May I wish all readers a very happy new decade. Each New Year offers the prospect of change, but 2010 is the start of a new decade and a General Election year where real change is a serious possibility.
All of the parties are floating ideas that may or may not end up in their manifestos when the time comes. Viewed from South Devon much of the Westminster village debate doesn’t concern us, while many of the issues that matter most to us seem to go unmentioned.
Our part of the world is facing immense challenges that governments past and present have failed to meet. The four pillars of the South West economy have been in various states of decline over the past three decades. Tourism, fishing, agriculture and defence employ fewer people and generate less sustainable wealth than five, ten or thirty years ago.
The invention of the jet engine and the development of the package holiday offers most people a bucket and spade vacation with guaranteed sunshine, often for less money, from a regional airport closer to their home than the English coast.
Fewer fishermen and boats are required for the same sized haul as new technology has increased the catch to the point where some species of fish are near extinction.
Modern farming techniques and global competition have increased yields while forcing the small family farmer out of business.
The end of the Cold War and the reappraisal of Britain’s role in the world has already led to a reduction in the amount of defence related economic activity, even before Devonport loses its role housing Britain’s submarine fleet.
We need an economic plan for our part of the world that meets the challenges we face. The far South West suffers from poor infrastructure. To drive investment, create jobs and ultimately save money we need major investment in better transport links.
A priority has to be support for small local businesses who have been hit hard by the recession. We have to target tax cuts to make sure locally owned businesses can thrive in our town centres, and elsewhere.
As well as supporting our traditional industries, we must look at ways of diversifying into the creative industries, hi-tech manufacturing and other areas that can provide permanent high quality jobs.
We also need a fairer society and this has to start with fairer taxes. Too many people in our area struggle on low incomes so making the first £10,000 a person earns tax free should be a priority, and easily paid for by closing loopholes that allow the wealthy and large businesses to avoid tens of billions of pounds of tax every year.
We need to end the unfair utility bills that emerged from privatisation. Water and sewerage charges should be standardised across the UK. We should seriously look at introducing mandatory social tariffs, smart meters and ending the prepayment premium for gas and electricity consumers.
Our pensioners receive one of the least generous state pensions in Europe. So a priority for the South West where such a high proportion of the population have retired should be to campaign to restore the link between earnings and pensions. No elderly person should have an income below the poverty line.
The far South West has one of the largest gaps between income and house prices in the UK. There is a lack of affordable homes and homelessness is becoming a greater problem. We need new homes but it should be up to local people not Whitehall to decide where and how many are to be built. We need to give councils the power and resources to invest in new social housing that is appropriate to local needs.
Cutting VAT on renovation and brownfield development would help preserve Devon’s countryside and green spaces in urban areas.
Scrapping the unfair council tax and replacing it with a system based on peoples’ ability to pay would leave more money in local peoples’ pockets and have a major positive effect on the far South West economy.
I hope some of these ideas will end up in the final manifestos of the main parties so that the issues that affect us will be properly aired and the responses of the parties tested. I shall certainly be arguing the case within my own party.
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I have always received a fair amount of correspondence about Torbay Council proposals but this last year saw more people than ever before put pen to paper, email or phone me, or turn up to one of my surgeries to share their fears.
The gist of what lies behind this is something quite simple: Local people are not opposed to new ideas; they just want to be part of them.
The people of the bay have much to offer the powers that be and don’t take kindly to so called consultation exercises where projects are simply presented and feedback ignored.
They also don’t take kindly to being told they are standing in the way of progress when all they are trying to do is ensure that we don’t destroy something that’s good for the sake of investing a little more time and energy into making the best decision for all concerned.
Whether it is laziness or impatience on the part of the Mayor and his Cabinet to get things through I do not know. I do know that the people at the top of this administration have increased the budget for press officers while other services face cuts.
Just like the Mayoral Vision – drafted by consultants rather than consulted through the people – no number of column inches can substitute for public involvement.
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My 2009 annual report is now available; just contact my office for a copy.
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