Browse content similar to 20/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Will reduce housing benefit payments leave families in our | :00:53. | :01:03. | |
:01:03. | :01:03. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2342 seconds | :01:03. | :40:05. | |
region without a roof over their Welcome to the Politics Show in the | :40:05. | :40:12. | |
South East. Coming up, could the coalition government's benefit | :40:12. | :40:16. | |
changes leave families homeless at Christmas? | :40:16. | :40:19. | |
Already in the South East we have a thousand families being made | :40:19. | :40:25. | |
homeless in the last quarter. Why super-hospitals could signal | :40:25. | :40:30. | |
the end of local medical care. And Ashford's Immigration Minister | :40:30. | :40:35. | |
comes under fire. Thousands of people across the | :40:35. | :40:39. | |
South East will be worse off as a result of changes to housing | :40:39. | :40:42. | |
benefit. Research from the Chartered Institute of Housing, | :40:42. | :40:48. | |
which we can exclusively reveal suggests one in three people in | :40:48. | :40:53. | |
Eastbourne alone will lose out. The local MP supports the changes, | :40:53. | :40:58. | |
despite the fact that one in 10 of his constituents get help with | :40:58. | :41:03. | |
their red -- of their rent. In a moment I will be speaking to him, | :41:03. | :41:13. | |
but first this report. I'd read the last day of any month | :41:13. | :41:19. | |
because if we do not pay, the next day they are on the phone | :41:19. | :41:27. | |
threatening us with repossession. - - I dread. They put us in a room | :41:27. | :41:34. | |
the size of allowed -- a large lounge. I pay �13 a month, which is | :41:34. | :41:40. | |
what I can afford. It will take me 50 years plus to pay them back. | :41:40. | :41:45. | |
35,000 households across the country face losing their homes | :41:45. | :41:52. | |
between now and Christmas, one family every two minutes. The | :41:52. | :41:56. | |
government is making cuts to housing benefits. Some areas of the | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
South East have a higher than average number of people on housing | :42:00. | :42:08. | |
benefits, especially in East Sussex. Shelter is running an awareness | :42:08. | :42:12. | |
campaign. It is getting harder out there at a time when the wider | :42:12. | :42:17. | |
living costs are starting to rise. In the South East we have 1,000 | :42:18. | :42:22. | |
families being made homeless in the last quarter. Changes to housing | :42:22. | :42:27. | |
benefit are of particular concern in Eastbourne, which along with | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
Hastings and Brighton has more people on housing benefits been | :42:30. | :42:35. | |
anywhere else in the region. One in 10 people in the town gets housing | :42:35. | :42:44. | |
benefit. The average in Kent is one in 14. The Politics Show has had an | :42:44. | :42:48. | |
advance look at a report from the Chartered Institute of Housing | :42:48. | :42:57. | |
which looks -- says that one in three residents in Eastbourne is | :42:57. | :43:04. | |
set to lose out if they are on benefits. Nobody seems to account | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
for the recession. Nobody thinks, we will keep it down a bit, give | :43:09. | :43:15. | |
them a chance. It should be going up because the cost of living is | :43:16. | :43:21. | |
going up. But they are reducing the benefits are. Housing benefits are | :43:21. | :43:25. | |
available to tenants in social and private accommodation. Some changes | :43:25. | :43:29. | |
were introduced in April and include introducing Max on local | :43:29. | :43:35. | |
housing allowances, so that unless somebody's rent is in the lowest 30 | :43:35. | :43:39. | |
% in their area the benefit they will be paid will be less than | :43:39. | :43:46. | |
their rent. There are more Chinese on the way in the New Year. -- and | :43:46. | :43:55. | |
more changes. From the beginning of January 2012 the age will be | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
increased to people under 35, meaning that in Eastbourne somebody | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
would be receiving a reduced rate of housing benefit by approximately | :44:03. | :44:08. | |
�45 a week. This is going to present a lot of difficulties to | :44:08. | :44:12. | |
people, where they will have to consider moving to cheaper | :44:12. | :44:15. | |
accommodation or shared accommodation. We have done a | :44:15. | :44:20. | |
survey locally of properties that are available within that price | :44:20. | :44:25. | |
bracket and we have found that only 5 % of the properties advertised | :44:25. | :44:29. | |
would be affordable in that case. The shortage of suitable housing is | :44:29. | :44:35. | |
not easy to fix. Local housing experts say there has been | :44:35. | :44:39. | |
