20/11/2011 The Politics Show South East


20/11/2011

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Will reduce housing benefit payments leave families in our

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2342 seconds

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region without a roof over their Welcome to the Politics Show in the

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South East. Coming up, could the coalition government's benefit

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changes leave families homeless at Christmas?

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Already in the South East we have a thousand families being made

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homeless in the last quarter. Why super-hospitals could signal

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the end of local medical care. And Ashford's Immigration Minister

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comes under fire. Thousands of people across the

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South East will be worse off as a result of changes to housing

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benefit. Research from the Chartered Institute of Housing,

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which we can exclusively reveal suggests one in three people in

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Eastbourne alone will lose out. The local MP supports the changes,

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despite the fact that one in 10 of his constituents get help with

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their red -- of their rent. In a moment I will be speaking to him,

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but first this report. I'd read the last day of any month

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because if we do not pay, the next day they are on the phone

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threatening us with repossession. - - I dread. They put us in a room

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the size of allowed -- a large lounge. I pay �13 a month, which is

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what I can afford. It will take me 50 years plus to pay them back.

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35,000 households across the country face losing their homes

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between now and Christmas, one family every two minutes. The

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government is making cuts to housing benefits. Some areas of the

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South East have a higher than average number of people on housing

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benefits, especially in East Sussex. Shelter is running an awareness

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campaign. It is getting harder out there at a time when the wider

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living costs are starting to rise. In the South East we have 1,000

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families being made homeless in the last quarter. Changes to housing

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benefit are of particular concern in Eastbourne, which along with

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Hastings and Brighton has more people on housing benefits been

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anywhere else in the region. One in 10 people in the town gets housing

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benefit. The average in Kent is one in 14. The Politics Show has had an

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advance look at a report from the Chartered Institute of Housing

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which looks -- says that one in three residents in Eastbourne is

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set to lose out if they are on benefits. Nobody seems to account

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for the recession. Nobody thinks, we will keep it down a bit, give

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them a chance. It should be going up because the cost of living is

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going up. But they are reducing the benefits are. Housing benefits are

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available to tenants in social and private accommodation. Some changes

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were introduced in April and include introducing Max on local

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housing allowances, so that unless somebody's rent is in the lowest 30

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% in their area the benefit they will be paid will be less than

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their rent. There are more Chinese on the way in the New Year. -- and

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more changes. From the beginning of January 2012 the age will be

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increased to people under 35, meaning that in Eastbourne somebody

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would be receiving a reduced rate of housing benefit by approximately

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�45 a week. This is going to present a lot of difficulties to

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people, where they will have to consider moving to cheaper

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accommodation or shared accommodation. We have done a

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survey locally of properties that are available within that price

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bracket and we have found that only 5 % of the properties advertised

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would be affordable in that case. The shortage of suitable housing is

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not easy to fix. Local housing experts say there has been

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unintentional shift away from this kind of property. Eastbourne is

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less able to house some of its single people because it used to

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have more bed-and-breakfasts, which was seen as problem accommodation.

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What that means is the fall-out of that is that some people had

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nowhere to go at all. There are also signs that in the future there

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will not be a mixture of affluent and less well P -- less well-off

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people living side by side. There is a worried that people will be

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pushed into areas of deprivation with the cheapest housing. -- a

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worry. There will be a ghetto loaf reduced housing. We understand the

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government is dealing with an enormous deficit but it appears

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that they are targeting the people in society who are least able to

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afford it. With so many changes to housing benefit being brought in,

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thousands of people across the region are expected to fall behind

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on their rent, and the problem is expected to be particularly bad in

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Eastbourne, where a lot of residents are reliant on help with

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their housing costs. What can be done to ensure that thousands of

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people across the South East do not end up homeless?

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With me in the studio is Stephen Lloyd, the MP for Eastbourne. We

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know that more of that -- more than 3,000 people in Eastbourne will be

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worse off as a result of these changes, because we have had

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advance access to this report from the Chartered Institute of Housing.

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Why did you support a policy that is potentially so damaging? It is

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never as straightforward as that. One of the main reasons is that we

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have a situation in the UK built up over the last 30 years where quite

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often people who are out of work and on benefit can live in better

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houses that people in work. Something needed to be changed. I

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am working very close with the Chartered Institute of Housing in

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Eastbourne and the local authority to try to make sure that the

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changes are as smooth as possible. In Parliament and I have been

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lobbying very hard that the D W P allows as a default the landlords

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to receive the money directly. there anything else in the overall

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policy that you are less comfortable with? There is 1.

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Nobody likes cutting but I do believe the general direction is

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correct. I have lobbied Iain Duncan Smith personally about the change

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in benefit if you are under 25, that you can only receive benefit

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for a room, they are moving back to 35. Did you vote against that?

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came as a package and I voted in favour of the package but I spoke

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out against that. If you are they 35-year-old man and you have two

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children, where are you going to put them if they stay with you for

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a night? You might be a 28-year-old on the autistic spectrum and it

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would be very difficult for you to share a room. Up to now you would

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be able to have a one-bedroomed flat. In Eastbourne, there is just

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not the right kind of accommodation, there are not shared house is.

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don't agree with that. You have to understand that in difficult times

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a lot of people moved to the south coast. One of the challenges we

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have locally, and by get over 1,000 inquiries a month, so I know the

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issues, one of the problems that we have is that in recession and a

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difficult economic climate many people move to the south coast. One

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of the challenges is that we are trying to deal with people within

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Eastbourne who are waiting on the housing ladder while at the same

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time getting a fairly regular influx of people. You disagree that

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there is a shortage of bedsits and shared houses for people under 35?

