Browse content similar to 27/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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I will read -- I will be reporting Can in the south-west, can the | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
Government's housing strategy lead to a loss of affordable homes in | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
the region? And is in the right time for a vote on whether to scrap | :01:01. | :01:11. | |
:01:11. | :01:11. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2016 seconds | :01:11. | :34:48. | |
Hello and welcome to the Politics Show in the South West. Ministers | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
claimed this week that the dream of owning your own home could now | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
become a reality for thousands more people. The government's planning | :34:54. | :34:57. | |
to introduce 95 % mortgages and larger discounts for people who | :34:57. | :35:01. | |
want to buy their own council houses. The aim is to increase the | :35:01. | :35:03. | |
overall number of affordable homes but critics claim the opposite | :35:03. | :35:13. | |
:35:13. | :35:14. | ||
could happen. John Danks reports. This housing development in | :35:14. | :35:19. | |
Plymouth's North Prospect is part of a regeneration prospect -- | :35:19. | :35:24. | |
project to build affordable homes. There are 10,000 people on the | :35:24. | :35:30. | |
waiting list and there is a desperate shortage of homes. Nick | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
Clegg and David Cameron unveiled a project to get Britain building | :35:33. | :35:38. | |
again. It is to get by years buying and lenders lending. I am | :35:38. | :35:42. | |
announcing support for an industry led indemnity scheme to provide | :35:42. | :35:48. | |
help for first-time buyers in particular. I will help 100,000 | :35:48. | :35:56. | |
people to buy new homes with 5% deposit. Finding affordable homes | :35:56. | :36:00. | |
is a big problem in the south-west and such indemnity schemes will be | :36:00. | :36:06. | |
of little value to people like Rob Sissons -- Rob Simmons and family. | :36:06. | :36:12. | |
The substantial money needed for a mortgage and to save for a deposit, | :36:12. | :36:17. | |
we don't have money at the end of the month to put forward for a | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
deposit. I don't think we would meet any criteria for a buying a | :36:20. | :36:25. | |
house there was over �100,000. It is pretty much every house in | :36:25. | :36:30. | |
Cornwall. The Government seems hell-bent on promoting home- | :36:30. | :36:33. | |
ownership and those in social housing are up to be given more | :36:33. | :36:39. | |
incentive to buy. Divide to buy it is scheme is to give -- is to be | :36:39. | :36:42. | |
given a shot in the arm. For every house sold and the scheme, the | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
prompt -- the Government promises an affordable home will be built to | :36:46. | :36:52. | |
replace it. The level of discount that we have to be provided to | :36:52. | :36:57. | |
enable people to buy their own homes will have to be substantial. | :36:57. | :37:01. | |
It is unlikely the level of receipt that to get will enable us to go | :37:01. | :37:07. | |
and build a direct replacement. It will take two or three right-to-buy | :37:08. | :37:11. | |
sales to generate defending to enable us to build more affordable | :37:11. | :37:18. | |
homes. I am wary of the rush back to the right to buy. It is not | :37:18. | :37:23. | |
necessarily a thing -- good thing for the interval -- individuals. | :37:23. | :37:27. | |
They have to take long term the costs of replacing windows, sorting | :37:28. | :37:32. | |
but leaks and the new bathroom. Those are costs that people can't | :37:33. | :37:41. | |
but actually afford. If that house is sold on to the open market, | :37:41. | :37:44. | |
there are other people needing affordable homes that won't get | :37:44. | :37:49. | |
them. The Government says they will get them but how soon and whether | :37:49. | :37:55. | |
there will be like for like properties? The target is 450,000 | :37:55. | :37:59. | |
homes has been welcomed as a stepping the right direction, | :37:59. | :38:05. | |
particularly by those in the building trade. Simply to stay pace | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
