Alan Whitehead

Labour Party | Southampton Test

Monthly Activity Report December 2007

Legislation in the House

A number of important Bills have come to the House for Second reading this autumn, including, the Housing Bill, which will pave the way for the substantial programme of new homes building over the next twenty years, the Planning Bill, which changes some of the local planning arrangements and sets systems for large scale national planning proposals, and the Transport Bill, which gives Local Authorities substantial new powers to regulate local bus services. The Climate Change Bill has started its Parliamentary passage in the Lords and should be in the Commons in the spring, along with a new Energy bill.

 

I recently met with Yvette Cooper, the Housing and Planning Minister, to look at ways in which changes to the Planning guidance on Homes in Multiple Occupation could be placed into legislation, whether in the current Housing or Planning Bill, or in legislation next session.

 

Planning Bill

I spoke on the debate on the Planning Bill in support of proposals to give wide-based general permission for the installation of microgeneration devices (like mini-wind turbines) on your home.  I first raised this issue as part of the Private Members Bill that became the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006.  Provisions in that Bill required the Secretary of State to look at how to simplify the planning process for microgeneration devices, and the conclusions from that review have been incorporated into the current Planning Bill.  Assuming the Bill goes through, it will result in effectively abolishing not only the planning fee, but the entire planning bureaucracy currently associated with putting up mini-wind turbines.

 

More information

 

Financial Inclusion

In the House debate on Financial Services for Low Income Families, I again spoke in favour of a cap on the interest charged by doorstep lenders (some charge as much as 800%).  I also argued for legislation to strengthen credit unions, including provisions to allow corporate bodies to join credit unions; for there to be facilitation to allow credit unions and housing associations to work together more closely; and for credit unions to be able to provide interest on savings.  I also welcomed the increased DWP funding for credit union loans, and the increased provision of free cash machines in low income areas in Southampton.

 

In a somewhat related area, I am also backing the Warm Homes Campaign and the Echo’s equivalent ‘Winter Warmers’ campaign to ensure more people claim the money to which they are entitled in order to heat their own home.  Anyone who is worried about their winter fuel bill, or who knows someone who is, can call 0800 33 66 99 to find out what help they are entitled to. More information

 

Southampton

St Marks Learning Campus

I am in correspondence with the City Council regarding a number of issues related to the plans to purchase the Civil Service Sports Ground for use as playing fields for a joint RegentsPark – St Mark’s campus.  I am working to ensure the Council has a robust plan in place with regards to issues like- how any potential landswap with Bovis and other stakeholders would work; do rights of way around the site need to be reviewed; how would a split between community use of the fields and school use operate in practice, and so on.

 

20mph zones around schools

Ever since the Council announced its policy of putting up advisory ’20 is plenty’ signs around schools, there has been a growing level of concern from parents and teachers about whether purely advisory signs are good enough.  Only 1 in 10 Southampton schools currently have legally enforceable 20mph zones, and whilst advisory signs are a step in the right direction, they should not be used as a substitute for legally enforceable 20mph speed limits in areas where children congregate.  I have visited a number of schools on the west side of the city and discussed how best to speed up the Council’s installation of legally enforceable zones.  Where schools have given permission, I will be writing to the parents of children at each school to raise the issue with them directly.

 

More information

 

Building Schools for the Future threat

Both John Denham and I have written to the City Council Cabinet Member for Children and Learning Services, Cllr Peter Baillie, regarding the Conservative Party’s recently announced secondary schools policy.  Under the plans outlined in the Conservative Policy Document ‘Raising the Bar, Closing the Gap,’ a Conservative Government would allow new Academies to be set up in an area without any consultation with the relevant Local Education Authority.  The set-up costs for these new academies would be met by capital funding currently allocated to schools as part of ‘Wave 7’ of the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF).  Southampton schools are scheduled to receive BSF Wave 7 funding.  Taking this money out of BSF Wave 7 would in practice mean that 1 in every 7 secondary schools (so 2 out of the 14 secondary schools in Southampton) would lose funding that is in many cases already earmarked for rebuilding or renovation work.

 

In our letter to Cllr Baillie, we have asked him to clarify his position as it relates to these proposals, and whether or not the schools that would lose out under his party’s proposals have been identified yet.  We have yet to receive a response.

 

More information

 

Winter Newsletter

My Winter Newsletter, featuring a special report on the Queen’s Speech, is currently being distributed across to homes in Southampton Test.  You can now download a copy of the newsletter from my website.

 

Parking around the GeneralHospital

Despite some previous success in reducing parking problems around the GeneralHospital, the problem has not gone away.  I recently visited residents living in and around St James Park Road to see the parking problems there.  They have requested a parking scheme in the area on a number of occasions, but their requests have so far been dismissed due to the way the Council draws up the boundaries for residents’ parking scheme.  In this case, the Council appears to have grouped high pressure parking areas in with lower pressure areas, the result being that the strong desire for parking protection measures in some areas is diluted.  I have asked the Council to look again at their zoning policy in this area.

 

Local Government funding settlement

It has clearly been the strategy up until now for Southampton Conservatives Councillors to claim that their massive cuts programme was unavoidable due to lack of funding from the centre.  Luckily however, the Conservative financial spokesperson went on the record saying how much additional funding Southampton would need in order to meet increased running costs, presumably under the assumption that the government would not meet this target.  In a letter to the Chancellor, he said:

 

“This year we are planning for a zero percent increase in government grant. We may in fact get less. If inflation goes up again inline with the current trends our wage bill could increase by £2m. The grants will not.”

 

In fact, the grant from central government has gone up by more than this figure: the increase is £2.2 million.

 

What does this mean?  Essentially, these funding announcements blow a massive hole in Conservative claims that their cuts programme is an inevitable consequence of lack of funding from the centre.  It is likely that some savings will be made, as the government does require both local authorities and government departments to make 3% efficiency gains every year.  But there is a massive difference between these efficiency savings and the budget cuts put forward by the Conservatives.

 

My latest In My View article (written before the funding settlement was announced) analyses the implications of the Conservatives’ proposed cuts to public transport in the city, especially in the light of the Local Transport Bill currently going through Parliament. Read the column.

 

More information on the funding settlement

 

Other engagements

This month I also spoke at the Low Carbon South East Conference; at a Global Warming Lecture by IPCC chair Sir John Houghton; and at the new Wembley Stadium as part of the Disposal Services Agency’s Sustainable Solutions Road Show.  I also met with campaigners opposed to the proposed closure of football pitches (I will be protesting with them on the 6th January at GreenPark); and I met with postal workers during their dawn preparations for the increased Christmas workload.