02/10/2011 The Politics Show South West

In the South West: A new idea to help first-time buyers. Cornwall

Council says it can provide more affordable homes without spending

any taxpayers' money. And should it be made illegal to keep a monkey

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2193 seconds

Plenty of parking and that is open for you. Buying a house for the

first time here in the south west can be quite a challenge.

average wage is low but house prices are high. To help people

onto the housing ladder, the Government has a scheme called

First Buy, which Matt Jardine from Redruth is using to buy his first

home. Why I am a single man. I have the and child. He lives with his

mother. And in the early years I did not think about getting a

mortgage but now, I am getting on, I am 27, but it is very difficult

to get a mortgage. He is lucky. The buyer purchases the majority share

in a house but not the full cost. When they come to sell, the buyer

keeps their share and their proportion of profit. He'll

purchase the majority share of an affordable home, but not the whole

cost. When he comes to sell, he'll keep his share and any profit

associated with it. But Cornwall Council says the problem with the

Government's scheme is that mortgage lenders are often

reluctant to lend on so-called affordable homes because of

restrictions attached to them. Also, smaller developers in Cornwall

aren't involved because of the large number of houses required to

make the scheme work. So, Cornwall Council is looking at its own

scheme, which is designed to help more people get mortgages and

involve more local developers. are trying to encourage developers

across Cornwall to enter the scheme because it is a good way of making

sure that we can have house in across Cornwall. We will never be

able it with the current rates of building to building of houses for

local people say about thinking outside the box, this is a pilot

scheme is supported by the committee's agency and it will be

the first in Britain to do this. can see the change as being a

superb method of getting all the developers in Cornwall are on site.

The small developer has been excluded to date but we can now

offer products to the first-time buyer. He It's a similar idea, but

the council will use the planning system to get a better deal from

developers so the homes come with fewer restrictions and won't cost

the taxpayer anything. And with less restrictions, the mortgage

lenders are very willing to lend because the property maintains its

real price. People can still pull on a discounted rates so there will

still own the property and when it is sold, they will have their share

so if it makes money, it makes money and the council can pass on

to the up and market the discounted house to the next buyer. The buyers

have to be new builds and you must be local. And that is a problem for

someone like Robert from Penzance. He and his family rented home and

the Black to take advantage of this scheme but have homes are being

built in neighbouring towns and not your own, if there is nothing you

can do. It is a good idea because they need housing in different

areas with different people and local people should come first. But

if they are not building in Penzance, I don't have a connection

with other parishes. I do not know anybody who lives there. And that

is quite restrictive. Unless you happen to live in the parish would

be a building developments... Cornwall scheme is trying to get

more people onto the latter but some experts are concerned that the

focus should not be on owning property but making sure everyone

has somewhere to live. I would like to see landlords being given more

incentives and more long-term rights. Look at social housing,

about accommodation and lifetime tenancies, these are the ideas the

widespread society will benefit from. This is a good initiative but,

frankly, it will only get a few hundred people heart. Shelter also

welcomes anything that helps. But with around 20,000 people on the

housing waiting list, it describes the plan as like putting a sticking

plaster on a broken leg. John Ayres reporting. Ed Miliband addressed

the issue of affordable housing rather controversially in his

conference speech last week. The Labour leader said that when it

came to social housing we shouldn't treat people who contribute to

society in the same way as those who don't. Our first duty, he said,

should be to the person who shows responsibility and he said every

council should recognise the contribution that people are making.

I asked him exactly what that meant. Was he saying Labour would force

councils to prioritise people who had jobs, for instance? What it

means is we say, councils should recognise the need and that is

important but also the contribution and higher councils to that is a

matter for them. We have some councils recognising people who

work and are giving them extra points. The problem is that the one

thing that has not taken account of his, are you volunteering or making

some contribution? That is one part. The other is, we must get more

houses built. And one of the things we have said is let's use the bank

donor's tax to halt construction, cut VAT and get the industry moving.

Those are important ways that we think we can make a difference to

the chronic housing shortage. isn't just an issue of

differentiating? This idea of the deserving and the undeserving

homeless is a little bit Victorian. If people have housing and

financial problems, they will be less likely to make any

contribution to society? Councils like Manchester have shown

practically how this can work. This is part of a bigger argument.