with the number of new households forming, maybe because of Our | :38:09. | :38:15. | |
children looking to find a home, that combination is driving this | :38:15. | :38:19. | |
need and we would need to be building 250,000 homes a year. We | :38:19. | :38:23. | |
are building less than half of that at the moment and the Government | :38:23. | :38:28. | |
planned -- plans went radically alter the picture. It is not enough | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
and went to live on anything like the scale we need. The Government | :38:32. | :38:37. | |
will have to come back again. They have made 127 announcements since | :38:37. | :38:41. | |
they have coming Government and this is another one. The North | :38:41. | :38:46. | |
Prospect regeneration is due to be completed in five years. By then, | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
the National Housing Federation said the housing crisis will have | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
only got worse. Well earlier I spoke to the chairman of the all- | :38:53. | :38:55. | |
party housing group, Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Gilbert. I put | :38:55. | :38:58. | |
it to him that the government's plans could actually lead to a loss | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
of affordable homes if it took the sale of two or three council houses | :39:02. | :39:07. | |
to pay for just one new affordable home. | :39:07. | :39:12. | |
The Government is clear on this. Where there is a home sold, a will | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
be replaced on a one-for-one basis. The Government will make sure, when | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
the details of this scheme come out over the next few months, the | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
funding formula is right. If we are selling one council house, we are | :39:24. | :39:30. | |
replacing it with another. That was always the problem with the | :39:30. | :39:32. | |
previous right-to-buy scheme. This time, the Government has got it | :39:32. | :39:36. | |
right and we are maintaining aspiration to home-ownership but | :39:36. | :39:40. | |
making sure we are replacing social homes that are lost with new social | :39:40. | :39:43. | |
homes for many thousands of people who are in desperate need. | :39:43. | :39:48. | |
Will have to see how that works in practice. Your predecessor, Lord | :39:48. | :39:55. | |
Taylor, is also very wary of a move back to promoting the right to buy. | :39:55. | :39:59. | |
He says the main reason for that is in the long term, the House is | :39:59. | :40:03. | |
affordable when it is bought by the occupant but then it goes on to | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
being sold in the open market and it is not affordable any more. | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
have to recognise that the vast majority of people want to aspire | :40:11. | :40:18. | |
to own their own home, whether they are social tenants or tenants in | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
the full market. It is right that the Government is moving to help | :40:22. | :40:28. | |
social tenants but helping first- time buyers. Doesn't this fast | :40:28. | :40:31. | |
track homes out of the affordable bracket in the medium to longer | :40:31. | :40:37. | |
term? That depends on how many homes are being put in. This will | :40:37. | :40:41. | |
be the first Government in 33 years to leave office in four years' time | :40:41. | :40:45. | |
with more show shall homes then we entered office with. There is a | :40:45. | :40:49. | |
good record that the Government is putting forward on the creation of | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
new affordable and social homes. It is right that the Government | :40:54. | :40:58. | |
addresses those aspirational wishes of both social tennis and first- | :40:58. | :41:03. | |
time buyers. Looking at both of those, you won't be homes to be | :41:03. | :41:10. | |
affordable for that tenant or first-time buyer. They have said | :41:10. | :41:14. | |
that the average price of a council house in Plymouth will make it | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
impossible for the tenant to be able to buy it. That depends | :41:19. | :41:23. | |
whether discount is set and that depends on the ability of tenants | :41:23. | :41:28. | |
