers, and most are good
:38:23. > :38:28.employers and want to stand by their work force, I think these are
:38:28. > :38:33.only basic conditions with inside the employment sphere, I think most
:38:33. > :38:36.employers would not want to see their staff, as good as they are,
:38:36. > :38:41.wants to go out revolving-door. It is a waste of an asset for them. I
:38:41. > :38:44.am hopeful that this could be better -- bedded in quite well with
:38:44. > :38:48.support of employers who wanted to work.
:38:48. > :38:52.Back to you, Henry Smith. Mr Skinner makes a point about the
:38:52. > :38:55.recession. This is the time to give people guaranteed income.
:38:55. > :39:02.This is a time to have the most flexible employment situation that
:39:02. > :39:06.we can to ensure that jobs are available. The British economy has
:39:06. > :39:11.also -- always been very successful by having a flexible jobs market.
:39:11. > :39:14.As it, we see the eurozone crisis, unemployment going up in the United
:39:14. > :39:18.States of America, and everything affecting our economy, and the
:39:18. > :39:22.difficulties we see, Elise time to have more flexibility to be able to
:39:22. > :39:24.employ people and have them in work, not greater red tape and greater
:39:25. > :39:28.restriction which will damage job growth.
:39:28. > :39:30.But this will help your constituents, the people on short-
:39:30. > :39:35.term contracts to have no guaranteed that they will get any
:39:35. > :39:39.of those rights as their colleagues have. This a good thing, surely?
:39:40. > :39:43.I do not think it will help. As I said earlier, it may look on the
:39:43. > :39:47.surface to be a good thing, but we need to have as much Venice as
:39:47. > :39:51.possible in the workplace, but it means the difference between an
:39:51. > :39:56.agency job or no job at all, I think the bars majority of people
:39:56. > :40:01.would want to be in work and earning and not unemployed.
:40:01. > :40:05.Mr Skinner, how do we go from here? You said we need to help businesses,
:40:05. > :40:11.had you propose doing that in practice? Stopping them from
:40:11. > :40:14.terminating contracts? That is a purpose of the advice
:40:14. > :40:19.from government as well as anything else. If you have employment law,
:40:19. > :40:23.you should be able to make sure that this this is no had operated
:40:23. > :40:29.fairly. One of the key things would be to say, look, yes, it is fair
:40:29. > :40:33.and good use agency workers when you need to, and indeed they fulfil
:40:33. > :40:37.a great part of our economy, and in this respect, though, if they are
:40:37. > :40:41.sat next to someone doing exactly the same job for more than 12 weeks,
:40:41. > :40:44.you have to consider whether you are employing an agency worker or
:40:45. > :40:49.you are employed someone full-time, which is precisely what this law
:40:49. > :40:52.has come about, so we do not see the abuse in the workplace which
:40:52. > :40:56.has sometimes been seen. Have you got any suggestions for
:40:57. > :41:00.the government to make sure this works?
:41:00. > :41:06.And advice package would be excellent, especially for small and
:41:06. > :41:09.medium-sized businesses. All the agencies would like to demonstrate
:41:09. > :41:13.that they are behind one needs to be done.
:41:13. > :41:17.Henry Smith, it is here now, that legislation. He cannot oppose it it
:41:17. > :41:21.it is being implemented. Have you make sure it benefits both
:41:21. > :41:26.employees and employers? You're right, we do have this 12
:41:26. > :41:30.week period of which I think create some flexibility in the system. I
:41:30. > :41:36.think it is not perfect. I think there is a wider issue, and that is
:41:36. > :41:39.the way it that directives are taken on from the European Union in
:41:39. > :41:42.this country. One of the committee's I sit on is the
:41:42. > :41:46.European scrutiny committee, where it is quite eye-watering, the
:41:46. > :41:50.amount of regulation that comes to every single week. I think what we
:41:50. > :41:54.need to startling is saying, why are we not making these decisions -
:41:54. > :41:59.- these decisions locally for the best interests of our economy?
:41:59. > :42:05.That is a discussion we could continue, but we must stop it there.
:42:05. > :42:09.Thank you very much. Medway Council has offered a full
:42:09. > :42:15.apology after lot of school pupils were inconvenienced by errors
:42:15. > :42:20.during their 11 plus exams. One fifths of Medway's exams were
:42:21. > :42:25.affected at, and parents were angry. The chaos has revived the debate
:42:25. > :42:30.about selective schools in Kent. His 11 to a young to sit an exam
:42:30. > :42:34.that will it affect the rest of a child's education, and wet our
:42:34. > :42:38.political parties stand on the issue? The professor of journalism
:42:38. > :42:43.at Kent University joins me now. This was a huge issue for parents.
:42:43. > :42:47.Why was it not one for politicians? That is the extraordinary aspect of
:42:48. > :42:52.the selection issue. It has become so contentious that political
:42:52. > :42:56.parties barely wants to talk about it. Parents distressed, pupils are
:42:56. > :42:59.stressed. You would have thought that Medway's Labour opposition
:42:59. > :43:05.councillors would have been going to the Conservative council and
:43:05. > :43:08.going to the jugular. But they did not. Politicians do not want to
:43:08. > :43:13.talk about it because it is something that national political
:43:13. > :43:16.parties have all got the wrong policy on. They are all opposed to
:43:16. > :43:20.something that parents want and support.
:43:20. > :43:27.It is interesting for the Labour Party, because they invented the
:43:28. > :43:30.grammar school system. Yes, they did. In 1944 they
:43:30. > :43:35.inherited a planet from the war, which they could have thrown out
:43:35. > :43:39.instantly. But they did not. The Secretary of State in 1945
:43:39. > :43:44.introduced selective education, and generations of leading politicians
:43:44. > :43:48.went to grammar schools. Gordon Brown was the most recent. He was
:43:48. > :43:52.the product of a very selective system. But the Labour Party has
:43:52. > :43:55.got into his head that selection is not a socialist principle as not a
:43:55. > :43:59.democratic principle, which in many parts of the world it is seen to be.
:43:59. > :44:04.I think Labour has got that wrong in Kent. It was to appeal to
:44:04. > :44:10.aspirational voters, to appeal to those people to but -- who voted
:44:10. > :44:13.for Tony Blair in 1997. What better way to do it than to return to
:44:13. > :44:18.support for something that gives working-class children a genuine
:44:18. > :44:23.opportunity to aspire for success and social mobility.
:44:23. > :44:31.They need to if they are going to have any chance of success!
:44:31. > :44:35.They do next time. If they are to restore their reputation, they need
:44:36. > :44:40.representation in the south-east. It is losing its reputation in
:44:40. > :44:44.Scotland and Wales, so it really need support and the south-east. To
:44:44. > :44:50.get that support, it is to get back in touch with the voters, like
:44:50. > :44:53.Labour, that want Labour to be aspirational, not old fashioned.
:44:53. > :44:56.So you think the reason why political capital is not being made
:44:56. > :44:59.out of this is purely because there is confusion in the party about
:44:59. > :45:04.where they are? There is confusion in all parties.
:45:04. > :45:08.The Conservatives used is a poor selection and are now not in favour
:45:08. > :45:12.of it. The Labour Party are opposed to it, and the Liberal Democrats
:45:12. > :45:19.have always been opposed to it. The only part seem prepared to talk
:45:19. > :45:22.about it are the Greens, as they are hostile. The party's lead to
:45:22. > :45:24.find a position so they can debate the issue which is of real
:45:24. > :45:30.significance to parents and children.