Labour forces vote on Government’s reckless privatisation of Probation Service

1. Labour will vote against the Government’s half baked and dangerous plans to privatise the probation in a debate on the Offender Rehabilitation Bill.
   In the Commons today (Monday 11th November) Labour will argue the untried and untested nature of the Government’s plans risk public safety.

   The Government’s plans will abolish local Probation Trusts, fragment the service based on the risk level of offenders, hand over supervision of serious and violent offenders to the likes of G4S and Serco and impose a never before used payment by results model. This is all being done without any piloting and at breakneck speed.

   Commenting ahead of the vote, Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan said:

   "We seriously disagree with the Government’s plans to privatise the Probation Service, which are a massive leap into the dark. There’s no evidence their fragmentation of the Probation Service will deliver lower reoffending and won’t risk public safety.

   "Labour supports the extension of supervision to those on short prison sentences. The evidence shows that those supervised on release from prison are less likely to go on to reoffend. The extension therefore makes sense if we’re to win the battle to break the cycle of reoffending. But we have no confidence the Government’s privatised probation service will be able to implement this extension of supervision.

   "Experts, probation staff and management and MPs from all side have warned the abolition of the Probation Service and handing over serious and violent criminals to the likes of G4S and Serco will put the safety of communities up and down the country at risk. The Government needs to think again before it’s too late"

   
   

   Labour Party

COALITION'S BEDROOM TAX AND THANET

Cllr David Green - TDC Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning Services.

'In an extremely unusual, perhaps unprecedented move, Ian Duncan Smith has issued a circular saying that his Department (DWP) expects councils to defend appeals where residents are in danger of loosing their homes because they are struggling to pay rents due to the bedroom tax. The Department are threatening to join court cases themselves.

The DWP is deeply worried about tribunal decisions and potential decisions in relation to the bedroom tax. The DWP suspects that Councils may not appeal adverse decisions, or at least not with the vim and vigour the DWP would like to see. The DWP intends to appeal, or appeal and then park, a lot of decisions itself (or to be leaning heavily on Councils to act tough)

The DWP is having a bit of a panic.

I have a vision of IDS banging his fist on the table, eyes rolling, screaming ‘Appeal them, damn you, appeal them all!’

His problem is that even when Councils take residents to court because of the extremely unfair tax, the courts are reluctant to kick families out on the street.

Here in Thanet, The Labour Council has a no prosecution policy unless families have been offered two smaller properties. We believe this is only fair to families but it does cause problems to our severely stretched housing service. I will be recommending to Cabinet this week that we take 10% of houses out of our choice based letting system to offer to families down sizing. This will mean fewer properties available for families on the waiting list.

Eventually of course larger houses vacated will become available for re-letting, but from our viewpoint this tax that hits our most vulnerable families is perhaps the worst decision this government has made. Its bad socially, and makes little economic sense'.

Ed Miliband speech on dealing with the cost of living

Ed Miliband speech on dealing with the cost of living, 4 November 2013

 

Ed Miliband will today (Tuesday) declare that the battle lines for the next election have now been drawn between a One Nation Labour Party that will tackle the cost of living crisis and a Conservative-led Government that has shown its determination to defend broken markets and stand up for a privileged few. 

 

In a speech at Battersea Power Station he will set out the scale and ambition of Labour’s cost of living agenda to reconnect- permanently- the link between the wealth of our nation and family finances.

 

And he will show how One Nation Labour policies unveiled over the past few weeks are part of an emerging programme for government which will transform Britain’s economy so that it once again works for working people.

1. He will set out new figures showing how the wholesale cost of energy has risen since 2011 at an average rate of 1.6% a year but the Big Six have increased retail prices by an average of 10.4% a year. As a result, more than half of the rise in bills has gone straight to the Big Six.

He will announce that Labour will force a vote in the House of Commons tomorrow on Labour’s plan for an energy price freeze.

Ed Miliband MP will say:

 

“For the next eighteen months, people will hear scare stories from the unholy alliance of the energy companies and David Cameron: the Big Seven. It will just reinforce in people’s minds who he stands up for- the six large energy companies- not the 60 million people of Britain.

