Water bills hiked as Southampton Council and Southern Water waste public money

Local Labour MP John Denham has reacted angrily to the 8.2% hike in water bills by Southern Water, the highest increase in the country. He’s accused Southern Water and the City Council of wasting money and driving up bills.

Warning that many families will struggle to meet the new charges he said that it is particularly galling that Southern Water has to spend £500,000 on replacing a sewage pipe in the Sholing Greenway, without recovering the costs from those responsible for the damage.

Mr Denham said: “If the Tory City Council had not ignored warnings about illegal fly tipping in Sholing the damage could have been prevented. And once it had been damaged, neither the Council nor Southern Water have recovered any money from those responsible.

“I told the City Council about the fly-tipping three years ago, before the damage had been done. I know local residents had raised the issue even earlier. Nothing was done to stop the tipping. Nothing was done to collect evidence against those responsible.

“Of course, this isn’t the only reason bills are going up, but people will ask how much other avoidable waste is being stuck on their bills.”

Southampton Labour MPs urge constituents to claim free heating and insulation help

Southampton Labour MPs John Denham and Alan Whitehead are today urging eligible constituents to take advantage of the Government’s flagship energy help scheme Warm Front, to make their homes warmer and cut their energy bills.

The Warm Front scheme – which offers heating and insulation improvements to households living on low incomes – is expected to see up to £30 million worth of funding for this year going unclaimed. This money could help up to 16,000 households struggling to afford their energy bills to cut their costs by a potential £650 per year.

People on certain income-related benefits and living in homes that are poorly insulated, or do not have a working central heating system, are eligible for Warm Front grants.

Applications to the scheme are down by 70%. So Southampton’s Labour MPs together with Consumer Focus urge people to put in a claim now before the funding for this year ends on 31 March.

John Denham MP said: “Insulating your loft and walls is a good way to tackle high energy bills and I urge people to see if they qualify and apply for Warm Front’s free of charge home improvements, before the funding is withdrawn.”

Welfare changes hit poorest areas in Southampton hardest

Southampton faces huge challenges as welfare changes hit poorest areas hardest, says Labour MP John Denham.

The Government’s welfare bill will have the biggest impact in the city’s poorest communities says a new analysis by John Denham MP. Bevois, Bitterne, Redbridge, Woolston and Millbrook will see the largest number of residents have their benefits cut.

Mr Denham highlighted the challenges:

1. 2600 homes will no longer be available to working families on low incomes because of housing benefit changes.

2. 360 single parents will be expected to look for work, adding to the number chasing fewer jobs.

3. 2,250 are likely to lose Disability Living Allowance.

4. Of those claiming Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disability Allowance, 660 are likely to lose all entitlement to benefits, with another 1,100 expected to look for work.

The 5 hardest hit wards
Redbridge: 443 people will be affected by the changes, including 207 people losing DLA, 154 people losing IB /SDA and 83 single parents losing Income Support (IS).

Whitehead presses Government over spiralling local housing costs

Alan Whitehead pressed the Government in Parliament yesterday over measures to tackle spiralling house prices and rents in the south of England.

In Southampton, the average house price is now 9 times the average income, and the average rent for a two-bed home now accounts for 46% of the average income – one of the highest rent to income ratios in the country.

Shelter’s Private Rent Watch (p50) ranks Southampton as 37th most unaffordable place to rent in the country when rent prices are compared to average income. It’s harder for a city resident on an average income to rent a property in Southampton than it is in Hastings, Reading, Portsmouth or parts of London.

Shelter also found that found that 38% of families with children who were renting privately had cut down on food to pay their rent.

At the same time, the National Housing Federation’s Home Truths Report highlights how average worker in Southampton would need to have almost double the average local income (£38k vs. an average income of 20k) to afford an average 75% mortgage in our city.

Long NHS waiting lists go up by 70% in Southampton

The number of admitted patients who waited longer than 18 weeks in Southampton has increased by 70% under this Tory-led Government, and it still increasing now.

John Denham, Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, said: “In Southampton we have now seen waiting-times increase by 70% since David Cameron came to power. This is bad news, but the Tory-led Government’s plan to encourage local hospitals to treat more private patients will lead to more NHS patients being left to wait even longer.

“No one in Southampton voted for this. A week doesn’t go by without hearing the concerns of our doctors, nurses and patients who are rightly worried about David Cameron’s plans to damage the NHS.

“Despite no one wanting this new Health Bill, still David Cameron is ploughing on, ignoring public and professional opinion.”

Don’t let energy companies cut heating help says Whitehead

Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, has pressed Chris Huhne to reverse his decision to allow energy companies to substantially reduce the help they offer to make our homes more energy efficient.