to stretch their finances. Nobody can expect to own a home easily. It | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
is challenging for people in the social sector and in the four | :41:32. | :41:38. | |
markets. The Government is right to say that people want to own up | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
their own homes. That is still the bedrock of people's aspirations and | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
right that by helping first-time buyers and social Danon -- social | :41:46. | :41:51. | |
tenors, the Government addresses those needs. We have heard from | :41:51. | :41:55. | |
somebody in Penzance desperate to buy his own home. He says, because | :41:55. | :41:58. | |
of the high average house prices, even with the help of the mortgage | :41:58. | :42:03. | |
indemnity scheme, he still wouldn't be able to ALF -- afford a house in | :42:03. | :42:07. | |
Cornwall. There is no doubt that it will still be challenging for some | :42:07. | :42:17. | |
:42:17. | :42:21. | ||
people. I think it is going to help 90,000 people across the country | :42:22. | :42:24. | |
get a full-time to the housing ladder when otherwise they may not | :42:24. | :42:34. | |
:42:34. | :42:37. | ||
have been able to. -- get a foot on the housing Lazar. -- Leader. At | :42:37. | :42:42. | |
the moment, they are priced out and it is a step in the right direction. | :42:42. | :42:46. | |
We have to recognise the progress that the Government has shown on | :42:46. | :42:49. | |
this. The new stag hunting season is now | :42:49. | :42:52. | |
underway - but the prospect of a return to full-scale hunting with | :42:52. | :42:55. | |
dogs seems more distant than ever. The coalition agreement promised | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
MPs a free vote on whether the ban should be scrapped, but there's | :42:58. | :43:02. | |
still no indication at all of when that's likely to happen. And now it | :43:02. | :43:05. | |
seems some hunters are keen to kick the debate into the long grass for | :43:05. | :43:12. | |
fear of losing the vote. Clinton Rogers reports. | :43:12. | :43:19. | |
Big band home team -- hunting with hounds in 2005. This is the Devon | :43:19. | :43:28. | |
and Somerset Staghounds in 2011. Now to announce that in at six | :43:28. | :43:33. | |
years, nothing has changed. The hunters have said they are working | :43:33. | :43:36. | |
probably within the exemptions of the new law. They are working with | :43:36. | :43:41. | |
two hounds rather than a pack. Those who spend their working lives | :43:41. | :43:47. | |
travelling around monitoring Hance, say 60,005, they have been many | :43:47. | :43:56. | |
breaches of the hunting act across the region. -- they say that since | :43:56. | :44:02. | |
2005. These pictures of Diddley to a prosecution. That's is rare. | :44:02. | :44:08. | |
Officially, every police force will tell you day and forced every law. | :44:08. | :44:15. | |
Senior officers privately say they have better things to do. We have | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
our suspicions and the National Wildlife crime Unit have pointed | :44:18. | :44:23. | |
out that there are many complaints about illegal hunting in this area | :44:24. | :44:28. | |
and yet we still don't see much police activity. We would like to | :44:28. | :44:32. | |
see more police activity in this area and others around the country. | :44:32. | :44:37. | |
Politically, the hunts have gone cold on pushing for a repeal of the | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
Hunting Act. Something the Conservatives have always promised | :44:41. | :44:45. | |
and which if the Prime Minister reiterated in a recent interview | :44:45. | :44:50. | |
with us. For it is an issue that will come forward into court and | :44:50. | :44:56. | |
the House of Commons will look at this. The hunting ban has been | :44:56. | :45:01. | |
ineffective. Are you afraid you will lose? It is a matter for the | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
House of Commons. Some are saying it hasn't been bolted -- brought | :45:05. | :45:10. | |
forward because you think you will lose. We will have to wait and see. | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
His backbenchers are not so sure that the vote now would be a good | :45:14. | :45:21. | |
thing. Both if you have got a law which can be revoked, or you do | :45:21. | :45:28. | |
