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1.45 pm
Mr. Martin Salter (Reading, West): Not only were many of the comments of the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Sir R. Body) offensive, but he did not even have the courtesy to be here at the start of the debate. I caught the 7.40 train to be here on time to make points to Ministers, and I intend to make them.
I rise on this end-of-term occasion to draw the House's attention in general, and that of Ministers in particular, to the serious problems facing some of our great public services in respect of staff recruitment and retention.
I am of course delighted that Reading, as the capital of the Thames valley, is an economic success story. We have the thriving and bustling Oracle shopping centre, which is the envy of the region, and we have virtually no unemployment. Only yesterday, I learned of a local computer software company that is offering £1,000 cash bonuses to members of staff who can find a friend to recruit to the company. When the new giant Green Park business complex is completed next to junction 11 of the M4, another 5,000 new jobs will be created. Goodness knows where the staff will come from to fill those vacancies.
Reading is a new Labour success story, but the price of that success is considerable. The insanely high cost of home ownership, not just in my constituency but in large parts of the south-east of England, is putting house purchase beyond the reach of many key public sector workers, including newly qualified nurses, teachers, firefighters, police officers and many local authority employees. In my constituency, a simple two-up two-down terraced house goes for between £90,000 and £100,000. Those properties, which were built for railway workers and Huntley and Palmer's biscuit factory workers, are now well beyond the reach of the qualified, professional people who keep our essential public services running.
To buy a house in my constituency, a first-time purchaser needs to earn in the region of £24,000 to £25,000 a year. How can a newly qualified teacher on £19,000 achieve that? How are police officers, whose salaries start at £16,000 and rise to £18,000 after two years, supposed to achieve that? Firefighters earn between £15,000 and £17,000, and nurses earn much less.
Problems apply not only at that end of the wage scale. Reading borough council has taken six months not to recruit a head of housing and social services at a salary of some £60,000. Clearly, house prices are not a factor in that case, but it shows the pressure on the job market.
Local schools face the real possibility of having to shut classes next September through lack of teachers. There has been a tradition of firefighters having second jobs, although the problem may be less well known in my area. I have highlighted in the Chamber before the insane situation of two firefighters in my constituency, one of whom commutes from Lincoln and the other of whom commutes from north Dorset, because those are the only regions in which they can afford to buy houses.
We all love nurses and want to see more in the NHS. We have been promised 7,000 new nurses in the new NHS plan. However, if it is to be a truly national plan, those nurses will need to be able to seek employment in all corners of the country.
My local police force, Thames Valley, has been hardest hit by the shortage in affordable housing and the previous Government's actions. In 1996, police numbers fell to an all-time low: 3,674 officers. Luckily, they have now risen a bit to 3,783. The fall was the result of the change in the funding formula by the then Home Secretary, the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard), which cost some 200 officers overnight. In Reading, that was further compounded by Thames Valley police force's total resource allocation formula, which cost us some 40 to 50 officers. Worst of all was the previous Government's ill-advised decision to implement the Sheehy report, which got rid of the police housing
allowance so that officers joining the service after 1 September 1994 were patrolling the beat with senior colleagues who were picking up £4,800 more than they were. No wonder we are reaping the rewards of those ill-thought-out policies.I am glad that the Home Secretary and the Chancellor have put in extra resources. As a result of the crime-fighting fund, we shall have an additional 200 officers, the bulk this year and the remainder next year. As a result of the comprehensive spending review, the Thames Valley force will have another 180 officers. But will we attract new recruits, and will we retain our existing officers? I am afraid that the signs are not good. Steps must be taken, on an urgent basis.
There is a case for a regional cost of living allowance for key public sector workers, or for the taking of specific measures to assist home ownership. I have been lobbying the Home Secretary, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment and the Minister for Housing and Planning, and I welcome references in the housing Green Paper to the need to address the issue. Working with Thames Valley police, I have pressed the case for an additional cost of living allowance to mitigate the effect of the implementation of the Sheehy report.
I have been passed a copy of a report that is currently being considered by the police negotiating board. It was submitted jointly by the police authorities of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey and Thames Valley to the London pay working party. According to the report,
- The current remuneration arrangements for police officers stem from the Sheehy Inquiry into Police Rewards and Responsibilities which reported in June 1993 . . .
In its formal response to the Sheehy Report, the body representing the police authorities of England and Wales stated that the report "risks long run damage to the service's ability to recruit officers of sufficient quality" and "endanger retention of high quality personnel."
Ironically, the situation has been made worse by a good decision: the Government's decision to increase the remuneration of members of the Metropolitan police. As a result of the payment of £3,000, a differential of about £2,500 has risen to some £6,000. It is small wonder that so many police officers in my neck of the woods--officers living in Reading or Slough, who can easily commute to London--want to transfer to the Metropolitan police. Some 55 officers want to transfer: that constitutes a record increase. Perhaps most worrying of all is the fact that our objective of attracting more black and Asian officers is being severely undermined by the recruitment problems.
