This month Child Benefit rises to £20 a week as part of the Government’s boost to the economy, which includes a £60 extra payment to every pensioner and a £12.4 billion boost for the economy through a VAT tax cut.

John Denham said:

“Labour is determined to help people and businesses through the tough times ahead.

“That is why I welcome the increased child benefit that families will see right from the start of the year. This real help will support thousands of Southampton families.

“I also welcome the special payment to all pensioners of £60 on top of the Christmas bonus of £10. Families of disabled children will also receive this extra cash boost.

“In the 80’s and 90’s the Tory answer to a downturn was to turn their backs on families and businesses. Today’s Tories would repeat those failed policies of the past. It is the Labour government that is taking action and offering real help through the tough times.”

Locally in the Southampton Itchen constituency this means 22,020 children in 12,365 families will gain from the rise in Child Benefit (now rising to £20 a week for the 1st child, and to £13.20 a week for other children) – an increase the Government has brought forward from April to January 2009.

Plymouth City Council has stated that car parking, library books and visits to leisure centres won’t see any of the cut, which is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to local residents. Neither will any of the shoppers in the council’s retail outlets.

“The Tories the Scrooge of Christmas,” said Labour Group Leader Tudor Evans. “They say it’s not worth passing on the cut to services users. It’s daylight robbery. The 2.5% VAT cut on parking alone comes to £208,000 in a full year.”

“Instead of Scrooge, perhaps it should be brought up-to-date. The Cabinet member for Finance is the Grinch who stole the VAT at Christmas.”

Labour say that Mayor Johnson is following in the footsteps of Conservative Westminster City Council who have also made a number of financial decisions which will damage the local economy. For example, in Westminster the local Conservatives have:

increased rents by 25 per cent for Church Street shopkeepers battling to keep their businesses going

refused to pass on the 2.5 per cent VAT cut to users of local services

imposed a £150 a year charge on local motorbike owners simply to park their bikes - this is equivalent to a 22 per cent Council Tax rise!

used CCTV cameras to rake in thousands of pounds in parking fines outside shopping parades in Moscow Road, Shirland Road, Lupus Street and Abbey Road which has badly damaged local trade

demanded a 1,000 per cent increase in rent for tennis coaches at Paddington Rec thereby destroying their businesses

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said:

“There is no justification for 6 per cent fare increases when inflation is considerably less and residents are grappling with economic difficulties. You have to wonder what planet the Mayor is living in to be so insensitive to the reality of everyday life. Just like his pals in Westminster, Boris Johnson thinks that local residents are there as his own Mayoral ‘cash machine’.

“The Conservatives just don’t get it. Prices need to kept low if we are to get through the current economic difficulties. The retailers know this and so do the supermarket chains. But the Conservatives just keep charging us more.”

In the letter Phil Hope says:

“In 2009 we face a crucial choice: to continue to invest in key services in the East Midlands in difficult times, or to make deep cuts in public spending that would damage the East Midlands.

“As you will be aware, as part of the fiscal stimulus we recently announced that we would bring forward £3 billion of investment in housing, schools, and GP surgeries.

“I am disappointed that your party have opposed this action. It is crucial that we bring forward investment to ensure that we come out of the downturn sooner and stronger, and ready to take advantage of the upturn.”

David Cameron has made it clear that he opposes Labour’s economic stimulus and the Conservatives voted against the Pre-Budget Report which introduced these measures.

In the East Midlands the following projects would suffer under Conservative plans:
* The dualling of the A46 between Newark and Widmerpool
* Funding brought forward to rebuild or refurbish half of England’s 17,000 primary schools over 14 years including schools in Leicester, Lincolnshire, Derby, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
* Accelerated investment in GPs surgeries
* Investment brought forward to increase energy efficiency in council homes
* £2.2m of Funding brought forward to create and improve play areas in Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

Paul Blomfield explained:

“This £60 payment is a real New Year boost for everyone in Sheffield Central. With temperatures currently so low I’m pleased the Government is helping our most vulnerable by providing this extra cash to help with heating bills. This New Year bonus will be a real winter warmer for the 18,000 people in Sheffield Central who receive it and I hope it will mean no one need worry about putting on the heating this winter.