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I do, that is why I continue to lobby the government. I also want

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more flexibility. You simply can't have a plumber working hard and

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only able to afford a certain rent, and a family down the road

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receiving more in benefits. At �20 billion the cost is enormous. --

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�20 billion a year. Why doesn't the Government go further? If you have

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one in 10 people in your constituency on housing benefits,

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you could have gone further. don't think that is being realistic.

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I think moving from 25-35 is unrealistic. I think it needs more

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realistic. -- more thought. The Housing Trust are working hard and

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they hope to have access to just... What happens when be discretionary

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won't -- money runs out? reality is we don't want people to

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lose their homes. The local authority still has a

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responsibility to look after them. They will not be hurled onto the

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street. I do think it is the right direction of travel, I just want

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the government to be more flexible. I am hopeful that we would get a

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bit of movement on that. Stephen Lloyd will join us on our next

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subject. There is a campaign to reopen a local hospital. Stephen

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Lloyd is fighting a proposal to close wards at Eastbourne Hospital.

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Is there anybody in your field to disagrees, who thinks the district

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hospitals are the future? There is a consensus that some things need

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to be done in bigger hospitals. Some kinds of specialised surgery

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for very young people, for cancer, the kind of high quality services

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which need to be done in specialised centres. That does not

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mean there are not going to be local services but a hospital that

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used to do everything needs to start doing different things. It is

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a question of how we can get changed in the health service but

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it is difficult to deliver this locally because people see service

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is going and they feel that they are losing them. Stephen Lloyd, you

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are running scared of the truth, the medical consensus we heard

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their -- and there is that there is better care in larger hospitals.

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You are scared of losing votes, aren't you? Unfortunately for Ruth,

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what she will not know is that locally there are exceptions to the

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rule. The breeze and his that we had a campaign around closing

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maternity a few years ago. -- the exception is. The road travel time

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from Eastbourne to Hastings was unacceptable for maternity. The

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manager's decision was overturned. I suspect they are trying to bring

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it back but if anything the roads have got worse. I understand her.,

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in areas like Oncology there are advantages to having a specialised

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unit. -- her point. People do appreciate having a local hospital

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because it is part of the community Gloup. I do not think one or the

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other is 100 % right or wrong. But you have to take an independent

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view of the hospital. You see that there is an argument for a super-

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hospitals across the country but you are not convinced of the

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argument in your constituency. What about the Conquest in Hastings?

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local MPs were in partnership with us a few years ago. The problem

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with biggest is best, which has been post for quite a few years ago,

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from a hospital perspective, is that it may sometimes look

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appropriate on paper and clinically... All of the medical

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experts agree about that. disagree, because one of the things

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that has changed in the last few years is the blanket approval that

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biggest is best... Let's go back to Ruth and see... An interesting

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article in the Guardian says that if you are going to move towards

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centralising services, you have to and -- carried the public would be.

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It seems that they think that all of the arguments are about money.

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There are lots of different issues here big -- and I can't comment on

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a local case. I think all the clinical evidence needs to be

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weighed about the local needs and the local needs are obviously

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difficult -- different in different areas. You will have older mothers

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in some areas, who will need different care. The discussion has

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to be had locally. But the difficulty is that if in an area

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and Max Dunn is preserved and Kit - - and maternity services are not

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cut, something else will be cut. -- and in -- if in an area and and --

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an accident mack is preserved. Of - - we need to release the money to

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start preventing some of this ill- health in the first place. That is

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a much bigger debate that also has to be had at a local level.

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other thing that frightens people is travelling times. A hospital

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might have bigger help -- better health care but it is further away

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and at worst it can be life threatening getting there. When you

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lay the evidence in front of people, for example in terms of stroke, if

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it is 10 minutes further away but you are getting better treatment,

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your survival will depend on that. If you explain that your relative

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will have a better survival rate further down the road... I think it

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is important to understand that once the attitude area is over

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people need to be moved back locally because that is where the

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best care will be delivered to get people better. Clearly families do

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not want to be travelling a long way. Both kinds of health services

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need to be developed but it is the trade-off between them that are the

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difficult conversations. We need to say that we have a cash limited

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system and the trade-offs are critical. It has been a bad week

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for Immigration Minister Damian Green, who has been under fire on

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two France and has faced tough questions about claims that

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ministers have weekend border controls. Louise Stewart joins us

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now. He is going to be in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee.

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What is the killer question? key question is what he knew and

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when. He is the Immigration Minister, so it is crucial the

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evidence he gives. There has been so much so far from Brodie Clark,

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from Theresa May. Arguably he is the man who would have known more

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about the day-to-day running of the UK border -- UK Border Agency.

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he can't answer the questions about how much he knew, it begs the

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question why he did not know. Is he not curious enough about his

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department? Yes, and Labour MPs have been making political capital

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out of this, asking him how many times he has visited airports,

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trying to get to, if he did not know, why not. I think he gave a

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pretty bullish performance in the Commons, he did not look like a man

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he was worried about his position, but he tried to open up the debate,

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saying they had to be cross-party debate about immigration and

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whether it had to be more risk led. Do you let schoolchildren through

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without questions, for example. The Conservatives always say they are

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tough on immigration and it seems like they are closing the door once

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the horse has bolted. He said he wanted a mature debate on

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immigration. Some people would welcome that, wouldn't they?

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Absolutely. I think there is a cross-party recognition at a time

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when they are making quite significant cuts to the UK Border

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Agency that they can't have the level of cheques that everybody is

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fingerprinted all the way through. He has to give evidence this

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Tuesday and the pressure is still very much on. Louise, thank you

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very much. That is it for this week. Thank you for watching. If you want

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