 

“Today, I am publishing new figures confirmed by the House of Commons library showing that of the average increase in the price for electricity and gas since 2011 over half went straight into the profits and costs of the Big Six. This shows why we need a price freeze now. 

 

“Tomorrow, we will vote on the price freeze. It is workable, it will happen if Labour wins the next election. And tomorrow Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs could vote for it. If they line up against it, the British people will know the truth: this government is on the side of the big energy companies not hard-pressed families.”

2. He will declare that the last month has shown the next election is going to be a choice about how we succeed as a country– and for whom Britain is run.

Ed Miliband MP will say:

 

“The next general election will offer a big choice. A choice about whether we tackle the cost of living crisis or shrug our shoulders. A choice about whether we run a race to the top or a race to the bottom; a choice about whether we reform broken markets or defend them; a choice about how we succeed as a country; and above all, the choice will be about who our country is run for.

 

“The cost of living crisis isn’t just an issue for the lowest paid, it affects the squeezed middle just as much. A country where a few at the top do well, but everybody else struggles. This is not just an issue facing Britain. It is the issue facing Britain. It is about who our country is run for. How it is run. And whether we believe we can do better than this.”

3. Mr Miliband will criticise David Cameron and George Osborne for claiming economic policy has nothing to do with the cost of living crisis.

Ed Miliband MP will say:

 

“David Cameron said recently that I wanted to ‘talk about the cost of living’ because I didn’t want to talk about ‘economic policy’. So we have a Prime Minister who thinks we can detach our national economic success from the success of Britain’s families and businesses. He doesn’t seem to realise that there is no such thing as a successful economy which doesn’t carry Britain’s families with it. And he obviously doesn’t get that the link between growth and living standards is just broken. Growth without national prosperity is not economic success.”

4. Instead, he will say that the success of any economic policy must be judged by whether it raises living standards for working people- and stops Britain being locked into a race to the bottom of low wages, low skills and broken markets.

Ed Miliband MP will say:

 

“We don’t just need average wages to creep higher than prices. For people to be genuinely better off, we have to do much better than that. Ordinary families are hit harder than average by higher prices. They rely more on expensive basic necessities, like electricity and gas. And ordinary families do worse than the average when it comes to wage increases because those increases are scooped by a few at the top. We can’t just make do and mend, we need to do much better than we are.

 

“We have to permanently restore the link between growth and living standards for all of Britain’s working people. This Government can’t do it. And the reason is because they are wedded to Britain competing in a race to the bottom.”

5. He will show how One Nation Labour’s cost of living agenda will restore the broken link between the wealth of our nation and family finances by making fundamental changes in the way our economy is run so that we win a race to the top.

Ed Miliband MP will say:

 

“We are going to earn and grow our way out of this cost of living crisis. Not by spending money we don’t have because we have to bring the deficit down, but by building a different kind of economy: one that really works for working people.”

6. Mr Miliband will set out how Labour’s agenda to earn and grow our way out of the cost of living crisis includes:

·         Tackling rip-off prices with market reforms and regulation

 “Tackling the cost of living crisis is also about ensuring markets work for working people - and that means fixing markets when they are broken.

 

“A price freeze until 2017 will pave the way for us to radically improve the energy market for the long term so we will change the way the energy market works in a way that will provide long-term confidence for investors and a better deal for consumers.

 

“And we will mend other markets that aren’t working in the public interest. Opening up competition in banking, a cap on the cost of credit in payday lending, bringing in a proper cap on train fare increases, ending unjustified charges and fees in the private rented sector, and introducing a duty on water companies to have social tariffs to help the poorest families.”

 

·         Raising pay levels through measures such as support for the Living Wage and helping parents get back to work through the extension of childcare provision.

“We have a low pay emergency in this country. More than five million people are now paid less than the living wage, working for their poverty- up 1.4 million in just the last four years to one in five of all employed workers. And low wages aren’t just bad for working people, they cost money in benefits too as the country has to subsidise more and more low paid jobs with higher and higher tax credits and benefits. And many businesses now recognise that a low pay economy is bad for them too. Better pay means lower turnover of staff, higher productivity.

