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Mr. Tyler: I completely concur with the point that the hon. Gentleman is making about the right to buy, from which my constituency of North Cornwall has suffered grievously. That Conservative policy resulted in a large amount of our housing going not just out of the local affordable housing stock but into second homes in the long term. Does he agree that, if we are to prevent the further attrition and haemorrhaging of social housing, this must now be tackled as a serious issue, along with the issue of second homes?
Jim Knight: Yes, I agree with that. There are some parts of the country—and certainly parts of Dorset, such as the Purbeck area—in which it is difficult to find sizeable pockets of land on which it is appropriate to build new units of housing. In those areas, if not in others, we should certainly seriously consider ending the right to buy for council tenants. The transfer of the ownership of the social housing under Purbeck district council's control is likely to go ahead in the next year, in which case that would become academic, so long as we did not have a return to a Conservative Government who would extend the right to buy to housing association tenants.
I shall move on from Church Knowle, via the world heritage coast, which received its designation from UNESCO in December 2001.
Jim Knight: I am very happy to give way on the issue of the world heritage coast.
Mr. Cameron: I would like the hon. Gentleman to clarify the point about ending the right to buy for existing council tenants. Is he saying that he would like it ended for existing council tenants completely, or would he just like an end to the discounts? Would he actually take away the right of someone to buy their own council home?
Jim Knight: We should seriously consider ensuring that all capital receipts are reinvested in social housing, and ending the discount and possibly the right to buy in certain areas. We should not end the right to buy across the board, but only in areas where there is an acute shortage of affordable housing and a shortage of appropriate land on which to build such new housing.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is looking after the UNESCO world heritage coast designation. We are confident that we can develop that with the Department and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to the maximum benefit of our tourism industry, which is the main employer in my constituency.
We could stop off at Stoborough village, where the school has for years been campaigning for a hall, and in the past couple of months its new school hall has been opened. On to Wool and Bovington, where we have mini sure start programmes. Sure start is a phenomenon not just in urban areas. In the rural area of Wool and Bovington we have seen the great benefit of building the capacity within communities to help themselves and to bring up their youngest children in a positive way. It is the most disadvantaged rural area in my constituency.
We could go via Crossways, which is finally getting a new school. The population of 3,000 have been campaigning for years to have a school in their area so that their children do not have to be bussed all the way to Owermoigne. Thanks to a decision by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, that community is to get its new school.
We then find ourselves in Weymouth, whose acute health service is delivered by the West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust. More than 95 per cent. of in-patients, and 85 per cent. of out-patients are seen within six months. Those are the best results in the country. Weymouth college now has a new site with new buildings thanks to the multi-million pound Government grant that was made before the last general election.
All the schools in my constituency have had some benefit from the Government. Just last week, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills visited my constituency and I arranged for head teachers to meet him. We talked about the problems, and there is no doubt that problems remain with which we still have to deal. I echo the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies), who referred to all the great work that has been done and all the challenges that we still face.
Those head teachers talked about the great benefit of initiatives such as the national grid for learning, which has resulted in the roll-out of information technology in our classrooms. Just over five years ago, they were struggling to get the cash together to buy one Acorn computer, whereas now they have classrooms full of personal computers. We have the new block at All Saints school and the new sports hall at Budmouth technology college. I could go on. [Interruption.] My hon. Friend the Member for Harwich (Mr. Henderson) reminds me to mention class sizes, which for five, six and seven-year-olds have gone below 30.
Chris Grayling: The hon. Gentleman will be aware that this year almost 100 teacher redundancies have been proposed in Bournemouth, Poole and the rest of Dorset as a result of the funding crisis affecting schools. How does he square that with the rosy picture that he has just painted?
Jim Knight: When those head teachers met the Secretary of State for Education and Skills last week, they did not talk about any teacher redundancies. There was no prospect of teacher redundancies that they wanted to discuss. We talked about the fact that Dorset local education authority has £3 million that has still not been allocated for this year. There is a problem of lack of communication between the LEA and schools, and perhaps between the Department and the LEA. Once
people understand the full picture, much of the scaremongering from the Conservative party will be answered and the threat of redundancies will vanish, and it will be yet another Tory myth in the run-up to the local elections.
