11/12/2011 The Politics Show South

In the South: Some towns have no Christmas lights,

others have no Santa. Has the economic gloom driven off the

Christmas cheer from our high streets?

And we will be hearing about the council that has announced spending

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1865 seconds

Hello and welcome to the part of the show especially for us here in

the South. On today's show, is it "bah humbug" as far as Christmas

lights in our towns and cities go? We will be meeting the councillor

who dipped into his own pocket to give his community some festive

sparkle. For the last nine years on the

Politics Show, we have been regularly looking at housing and

homelessness. We will be finding out if anything got better in all

that time. But first, it's a pretty rare event

these days to hear of a council announcing they are spending more

on something. But that is exactly what we had this week from West

Sussex County Council. �50 million for a whole range of capital

investments. Six million for high- speed broadband, 1.5 million for

flood prevention, half a million to tart up West Street in Horsham and,

rather controversially, 1.5 million for the Chichester Festival Theatre.

The leader of West Sussex Council is Louise Goldsmith and she is with

me now. Always difficult to get your head

around these big-money spends. How far will this money go? We have

over 6 million. That will match the figure from a government which was

announced earlier in the year. Then we hope we will be able to pull in

another 25 million in total to get the super-fast broadband going

throughout the county. Absolutely everywhere? Up to 90%. And the

return from that in the next few years, are you expecting anything

particular from that? We want to encourage businesses to start. We

want them to grow and to stay. To do that in a business now, you need

super fast business -- super-fast broadband. We have a lot of small

businesses that are very successful in other rural communities. The

need that. 300,000 went to Worthing for improvements for free wi-fi.

Why just them? That was what they asked for. We phoned around the

leaders and asked what they wanted for to help community projects.

They submitted the schemes that they wanted. You only spoke to do

it leader of Conservative borough councils? We consulted all of them.

Some are saying they were not properly consulted. What about

money for the Chichester Festival Theatre? That money could have been

spent on more deserve and causes. You have to look at what that

investment will bring. That is a 22 million investment into the

infrastructure. It will start in 18 months. It will bring 400 jobs.

Last year, the theatre brought in 12 million into the local economy

in West Sussex. People come to go to the theatre and then also spend

money as part of that trip. It is an investment in the creative art.

We have a lot of that industry throughout the county. You're going

into Christmas with 480 people who were reliant on adult social care

who have had it taken away. Here you are saying this is an

investment in cultural things. �50,000 for a website. Can you

balance those things? You're talking about different pots of

money. We pay out et% of our savings in the income pop. -- 80%.

That is the one that we have had to make the big savings from. Just

transfer the money. Let me finish. The other port is for capital

projects. If you use all of that money to pay off your income, you

will run out of that money and want be able to do roads, schools are

buildings or anything like that. What will happen is that money will

go and also you want be able to talk -- to top up your income. You

will be back to square one and still have to make those cuts. That

is not the way to run business. are behind with your cuts. You'll

never get them done in three years. Where did you get that from?

said that. We will get them through in three years. We're halfway

through the year and we have met our targets. We are on target to

meet those savings through three years for. The money which you are

now spending, will it paid dividends in a decent amount of

time as well? Absolutely. Nothing is so important in a county as its

economy. We have to develop and support that in difficult times.

The Government is changing how some of the business rates operate. It

is really important we are developing businesses. That income

that we get will help for development of highways and other

things. It is investment in the future. Thank you very much.

So, this is the last show of the year, and it is also the last ever

Politics Show. When we thought about all the issues we have dealt

with over the last eight years, we realised that the south of

England's housing crisis has been a recurring theme. So we have raided

the archive to see how much talk there has been and how little

action. Welcome to Blenheim Palace. A

magnificent backdrop for one of our first programmes. I was joined by a

promising young MP. We were all looking a bit fresher in 2003. The

following week, we came live from Reading. Among the 5th floor. Up

here, one man does not just want his home improve, he needs a bigger

family -- a bigger home for his family. Let's meet them. Alex is

the father of 13 children. Three are living with you? Correct.

me your kitchen. It is microwave meals. Back then, there were just

under a third of a million people on the waiting list in the south-

east. Now it is well over half a billion. This is an incredibly

popular place to be. This is the green and pleasant land. The

expected population by 2033 is expected to be over 10 million

people. It is a growing problem for us to try and read that to demand.

We are still discussing the numbers of homeless in 2006 with Preston

who had given his big brother winnings to a night shelter. Five

years ago, Will Self saw the dangers ahead. Since the 1980s, one

of the economic motors has been the idea of home ownership. The rise in

the value of bricks-and-mortar is arguably what has propelled one

trillion pounds of consumer borrowing in this country. It is

kind of heresy. With your views, you will not get far in government,

I can assure you. My choice to keep out of the puddles was a park bench.

Three years later, I took to the streets as the continue -- as the

problem continued to get worse. have 3,500 households living in

temporary accommodation. We don't have the right numbers of homes of

the right type in the right place. Why have we -- why have we failed?

Politicians have spoken about this. We have built some homes, but not

enough in the right places. With me now is Martin Tod, former

Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Winchester who now

works for Shelter and leads the party's thinking on housing. It is

shocking how the waiting list has grown over nine years. Do you think

housing prices will have to fall before people can afford homes?