unintentional shift away from this kind of property. Eastbourne is | :44:39. | :44:43. | |
less able to house some of its single people because it used to | :44:43. | :44:53. | |
:44:53. | :44:54. | ||
have more bed-and-breakfasts, which was seen as problem accommodation. | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
What that means is the fall-out of that is that some people had | :44:58. | :45:07. | |
nowhere to go at all. There are also signs that in the future there | :45:07. | :45:12. | |
will not be a mixture of affluent and less well P -- less well-off | :45:12. | :45:17. | |
people living side by side. There is a worried that people will be | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
pushed into areas of deprivation with the cheapest housing. -- a | :45:22. | :45:32. | |
:45:32. | :45:34. | ||
worry. There will be a ghetto loaf reduced housing. We understand the | :45:34. | :45:37. | |
government is dealing with an enormous deficit but it appears | :45:37. | :45:41. | |
that they are targeting the people in society who are least able to | :45:41. | :45:46. | |
afford it. With so many changes to housing benefit being brought in, | :45:46. | :45:50. | |
thousands of people across the region are expected to fall behind | :45:50. | :45:54. | |
on their rent, and the problem is expected to be particularly bad in | :45:55. | :45:58. | |
Eastbourne, where a lot of residents are reliant on help with | :45:58. | :46:02. | |
their housing costs. What can be done to ensure that thousands of | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
people across the South East do not end up homeless? | :46:06. | :46:12. | |
With me in the studio is Stephen Lloyd, the MP for Eastbourne. We | :46:12. | :46:14. | |
know that more of that -- more than 3,000 people in Eastbourne will be | :46:14. | :46:19. | |
worse off as a result of these changes, because we have had | :46:19. | :46:23. | |
advance access to this report from the Chartered Institute of Housing. | :46:23. | :46:30. | |
Why did you support a policy that is potentially so damaging? It is | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
never as straightforward as that. One of the main reasons is that we | :46:34. | :46:38. | |
have a situation in the UK built up over the last 30 years where quite | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
often people who are out of work and on benefit can live in better | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
houses that people in work. Something needed to be changed. I | :46:48. | :46:53. | |
am working very close with the Chartered Institute of Housing in | :46:53. | :46:56. | |
Eastbourne and the local authority to try to make sure that the | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
changes are as smooth as possible. In Parliament and I have been | :47:00. | :47:07. | |
lobbying very hard that the D W P allows as a default the landlords | :47:07. | :47:14. | |
to receive the money directly. there anything else in the overall | :47:14. | :47:20. | |
policy that you are less comfortable with? There is 1. | :47:20. | :47:25. | |
Nobody likes cutting but I do believe the general direction is | :47:25. | :47:35. | |
:47:35. | :47:41. | ||
correct. I have lobbied Iain Duncan Smith personally about the change | :47:41. | :47:45. | |
in benefit if you are under 25, that you can only receive benefit | :47:45. | :47:55. | |
for a room, they are moving back to 35. Did you vote against that? | :47:55. | :47:59. | |
came as a package and I voted in favour of the package but I spoke | :47:59. | :48:05. | |
out against that. If you are they 35-year-old man and you have two | :48:05. | :48:08. | |
children, where are you going to put them if they stay with you for | :48:08. | :48:16. | |
a night? You might be a 28-year-old on the autistic spectrum and it | :48:16. | :48:21. | |
would be very difficult for you to share a room. Up to now you would | :48:21. | :48:27. | |
be able to have a one-bedroomed flat. In Eastbourne, there is just | :48:27. | :48:32. | |
not the right kind of accommodation, there are not shared house is. | :48:32. | :48:36. | |
don't agree with that. You have to understand that in difficult times | :48:36. | :48:41. | |
a lot of people moved to the south coast. One of the challenges we | :48:41. | :48:50. | |
have locally, and by get over 1,000 inquiries a month, so I know the | :48:50. | :48:57. | |
issues, one of the problems that we have is that in recession and a | :48:57. | :49:01. | |
difficult economic climate many people move to the south coast. One | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
of the challenges is that we are trying to deal with people within | :49:05. | :49:09. | |
Eastbourne who are waiting on the housing ladder while at the same | :49:09. | :49:15. | |
time getting a fairly regular influx of people. You disagree that | :49:15. | :49:20. | |
there is a shortage of bedsits and shared houses for people under 35? | :49:20. | :49:26. | |