 

“We would strengthen the minimum wage, which has lost 5% of its value under this government. We are looking at the case for higher minimum wages in particular sectors of the economy. But we will go further than that too. That is why the next Labour government from its first day in office will offer “make work pay” contracts to employers all over Britain. These will raise wages, keep the benefit bill down and tackle the cost of living crisis. It is a good deal for workers, business and the taxpayer too.  Under a One Nation Labour government: work will pay.

 

“And we will help parents get back to work and start earning to support their families so that they play their part in building a successful economy. We will extend childcare provision for working families from 15 hours a week to 25.”

 

·         Improving the quality and quantity of jobs and gold standard apprenticeships, backing small business and reforming banks so they lend to the next generation of wealth creators.

“We can only win a race to the top if we transform our vocational education system and apprenticeships in this country, if we radically transform the way we support business in every part of our country, with a proper regional banking system, if we support the small businesses that will create the jobs of the future, and if we have a proper industrial policy, including for environmental jobs.”

Labour Party

Update on Callis Grange Sure Start Petition

From: Cllr Jenny Matterface

When it was announced that KCC planned to reduce the opening hours of Callis Grange Sure Start Centre from 40 hours to 18 there was a feeling of shock all round. The Isle of Thanet Gazette took up the story following my call and ran a feature demonstrating how well Sure Start has proved its worth in Broadstairs by, among other content, featuring a young mother who was adamant that ’Sure Start has turned my life around’. She had found employment and using the experience gained has since moved on to a better-paid job with more social hours. ‘I couldn’t have done it without the help and support I got from the centre’. Another mother said ‘I’m  a different person now and a better mother.’

A Kent-wide online petition followed the July announcement, attracting responses from all over the county giving clear evidence of the value we put on this vital resource. The consultation period started and over 5000 responses were received at County Hall from all areas where services were under threat from either closure or reduced hours. I was gratified to be told that there was an excellent response from users and supporters of the Callis Grange centre.

Here in Beacon Road Ward we decided that a paper-based petition would enable us to meet face-to-face users of the centre by door-knocking and we gathered 300 signatures in three short sessions in the streets in the immediate area.

With the help of County Councillor Will Scobie we were able to arrange a meeting with Cllr. Jenny Whittle, cabinet member responsible, at County Hall on October 11^th where she gave us an hour allowing Will, Frances Rehal, from Faversham who set up the first Sure Start in Kent, and me plenty of time to put our case for keeping the centre fully-open.

Cllr. Whittle told us she’d been impressed by the enthusiasm that users of the centre have shown. I feel this was reflected in the very good, first OFSTED report carried out on the centre in July, around the time the centre was under threat of reduced hours.

A decision will be made soon about the centre’s future and I hope we have done enough to persuade the powers-that-be of the vital service offered to local residents. The short-term benefits of the Sure Start system are evident in the parents who have gained qualifications, employment, entered further and higher education following their involvement with Callis Grange Sure Start Centre. The long-term benefits may not be known for years when the children currently attending themselves become parents.

Research has shown that for every £1 spent on early in a child’s education, family support and intervention saves £7 in later years in relation to reduced crime, better school outcomes, fewer teenage pregnancies and more employment. This is why these centres need our support.

Ed Miliband speech to an FSB event

It is great to be here with you today as part of our dialogue with small business with Toby Perkins, our shadow minister for small business.

I want to thank the FSB for putting together this event.

And for all the incredible work you do for British business all the year round.

I also want to thank all the business people here today for giving up your valuable time to be here with us to discuss the future of small businesses in Britain.

Let me say something about my party:

It hasn’t traditionally been so, but I am deeply committed to us being a party that stands up for small businesses in this country.

You create huge amounts of wealth, and you will create the majority of the new jobs in the future.

The future of the British economy depends on small business.

You invent the products that we sell at home and across the world.

You provide the jobs that our country so desperately needs.

You nurture the skills of our young people.