It is time for the Government to grasp the nettle, and to recognise that training a police officer costs about £53,000. We cannot afford that haemorrhage of resources from our local police services. I welcomed the announcement in the comprehensive spending review of the provision of £250 million for the new starter home initiative, which will be fleshed out in the autumn. I hope that the money will be used for interest-free loans, and to address the terrible problem affecting our great public services.
The key divide at the next general election will be the difference between the parties' attitudes to those public services. The Conservative party wants to privatise them; I believe that my party wants to invest in them--with the exception of air traffic control. However, there is another divide: the north-south divide, as it affects our great public services. Unless affordable housing is delivered for police officers, firefighters, nurses, teachers and other local authority workers, that divide will go into reverse, which would have serious consequences for my constituency and those of many other Members in the south of England.
1.54 pm
Mr. Andrew Love (Edmonton): As the last speaker, let me return to the opening of the debate, and add my voice to those of my hon. Friends the Members for Tooting (Mr. Cox) and for Finchley and Golders Green (Dr. Vis). It is 26 years since the invasion and division of the island of Cyprus, and action by both Britain and the international community to reunite it is long overdue.
I want to speak briefly about the problem of abandoned vehicles, and their impact on housing estates. I am sure that that problem is familiar to other hon. Members, especially Labour Members.
By definition, abandoned vehicles are old and exhausted. They pose a hazard to any community in which they are dumped, and they attract vandals. Vandalised vehicles are a potential danger to everyone in the community, and especially to children. After a time, abandoned and vandalised vehicles are often torched, and the burned-out remains contribute to the general sense of decline. The Government are doing a great deal to regenerate estates, but abandoned vehicles give another example of the difficulties that residents face.
The problem is getting worse. Three years ago, scrap metal was worth between £50 and £60 a tonne. Prices have since declined rapidly, and people are lucky if they get £5 or £6 a tonne. The cost of getting rid of the rubber from the tyres of abandoned vehicles is going up, so it is impossible to make money from disposing of vehicles properly. As a result, people are abandoning vehicles increasingly often.
For example, it costs my local authority £26 to tow away a vehicle to the breaker's yard. It is therefore cheaper, easier and more convenient to abandon vehicles than to dispose of them properly. As a result, the number of abandoned vehicles that local authorities have to deal with has undergone a rapid escalation. In my local authority area, 108 vehicles were removed in April 1999. That compares with the 211 removed in March this year--an increase of almost 100 per cent. The numbers are continuing to increase.
Moreover, recent research shows that there is a growing trend for owner-drivers not to register vehicles. Recent estimates suggest that as many as 20 per cent. of drivers in greater London do not register their vehicles, with the result that they do not face any penalty if they abandon them, and need not fear being caught. That is causing considerable difficulties in my constituency.
My local authority is finding it hard to cope with the problem. The longer that it takes to deal with abandoned vehicles, the more likely it is that they will be vandalised and burned out. A serious fire in my constituency was caused in just that way two weeks ago, and we must be mindful of the safety considerations with regard to children.
I have taken the matter up with my local authority, and have asked it to deal with what I consider to be local shortcomings. In its turn, however, the authority has asked me to raise in the House the question of what the Government can do to help councils deal with the problem.
First, local authorities have to write to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in Swansea to determine who owns a vehicle. On average, it takes 21 days for them to get an answer, yet the police can make a telephone call and get an answer to the same question on the same day, or the day after. I am told that data protection requirements are the reason for that disparity, but it cannot be impossible to cut the amount of time that local authorities have to wait.
Secondly, a vandalised and burned-out car that still has a registration plate cannot be towed away. That is amazing. The local authority has to leave a notice on such a vehicle stating that it will be towed away in two weeks, even though it could pose a potential danger to the local community. That provision needs to be looked at and amended.
We must also tighten the arrangements for ownership of vehicles, because too many people are getting away with not paying for their vehicles to be towed away. DVLA has introduced notification schemes, but it is still too easy for people to evade their responsibilities by not registering their vehicles and not paying their road tax. The Government must deal with those problem areas.
It takes six weeks before a vehicle can be towed away. The owner must be informed in writing, and that takes several weeks. A notice must be left on the vehicle, and that accounts for a few more weeks. Surely those procedures could be telescoped, so that the vehicles could be taken away sooner. They often sit there for several months before anything is done. We must shorten the administrative procedures. The Government should work with local authorities and the police to address that issue.
Negotiations are taking place at European level on the end of vehicle life directive, but it will be some years before that is implemented. In the meantime, we cannot wait and the Government must take action. They must create a sustainable, economically viable disposal system. That would provide an economic incentive for drivers not to abandon their vehicles, but to take them where they can be dealt with. It would also reduce pollution, protect our environment and help to recycle the components of finished vehicles.
I make a plea to the Minister. We must deal with this serious problem for many inner-city areas. With good will from the Government and improved efficiency from local authorities, we can address this issue.
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