“This extra payment is another example of Labour providing real help to the most vulnerable, especially to pensioners. This year, as well as this £60 heating payment, all pensioners received an increased Winter Fuel payment. The State Pension and Pension Credit are increasing from April so that no pensioner need live on less than £130 a week.”

Paul added:

“In economic downturns in the 80s and 90s the Tories turned their back on people. Just like before, David Cameron’s Tories would do nothing and leave people to go it alone. This Labour government is providing real help to people during these tough times.”

Last year, campaigners in Falmouth and Penryn secured a victory when the Council lifted its recruitment freeze on full-time firefighters, clearing the way for vacancies to be filled and for Falmouth fire-station’s full-time cover to continue at night. However, a management report last October included the option of switching some of that full-time cover to other stations in Cornwall.

Charlotte MacKenzie said:

“Thousands of people signed petitions and joined the facebook group to save 24-hour full-time fire cover in Penryn and Falmouth. It is time the Council reassured the community and said what its fire-service plans are. I have written today to the new interim chief fire officer to make him aware of the strength of local feeling on this issue.

“The Council and Implementation Executive are now setting the budget for the new Cornwall Council. This does not include plans to increase the fire-services budget to take account of issues highlighted in the risk management report. If cover needs to be improved, the money should be found to do that. Cornwall is receiving the sixth largest revenue grant increase in the country. The Government is also providing additional funds that must be spent on equipping fire-services.

“It is great to see Commercial Road in Penryn return to business as usual after the furniture shop fire at night and despite the economic recession. Everyone knows that with 24-hour docks, oil storage, busy hotels and guest houses, university campuses and student accommodation, Falmouth and Penryn need full-time fire-cover at night.”

Westminster Conservatives have spent over £14 million buying back nearly 60 former Council flats sold by the Council in the 1980’s, including 8 flats sold by former Conservative Leader, Shirley Porter, as part of the Council’s illegal Designated Sales “Homes for Votes” policy. The former Council flats, which have cost Council Tax payers an average of £250,000 each, will be used to house families currently living in temporary accommodation. The Council aims to spend over £25 million buying back former Council flats over the next 12 months in an attempt to increase the number of affordable flats for rent in Westminster.

Labour Councillors say that the Council originally sold many of the flats over 20 years ago for £25,000 or less after the discounts which residents were able to claim under the Right To Buy and the illegal Designated Sales policy.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said:

“The Conservatives’ housing policy is a complete shambles. After years of aggressively championing the sale of Council Houses at knock-down prices, including the illegal ‘Homes for Votes’ policy, the Conservatives have created a severe shortage of affordable homes for rent and are now being forced to buy back Council flats for ten times more than they sold them for. Shirley Porter’s ‘Homes for Votes’ policy has left an expensive legacy for Westminster residents who are continuing to pick up the bill for the Council’s illegal actions over the 1980s.”

“Following the disastrous and reckless investment of £17 million in now-failed Icelandic banks, paying a quarter of a million pounds for flats they sold for £25,000 confirms that the Conservatives have lost all contact with economic reality.”

It will be my unwavering focus to make the right decisions to build in a world of danger and uncertainty a Britain of opportunity and hope.

This coming year won’t be easy, but I am determined that this government will be the rock of stability and fairness on which the British people can depend.

The scale of the challenges we face is matched by the strength of my optimism that the British people can and will rise to meet them. Because we’re not a do nothing people and we’ve always risen to every challenge.

We can meet the security challenge, the environmental challenge and the enormous economic challenge.

The British genius has always been to embrace the world in which we live, not the world we want to live in.

At all times, but perhaps especially at this time of year, we must acknowledge the debt we owe to our servicemen and women who meet our security challenge. Their bravery is unsurpassed and their sacrifice knows no bounds.

And as we meet the security challenge, so we must also meet the challenge of climate change.

