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Parliamentary Report - February 2004

Local Activity

• Visited Kingfishers – manufacturers of grease fittings – in the Meanwood Road
• Spoke at the Leeds University Labour Club
• Guest Speaker at the Leeds Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner
• Met the new Neighbourhood Area Managers for West and East Leeds
• Visited South Leeds Elderly Aid Hammara Healthy Living Centre at the former Trinity Methodist Church, Beeston
• Attended the Leeds MPs/City Council cabinet meeting
• Met East End Park and Richmond Hill Community Association members
• Attended Yorkshire Young Labour Big Conversation event at Leeds Metropolitan University
• Visited Leeds College of Music
• Launched the ‘While Leeds Sleeps’ exhibition at the Swarthmore Centre
• Spoke at the Make Space launch by the Council’s Youth Service at Woodhouse Community Centre
• Regular advice surgeries
  

Local Issues

Leeds has been chosen to develop its proposals within Wave 1 of Building Schools for the Future, which we hope will start to receive funding in 2005-06. The DfES will now be working with Education Leeds to develop proposals. The schools identified in the bid were: Cockburn High School, Corpus Christi Catholic College, Mount St Mary’s Catholic High School and the South Leeds Performing Arts College (Merlyn Rees High). Funding is not guaranteed at this stage but it could eventually be a great boost for the schools, and for pupils, teachers and use by the local community.

The news that Shop Direct are planning to close their distribution and transport centre in Marshall Street, Holbeck is a bitter blow. Workers were given the news yesterday. The news comes only weeks after we had all been assured that the jobs in Holbeck were safe following the approval given to the March UK takeover. I am contacting USDAW to see how we can mount a campaign to stop the closure.

The new Hammara Healthy Living Centre in Tempest Road is another sign of the regeneration of Beeston. Serving the whole of the local community, it’s a wonderful new facility – and right opposite the new Building Blocks Centre.

Earlier today I met with Cllr Keith Wakefield to discuss crime and anti-social behaviour problems in the constituency. I have been lobbying hard for action to be taken in East End Park and New Wortley, where gangs have been making local people’s lives a complete misery. I am now hopeful that action will soon be on the way, and I am also pressing for the new Police and Community Support Officers – being jointly funded by the Council and the Police – to be located in these areas. A recent public consultation in West Yorkshire on policing showed that anti-social behaviour was the number one concern.

A wide range of projects across the city are being supported financially by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. This includes the ASHA Neighbourhood project, Leeds United Study Support Centre, and the Beeston Hill Housing Partnership, together with a lot of projects dealing with burglary, CCTV, and neighbourhood wardens.

Political Developments

Oliver Letwin’s speech on the Tories’ spending plans shows, once again, that the Tories are a party of spending and tax cuts. While they have been forced to say that they will match our spending commitments in health and education – a sign that we have won that argument – they won’t, and can’t, say the same about other areas of public spending. So, for example, the international development budget would be cut – once again showing that the Tories don’t care about the poorest in the world. So would transport, policing, and the environment.

Clare Short’s remarks this week about the alleged bugging of Kofi Annan’s office have been much in the news. The Government of the day never comments on allegations relating to the security services – for obvious reasons. I am sorry that this furore overshadowed the launch of the Commission for Africa. The Commission, whose members include Gordon Brown, Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia, Trevor Manuel (Finance Minister of South Africa), and myself, has been asked to look in-depth at what more we can do to help improve Africa’s prospects.

From 1st May, citizens of the EU accession states will be able to move freely across all EU borders; this is a result of the Accession Treaty. EU accession nationals will be able to work legally in the UK and contribute to our economy, but new rules will prevent them from trying just to access benefits. The economy will benefit from people working legally, paying taxes and national insurance, rather than working illegally (remember the Morecombe cockle pickers), fuelling the sub-economy and undermining existing UK employees.

The number of people in work in the UK has once again reached record levels. Employment is up 1.7 million since we were elected in 1997, and unemployment is now at its lowest level since 1975. Thanks to our New Deal, long-term youth unemployment has now virtually been eradicated; 6,000 compared to 300,000 in the mid-1080s.

The latest monthly figures show that over 2.6 million pensioners are now receiving the Pension Credit. The average Pension Credit award is £43.50 a week. Pensioners can claim Pension Credit over the phone in a single call by telephoning the freephone line 0800 991234.

Ministerial Activity

Activities have included:

• I was keynote speaker, along with Gordon Brown, at a conference on ‘Making Globalisation Work for All – The Challenge of Delivering the Monterrey Consensus’.
• I was invited to address the General Synod of the Church of England on the subject of HIV/AIDS.
• I launched the UK’s development plan for Iraq. This includes further help with rebuilding essential services, training lawyers and judges to create an independent judiciary, and funding education and health through the new UN/World Bank Trust Fund.

My visit to Ethiopia really opened my eyes to the scale of the problems facing this poor country. I visited a town called Mekane Salam where there is a health centre serving a community of 180,000 people. There is no doctor, which means that women with complications in pregnancy have to be referred to the hospital over 100 miles away. The problem is there is no transport to take them there and many of them are too poor to afford the fare on the weekly bus. I am glad to say that we are increasing our aid programme there, thanks to our Labour Government’s significant boost to our aid budget.