04/12/2011 The Politics Show South West

In the South West: Torbay will have its new road, but will do bypass

deliver the it 1000 new jobs being promised?

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2016 seconds

Should public sector workers brace Hello and Welcome to the Politics

Show in the South West. In a week that has seen the Autumn

Statement provoke accusations of hitting some of the poorest hardest,

Torbay has emerged as one of the few areas in the country to be

offered a sliver of hope. Amid the gloom, George Osborne announced

funding of nearly �80 million for the Kingskerswell bypass, news many

people in this economically deprived area have been waiting 50

years to hear. In a minute we'll be discussing this with the

Conservative MP for Newton Abbot, Anne Marie Morris, and Torbay's'

only Labour councillor, Darren Cowell. But first, as Jenny Kumah

reports, there is some scepticism in the Bay as to whether the

Chancellor's plan for growth will work.

Beyond the picturesque seafront lies some of the worst levels of

deprivation in the country. Problems include high unemployment

and low household incomes. Teenage pregnancy rates have been among the

highest in England, but are now beginning to come down. Businesses

and politicians said the recently announced funding for at the new

link road would change all these problems. In the south-west the

Bristol link road and bypass will go ahead. This was the moment some

in Torbay had been waiting for for over 50 years. Supporters say the

scheme will ease injection - - congestion and create 8000 jobs and

boost tourism. Here at this job club in Torquay I found some

scepticism. Tracey Turner is being made redundant from her job as a

shop manager. It is closing down because it is not making enough

money. They just hope that they are right. And it is an awful lot of

money to spend considering there are other things that need

concentrating on here. Hopefully people will get employed, but there

is a lot of other things that could be benefiting from this.

Campaigners against the project argued that it is a waste of public

money. Businesses like this one disagreed, but questioned how a

bigger difference it can make. bypass is 15 or 20 years too late.

A lot of the manufacturing businesses moved out a long time

ago and I think will be difficult to get them back in again. I think

we need to sit down and create a plan of action on how to get the

money to stay in Torbay. Work should be completed by the end of

2015. It will involve a six kilometre dual-carriageway by

passing the village of Kingskerswell. The government will

pay �76 million, Torbay and Devon County Council will put in 33

million and Toomebridge District Council will contribute a further

half a million. Another measure that could help businesses in

Torbay is a 40 billion pound credit easing scheme. We must do more to

help those small businesses you can get access to credit them. It would

involve the government under like them - - under writing small

business loans. They aim is to cut the rate of interest on these loans

by 1%. This company sells tools to the building trade. The managing

director is interested in the scheme to expand his business but

he has some concerns. And with our experience of the small loans

guaranteed, he did it quite a long time for the banks to negotiate

with the government departments that process does. If there was a

landslide, a lot of companies that were looking to use that facility,

that might slot the process even more. The Treasury says it is still

finalising the details of the scheme but the plan is to have cash

available during the first quarter of next year. So, can these

national policies really benefit Torbay? The leader of the

opposition Lib Dems are things they cannot, but things the right

leadership at a local level is what is really needed. We have got to

make sure that the move away from any vested interests. We need to

protect the tourist industry, but we need to look at the Nortel

legacy. It was a very important firm that closed down, but it did

leave added of the footprints behind and there are still a number

of small firms and skills out there that can be built on and we need to

be thinking about how we can use that to improve the job offer

locally. The Labour Party is calling for the Conservative mayor

and to provide a good economic strategy, something he says he is

already doing. We have got a very large report coming to council

shortly which looks at the opportunity for employment land,

the amount of land available, how we can bring services to that, how

we can do it using business rates, how we can work together for our

young people to create and maintain better-paid jobs. But has been the

crux of our problem for 20 years or more. We want to get to the bottom

of that, examine it and see how we can solve it. He feels, like others,

that the bypass announcement has bought a new sense of optimism.

Jenny Kumah reporting. Well, let's turn to our guests now. Labour

councillor Darren Cowell and Conservative MP Anne Marie Morris,

welcome both of you to the programme.

A much-needed ray of sunshine, or is it? His �80 million to build a

road really going to turn Torbay's fortunes around? First of all what

I would say is this is not just about Torbay. This is about

regeneration for the south-west. If you think about it when you come

down from the M5 you have got the A38 and the 380, and of those two

roots don't work effectively, but even Cornwall is going to be in a

difficult situation. This is good news, not just for Torbay, but for

the whole area. We will be creating 8000 new jobs. Is that in the

building of the road? No, there are two different types of employment

generated. There will be the teams that will be recruited and actually

involved in building the road. That is going to give us... local jobs?

The way these things work is that when a contractor has been selected,

then there is a process by which they will recruit local labour.

