Adrian Sanders

Adrian responds to Darling's Budget

Adrian Sanders MP gives his view on the 2009 Budget and what it means for Torbay.

Sanders Reacts to Budget

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has given his initial reaction to today's budget announcement by Chancellor Alistair Darling: "This is a pick and mix budget, when we needed tough long term decisions. It presents some difficult challenges for Torbay and South Devon."

• No help for people struggling to make ends meet. The Government has tinkered with tax credits, when it should have offered a permanent big tax cut, paid for by closing tax loopholes and cracking down on tax avoidance. By raising personal allowance to £10,000, vast majority of people would have their income tax cut by £700 and 4 million of the lowest paid will be taken out of tax altogether.

• 50% top tax makes clamping down on tax avoidance even more essential. The Government claims that by raising the top rate of tax to 50% for people earning over £150,000 it will raise £1.1bn. The IFS however says it will raise far less than this as people will simply avoid it, for example by presenting their income as capital and therefore only have to pay 18% of CGT. CGT should be taxed as income and other loopholes closed.

• Continuing the wasteful VAT cut. The Government will waste an extra £8.5bn on the VAT cut, it should have been reversed and the money put into creating jobs for today and assets for the future, through projects such as building social housing, insulating homes, schools and hospitals and re-opening and upgrading railway lines.

• We have been saddled with decades of debt because of no long term tough choices. The Government budget deficits over the next 5 years are going to cost £32,000 per household. The government has not made the long term tough choices which will return our economy back to stability in the future.

• Ludicrously optimistic on cost of banking rescue. The Government has claimed that the bank bailout will cost just £49bn, when the IMF claims it will cost more than double that at £130bn. They have also failed to get banks to lend to solvent business and there is still not strategy to sort the banks out, break them up and re-privatise them in the longer term.

There were four areas of the budget that will directly impact on our local economy:

• The gaming machine tax increases will hurt amusement parks, arcades and others who derive an income from small stake machines.

• The £8 to £48 per tonne rise in the landfill tax will hit Torbay hard. The low priority Torbay has given to recycling in recent years needs to be reconsidered and radical policy changes implemented.

• Guest houses and small hotels trading just below the VAT registration rate of £67,000 will need to be alert to the fact that a turnover rise of just £1,000 will lift them over the threshold for VAT.

• Pub closures locally are unlikely to be stemmed with the beer and other alcohol tax rises. Local landlords wanted a beer tax cut to give local pubs a chance against supermarkets subsidising prices below the wholesale prices pubs have to pay.

Budget Must Build Economy and Help Struggling Families

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has submitted the views of Torbay residents to the Chancellor ahead of Wednesday's budget. Several hundred people have responded and as well as putting the main case for a budget to help Torbay, Adrian will be raising a host of isolated issues with Ministers to try and get them resolved.

Adrian commented: "The Government has been making changes up to the last minute for the Budget and hopefully there will be real measures now to help the people of Torbay. The Budget has two key tasks. Firstly it must help those being hit hardest by the recession-small businesses, pensioners and those on low incomes. Secondly it must start laying the foundations for a return to a stable and fair economy."

"The response from residents has been fantastic; there is a very strong frustration that the Government is not doing enough to help in a situation it partly caused."

"Although the Government has already borrowed heavily and is currently re-announcing efficiency savings, there is still room to shift the economy to get real help to people now."

Adrian is also supporting Nick Clegg's campaign to have the tax free threshold for income tax raised to £10,000, ensuring more people on low incomes are able to survive through tough times.

Torbay Wins Bid for Better Care Programme

It has been announced that Torbay Care Trust has been sucessful in its bid to participate in a Department of Health programme for integrated health and social care.

There are 16 Integrated Care Pilot schemes nationwide and the programme for Torbay will focus upon care for the elderly. The aim is to provide a more personalised delivery of services to the needs of elderly patients. Partner organisations will include those across primary, secondary, social care and mental health services.

Torbay Care Trust fought off considerable competition throughout the rigorous assessment process to secure the programme which began on 1 April 2009 and will run for two years.