Well, certainly the gap between earnings and house price is too

wide. Either earnings will have to grow up or house prices will have

to fall. We have a general of affordability problem, however. The

cost of renting privately as well. There is a general squeeze which

largely tracks to lack of enough houses for people to live in.

targets did not really work. We tested the top down system to

destruction. It did not seem to get the houses built that we needed.

The new approach and the more incentive and local led approach is

something which I hope will deliver a better result. Let's look at

Winchester. They have just approved a 20 years strategy there for

11,000 homes, 500 a year. It feels like the same old system.

difference now is that that is a local decision and is open to

scrutiny. It is not possible for local councils to pretend they want

have an increase in population. The population gets older and families

split up. You can't have a system where a local authority can decide

they will not build houses even though the population increases.

There is a requirement that the estimate for the area is well

founded and based on an assessment of what the likely need is going to

be. Don't developers have land with planning permissions? They just

want the big estates. I have heard the planning argument is a bit of a

fallacy. Well, I think nimbyism is real. If you have a house with a

beautiful view, you want necessarily want a house built

right in front of it. You have every right to try to stop that

happening. In the past, developments have happened without

enough roads being put in and without school places as well. But,

it is getting rid of -- should we bring more second homes in to use?

The Government has introduced a requirement regarding its second

homes... It is very difficult at the moment. All of the economic

crisis since the war have been caused by a housing crisis. There

is something fairly fundamentally wrong. I think if we move away from

the previous systems and we give incentives towards local

communities for building, that is a step in the right direction. You

can get money for bringing empty homes back into use, which is also

good. That way, communities benefit. Although homeowners might be

opposed to development in general, if they think the right

infrastructure and support for the local area is put in place, they

are more likely to support that development. Thank you very much.

We will get you back in 10 years' time!

This year, it seems the economic gloom is starting to affect our

Christmas cheer. Some places in the South have been cancelling local

Christmas traditions because of a lack of funds. But despite the

cutbacks, there are a few angels MUSIC.

Some towns and high streets are pulling out all the stops to get

people feeling Christmas Day and spending money. -- feeling like

Christmas. Southampton City Centre has been transformed into something

of a winter Wonderland, with a German market, ice rink, Carousel

and thousands of pounds worth of Christmas lights. But because we're

in difficult Financial Times, some places are finding it harder than

ever this year to get into the Christmas spirit.

All I want for Christmas is you. Places like this near Portsmouth.

Here, business owners decided not to pay for the Christmas lights to

be erected. They said that after 12 years of bad business, the lights

were not worth the money. But one person could not bear to see

Christmas go by without them for. is in raised. I have grown up with

Christmas lights. I decided that I wanted and put up. This councillor

used his own money to put up the Christmas lights. This cost me

�3,000. That is a lot of money. think of the pleasure I'll get from

seeing people look at the Christmas lights. Nine of the traders would

speak on camera about this. But they said that decorating a high

street would not do much for business. But it does mean some

thing to the local community. it gets dark, that looks quite

nights. It lifts everybody's spirits. It has been a rubbish year.

Some sparkle to everyone good. one has any money. Christmas is a

bit on the dark side this year, I think. In Ringwood, there has been

a Father Christmas parade it every year for 20 years. This year, when

there was a lack of funds, a local farmer took on the running of it

himself. I thought it would be a shame for the children. I went to

the local shops and businesses and asked for �50. A lot of them did.

Collectively, we now have enough money to run the event and we have

some surplus which is going towards worthy children's causes. He says

the parade will be even better than before. Christmas is often

criticised for commercialism. Some argue our sense of tradition has

faded. But when long-held traditions are taken away, it seems

it is the nostalgia rather than commercial value that encourages

people to Bryn them back. There are enough problems in the world at the

moment for everyone to feel a bit glum at every day. One day of the

year, at have some excitement. Let's lift ourselves up a bit.

Let's take a hard headed economic look at this whole issue. Do people

spend more when there are Christmas decorations up? It makes people

happier and more relaxed. We have to remember what Christmas is all

about. Money is short, however. People like to enjoy spending money.

Just think of retail therapy. This is an important cultural time of

year, but also for retail. Winchester is advertising on

billboards in other towns because they have a Christmas market.

of the problems we have is that people are reticent to spend money.

There is always a danger that people overspend at Christmas.

People always do. But the retail period over Christmas is very

important. Many businesses make up to 50% of there profits in the run-

up to Christmas. People are comfortable shopping in certain

towns where they are used to shopping. But at Christmas and

maybe there is a little bit of drift here and there. Maybe the

biggest bit of truth is they will say they're not going to go

shopping in the town and they will do it all on the internet. There

are no Christmas lights online, are there? It is interesting the way

people spend money on wine. You are at home, comfortable and the money

tends to slip away as you fill up your shopping basket. But there is

also the feeling you're getting better value, so you might spend

more. And the overheads of many of the online businesses are much

lower than high street, so there is a different pattern of profit. Most

people do internet shopping in October and November because

they're worried about the post. For the internet business -- businesses,

a lot of their business has already been done. Remember that on a high

street sales were down in November. They are now putting in a effort to

pull people in. I think the bah, humbug thing will gradually grind