I do, that is why I continue to lobby the government. I also want | :49:26. | :49:32. | |
more flexibility. You simply can't have a plumber working hard and | :49:32. | :49:40. | |
only able to afford a certain rent, and a family down the road | :49:40. | :49:50. | |
:49:50. | :49:51. | ||
receiving more in benefits. At �20 billion the cost is enormous. -- | :49:51. | :49:55. | |
�20 billion a year. Why doesn't the Government go further? If you have | :49:55. | :50:04. | |
one in 10 people in your constituency on housing benefits, | :50:04. | :50:12. | |
you could have gone further. don't think that is being realistic. | :50:12. | :50:19. | |
I think moving from 25-35 is unrealistic. I think it needs more | :50:19. | :50:29. | |
:50:29. | :50:33. | ||
realistic. -- more thought. The Housing Trust are working hard and | :50:33. | :50:39. | |
they hope to have access to just... What happens when be discretionary | :50:39. | :50:45. | |
won't -- money runs out? reality is we don't want people to | :50:45. | :50:50. | |
lose their homes. The local authority still has a | :50:50. | :50:56. | |
responsibility to look after them. They will not be hurled onto the | :50:56. | :51:00. | |
street. I do think it is the right direction of travel, I just want | :51:00. | :51:05. | |
the government to be more flexible. I am hopeful that we would get a | :51:05. | :51:11. | |
bit of movement on that. Stephen Lloyd will join us on our next | :51:11. | :51:21. | |
:51:21. | :51:28. | ||
subject. There is a campaign to reopen a local hospital. Stephen | :51:28. | :51:38. | |
Lloyd is fighting a proposal to close wards at Eastbourne Hospital. | :51:38. | :51:44. | |
Is there anybody in your field to disagrees, who thinks the district | :51:44. | :51:48. | |
hospitals are the future? There is a consensus that some things need | :51:48. | :51:53. | |
to be done in bigger hospitals. Some kinds of specialised surgery | :51:53. | :51:59. | |
for very young people, for cancer, the kind of high quality services | :51:59. | :52:02. | |
which need to be done in specialised centres. That does not | :52:02. | :52:06. | |
mean there are not going to be local services but a hospital that | :52:06. | :52:10. | |
used to do everything needs to start doing different things. It is | :52:10. | :52:13. | |
a question of how we can get changed in the health service but | :52:13. | :52:17. | |
it is difficult to deliver this locally because people see service | :52:17. | :52:22. | |
is going and they feel that they are losing them. Stephen Lloyd, you | :52:22. | :52:31. | |
are running scared of the truth, the medical consensus we heard | :52:31. | :52:35. | |
their -- and there is that there is better care in larger hospitals. | :52:35. | :52:43. | |
You are scared of losing votes, aren't you? Unfortunately for Ruth, | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
what she will not know is that locally there are exceptions to the | :52:46. | :52:51. | |
rule. The breeze and his that we had a campaign around closing | :52:51. | :53:01. | |
:53:01. | :53:03. | ||
maternity a few years ago. -- the exception is. The road travel time | :53:03. | :53:08. | |
from Eastbourne to Hastings was unacceptable for maternity. The | :53:08. | :53:12. | |
manager's decision was overturned. I suspect they are trying to bring | :53:12. | :53:19. | |
it back but if anything the roads have got worse. I understand her., | :53:19. | :53:25. | |
in areas like Oncology there are advantages to having a specialised | :53:25. | :53:30. | |
unit. -- her point. People do appreciate having a local hospital | :53:30. | :53:35. | |
because it is part of the community Gloup. I do not think one or the | :53:35. | :53:42. | |
other is 100 % right or wrong. But you have to take an independent | :53:42. | :53:51. | |
view of the hospital. You see that there is an argument for a super- | :53:51. | :53:55. | |
hospitals across the country but you are not convinced of the | :53:55. | :54:05. | |
:54:05. | :54:08. | ||
argument in your constituency. What about the Conquest in Hastings? | :54:08. | :54:14. | |
local MPs were in partnership with us a few years ago. The problem | :54:14. | :54:19. | |
with biggest is best, which has been post for quite a few years ago, | :54:19. | :54:23. | |
from a hospital perspective, is that it may sometimes look | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
appropriate on paper and clinically... All of the medical | :54:27. | :54:31. | |
experts agree about that. disagree, because one of the things | :54:31. | :54:36. | |
that has changed in the last few years is the blanket approval that | :54:36. | :54:44. | |
biggest is best... Let's go back to Ruth and see... An interesting | :54:44. | :54:47. | |
article in the Guardian says that if you are going to move towards | :54:47. | :54:53. | |
centralising services, you have to and -- carried the public would be. | :54:53. | :54:58. | |
It seems that they think that all of the arguments are about money. | :54:58. | :55:03. | |