And you create the wealth without which our country cannot thrive in the years ahead.

When you succeed, Britain succeeds.

But so many small businesses are facing the same cost of living crisis that affects families in our economy.

We are determined to do something about it.

Let me suggest some ways we can make a difference.

First, taking action on business rates.

I know that for so many small businesses, business rates are a cost that just seem to grow and grow, and are now often greater than your rent.

We are determined to do something about this ever escalating bill.

This Government plans to cut taxes further for large firms in 2015.

In tough times, we would use those precious resources instead to cut business rates after the next election and freeze them in 2016.

Our tax cut and freeze will mean an average saving of nearly £450 for 1.5 million business properties– shops, workshops, start-up businesses.

Second, we are determined to get a grip on the energy costs that are such a problem for so many small businesses.

Annual energy bills for small businesses have gone up by an average of £10,000 since 2010.

We would freeze prices until 2017 if we win the election.

And reform a broken energy market.

With proper competition and a new, effective regulator after that.

To keep prices as low as possible for the years ahead.

There is no solution to the cost of living crisis which tiptoes around taking on the energy companies and reforming a broken market.

You have seen the debate that this proposal has started.

Yesterday in weakness and panic, the government made up a new policy on energy.

Today, Nick Clegg has revealed their true intentions.

To shift the burden from ordinary bill payers, like you, to ordinary taxpayers, like you. Governments have always looked at this balance but this Government wants you to pick up the tab for its failure to stand up to the energy companies.

That won’t offer the real help that business and families need.

They propose a panicked wheeze paid for by taxpayers.

We offer a real freeze paid for by the big energy companies.

Third, we want to get you the finance you need to survive, grow and prosper.

It is why we will establish a network of new regional banks: banks that can lend in your region and in your region alone.

So that they have a legal duty to support the small and medium-sized businesses in their own part of the country.

That means that under Labour we will have banks that work for you, rather than you working for the banks.

These are just three changes that will make a real difference.

We will cut business rates, freeze energy bills and sort out our banking system.

And that is just a start.

I want a dialogue about what more needs to be done.

Let me end where I began: with Labour, and why we can stand up for you.

Because of our belief in enterprise.

But also because it is time to deploy one of our great traditions in the service of small business, standing up for those who need someone on their side.

Helping you, to help our country.

We want to develop a comprehensive offer coming from One Nation Labour for small businesses.

My ambition, our ambition, is to make our party, the Labour Party, the champion of small business at the next election.

Labour Party

Sir John Major comments deeply embarrassing for Cameron - Jon Ashworth

Jon Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Office minister, responding to Sir John Major’s comments, said:

“It’s deeply embarrassing for David Cameron that a man famous for not wanting to criticise his successors would come out and say what everyone else is thinking: this Prime Minister is completely out of touch. David Cameron stands up only for a privileged few and has no answers to the cost of living crisis he’s created.

“John Major has become the latest voice to recognise that people are sick and tired of being left out of pocket because of David Cameron’s failure to stand up to the energy companies. That’s why we desperately need a Labour government which will freeze energy bills to save money for 27 million households and 2.4 million businesses and reset the market to deliver fairer prices in the future.”

Labour Party

Rachel Reeves response to tripling of Trussell Trust foodback use

Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow DWP Secretary, responding to the tripling of Trussell Trust foodbank useage, said:

"This tripling of food bank usage over just one year is shocking and shaming. The Trussell Trust themselves point to David Cameron’s cruel and unfair bedroom tax as a major driver of this startling increase, as well as the wider cost of living crisis we are seeing with food prices and energy bills rising faster than wages month after month.

"This should be a wake-up call to the Tory-led government who are totally out of touch with the hardship their policies are creating. They should reverse the bedroom tax now, as Labour has promised to, using money raised by closing tax loopholes, take action on rising gas and electricity bills – and start standing up for ordinary families instead of putting a privileged few first."

Note:

1. Over 350,000 people received three days’ emergency food from Trussell Trust foodbanks between April and September 2013, triple the numbers helped in the same period last year.

Labour Party