Across the economy, the to in the welfare state, we have to have a

system that rewards the right values. Something for hard work.

That does not happen at the moment. We have to address this and I am

determined we address this and that is what I have been talking about.

And showing how we can cut tuition fees as well rather than going

ahead with tax cuts. The main thing is building more houses. Planning

is key to that? The Government has a proposal to make it easier to

build houses and they say it's through the planning guidance. You

or opposed to that? But the Government could... Labour spent a

long time trying to get the plan... You want to force councils to build

a certain amount of houses? To take the responsibility, for a certain

number of houses in each area. The Government says we will play that

off completely and you will see a massive drop in the number of

planning permissions granted. We are going backwards on house

building and it is very well at the Government... The presumption is

tenable development but everybody is setting back the building of

affordable housing. They are going the wrong direction. They have

massively cut the budget for house building and had made the wrong

decisions about planning and I feel what will happen in this country

under this Government is that. want businesses to make

contributions to society and one to recognise small businesses as the

life blood. One of the contributions you want businesses

to make is to offer apprenticeships but you would not offer a major

government contracts to businesses to did not. That cuts out small

businesses? Major government contracts because most small

businesses do not get those. What I said about small businesses is they

must have a better deal from the banks. A better deal from not just

central government but local government and when I talk to small

businesses in Britain, we had this that the Q&A session yesterday,

there was a sense that they are not being served by the larger interest

on the private sector. Warm smile businesses that the banks, let's

have more competition so we start to deliver for small business

because at the moment, small business is being let down by the

actions of the banking system. Thank you very much. Some of the

South West's head teachers say they're effectively being bribed

with cash incentives to turn their schools into academies. One of

Somerset's highest performing state schools says it won't give into

pressure to follow the government's flagship policy, as Ruth Bradley

reports. This is Heathfield Community School in Taunton. The

best performing school in Somerset. 93% of Heathfield's students got

five good GCSEs this year. But while most of Somerset's secondary

schools have become academies in the last year, Heathfield won't be

one of them. Because of this man. Elliott Furneax is a big believer

in state education and says the Coalition's academies programme is

immoral. I cannot stand up in an assembly and talk about being a and

decent citizen and then take the decision of which massively

advantages us as an already outstanding school against schools

and families and Young people who will be very disadvantaged. Even

though I do not think for sure that is what the Government intends.

Unfortunately, the outcome will be very different to what they hope.

He says if the school became an academy, he'd resign. Difficult to

the point where in three years we were not the leading school, I hope

that long before that, if I had anything to do with Academy funding,

but I would have gone. If we get to the point when it is necessary, you

won't have to come with men in white coats and take me. I will say,

I cannot leave this because I do not agree with that. Academies get

all their money straight from the Government, including the cash the

council would have spent on things like IT and special needs. The head

says this school would have been an extra half a million pounds better

off, on top of their money from the council, by becoming an academy

this September. These students can do the sums. That's �416 more for

each of them. The government says schools shouldn't convert just

because of the money. But head teachers are saying they've got no

choice. I think that the vast majority of schools, if not all of

them, in Somerset in the secondary sector who have become academies

have done so for financial reasons. The sense in which we wish to work

in partnership with each other remains as strong as it ever has

done. The vast majority of Somerset secondaries are now academies or on

their way. At this rate, Heathfield Community could become the last

school standing. Ruth Bradley reporting. Our request for an

interview with a Schools Minister was declined, but in a statement,

the Department for Education told Our long-term ambition is that

academies will be the norm in the schools system. And it insists: No

one is putting a gun against any school's head to convert to

academies. A Cornish MP is stepping up her campaign to make it illegal

to keep monkeys as pets. Sheryll Murray, the MP for South East

Cornwall, is calling for a ban after being inspired by a monkey

sanctuary in her constituency. But the Government says existing animal

welfare legislation is sufficient. We'll be hearing from Sheryll

Murray after this report from Tamsin Melville. This is the

Plymouth home of Tay2 and Rattler, cotton-eared marmoset monkeys.