The Tory Government is cancelling Labour’s Warm Front and CERT levies on energy companies, which have helped thousands of people at risk of fuel poverty in Southampton and the south to get new boilers, better insulation, as well as access other help to reduce their energy bills.

The Government has always defended its decision to cancel Warm Front and CERT on the basis that new programmes are in the pipeline. But today Dr Whitehead pressed Chris Huhne to admit that the amount energy companies will be required to spend on measures to improve home energy efficiency in the future will be less than 1/3 of what it is at present.

The current levy on energy companies for help with household energy bills is £370 million for the Warm Front Scheme, and £600 million for CERT- a total of £970 million. However the Government’s proposed replacement scheme- the Energy Companies Obligation- will in total only require energy companies to fund £325 million of improvements. This is a cut of 66%.

Dr Whitehead asked Chris Huhne: “Does the Secretary of State accept that the ECO’s affordable warmth element, which comes to £325 million, is substantially less than the Warm Front commitment of £370 million and the CERT commitment of £600 million?

Latest news about Liverpool’s turnaround cruise application welcomed in Southampton

Labour’s John Denham MP has reacted to news that Liverpool has been asked to pay a higher amount of their UK grants in order to ensure fair competition before the city’s application for turnaround cruises can be permitted.

Liverpool has been told by Mike Penning MP, Minister for Transport, that he is “minded that a higher proportion of the UK grants ought to be repaid in order to ensure the preservation of fair competition”.

However, Mr Penning has announced he is seeking independent financial advice to inform his final decision on exactly how much money Liverpool should have to repay. Any repayment would also now require State Aid permission from the European Commission. A final decision will be made in the coming weeks.

Mr Denham, Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, said: “I welcome the Government’s recognition that Southampton could be damaged by unfair competition from Liverpool. I’m also pleased that any decision not to repay public money would need state aid clearance from the EU. However, now we need answers on who is going to provide the independent advice and what their terms of reference will be.”

John Denham MP signs Holocaust Memorial Day Pledge

To mark this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, John Denham MP has signed a pledge to ’speak up and speak out’ about the language of hatred.

27th January is Holocaust Memorial Day, which is held to provide everyone with an opportunity to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Dafur.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is asking MPs to come together and challenge the language of hatred which still exists in society.

The pledge reads:

As part of my commitment to ending the language of hatred, I will:

* challenge the language of hatred when I hear it and never use it myself;

* carefully consider how I use my voice and will tell others how I feel in a way that does not harm or offend whether I am speaking to others, online or in writing;

* give voice to the voiceless and use my words to draw attention to the experiences of others;

* work with my friends, family, colleagues and my community to create a society which is free from the dangers of persecution and hatred.

Negative growth figures a damning indictment of failed Tory economic plan

John Denham, Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, has reacted to news that the economy is now shrinking by more than expected.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the UK’s economy suffered a 0.2% contraction in the final quarter of 2011.

Mr Denham, in response to growth figures for the final quarter of 2011, said; “George Osborne told us the economy would grow and unemployment would go down. Today it is confirmed the economy is shrinking and unemployment is rising. The deficit is not going to be eliminated by 2015 as promised, but rather the UK is going to borrow £158 billion more than planned.

“We can’t go on like this. The Government’s ‘Plan A’ simply is not working but it is hurting – we’ve seen this in Southampton where we have over 5,000 people unemployed. It’s time the Tory-led Government put its arrogance to one side, and accept they’ve got it wrong, to get our economy moving again.”

Ed Balls MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said: “The British recovery has been stalling since the Government’s spending review in the autumn of 2010, but now the economy has gone into reverse. Since the Chancellor’s spending review the economy has grown by just 0.3% compared to the 3.0% the Government predicted.

“And far from the eurozone crisis being to blame, it is only rising exports that kept us out of recession last year.

Progress on urgent investment for Port of Southampton

Today John Denham MP led a debate in Westminster Hall on the future of the Port of Southampton. Mr Denham presented the case for £150million of urgent investment to be unlocked for a major infrastructure project in Southampton.

In order for the Port of Southampton to remain competitive with European and UK rivals, it requires the redeveloping of two existing berths and dredging to allow access by the latest and largest container ships to the container port.

Work must begin in September in order for Southampton to be sure to remain competitive in the years ahead. Over 800 direct jobs and 1,200 indirect jobs will be safeguarded by the investment and over 200 new full time positions will be created. Unfortunately the entire project has faced a number of delays because of errors made by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and red tape at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Speaking after the debate, John Denham said: “I think we have made real progress.

“The Shipping Minister Mike Penning admitted mistakes had been made and he promised that the Marine Management Organisation would have the necessary staff and expertise to deal with the planning application now in order to deal with mistakes of the past.