Tough on crime – not this lot

Vandalism, dangerous dogs and nuisance neighbours make families’ lives a misery. People want to know that if they are a victim of crime - or if they are being regularly harassed by yobs on their street - then the police will have the power and capability to restore peace as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s why I strongly supported the measures – new laws, new penalties, additional resources – that Tony Blair’s government committed to the fight against crime and anti-social behaviour and, as a result, it fell considerably.

But, as I’ve argued before, I’m worried the clock is now being turned back. I make no apology for returning to the issue because it is so important. On top of big cuts to neighbourhood police, the Cameron/Clegg coalition wants to weaken police powers to fight anti-social behaviour. I’m clear that they need to rethink these policies, as we need stronger action against crime instead of their weak approach.

Home Secretary Theresa May plans to water down Asbos so that someone who keeps ignoring police warnings, court orders and injunctions to stop terrorising the local estate will no longer be guilty of a crime. Instead, she plans to introduce the Community Trigger – and, no, it isn’t one attached to a shotgun! - which gives people the right to demand that police deal with anti-social behaviour, meaning forces would have to investigate any incident reported by at least five people or any three complaints by the same person. The reality is that victims who complain three times will only have the right to a review, and this is just the minimum requirement with the authorities able to wait much longer before taking further action if they choose to.

What this will mean in practice has been discovered in the Government’s own pilot schemes in Manchester, Brighton and Richmond. These show that of 44,011 antisocial behaviour incidents, the Community Trigger was only successfully activated 13 times.

The Government’s plans are also weak on support for victims of repeated harassment. There are too many loopholes to let offenders off if police resources are tight. And, all this is to happen when the Government is cutting thousands of frontline police officers.

This all goes to show that this Government simply doesn’t understand the strains and pressures some of our communities are facing. Even more worrying is that it doesn’t appear to be listening to the concerns those communities, and their elected representatives, are expressing.

Welfare reform – heading towards the rocks?

Not infrequently, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, recalls being made redundant and facing life on the dole. Of course, most people being sent down the road are not so fortunate as to be able to rely on the wealthy in-laws.

Less frequently mentioned nowadays was his second enforced redundancy after just two years as Leader of the Conservative Party.Why do I mention this now? I will take IDS at his own words and, therefore, not underestimate the determination of a quiet man. However, word on the street is that IDS’s welfare reform programme is heading towards the rocks. If that results, he will be facing his own interview on the Work Programme in the near future.

The Treasury has been consistently sceptical about IDS’s welfare reform programme. Forget the objectives; forget the specific policies. It’s the practical delivery of the programme within the financial parameters that’s the key problem. However, it’s also important to look at the unintended (or were they?) financial and social consequences.

Let’s just consider a few elements:

• DWP has already been forced to ditch three of the four proposed Universal Credit pathfinders because the IT systems – even for this limited application – are nowhere near ready.
• Insiders are now confirming that there is no chance of 1 million people receiving universal credit by April 2014, as IDS promised in November 2011.
• Applications for discretionary housing payments (DHP) in April, as a consequence of the bedroom tax, leapt from 5,700 last year to more than 25,000 this year and many more will claim when they find out about them. The budget for DHPs will shortly be exhausted, or so constrained that arrears will take a further leap.
• As the DHP budget runs out, there will be thousands of bad news stories about the impact on adults with disabilities and on children who are no longer able to stay with one parent, after relationship breakdown.
• The costs of collecting the bedroom tax, including managing arrears, could well take up most of the extra income.
• A  housing association at the heart of the first direct payment pathfinder  experienced a 29 per cent rise in people contacting its financial support team in the last year, and a 19% rise in the total amount of debt referred.
• Rent arrears in these pathfinders are already increasing dramatically. The reality is that ‘direct by default’ is already being carefully ditched.
• The welfare reform agenda will increase costs in a whole range of other service areas, say 95% of senior council officers. None of these costs were included in the DWP impact assessment.
• It is clear that DWP simply didn’t understand or take account of the frequency of changes in personal circumstances which affect housing and some other benefits which they are trying to incorporate into the universal credit system

Of course, if the government had really been serious about subsidising under-occupation, they would not have excluded pensioners from the scope of the bedroom tax. Not that I am advocating an expansion of the bedroom tax, rather the opposite.

Perhaps the biggest unintended consequence of IDS’s plans is that, because of the necessary extra provision for increases in arrears, increasing costs of collection and advice, and possibly increased borrowing costs social housing providers are cutting their investment plans for this year by an estimated £1bn plus, mainly impacting on the construction industry and building materials’ providers. So, at the very time that the government is rushing around trying to find good-value infrastructure investment projects that can be on site quickly, it scuppers over £1bn that fits the bill.