What they will do is they will sub- contract to local businesses. The

other jobs which are being created, the additional 8000, will be spread

between unskilled manual labour, and they will be... at their long-

term jobs question mark absolutely right. You are guaranteeing 8000

long-term jobs. What industry is that in? What we have in this area

is a great history in the Engineering, which are probably

don't know that in the 1950s Newton Abbott was the centre of the

engineering business. Those employees were taken over by other

businesses... there are a lot of people with many skills still left

and we also have at very good college... a where will these

industries come from? There will be two ways he will do that. You are

attracting them but you can guarantee them? Nothing is

guaranteed. I assume you're pleased by this road. The Conservative spot

this in and Labour did not manage to. Along with all the regional MPs,

we lobbied very successfully, and it was in the priority list,

toppled the list of spending projects for the incoming coalition

government. Yes it is the Conservatives who have ticked the

box, but it has been a cross-party effort. You believe it will work?

The economic benefits of building the wrote is beyond doubt. Torbay

is in terminal decline at the moment. It is absolutely essential

that we send it the right signals to inward investors. What about

this guarantee obit 1000 jobs, where are they coming from? Just

building a road does not guarantee the companies will come and open up

shop? It does not. That is why I have been calling for an hour

coherent economic plan that we consented to investors to say these

are being - - these are at the skill sets and the opportunities.

We need industry. With the �80 million but had been better spent

giving grants to small companies to start up. There is a lot going on

in government to give that sort of support. In the autumn statement

there was a specific fund set aside to provide support for start-up

businesses. They will get tax relief. There are lots of measures.

I don't think we can look at this and say it is just about this

figure of money and wouldn't it be better spent summer else. There are

other pots of money that can do that. It will open up the whole

feel of prosperity and once you have an area that investors feel

comfortable investing in, then frankly there are no limits. Thank

you both and stay with us because we would like your thoughts on our

next item, the news the Chancellor is considering a move to close the

public private pay gap. In the South West people in the public

sector generally earn more than those doing comparable jobs in the

private sector. The Government wants to even this out by

introducing local pay rates. It is a step which would please

businesses in the region, but one which could see some of our best

paid jobs suffer significant salary cuts. The South West economy is, of

course, heavily dependent on the public sector, and figures studied

by the Chancellor show the region has the biggest pay gap in England.

Ben Woolvin reports. Thousands of public sector workers

took to the streets on Wednesday protesting at changes to their

pensions. The anger on display here has been brewing for almost the

year. On Tuesday the Chancellor added to the bad feeling when he

announced more job losses and said public sector pay will be held down

longer than expected. 700,000 jobs and the public sector to go.

700,000 people to be thrown on the dole. If we weren't itching for a

fight yesterday, we are today. Elsewhere in his often statement,

the Chancellor said something that could be especially significant in

the south-west. I am also announcing that we're asking the

independent pay review bodies to consider how public sector pay

could be made more responsive to local labour markets and we will

ask them to report back by July next year. Earlier this year the

Institute for Fiscal Studies published research on regional

salaries. Reduce the south-west has the biggest public private pay gap

in England. Men who work in the public sector in the south-west are

estimated to earn about 8% more than those with similar skills in

the private sector. And the south- east the average difference is much

smaller, around one or 2%. Business leaders here have welcomed the news

that the Chancellor is considering closing but public private pay gap,

but union officials are not as pleased. This is basically another

attack on the poor workers of the public sector. One wonders when it

is ever going to end. He started a pack - - attacking the pensions,

now he is attacking the wages. The reason behind this is not paying

what the job is worth, it is paying as little as they can get away with.

The Chancellor says closing the gap would create a more balanced

economy and stop the private sector being squeezed out of the labour

market. Well, back to our guests. Why should a nurse in Cornwall or

Devon beat paid less than their equivalent counterpart and the

south-east? You need to ask yourself what you are trying to do

when you consider people for the work that they do. You're trying to

give them a sum of money that will give them a certain standard of

living. It seems to me it is perfectly reasonable, and remember

this is only a suggestion, but it is not unreasonable to try to look

at whether or not you like that different regional pay rates to

ensure people have the same standard of living comparatively.

Interestingly, this has already happened and the Prison Service and

it is the same model but they haven't a company like Jon Lewis.

This is about fairness between the worker and the taxpayer. Would you

agree? The only thing I would say that would be fair would be if

there was a levelling of public and private pay is that if there were

being levelled upwards. Other like the his it - - but the likelihood

is that it will fall. Any fall in income will have a terrible effect

on an already fragile economy. We need to be looking at this as

another attack on public sector workers. We have had the attacks

already on their pensions. We're having another attack on their pay

rates. It is a similar argument when Labour introduced them minimum

wage that uprated the pay in places like the south-west. We are full of

public pay in the south-west and if you start to cut public sector pay,

he will be spending the money in the region? Gordon Brown suggested

this in 2004, so this isn't a new idea. And then disregarded it.

never developed a further, didn't disregard it. The other assumption

that the south-west would necessarily lose out, our costs of

living a very high. How can you work it out between places in towns

that have high costs of living, and other regions were it is cheaper.

