Browse content similar to 06/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Investec, an Englishman's home is his castle, at least until | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
squatters moved in. Now there are moves to make squatting a criminal | :00:48. | :00:53. | |
offence. And well the �113 million announced this week from the | :00:53. | :01:03. | |
:01:03. | :01:03. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2219 seconds | :01:03. | :38:03. | |
Regional Growth Fund deliver badly- Hello and welcome to the part of | :38:03. | :38:05. | |
the show especially for us here in the South. My name's Peter Henley. | :38:05. | :38:14. | |
On today's show: Are MPs really getting younger? | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
Daniel Clark, member for the Isle of Wight. They are not, that was | :38:17. | :38:21. | |
the Youth Parliament debating in the House of Commons this week. | :38:21. | :38:24. | |
Also coming up, will the money the Government handed out from the | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
Regional Growth Fund this week really do what it says on the tin | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
and stimulate growth? First, occupations have been in the | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
news, whether it is the tent city outside St Paul's or the of shoes | :38:36. | :38:41. | |
that have been set up in Brighton and Bournemouth. -- the offshoots. | :38:41. | :38:45. | |
And squatting looks set to be made a criminal offence. I will be | :38:45. | :38:49. | |
talking to Mike Weatherley, who has campaigned for that change, and | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
former Labour candidate Sarah Evans, who also happens to be a former | :38:53. | :38:57. | |
squatter. But what about current squatters? Earlier in the week, I | :38:57. | :39:02. | |
went to meet some in Britain. In Brighton, it has become part of | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
the protest lifestyle. Squatting gets you somewhere cheap to live | :39:05. | :39:09. | |
and it is also a statement about a society that allows properties like | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
this to stand empty. 27-year-old Annie lived here until they were | :39:14. | :39:20. | |
forcibly evicted. Look at it now, it is just ridiculous. It would | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
house adequately the amount of rough sleepers I know personally. | :39:24. | :39:29. | |
It moved to a derelict bed-and- breakfast and claims the neighbours | :39:29. | :39:36. | |
were pleased to see them taken over. You can see the dilapidation on the | :39:36. | :39:42. | |
frames here that we cannot reach. But we made what we had of it. The | :39:42. | :39:46. | |
same applies to inside the building. The new Bill would only make | :39:46. | :39:49. | |
squatting a criminal offence in domestic properties. There are | :39:49. | :39:53. | |
fears commercial ones like this could come under even more pressure. | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
But this group said they were more concerned about the principles of | :39:56. | :40:02. | |
criminalisation. You have a lot of people sharing rooms. Are you | :40:02. | :40:08. | |
worried there might be more people trying to squat? Buildings that | :40:08. | :40:12. | |
have been left empty that no one wants, no one is doing anything | :40:12. | :40:17. | |
about, they have no planning on them, we stay in them and we live | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
in them because they would just be going to waste. But someone does | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
own this. And you living in it is preventing it being turned into | :40:25. | :40:32. | |
something else. They do not necessarily own this building. The | :40:32. | :40:36. | |
owner of this building has actually passed away, so no one actually | :40:36. | :40:41. | |
knows who owns it. And the general public might not know that much | :40:41. | :40:45. | |
about squatters and when they hear you could go on holiday, come back | :40:45. | :40:48. | |
and your house is squatted, it is a scary thought. Have you ever come | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
across that? It has never happened in our circles, we would never | :40:52. | :41:00. | |
squat someone's home. It is illegal already. We do not want to put | :41:00. | :41:04. | |
people out of their homes. We believe housing should be a right, | :41:04. | :41:07. | |
not a privilege. Forcing people out of their homes is against what we | :41:07. | :41:12. | |
believe in. Let us take that point up with Mike | :41:12. | :41:16. | |
Weatherley. Already, there are powers to stop people going into | :41:16. | :41:20. | |
various places and that can be used by the police, who say they don't | :41:20. | :41:27. | |