something with the law, we haven't got time to do that at the moment. | :45:28. | :45:32. | |
There are many things further up the agenda and we have to take | :45:32. | :45:35. | |
priority. If there is a feeling among hunters that's right now, | :45:35. | :45:41. | |
this is a fight they wouldn't win. They have learned much from the | :45:41. | :45:45. | |
recent failure of the Liberal Democrats to achieve their holy | :45:46. | :45:52. | |
grail, getting AV. When that was put to a vote, the loss. Behind us | :45:52. | :45:56. | |
feel that if they only get one chance of repealing the Hunting Act, | :45:56. | :46:01. | |
they won't push for a vote in the, unless they can be sure of winning | :46:01. | :46:08. | |
it. We haven't got a Tory Government. It is a coalition | :46:08. | :46:11. | |
Government so the third will be wrong for us. Do you think one day | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
you will get a vote and one day it will be repealed or is it a lost | :46:15. | :46:20. | |
cause? If I didn't believe we would get a vote and a repeal, I would be | :46:20. | :46:24. | |
standing here today. One thing seems certain. It won't be | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
happening any time soon. Cornwall's nationalist party Mebyon Kernow | :46:28. | :46:31. | |
secured its fifth seat on Cornwall Council this week. The result comes | :46:31. | :46:34. | |
as a birthday present for the party as it celebrates 60 years in | :46:34. | :46:39. | |
business. MK also has more than 20 town and parish councillors. But | :46:39. | :46:41. | |
the parliamentary success enjoyed by both the Scottish Nationalist | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
Party and Plaid Cymru in Wales continues to elude their Cornish | :46:44. | :46:54. | |
:46:54. | :46:57. | ||
cousins. Tamsin Melville reports. Still on message after six decades. | :46:57. | :47:06. | |
Mebyon Kernow activists campaigning this week in Camborne. Describing | :47:06. | :47:10. | |
itself as a modern and progressive political party, I'm K campaigns | :47:10. | :47:14. | |
for their self Government of Cornwall through a legislative | :47:14. | :47:20. | |
assembly. It wants people in Cornwall to make political and | :47:20. | :47:26. | |
economic decisions for themselves. Mebyon Kernow is a growing force in | :47:26. | :47:31. | |
Cornwall. We have moved from being a small pressure group to something | :47:31. | :47:36. | |
where they can see us to live in political ways. People have | :47:36. | :47:40. | |
confidence that we could secure a better deal for Cornwall. There has | :47:40. | :47:44. | |
been success but it has been limited. Do you think you can go | :47:44. | :47:50. | |
further? I'm sure it can. SNP was talking about the fact that we may | :47:50. | :47:56. | |
be 20 years behind where things are in Wales. We have a smaller support | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
than in Wales and Scotland but it is a growing support and something | :47:59. | :48:04. | |
where people are realising there are different models for the UK. | :48:04. | :48:09. | |
is translating the support in two- thirds that is the problem. It is | :48:09. | :48:14. | |
at this grass roots level that Mebyon Kernow has had successes. In | :48:14. | :48:18. | |
the European elections come it did the Labour and got 7% of the vote | :48:18. | :48:25. | |
in Cornwall. In a 2010 general- election, despite getting six | :48:26. | :48:32. | |
Cornish seats, everyone lost their deposit. He was a pressure group | :48:32. | :48:37. | |
but it was more than a pressure group. It was at a 1951 meeting of | :48:37. | :48:41. | |
13 like-minded people in a red with hotel that I'm Cain was born with | :48:41. | :48:46. | |
an emphasis on Cornish identity and culture. Loveday Jenkin has's | :48:46. | :48:54. | |
mother was there. We were really young and realistic. We were | :48:54. | :48:58. | |
staring people up to develop Cornish identity and to preserve | :48:58. | :49:04. | |
what was left of the historic links with the Cornwall of the past. Also | :49:04. | :49:14. | |
looking at the present and to the future. It said in the early days | :49:14. | :49:18. | |
signing up to MK was seen as the thing to do with the group | :49:18. | :49:22. | |
attracting names such as Daphne du Maurier a. Because it was a | :49:22. | :49:32. | |
:49:32. | :49:35. | ||
pressure group, people can become MPs. It wasn't until 1970 that | :49:35. | :49:43. | |