You are way down the road of detail, and this is looking at the idea,

just a concept. All those sorts of things, if we ever went down that

road we need to be like that. you support a pay cut for public-

sector workers in the south-west when some of the could be given in

the south-east? What I support this fare paid for their work. Until we

see the numbers, I don't that we're in a position to make any

assumptions. The private sector jobs are those which are growing

and will study need to grow. That is crucial. In the Budget there

were a lot of suggestions to help that. There is quite clearly not

the recovery led by the private sector. Unemployment has risen, the

Office for Budget Responsibility is estimating a rise of 2.8 million.

One does help the private-sector? don't see how it well. Evening up

the wages? The south-west it is a very high cost of living area. High

water rates, and in ready - - incredible ratio of earnings to

property values are the makes it impossible for people in the

private sector to buy property, let alone the public sector. David

Cameron has been saying we're all in this together, yet suddenly we

get the Autumn Statement and it is women, people on the lowest incomes

who are being hit. Families will lose 7%. That is not true. It is

not true that the private sector is having a bad showing. This sort of

suggestions you are making are not borne out. In terms of going

forward to try to get the economy booming, the number of initiatives

that are being put in place are very varied. Particularly for the

very smallest of businesses. Looking at research in America,

most of the new jobs that were created come from the smallest of

businesses. George Osborne's promise of �50 for

every South West Water customer has been welcomed by the region's MPs,

but one of them warned many customers could see that payment

cancelled by future price rises. Dan Rogerson said the Government

needed to go further if it wanted to fully address the problem. He

called on Ministers to spread the cost of the Water Sure scheme,

which helps the poorest customers. For those customers who are still

struggling with those higher water charges, water sure is a real

lifeline. For those just above that threshold, I think it would be

unjust, having secured this recognition and support from

government to see some of that �15 clawed back in a significant way to

fund water Show, and also further regional tariffs.

Well, the Minister told Mr Rogerson the imminent Water White Paper

would address the issue of long- term water affordability.

Over the years, many developments have been held up by European

conservation laws protecting wildlife. Now the Government says

it is examining the habitat regulations to make it easier for

large-scale projects to be given the go ahead, but the Royal Society

for the Protection of Birds says the Chancellor shouldn't interfere

with European legislation which protects species of international

importance. Amy Cole reports from the Exe Estuary.

Jocelyn for space having flown thousands of miles. During the

winter, flocks of these birds come to bowling green marsh nature

reserve. During high-tide be riskier, but when the tide drops,

they make their way downstream to be done that nutritious mudflats of

the estuary. Stephen Garrett runs boat trips up and down the estuary

and that is precisely because of the vibrant wild bird population

that he is able to extend his tourist season into the winter

months. In the winter we can cater to a completely different market,

people coming to CD wildlife that is steaming in the estuary here.

Because of the site international importance than it is designated as

a special protected area. That means it is caste - - classified in

accordance with the European Commission directive and there are

strict rules governing any type of development here. Because it is a

unique situation, it is completely undeveloped at the moment and we

would like it to stay like that. Upstream and the birds are

attracting a lot of attention. The RSPB owns this nature reserve and

Tony Whitehead is keen to keep an eye and her progress. The

fundamental principle of the organisation is to protect birds

and their habitats and a lot can help to support their efforts.

Habitat regulation set up a detailed environmental framework

that developers must appear to win planning. In his Autumn Statement,

the Chancellor said he is keen to ensure that compliance with the

habitats and wild birds directive does not Beatson necessary costs

and delays to development. We need to go further to remove the lengthy

delays and high costs of the current system with new time limits

on applications and the responsibilities for statutory

consul Tees. We will make sure that the gold plating of European Union

rules on habitats aren't placing ridiculous costs on British

businesses. Planning laws need reform. But the RSPB believes that

is not necessary. The conservation movement think that these rules do

not stand in the way of development. The regulations in themselves do

not stand in the way of development. What can be made more of this, is

that conservationists and developers were together to come up

with creative solutions. That is the way forward. Into Cornwall,

their habitat regulation to working robustly. End-October an

application for an incinerator in some Denis was blocked by the High

Court for failing to properly consider the effect on to nearby

wildlife habitats and in Falmouth plans to dredge the town's harbour

have been held up while planners consider the impact on marine

wildlife. To what extent camp the government manipulate the habitat

regulations? The Chancellor will not be able to require deferent to

look at the wording of the legislation. They will look at how

the regulations are implemented in practice, so how the regulators

look at the burdens of proof that developers need to establish in

order to show that their development will not have

unacceptable effects on the integrity of the European habitats.

The government is clear that it continues to support their