There are lots of different issues here big -- and I can't comment on | :55:03. | :55:08. | |
a local case. I think all the clinical evidence needs to be | :55:08. | :55:11. | |
weighed about the local needs and the local needs are obviously | :55:11. | :55:17. | |
difficult -- different in different areas. You will have older mothers | :55:17. | :55:21. | |
in some areas, who will need different care. The discussion has | :55:21. | :55:26. | |
to be had locally. But the difficulty is that if in an area | :55:26. | :55:30. | |
and Max Dunn is preserved and Kit - - and maternity services are not | :55:30. | :55:40. | |
:55:40. | :55:44. | ||
cut, something else will be cut. -- and in -- if in an area and and -- | :55:44. | :55:51. | |
an accident mack is preserved. Of - - we need to release the money to | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
start preventing some of this ill- health in the first place. That is | :55:54. | :55:59. | |
a much bigger debate that also has to be had at a local level. | :55:59. | :56:03. | |
other thing that frightens people is travelling times. A hospital | :56:03. | :56:08. | |
might have bigger help -- better health care but it is further away | :56:08. | :56:14. | |
and at worst it can be life threatening getting there. When you | :56:14. | :56:18. | |
lay the evidence in front of people, for example in terms of stroke, if | :56:18. | :56:22. | |
it is 10 minutes further away but you are getting better treatment, | :56:22. | :56:27. | |
your survival will depend on that. If you explain that your relative | :56:27. | :56:37. | |
:56:37. | :56:37. | ||
will have a better survival rate further down the road... I think it | :56:37. | :56:42. | |
is important to understand that once the attitude area is over | :56:42. | :56:45. | |
people need to be moved back locally because that is where the | :56:45. | :56:49. | |
best care will be delivered to get people better. Clearly families do | :56:49. | :56:53. | |
not want to be travelling a long way. Both kinds of health services | :56:53. | :56:58. | |
need to be developed but it is the trade-off between them that are the | :56:58. | :57:03. | |
difficult conversations. We need to say that we have a cash limited | :57:03. | :57:10. | |
system and the trade-offs are critical. It has been a bad week | :57:10. | :57:14. | |
for Immigration Minister Damian Green, who has been under fire on | :57:14. | :57:21. | |
two France and has faced tough questions about claims that | :57:21. | :57:30. | |
ministers have weekend border controls. Louise Stewart joins us | :57:30. | :57:35. | |
now. He is going to be in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee. | :57:35. | :57:40. | |
What is the killer question? key question is what he knew and | :57:40. | :57:44. | |
when. He is the Immigration Minister, so it is crucial the | :57:44. | :57:50. | |
evidence he gives. There has been so much so far from Brodie Clark, | :57:50. | :57:55. | |
from Theresa May. Arguably he is the man who would have known more | :57:55. | :58:05. | |
:58:05. | :58:05. | ||
about the day-to-day running of the UK border -- UK Border Agency. | :58:05. | :58:13. | |
he can't answer the questions about how much he knew, it begs the | :58:13. | :58:17. | |
question why he did not know. Is he not curious enough about his | :58:17. | :58:22. | |
department? Yes, and Labour MPs have been making political capital | :58:22. | :58:27. | |
out of this, asking him how many times he has visited airports, | :58:27. | :58:33. | |
trying to get to, if he did not know, why not. I think he gave a | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
pretty bullish performance in the Commons, he did not look like a man | :58:37. | :58:42. | |
he was worried about his position, but he tried to open up the debate, | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
saying they had to be cross-party debate about immigration and | :58:46. | :58:56. | |
:58:56. | :58:59. | ||
whether it had to be more risk led. Do you let schoolchildren through | :58:59. | :59:05. | |
without questions, for example. The Conservatives always say they are | :59:05. | :59:09. | |
tough on immigration and it seems like they are closing the door once | :59:09. | :59:14. | |
the horse has bolted. He said he wanted a mature debate on | :59:14. | :59:19. | |
immigration. Some people would welcome that, wouldn't they? | :59:19. | :59:23. | |
Absolutely. I think there is a cross-party recognition at a time | :59:23. | :59:28. | |
when they are making quite significant cuts to the UK Border | :59:28. | :59:31. | |
Agency that they can't have the level of cheques that everybody is | :59:31. | :59:36. | |
fingerprinted all the way through. He has to give evidence this | :59:36. | :59:42. | |
Tuesday and the pressure is still very much on. Louise, thank you | :59:42. | :59:46. | |
very much. That is it for this week. Thank you for watching. If you want | :59:46. | :59:52. |