need this new one. No, the police told me they'd do needed. I was | :41:27. | :41:30. | |
speaking to an inspector in Brighton and Hove, and they never | :41:30. | :41:34. | |
prosecuted anyone to do the squatting in 18 years. It is | :41:34. | :41:38. | |
illegal to enter a building but it is not a criminal offence. They get | :41:38. | :41:43. | |
moved on, because damaged, they just move into another property. | :41:43. | :41:46. | |
This is going to force a lot of vulnerable people out onto the | :41:46. | :41:54. | |
streets? Squatters and homeless people are two separate things. I | :41:54. | :41:57. | |
was for the homeless charity today and they are in favour of the | :41:57. | :41:59. | |
squatting laws, because it is giving the homeless people a rough | :41:59. | :42:04. | |
deal. Squatters are lifestyle squatters, by and large, they are | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
trying to get something for nothing. That is certainly what we saw in | :42:08. | :42:12. | |
that film, they were making a point about a principle and getting cheap | :42:12. | :42:16. | |
accommodation. If someone steals your car, they get punished. If the | :42:16. | :42:19. | |
still your house, at the moment, they do not. If everyone has the | :42:19. | :42:24. | |
right to have a roof over their head. The Metropolitan -- the | :42:24. | :42:32. | |
Metropolitan Police, the Law Society, they have all said, | :42:32. | :42:35. | |
squatting in someone's house or a house that someone wants to move | :42:35. | :42:41. | |
back into is a criminal offence, and the Met have said the laws are | :42:41. | :42:46. | |
broadly all right. And if they are used properly, and I think this is | :42:46. | :42:49. | |
where the problem arises, if they are used properly, it is easy to | :42:50. | :42:53. | |
get people that a squat in someone's home out. But perhaps it | :42:53. | :42:59. | |
is more a case of actually having enough resources for the police to | :42:59. | :43:05. | |
actually action the law. Right. Mike Weatherley, we have had, the | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
fact that people on the property and it is not a criminal offence | :43:08. | :43:13. | |
for many hundreds of years, why change it now? It is on their | :43:13. | :43:17. | |
criminal offence if when you get back home, you ask the squatters to | :43:17. | :43:20. | |
leave and they do not. But they should not be in that property to | :43:20. | :43:23. | |
start with. This whole reason why you have squatters rights comes | :43:24. | :43:29. | |
about because we had some rogue landlords. But the landlord could | :43:29. | :43:32. | |
not break the door down to throw people out when they had a right to | :43:32. | :43:38. | |
be there. But squatters do not have a legitimate right to be there, | :43:38. | :43:42. | |
they our lifestyle squatters, making a statement. I have to | :43:42. | :43:48. | |
totally disagree. Shelter carried out an independent piece of | :43:48. | :43:55. | |
research, and 78% of homeless people who had spotted at actually | :43:55. | :43:58. | |
sought to get a roof over their head in a different way, they had | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
approached the council, they had approached hostels, and had been | :44:01. | :44:07. | |
turned away. Because we have a dire shortage of council housing. We | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
have 5 million people on council waiting lists. We have 40,000 | :44:12. | :44:17. | |
homeless people, probably more, because there is a whole load of so | :44:17. | :44:22. | |
faster for us that do not even register on the statistics. -- sofa | :44:22. | :44:27. | |
surfers. We should put the empty properties back into use, we have | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
incentives for bad landlords who are just holding on to it for the | :44:30. | :44:39. | |
wrong reasons. But just because our enemy's enemy, shouldn't make it a | :44:39. | :44:43. | |
friend to squatters. It is these lifestyle squatters we need to stop. | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
We need to put the empty properties back into life, we need more | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
homeless hostels, and I speak to a lot of charities that would support | :44:50. | :44:53. | |
the moves about the squatters criminalisation, providing there is | :44:53. | :44:57. | |
extra measures for the homeless, which the Government has announced. | :44:57. | :45:00. | |
But most of the squatters are not the homeless people we are talking | :45:00. | :45:04. | |
about. Sarah Evans, surely you would like to see some of these | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
empty properties, some of the second homes, being used to house | :45:08. | :45:13. | |
people. I think so. What we need to have in place is the ability for | :45:13. | :45:17. | |