Torbay MP, Adrian Sanders commented: "This is great news for Torbay Care Trust and the Bay's older residents. The pilot programme has a real opportunity to improve the integration of local health services."

"This should ease pressure on local healthcare staff and resources in the long term, as well as making patient care increasingly tailored to individual patient needs."

Phil Hope, the Care Minister said: "The Integrated Care Pilots programme aims to test a number of diverse models, focusing on innovation and on delivering an improvement in outcomes, quality and service user satisfaction."

Sanders Tackles Minister over Poor Deal for Pensioners

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has been calling on Rosie Winterton, Minister for Pensions, to provide a better deal for Torbay pensioners. With somewhere between 20% and 40% of pensioners living below the poverty line, thousands of Torbay residents are being hit hard by the recession with no help from the Government.

Rosie Winterton claimed that: "the average pensioner household will be £1,600 a year (£31 a week) better off in 2008/9 than in 1997 due to our tax and benefit changes."

However, the OECD has showed that fuel bills rose by 12% in the last year alone, with food prices rocketing by over 18% in the same time. Increases in the basic state pension have failed to keep pace with the cost of living, forcing pensioners to make difficult  decisions on what necessities to go without.

Adrian said: "The Government is putting its head in the sand over pensioner poverty. As a society we need to ensure that no one, especially vulnerable individuals, lives below the poverty line."

"Although the Government has provided some well received add-ons such as free swimming and free bus travel, at root this is a patronising dodge of the real issue. If pensioners had a reasonable income, they would not need these hand outs. This is why I am campaigning for the Government to recognise the contribution pensioners have made to our society and provide them with a guaranteed income above the poverty line."

The Minister's response to Adrian's questions comes as Age Concern and Help the Aged announced today that research has revealed a deteriorating standard of living for older people.

The Devon Pensioners' Action Forum has also called for the basic pension level to be raised to the poverty line, currently at £165 a week for a single person. 

Government Calls South West Water Users Polluters

Adrian Sanders has reacted with dismay at the Government's continuing backing for higher water bills in the South West than the rest of the UK.

DEFRA Minister Huw Irranca-Davis stated that the polluter pays principle is being used to justify high water bills for the region.

Following questions from Adrian, the Minister stated: "in the South West, 5% of the nation's customers are paying to clean up 30% of the nation's beaches. However, it is difficult to justify, under the polluter-pays principle, for taxpayers or other company's customers' to meet the costs of treating another company's customers' water and sewage."

The distribution of water companies was, however, allocated by central Government at the point of privatisation and unless customers move out of the region, there is no opportunity to change supplier.

Adrian commented: "It is hard to see how the average water user in the  South West pollutes more than the rest of the country. If anything South West customers are the most environmentally friendly; the high cost of bills even forces some to cut back water consumption to the bare minimum."

"The Government is using one spurious argument after another to justify this water bill apartheid. It is purely an accident of geography and arbitrary central Government demarcations, stemming from privatisation, that cause this."

"It is clear that privatisation has failed for water consumers; there is no chance to change supplier and there can be no competition on price. The Government needs to face facts that water is an essential public resource and that the principle behind these regional water monopolies is fundamentally flawed." 

In Adrian's consultation with Torbay residents over the state of the economy, many highlighted water bills as problematic, contributing to the high poverty rates in the South West region. Adrian is pushing for water provision to be treated as a universial service obligation, like the NHS or royal mail, to be delivered equally to all citizens regardless of their location in the country.

Survey Results Show Apathy is Winning

Survey results released this month show that despite considerable Government investment, there are worrying trends in British citizenship. Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has claimed that these trends are having an effect on how well things work in communities like Torbay.

The Audit of Political Engagement, compiled by the Hansard Society, reveal that only 53% of people will definately vote in the next general election and around 50% of people do not even want to be involved in decision making nationally or locally.

This is leading to citizenship apartheid, where only half the people paying taxes to the Government actually have an input into how this revenue is spent. The report concluded that this lack of participation cansiderably reduces the ability og all forms of Government to perform effectively.