There's growing pressure on the Government to tighten up the law

governing primates as pets. But at the moment this kind of thing is

legal and the owner of this pair says he's doing nothing wrong.

feel I have given I have given quality of life. They have a gin

Mary and built on the ceiling. -- gymnasium. I feel I am the

custodian of these for the future generation. And they trust me

enough to share MySpace. Under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act, certain

species of primate need a licence. But marmosets like Tay2 are not

included. It's just this sort of set-up campaigners want to see

stopped. Primates are wild animals. They have never been domesticated

and they struggle with captive environments and it to provide

anything, it must be highly specialised. And somebody's back

garden will never do that. No matter how much they care for that

animal. Campaigners like Rachel say it's nothing short of a total ban

on keeping primates as pets that will prevent a story like that of

Grips, now happily living at the Wild Futures Sanctuary, but with a

troubled past. The monkey enclosure was dilapidated and it was stripped

bare of any enrichment. Localised and largely ineffective heating

meant the monkeys were extremely cold and most worryingly, on

monkeys were showing physical signs that they might have suffered from

diabetes. This campaign video shows Grips' rescue from a private home

in Essex. Of the 28 monkeys being looked after at this sanctuary in

south east Cornwall, most of them came from private homes. And

experts think across the UK there are around 5000 primates being kept

essentially as pets. Under the current regulations it is down to

local authorities to issue licences where needed and critics say many

are unable to do the job properly. Campaigners estimate there's up to

a 90% non-compliance rate, with only two licences known of at the

moment across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset. Meanwhile,

there are calls for a Code of Practice introduced in 2006 to be

toughened up. With no enforcement, there is little purpose to it. At

the moment, the Government says it is a voluntary code but if it isn't

being enforced, it isn't being used, then people are being left to their

own devices up and through neglect and mostly through lack of

understanding and ignorance, there is a lot of suffering going on.

Back in Plymouth, Pete Powell insists his monkeys are leading

happy lives. I cannot see why there should be a total band. I can

understand with larger monkeys because they can be aggressive.

What the right care, these can be lovable, like children. DEFRA says

the existing legislation is adequate and also says anyone

owning a primate should comply with the Animal Welfare Act. Campaigners

say they remain optimistic and are hopeful this Government will

address the issue. Tamsin Melville reporting. Earlier, I spoke to the

MP for South East Cornwall, Sheryll Murray, who wants to make it

illegal to keep a monkey at home. I asked her if she had any sympathy

for Mr Powell, who we saw in the film with his pet monkeys. Clearly,

he does not realise the that he could be making those monkeys

suffer. Is he? You could argue that form queues that smile, he is

providing similar facilities to those that the century provides for

bigger monkeys? Well, those monkeys are in a home environment and

didn't really know what diet they are being given. It isn't just

where you keep them, it is the diet they're fed. You heard at Wild

Futures, some of the animals go on to develop diabetes because they

are being fed the wrong things. I just feel that if somebody really,

really cares for the Primate, they should let them live in an

environment where it is like their natural environment. It isn't right

to keep them in a home. No matter how many ropes they have got and

feed them on things that perhaps isn't their natural diet. The only

way that we can overcome this is by introducing a total band because

clearly, we... A you could not just tighten the regulations? They have

not worked because it is up to local authorities to enforce them.

He could make sure that they do? There are a lot of local animal

welfare officers who have no idea how to look after primates. They

have no idea how to conduct the proper checks. And it is an area of

expertise that would take a lot of money and education in all the

authorities throughout the country for us to get right. And it has

been going on for a very long time. He if you could see Joely, at the

Wild Futures Sanctuary, he was kept in a cage and he was continually

rocking from side to side. All day. This was a real sign that he was

psychologically damaged. In terms of higher domesticated you might be,

Wild Futures said that the Prime Minister said they had a strong

case but that does not seem to be filtering through? If he does?

need to keep on. The Member of Parliament who introduced the wild

animals in circuses debate recently put forward a private member's bill

during the last session to and it did not get anywhere. They say it

will strengthen regulations? It is only through education. I but like

to see it every MP speaking to the experts at Wild Futures to learn

about this because I am absolutely certain that if a Minister for and

the Members of Parliament realise the psychological damage that was

being imposed on keeping these animals in captivity and feeding

them on the wrong things, there would certainly be a big change of