It has not been a good few weeks for IDS. He

• called for people to voluntarily return winter fuel payments. Just 200 did so.
• lost a major court battle to keep the locations of thousands of workfare placements secret. The judge said the DWP had “a paucity of compelling evidence” to back its claims. Sounds familiar!
• was defeated when the Court of Appeal ruled that workers had been unlawfully made to do unpaid work
• has again been rebuked by the UK Statistics Authority over the deliberate misuse of statistics.

In November 2003, Iain Duncan Smith released his novel The Devil’s Tune. The critics panned it. "Really, it's terrible ... terrible, terrible, terrible" was one of the more generous.  The book never made it into paperback.

Now, with welfare reform being “terrible, terrible….”, perhaps IDS is determined to mark his place in history with the greatest crash on the rocks of all time. The dreadful prospect is that millions of the poorest families will be the ones most affected.

This article was originally published on the Local Government Chronicle website on the 4th of June 2013. http://www.lgcplus.com/briefings/a-long-list-of-costs-and-casualties/5059171.article

Cameron and Clegg – the criminals’ friends?

It is undoubtedly the case that crime fell significantly over the last decade. That fall followed the trend of increasing crime under the last Conservative government, which had made significant cuts to frontline policing and failed to tackle anti-social behaviour.

However, there is a real danger that the headline lower crime figures are masking another change in direction.

First, there is the cut in frontline policing. Nationally, there are already 11,500 fewer police officers than in 2010; 178 fewer in South Yorkshire, 252 fewer in Derbyshire and 282 fewer in Nottinghamshire. However, on the basis of the announcements already made, those forces still have significant cuts to make. For instance, South Yorkshire will be cutting another 239 frontline police officers by 2015.

Second, 30,000 fewer crimes – including more than 7000 violent crimes - have actually been solved since 2010. And, even when crimes have been solved, it is really worrying that some violent offenders are being let off without a criminal record.

Most people support community resolution and restorative justice for minor crimes. However, it is astonishing that, whereas just 2204 ‘violence against the person’ offences were dealt with in that way in 2008, that number had jumped to 33,673 in 2012. Last year, under pressure from Nick Clegg, more than 10,000 cases of serious violence didn’t even get to court. Further, not only is there no criminal record, but information about the crime or the criminal is not kept on the Police National Computer.

Thirdly, anyone who watches Crimewatch, or has followed the progress from detection to conviction of many serious cases – let alone thousands of minor ones – will have noticed the important role that CCTV has played. It is staggering that this coalition government is now spending £14m on increasing the red tape to make it harder to get CCTV and for the police and CPS to use CCTV and DNA evidence.

It’s getting more likely that the history books will write up Cameron and Clegg as the criminals’ friends.

A small victory.

Back in March[1], I sounded the alert about the Government's latest proposal for a single tier pension that would mean that about 430,000 women born between 6 April 1952 and 6 July 1953 would not qualify for the new pension but men of the same age would.

That would have affected about 700 women in South-East Sheffield and more than 4000 women in Sheffield. Those women would have drawn a state pension income of around £1,900 a year (£36.55 a week) less than a man of the same age and, even if they did receive their pension earlier, they were still likely to be worse off.

I ridiculed Ministerial claims that those women would be better off simply because they were allowed to retire earlier. It was disingenuous. If these women were retired for 20 years they would lose considerably more than the pension received for the earlier retirement.

I told those women to make their views known and to shout about it. They did.

As a result, I’m pleased to be able to report that George Osborne has caved in and brought the reforms forward by one year. The move will mean that those women will be able to claim a single-tier pension, as the new scheme will be introduced on April 6, 2016, and not 2017 as was previously announced.

A small victory.

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[1] http://clivebettsmp.blogspot.co.uk/2013_03_17_archive.html

Trussed up!

Back in January, I asked “What has the government got against parents and children?”[1]

I pointed out that

• parents with 2 newborns will get a £1,700 Toddler Tax, because of cut changes to tax credits, maternity grants and child benefit this April and next
• 401 Sure Start Children’s Centres have closed since 2010, despite David Cameron and Nick Clegg both promising that they would back Sure Start
• there had already been a 40 per cent cut in the budgets to train nursery staff, and more cuts are to come later this year, and
• the government was proposing that the childcare staff:child ratios for two-year-olds should be increased from 1:4 to 1:6, while the ratio for under-twos should rise from 1:3 to 1:4 in nurseries.

Since then, in response to those childcare proposals, influential parent groups Mumsnet and Netmums have both added their support to the growing campaign[2] to stop Ministers increasing the number of children nursery staff and childminders can care for, after overwhelming opposition to the plans from their members.