councils to compulsory purchase empty properties. My experience of | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
squatting was living in a house, two rows of derelict houses, that | :45:22. | :45:27. | |
is what happens. These houses are derelict in the majority of cases. | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
And I had water running through the ceiling, holes in the walls and | :45:31. | :45:38. | |
floor, no glass in the windows. Mice jumping out everywhere. | :45:38. | :45:43. | |
you don't improve its? But I have no choice at the time. I managed to | :45:43. | :45:49. | |
borrow some money in getting to a privately rented house. But then, | :45:49. | :45:54. | |
that got repossessed. Once again, I had to move back again. At the time, | :45:54. | :45:58. | |
I had just come out of college and had a huge debt, but the majority | :45:58. | :46:02. | |
of people that are forced into squatty have mental health issues, | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
drug and alcohol issues, they might have come out of an abusive | :46:06. | :46:15. | |
relationship. Mike, this is what the independent study has shown. | :46:15. | :46:18. | |
Even the Law Society and the Metropolitan Police have agreed | :46:18. | :46:23. | |
that there is no evidence to support the need for Clause 26. And | :46:23. | :46:27. | |
you are criminalising people, you are criminalising very vulnerable | :46:27. | :46:32. | |
people. I find it unacceptable we should be saying that people should | :46:32. | :46:35. | |
squat in these derelict buildings. They are dangerous, they should not | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
be squatting there. Even if there was a link between on this is an | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
squatting, we should not allow people to squat in those type of | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
buildings. The second point you make about improving the properties, | :46:46. | :46:49. | |
I have thrown the gone there down to all the sporting organisations | :46:49. | :46:53. | |
in the country to show me one property they have been in -- they | :46:53. | :47:00. | |
have improved and not one has been forthcoming. Sarah Evans, Mike | :47:00. | :47:04. | |
Weatherley, thank you very much. More on this on Inside Out tomorrow | :47:04. | :47:09. | |
night which follows the story of join decade, he had to go to court | :47:09. | :47:14. | |
to evict a group of squatters from her mother's home in Berkshire. -- | :47:14. | :47:19. | |
joined the caber, who had to go to court. | :47:19. | :47:22. | |
With at 100 members of the Youth Parliament were taking out -- | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
taking part in their annual debate in the House of Commons. Who knows | :47:25. | :47:28. | |
what future Chancellor or Prime Minister might have been sizing up | :47:28. | :47:31. | |
the green benches. Because politicians really do seem to be | :47:31. | :47:40. | |
getting younger. We will create, the home on a democracy in which we | :47:40. | :47:47. | |
believe. That welfare state is being ripped apart by a vicious and | :47:47. | :47:52. | |
right-wing Tory lead Government. William Hague is a perfect example | :47:52. | :47:58. | |
of teenagers with strong opinions on political matters, prepared to | :47:58. | :48:02. | |
stand up and be heard. The Youth Parliament was designed to | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
encourage 11-18-year-olds to do exactly that when it was | :48:06. | :48:15. | |
established 12 years ago. Over 600 representatives are elected each | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
year to campaign and influence decision-makers on issues which | :48:18. | :48:23. | |
matter most to young people. On both regional and national levels. | :48:23. | :48:29. | |
Why are you so interested in politics? Because I feel, | :48:29. | :48:36. | |
especially locally, my MPs do not actually engage very well with the | :48:36. | :48:41. | |
young people. When I talk to people in my area, they say, are they | :48:41. | :48:48. | |
actually doing anything for us? When you are involved in the UK | :48:48. | :48:51. | |
Youth Parliament, you have a real opportunity to change things, meet | :48:51. | :48:57. | |
with decision-makers and try and influence the world and actual | :48:57. | :49:05. | |
society we live in. I'd like to think you can come from somewhere | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
small and effect something that is really big, affect the whole of the | :49:08. | :49:17. | |
UK. -- affect. The average age of a councillor or a young MP is 40, or | :49:17. | :49:23. | |
50s and 60s, so it does not seem to connect with the younger generation. | :49:23. | :49:26. | |