Mr. Goodman: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Jim Knight: No, I have given way enough for the time being. If I have a little more time, I will give way later, but I have been asked to keep my comments brief. I want to talk about the new CCTV system that I saw operating in Weymouth town centre. It is being used to reduce antisocial behaviour as people spill out of the pubs and clubs on Friday and Saturday nights. I accompanied the Dorset police a few weeks ago between 1 am and 3 am on a Saturday morning to witness such behaviour. They told me that they would be on top of the crime problem in our area were it not for heroin and alcohol abuse. I am glad to note that the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill will come down hard on such things as crack houses. I am a member of the Standing Committee considering the Licensing Bill, and indeed I would be there now if I did not have to address the House instead. What a shame.
On Portland, we are benefiting from sure start as part of the Weymouth scheme, in the Underhill ward. It enables parents to give young people a much better start. A new hospital is being built on Portland. In Royal Manor we see the benefits of summer schools, improving standards among the poorest-performing pupils. That school has just gained arts status, and is due to gain a new theatre. I could go on and on about the tangible benefits in my constituency, but many others wish to entertain us with their own stories of the Government's successful impact on our community services.
Not everything is perfect. Many Members will know that I am not delighted with the new local government settlement. There is, I think, a problem with the formula: Dorset, for instance, has the same average wage level as County Durham, but roughly the same house prices as the neighbouring counties of Wiltshire and Devon. That anomaly has not been addressed.
I must ask what things would be like if the Tories were back. The Tories closed the naval base on Portland, dealing the biggest blow to my area for a generation. Only last month, by virtue of their control of both Purbeck district council and Dorset county council, they cut the last public transport left in Swanage: after 6 pm it is impossible to go anywhere on public transport. It is impossible to go to Wareham, for example. The town has been cut off from the secondary school and all its after-school activities; it has been deprived of access to democracy, in that it is not possible to attend council meetings in Wareham; it has been cut off from the leisure centre. Those have been the actions of Tory councils in my area, and I dread to think what would happen there if the Tories were allowed to return to government and cut funding by 20 per cent.
The effects would be catastrophic. Class sizes would be above 30 again, the number of neighbourhood wardens would be cut, there would be further increases in car parking and harbour charges, there would be more cuts in bus services, housing association homes
would be sold through the Tories' disastrous right-to-buy policy, waiting times would amount to over a year again, and we would see a return to double-figure unemployment as the public sector—the largest employer in my constituency—reverted to the decline that it enjoyed under the last Tory Government.This Labour Government's record speaks for itself in my community. Under the Tories, the record would be a disaster. I urge the House to vote against the motion, and for the amendment.
4.37 pm
Mr. Charles Hendry (Wealden): It seems to be almost obligatory in this debate to begin by saying how pleased one is to follow whoever has just spoken, even if one disagrees with everything that that person said. I am happy to follow the tradition. Bizarrely, the hon. Member for South Dorset (Jim Knight) was the only Labour Member who did not say he would speak briefly and the only one who did. I suppose we have learnt that we should be wary of Labour Members who say they will be brief.
I am glad that the motion is so wide-ranging, because it provides an effective summary of what is going wrong in communities throughout the country. The Minister, however, treated us to an extraordinary speech. I realise that it was not written for him, but for the Deputy Prime Minister: we know that because it featured short words and simple sentences, and the Minister is a very clever man. As the Minister is aware, I have had a high regard for him for many years, since the days when we used to discuss housing matters. I think he was probably one of the best- qualified people ever to enter his current job. I hope that I am not ruining his career by talking about him in this way. The most extraordinary aspect of his speech, however, was its demonstration of the extent to which the Government are entering a state of denial. It spoke of a world that simply does not exist out there.
Ministers are starting to believe what they want to believe. They are going to places and listening to people who will tell them what they want to hear. They are no longer living in this country as it actually exists. The reality that I am finding is that the people working in our public services—be it in local government, education, the health service, policing or the fire service—are more demoralised than I have ever known them to be. Although some teachers will say that they recognise that more money is being put into education, they are so frustrated by the form-filling and bureaucracy, and by their belief that this Government are simply not taking account of their concerns and their anxiety about public services going wrong, that an increasing number are talking about leaving the profession.
Many of us are spending a lot of time on doorsteps at the moment, and the main issue that is emerging is the council tax. People's real concern is not just the level of increase; many do not see how they can pay the council tax at all. I do not know how to explain to a pensioner whose pension is going up by 2 per cent. plus a little bit that they will have to face an 18 per cent. increase in their council tax. In East Sussex, the level of belief that this is the responsibility of the council, rather than the
Government, is negligible. People on doorstep after doorstep are saying that they know that this is happening because the Government are transferring resources from East Sussex and the south-east to the midlands and the north. They see that decision as one example among others taken by a Government who have turned their back on the south-east and the home counties, and who are happy to let those people down.
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