Their intervention follows that of Professor Cathy Nutbrown - the Head of Education at Sheffield University, who was commissioned by the Government itself to advise on improving the quality of childcare – as she became the latest expert to describe the plans as “nonsense”. She said the proposals would “lead to worse, not 'great' childcare…”[3]

She joined Professors Helen Penn and Eva Lloyd, who had been commissioned to write a report on childcare costs which has been buried by the Government, warning that “increasing ratios would reduce the quality of care and create potential safety issues.”[4]

When the Childcare Minister Liz Truss, backed by DPM Nick Clegg, launched these proposals, she said “I have seen too many chaotic [childcare] settings, where children are running around. There’s no sense of purpose.”[5] Now we learn that, since she became the Childcare Minister in 2012, she has only visited 2 nurseries, both close to her Westminster office and both praised by OFSTED.[6]

What a disgrace; they should both be trussed up!

CLIVE BETTS MP [SHEFFIELD SOUTH EAST]

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[1] http://clivebettsmp.blogspot.co.uk/2013_01_27_archive.html

[2] http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45887

[3] http://www.scribd.com/doc/131109473/Shaking-the-Foundations-of-Quality-Nutbrown-18th-March-2013

[4] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/relaxing-childminding-rules-will-worsen-quality-of-care-8449393.html

[5] http://goo.gl/jUO2B

[6] http://goo.gl/dDMPR

An accident waiting to happen

The latest national, regional and local statistics for NHS Accident and Emergency (A&E) services should give is all cause for concern. They figures show just how much A&E units are struggling in a way not seen since the bad old days of the 1990s. Simply because of the big investment in the NHS under Tony Blair’s government, which produced such dramatic improvements, we often forget just how bad our NHS had become twenty years ago.

Almost 4,500 nursing jobs have been lost since David Cameron entered Downing Street in May 2010 and those losses are now putting patients’ lives at risk. Nationally, more than half a million patients have waited more than 4 hours to be seen in A&E in the last 6 months.

Recently released figures show that major A&E units across Yorkshire and Humberside and the East Midlands are now seriously struggling and that they have consistently missed their waiting times targets. Wherever you turn, more people are waiting longer in A&E in Sheffield, Chesterfield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Doncaster, Nottingham and Derby.

I was proud of Labour’s NHS record in government. By 2010, patient satisfaction was at an all time high, waiting times were at a record low and we had increased the number of nurses by over 80,000. Earlier in this Parliament, I called on this government to abandon its massively expensive, top-down re-organisation of the NHS and instead use some of the money to save 6,000 nursing jobs.

Nurses are the backbone of our NHS but the Government has failed to grasp the seriousness of its cuts to nursing numbers and the impact that is having on A&E units. The Government must devise an urgent plan to bring all A&Es up to the required standard and ensure there are enough staff on duty to provide the safe care we all need.

IKEA

Like many people in Sheffield, I would like an IKEA to be built here. It would clearly be much better to shop locally rather than drive to Nottingham or Leeds.

However, like any other potential development, an application from IKEA has to be judged against the planning policy of the Government and the Local Plan adopted by the Council after lengthy consultation. The Council can’t  simply say ‘yes’ because of a vocal lobby of those who like IKEA as a place to shop.

There are two particular planning issues which IKEA has to address with regard to its current proposal. Firstly, both the Government and the Council have a policy of town and district centre first. In order to keep such centres vibrant and viable, any retail development should preferably be located there. This means that those without cars can access shops and others with their own car may choose to use public transport with the obvious environmental benefits. By locating shops together, shoppers can walk to a choice of shops. Town and district centres also offer public space, theatres, galleries and other facilities.

Only if no suitable sites exist in those centres should out-of-town sites be considered. If this process is not gone through, any new retail schemes would just try to locate where it’s cheapest to build and the city centre would simply die.

The second issue is a challenge facing all development near junction 34 on the M1. The government’s national Highways Agency assesses the junction as being at capacity. IKEA will have to convince the Agency that traffic from its scheme will not cause gridlock. It will also have to show that other development sites in the area which already have permission for office, manufacturing and other uses will not be sterilized, and their jobs lost, because junction 34 is too full to allow all to be built. It is not just a case of jobs at IKEA, but that other potential jobs should not be jeopardised.

We must also be cautious however about the forecast extra jobs from an IKEA store. If the forecast new jobs from every new store and supermarket in recent years had materialized, there would be no unemployment today. Ultimately, shoppers have only so much to spend and, if a new store opens, much of its trade simply transfers from existing shops. Over the years small shops have closed as more large ones have opened. I accept however if IKEA are going to build a new store we should work with them to ensure the jobs are created in Sheffield.

IKEA could also help their cause by encouraging people to travel by public transport. The site is next to a tram stop. Free home delivery within a prescribed distance of the store would do that and also help those without cars who would like to shop at IKEA.

I hope IKEA can work with the Council to address these important issues. I look forward to Sheffielders being able to shop in their own IKEA in the near future.