Just because you are not old enough to vote doesn't mean you cannot | :49:26. | :49:32. | |
make a difference. Members meet regularly with MPs and local | :49:32. | :49:35. | |
councillors, organising events to make speeches and run campaigns. | :49:35. | :49:39. | |
Public transport is an issue in my constituency. Over the summer, I | :49:39. | :49:43. | |
have met with various different transport providers, managers, and | :49:44. | :49:47. | |
discuss the issue. I am actually trying to compose at Transport | :49:47. | :49:52. | |
report which looks and identifies the problems in my constituency and | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
trying to think of practical solutions. I would like to create | :49:57. | :50:04. | |
discounts for young people, you have the NUS card when you are 16- | :50:04. | :50:10. | |
18, but you do not have any sort of card for a discount when you are | :50:10. | :50:13. | |
under 16. And yet, you are not allowed to work until you have an | :50:13. | :50:20. | |
even harder economic time. Over 60,000 people aged 11 to 18 took | :50:20. | :50:24. | |
part in this year's ballot at the Youth Parliament. That is ten times | :50:24. | :50:27. | |
the number who participated year before. But is the Government | :50:27. | :50:32. | |
listening? If David Cameron was sitting here, what would you like | :50:32. | :50:38. | |
to say? I would like him to talk to the young people more. I feel that | :50:38. | :50:45. | |
young people are ignored in this country. Under previous governments | :50:45. | :50:50. | |
as well. There is high youth unemployment, there is very little | :50:50. | :50:55. | |
jobs around for people. And so, they need some sort of support to | :50:55. | :50:59. | |
give them a helping hand in life. He needs to realise that making | :50:59. | :51:04. | |
cuts is not going to help the economic growth. It is going to | :51:04. | :51:09. | |
dampen it and make it worse. Make it even harder for people to boost | :51:09. | :51:14. | |
the economy. In a society, you should look to increase social | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
mobility and inspire young people, who are in their teens, so they | :51:18. | :51:21. | |
want to achieve something in life and in education. With the removal | :51:21. | :51:26. | |
of the cap on university fees, it is completely discouraging a lot of | :51:26. | :51:32. | |
people who wanted to go to university. Order, order! The UK | :51:32. | :51:36. | |
Parliament will consider the first motion of the day. So for one day a | :51:36. | :51:40. | |
year, the Youth Parliament takes over and it is serious business. To | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
debate and decide on which issued they should concentrate their | :51:43. | :51:48. | |
campaigning on for the coming year. I think that public transport is a | :51:48. | :51:54. | |
way of becoming more green and also, getting young people off the dole, | :51:54. | :52:01. | |
especially people in rural areas. Especially as we have a 20 year | :52:01. | :52:07. | |
high for youth unemployment. They live very at home there. We have a | :52:07. | :52:12. | |
real MP in the studio. This year the Government announced the lucky | :52:12. | :52:16. | |
winners in the second round of bids for the Regional Growth Fund. It is | :52:16. | :52:20. | |
designed to safeguard or create jobs. In the first round in April, | :52:20. | :52:25. | |
we got just one bid accepted. This time, we have got nine for the | :52:25. | :52:31. | |
south-east. We have been promised �113 million of the �1.4 billion | :52:31. | :52:40. | |
fund. To put that into context, the North East had 50 bids accepted. So, | :52:40. | :52:42. | |
is our �130 million and nearly 1,000 jobs the Government said they | :52:42. | :52:45. | |
will support a reasonable allocation? Willett really | :52:46. | :52:50. | |
encourage the sort of growth the economy needs? -- will it really | :52:50. | :53:00. | |
:53:00. | :53:01. | ||
encourage. We have got George Hollingbury, the Conservative MP. | :53:01. | :53:07. | |
This particular fund allocation, are we getting very well organised? | :53:07. | :53:14. | |
I like to think we the Goody area in the South East. But you would | :53:14. | :53:17. | |
expect me to say that! But it does seem to be about this this | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
involvement, is that helping? are an elected board, we have eight | :53:23. | :53:26. | |
business leaders and some very influential this this is on that | :53:26. | :53:29. | |
board. We have five from local authorities and one from higher | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
education. We have a good board working solidly, all singing from | :53:33. | :53:38. | |
the same hymn sheet. We submitted six Dave's and we were successful | :53:38. | :53:43. | |
with almost two-thirds of them. -- six bids. Surely, Regional Growth | :53:43. | :53:47. | |
