Evening Star Column - 21st February 2012

"Last week was Parliamentary recess, coinciding with half-term, which allowed me to spend a few weekdays in theconstituency. I decided to try a tour to get round to some of the villages where I will not be holding a surgery. Some of the session venues worked, others didn't so I will learn from that. Across the constituency, planning and roads were probably the most prevalent. Planning usually is a hot topic but for 90% of it, Members of Parliament are not involved at all in the planning process. The only exception is the setting of new policies or guidelines in Westminster that are rolled out across the country. Almost all the roads in the area are also County Council responsibility with the exception of the A14. Nevertheless, the information will be shared with the appropriate bodies and people to try to get some solutions for local residents. Some of the areas where I can help will be acted upon – restoring post office facilities, questions on tax and red tape. One area raised that is a joint area of initiative is affordable housing. There I will work with our local council and see what I can do in Westminster to get things moving.

Affordable housing was the topic of a joint meeting with Council leader Ray Herring, Housing Portfolio Councillor T-J Haworth and the Chairman and Chief Executive of Flagship Housing. There are a lot of empty homes in Suffolk Coastal and a significant number are with Flagship. Finance arrangements have changed in recent years but I felt it important to understand where we are with getting these houses and homes back into circulation. The Council was criticised recently for selling off some houses but better to get the homes back into use than standing empty. Empty homes also cost the council (and therefore YOU)money with the New Homes Bonus as they reduce the amount of money the council receives. That is why the Government has legislated to allow councils to charge an extra 50% council tax to owners of empty homes so there is additional incentive for using them. I was pleased that the Chief Executive accepted that a recent issue involving removal of snow in sheltered housing areas will be addressed in the future by their community rangers. This issue is not going away and I will keep readers updated.

Helping people back to work is an important priority for this Government. We are in an interesting situation where both the level of employment and unemployment have risen. There are more people working than two years ago. There are more people unemployed. This seeming contradiction is that the number of people who have put themselves forward to work has risen. Sometimes people may have stopped working and not claimed any job-related benefits, e.g. retired before the state pension age or stay-at-home parents. That has changed so more are registered as looking for work. I reported last week on National Apprenticeship Week, the programme which has gone from strength to strength. These are real jobs that don't stop once the training has finished. The Government is also trying work experience schemes to give people a chance to show what they can do. The latest scheme that is coming under criticism is to say to people who have been on benefits for some time is to say that we will arrange some work for you to keep you or get you in the work habit while you are getting your benefits. If you don't do that, you don't get your benefits. In my selection meeting, I advocated this "workfare" as it is known. Getting people up and ready every day, turning into work on time, doing a real job, working with other people are all positive steps towards getting that elusive regular job. JSA for over 25 is £67 per week. That's approximately 10 hours on the minimum wage. I have no problem saying to people that this is the right thing to do. I had suggested that a similar number of hours could be worked in public companies, in the public sector, in charities and in third sector organisations. Other time during the week can still be spent on the job hunt. Workfare is not a return to the workhouse; it is actually a progressive way forward to help people back on the job escalator."

View comments

Post a comment

Back to all posts