Being and Feeling Safe

A major report published last week confirmed that rates of violent crime in Britain have tumbled faster than anywhere else in Western Europe over the past decade. The rate of homicide has fallen by half since 2003, while every region of the UK has become more peaceful despite the country's economic turmoil. Sheffield was confirmed to be one of the most peaceful urban areas in the UK.

Yet people tend to perceive that Britain is much more violent than it is in reality. 17 per cent of people think they will fall victim to violent crime at some point, whereas only four per cent will actually do so.

Now, the statistics on murder and violent crime are fairly reliable indicators of reality. However, as the severity of the crime lessens, there is increasing disparity between the actual incidence of crimes and the reporting and recording of those crimes. To take the most obvious example, consider the actual number of instances of exceeding the speed limit and the number of those which are reported and recorded.

That is why in looking at crime patterns, you need to look at both the Reported Crime statistics and the British Crime Survey – the latter being an annual detailed survey into the actual crime experiences of about 40,000 citizens over the previous 12 months.

So what are we to make of the latest statistics on reported cases of anti-social behaviour, which suggest that South Yorkshire has the second highest rate of any police force after Greater Manchester?

Actually, there is plenty of both research and anecdotal evidence to confirm that reporting anti-social behaviour increases when people have confidence that it will be addressed. So, an increase in recorded ASB might simply be a reflection of increased confidence rather than an increase in the incidence.of the crime itself.

I know that people are far more confident than a decade ago about reporting anti-social behaviour and expecting that something will be done about it. But, I also know that anti-social behaviour happens too frequently.

That’s why I’m very concerned that the Government is turning the clock back with their plans to scrap the ASBO and replace it with a weaker power which carries no criminal sanction for a breach.  Similarly, the proposed community trigger, which demands a response if a person has complained three times just isn’t good enough.

People have the right to expect action right away and help to tackle an issue which is a huge worry.

Going backwards

Three years on it’s now as clear the Government's plan is failing, and failing badly.

Not only are more people unemployed than at the election, it’s soaring up. Seventy thousand more people are now on the dole than last month, youth unemployment rose by 20,000 and long term unemployment rose yet again to 900,000. In Yorkshire and Humberside and the East Midlands, the position was worse than nationally, with employment falling and unemployment increasing.

Research by the House of Commons’ Library shows that real terms’ wages are, on average, £1,700 lower than in May 2010. Wages were flat last year, but inflation continued at more than 3%, with inflation in essentials, like food and energy, rising faster than that. Although the UK might just miss a triple-dip recession, the squeeze on households is worsening as consumers are caught between falling incomes and rising living costs.

Four times as many households (32 per cent) said that their finances had worsened last month than reported an improvement (8 per cent). Families earning below £23,000 a year and those living in social rented housing were hit worst by the downturn, with 45 per cent of council tenants reporting deterioration in their household budgets, compared with only 2 per cent who said that their situations had improved.

To look at this another way, families earning below £23,000 a year are effectively having to work an extra 6 weeks a year to make what they did in 2010. It’s not surprising that they feel they're going backwards, because they are going backwards.

We urgently need action to get local people into work. That is why I’m supporting a compulsory jobs guarantee, which will get any adult out of work for more than two years - or young person out of work for a year - into a job they would be required to take. Without such action now, this government is condemning a whole generation to joblessness.

BARKING MAD!

We’ve made great strides in tackling anti-social behaviour over the last 15 years. However, this government is in real danger of both making a mess of the anti-social behaviour legislation and of missing some real opportunities to sort out some powers which are necessary to take action when people and communities are afraid.

The latest example of this is that the coalition government is planning to water down the powers to control dangerous dogs, despite a growing number of attacks. The government is planning to axe dog control orders in England and replace them with a general "public spaces protection order" which covers everything from crack houses to littering in parks.

An all-party committee of MPs has criticised the move, warning that merging dog control with other anti-social behaviour powers will make the menace of aggressive behaviour by dogs less of a priority for councils and police. An estimated 210,000 dog attacks on people occur every year, and, in 2011-12, 6,450 victims ended up in hospital.

The current dog control orders cover all breeds, not just the four specified breeds under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Owners face £1,000 fines if they fail to keep dogs on leads in specified public places or have six or more dogs per individual. In Scotland and Wales, there are new dog control notices that can be used to order that specific animals are muzzled, but Ministers are refusing to consider such orders in England.

The Dangerous Dogs Act covers only a narrow list of fighting breeds, including pit bull terriers, and does not address the problem of other breeds of dogs attacking in packs. Dog welfare charities say the government’s proposals don’t effectively tackle irresponsible dog ownership and are likely to make the problems worse.

We need tougher laws to tackle dangerous dogs, and councils and the police need powers to deal with aggressive behaviour before it turns into a vicious attack. There is huge public support for strong powers to tackle the issue. It’s difficult to understand why the coalition government Government is not responding to it.