Fund rebalancing the economy is not giving more money in grants to the | :53:47. | :53:51. | |
south, however much Duggan would like to have it? There are parts of | :53:51. | :53:54. | |
the South that are also suffering from a reduction in Government | :53:54. | :53:58. | |
spending and are slightly less able to generate growth. It is quite | :53:58. | :54:02. | |
right that some of the growth should come down here. I think the | :54:02. | :54:05. | |
Solent Local Enterprise Partnership has done a fantastic job. They know | :54:05. | :54:10. | |
exactly where the money needs to go, supported by local authorities who | :54:10. | :54:14. | |
have been working to push the Partnership for South Hampshire. | :54:14. | :54:18. | |
They knew exactly what they wanted and the top business to drive it. | :54:18. | :54:23. | |
It has been very successful. It is the replacement for the retail | :54:23. | :54:25. | |
development agency, which used to look at the whole of the South East | :54:25. | :54:34. | |
on a broad level. -- of regional development agency. Those who shout | :54:34. | :54:39. | |
loudest are going to get the most money. If you stop and think for a | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
moment, we had bureaucrats sitting there in an unelected position, | :54:43. | :54:49. | |
pushing things around on a board. What we have now is real, viable | :54:49. | :54:52. | |
projects, pushed by people who are actually going to run them and make | :54:52. | :54:57. | |
a difference local. It is not just a matter of pursue money towards | :54:57. | :55:01. | |
something, we have people driving them to do things with. What about | :55:01. | :55:05. | |
the Isle of Wight? Dipper to no good for tourism, and did not get | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
the money, presumably because they were not part of such a forward- | :55:09. | :55:15. | |
thinking l e p as yours. For a start, the Isle of Wight is very | :55:15. | :55:21. | |
much part of the Solent LEP. We need to look at that, as to why | :55:21. | :55:26. | |
they were unsuccessful. We submitted six days. Surely, the | :55:26. | :55:31. | |
Isle of Wight is as deserving if not more so than -- as other parts | :55:31. | :55:36. | |
of the South East? Well, I would disagree about Southampton and | :55:36. | :55:40. | |
Portsmouth booming, there are lots of areas of deprivation in both | :55:40. | :55:45. | |
places. We have to congratulate ourselves on the facts we were | :55:45. | :55:49. | |
fortunate to get some of these bid is agreed. I am disappointed we did | :55:49. | :55:54. | |
not get the ones for the Isle of Wight. And the headquarters for | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
your organisation is in Portsmouth city council offices. There is | :55:57. | :56:02. | |
surely a Portsmouth by us there. Not really, the biggest funding is | :56:02. | :56:07. | |
coming to Southampton. Good answer! What about the people who are not | :56:07. | :56:14. | |
part of an MEP? What about Thames Valley, Berkshire, Oxford City? -- | :56:14. | :56:23. | |
l e p. There is a confluence here are genuine deprivation. There are | :56:23. | :56:25. | |
parts of Portsmouth and Southampton that are generally deprived and we | :56:25. | :56:28. | |
need to bring some money in. Coupled with a fantastic structure | :56:28. | :56:33. | |
that has been in place for a long time. It has worked particularly | :56:33. | :56:37. | |
well on this occasion. I would say to you, I suspect there is more | :56:37. | :56:41. | |
reason to have the spending down here on the south coast and South | :56:41. | :56:44. | |
Central and there is in some of the other areas. It is not about | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
deserving cases like the Isle of Wight, say, it is about getting | :56:48. | :56:54. | |
growth, isn't it? If it means companies are already doing well, | :56:54. | :56:58. | |
that is where the money should go. We need to be careful what we say. | :56:58. | :57:03. | |
We had deprivation in Southampton and Portsmouth, severe deprivation | :57:03. | :57:10. | |
in some quarters. Some real problems. Not withstanding all of | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
that, we must understand the South East is the engine of the UK | :57:13. | :57:18. | |
economy. I don't think it is good enough for Government to say, there | :57:18. | :57:22. | |
is a North-South divide. We are delighted to have been so | :57:22. | :57:28. | |
successful. The very last thing, the original purpose of this fund | :57:28. | :57:32. | |
was to, say those areas that were particularly hit by a reduction in | :57:32. | :57:39. | |
Government spending. That element has to be considered. It is | :57:39. | :57:44. | |
investing in success, that is the idea. Thank you very much. | :57:44. | :57:49. |