Adrian said: "It is an indictment on all politicians that so many people think they cannot have a say in vital decisions that affect their lives. Whether you agree with any politician or none, it is important to some extent to ensure your voice is heard."

"Without involvement, decision makers at a local or national level can effectively ignore whole groups. The lack of interest shown by young peoplehas recently seen them miss out on free swimming, susidised public transport and a whole host of other decisions."

"Torbay is going through a period of considerable upheaval, with regeneration, tacking the recession and improving public services just some of the priorities for politicians. It is amazing how few residents actually voice an opinion, especially on local matters."  

Jobseeker Support Grows

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has welcomed news that support for jobseekers has been growing; but has voiced concern that the Government has still done little to increase the number of job vacancies.

Regional Jobcentre  Plus Manager Phil Weeks has been championing the  new support available, including £1,000 recruitment subsidies for empoyers, free basic skills training for jobseekers and more funding for the Rapid Response Service.

These measures are very necessary for Torbay, which has over 3,500 jobseekers in the Borough. But there are only around 350 jobs on offer in the authority's jobcentres.

Adrian is pushing local and national Government to provide more support for small businesses and really stimulate job creation schemes.

Adrian said: "It is very good news that extra training and support is, in theory, now available to the unemployed but it will be of no use if Government policy continues to squander opportunities to provide jobs."

"The VAT cut has proved to be a waste of money for both taxpayers and businesses. What we really need is investment based on a sound cost-benefit analysis. For example, every pound spent on Visit Britain tourism advertising funding brings £36 into the economy."

"A fiscal stimulus will only have credibility if it creates jobs now and while the state of Britain's finances is perilous, there is still time for the Government to divert spending into areas that will benefit the economy."

Funding for Disabled Children

Bay MP Adrian Sanders has congratulated charity Family Fund for helping 121 families with severely disabled children in Torbay during 2007-08. Grants have totalled almost £79,000 and have enabled the purchase of items such as washing machines, clothing, computers, driving lessons and family holidays.

Family Fund now has two further ways to help people in Torbay. Firstly, the Fund is now accessible to disabled young people up to the age of 18, raised from 16, for families who have an earned income of less than £23,000.

Family Fund 'extra' (www.familyfundextra.org.uk) gives families with disabled children discounts on a large range of services and products from retailers such as Marks and Spencer, Comet and Argos.

Family Fund has asked for people to use 'extra' as their online shopping gateway for retailers such as Amazon, so that the Family Fund can receive commission on these purchases from retailers, reinvesting funds in badly needed grants.

Adrian commented: "Organisations such as Family Fund play a vital part in supporting low income families with disabled children."

"It is so important that disabled children and provided with the same opportunities wherever possible as able-bodied children and items such as laptops and driving lessons help facilitate this."

"I would encourage anyone who thinks they may be eligible for funding to visit www.familyfund.org.uk or call Family Fund on 0845 130 4542."  

Animal Cruelty for Food Must Be Banned

MP for Torbay, Adrian Sanders has called on the Government to ban the sale in the UK of foie gras that has been produced using traditional menthods.

The traditional method of foie gras production consists of forcing metal pipes down the throats of ducks and geese to allow them to be easily over-fed which increases the size of their livers to 10 times their normal size.

This method of production has been illegal in the UK for some time but the sale of the product is not. It is an extremely cruel process and many birds die before the completion of the forced-feeding process. The birds have also been shown to demonstrate signs of fear and their natural behaviour is dramatically altered.

There is an alternative to foie gras, know as faux gras, which is produced from free-range ducks and geese which have not been subjected to force-feeding and is supported by the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming as an ethical alternative.

Adrian commented: "Animal welfare issues have rightly received more publicity and attention in recent years but the production of foie gras is one area that is often overlooked."

"It seems hypocritical that the cruel production of foie gras is banned in the UK and yet we still permit the sale of the product. It is time that the sale of traditionally produced foie gras is banned in this country and that we switch to humane alternatives."