and's husband became MK first president. He lost out to David MAD | :49:43. | :49:53. | |
:49:53. | :49:54. | ||
he was also in Mebyon Kernow. -- David Mudd. They were a campaign | :49:54. | :49:59. | |
organisation. You would probably find that all MPs would be members. | :49:59. | :50:06. | |
I think it is political suicide in a place like Cornwall to indicate | :50:06. | :50:11. | |
that actually you don't want to be part of that celebration of | :50:11. | :50:17. | |
diversity. In the 1970s, I'm K became a fully fledged political | :50:17. | :50:27. | |
:50:27. | :50:35. | ||
In the Eighties, campaigning took a higher profile. A lot of leaflets | :50:35. | :50:39. | |
and a real labour of love. There is a great deal of support out there | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
but it doesn't always manifest in those large elections. What happens | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
in the future, given the broken promises, who knows. It is | :50:47. | :50:53. | |
difficult for any small party. is through issues like the current | :50:53. | :50:59. | |
Keep Cornwall Whole campaign where their presence can be felt. How | :50:59. | :51:05. | |
does the party take it to the next level in and out of Cornwall? With | :51:05. | :51:12. | |
a lot of patience, it seems. For my husband gave the speech as 10 years | :51:12. | :51:17. | |
ago and talked about coming back to haunt best if they didn't get a | :51:17. | :51:27. | |
:51:27. | :51:31. | ||
seat in Parliament in the next 20 Ann Trevenen Jenkin ending that | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
report from Tamsin Melville. And with me now, one of Mebyon Kernow's | :51:35. | :51:43. | |
deputy leaders, Cornwall Councillor, Andrew Long. | :51:43. | :51:48. | |
Can we be Claire as to what degree of devolution you want, which | :51:48. | :51:53. | |
powers specifically for a start it is an open-ended book. When you | :51:53. | :51:58. | |
look at the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru a, they have | :51:58. | :52:06. | |
different forms of devolution. If you look... Ideally, what you want | :52:07. | :52:16. | |
is people to have power down to the local level. Con Moyle Council, | :52:16. | :52:21. | |
were you look at central Government have come down from on high from, | :52:21. | :52:25. | |
you look at the fact that the last 30 years, we have been one of the | :52:25. | :52:29. | |
poorest regions in the home of the European Union. We are talking | :52:29. | :52:34. | |
about getting millions of pounds of funding from European Union's | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
because we are one of the poorest wages in the Horn of European Union. | :52:39. | :52:45. | |
How is that something to celebrate? -- in the whole of the European | :52:45. | :52:55. | |
:52:55. | :52:58. | ||
Union. I have come back in October and went to Estonia, population 1 | :52:58. | :53:03. | |
million. There are countries already in the European Union, | :53:03. | :53:09. | |
smaller than Cornwall. If you look at Estonia, it has a viable economy, | :53:09. | :53:14. | |
it is one of the tigers of the Baltic states. It is an example | :53:14. | :53:20. | |
where store -- small countries can succeed. We are not trying to be | :53:20. | :53:24. | |
anti-European, and to anybody. You can be pro Cornish without being | :53:24. | :53:28. | |
anti- anybody else. If there clearly is a cultural identity in | :53:28. | :53:38. | |
:53:38. | :53:38. | ||
Cornwall. Why do you find it so difficult to replicate them? I | :53:39. | :53:44. | |
don't think there it is. There is a latent desire for serious self | :53:44. | :53:49. | |
Government that Cornwall is looking for. When you think about that, you | :53:49. | :53:53. | |
look at the SNP and Plaid Cymru, they have been going since the | :53:53. | :53:58. | |
1930s. We are 30 years behind them. We are heading in the right | :53:58. | :54:05. | |
direction. Thursday's tremendous result, that goes to show report | :54:05. | :54:10. | |
good candidates up and we get the message across and it is an equal | :54:10. | :54:15. | |
fight. We all get an equal share of the publicity and people will be | :54:15. | :54:22. | |
voting in larger numbers. Even in Cornwall, people may say they won't | :54:22. | :54:27. | |
fade for you and people in Cornwall don't want to vote for you. Where | :54:27. | :54:33. |