The pace of climate change is such that it not only threatens future generations, but imperils our generation today.

Again, in an ever more interdependent world this will require us to build alliances and win arguments for change that is real, fair and sustainable.

I believe we can do it - and because we can, we must. The stakes are too great with our planet in peril for us to do anything less.

I look forward to working with President Elect Obama in creating a transatlantic, and then a global coalition for change.

We can demonstrate this in 2009 in how we tackle climate change at the Copenhagen Summit.

And we can demonstrate this in 2009 by making sure that now, more than ever, we keep our promises to the world’s poorest.

As we look ahead into 2009, the most immediate and pressing challenge of all for every continent is the economic challenge.

When the history books come to be written - 2008 will largely be remembered for the scale of the great economic and financial crisis. A year in which an old era of unbridled free market dogma was finally ushered out.

And I want 2009 to be the year when the dawn of a new progressive era breaks across the world: purposeful and energetic governments giving real help to families and businesses when they need it the most; and through expanding through the downturn vital investments in our future - real hope for that future too.

Real help now. Real hope for the future. Both are essential. Alone one will not be enough. Failure to do either, as some propose, would mean both a longer, deeper downturn, and a weaker economy in the future.

The scale and speed of the global financial crisis was at times, almost overwhelming. I know that people felt bewildered, confused and sometimes frightened.

That is why the response had to be swift and decisive.

That is why we acted so quickly to get money into the banks. Not for any desire to finance bankers, but because if we didn’t it would have put at risk that which is most important to you and me - your jobs, your homes, your savings, your standard of living.

What keeps me up at night, and gets me up in the morning are the hopes and aspirations of the British people. My guiding principle, at all times, is the welfare and well being of British families and British businesses.

All of this would have been put at risk if we had not intervened and simply done nothing, as some would have had us do.

This will be a challenging year for the economy but I believe, with the right policies, we can build a better tomorrow, while dealing with the challenges of today.

The failure of British governments in previous global downturns was to succumb to political expediency and to cut back investment across the board, thereby stunting our ability to grow and strangling hope during the upturn.

This will not happen on my watch.

The lesson of this crisis is that we do not let recession take its course, yield to defeatism, or simply muddle through and just hope for things to get better.

The message is - we take action: we are providing an extra £60 to pensioners immediately, on top of the winter allowance; increasing child benefit from January 1st to £20 per week; and helping 22 million basic rate taxpayers with a £145 tax cut. Added to that, the cut in VAT this year will knock around £275 off the average family household bill. Not to do this would be imprudent.

Today the risk of attempting too little is a greater threat than the risk of attempting too much.

And in this period of difficulty and downturn, it is also important that we understand that amid the threats and the global risks there are great opportunities for Britain. We must prepare ourselves for these massive opportunities as the world economy doubles in size over the next two decades.

We must not just plan for tomorrow. Our task over the next twelve months is to build tomorrow today.

So that Britain creates the thousands of new tech jobs for the digital age now ahead of us, we must build the digital tomorrow, today

So that Britain creates the thousands of green jobs vital for the environment and our economy, we must build that green future of tomorrow, today.

So that we have the best railways, roads and communications for the future, we must build the infrastructure of tomorrow, today.

So we have the right skills for the future we must not let people’s lives waste away in unemployment without trying to help. So that they have the skills our country needs we must build that tomorrow, today.

If we coordinate our expansion with other countries then the effect of one country’s action can be magnified, almost twice over.

So I want to set out an agenda for the G20 meeting of all the major economies in London in April that will help renew our global institutions for the intense levels of international cooperation we now need to solve our problems.

So to those worried about jobs, we will take every action we can.

For those worried about their homes, let me tell you that ordinary homeowners should not be the first to pay the price of financial failures. We will help people trying their best to pay their mortgages to stay in their own homes.

To those who know that the only solution for our economy and environment is a global solution - expanding growth and tackling climate change together - let us say that we will work with Europe, America and others to meet the international challenges of this century - a World Bank for environment and development. And an International Monetary Fund that is an early warning system for crisis prevention.

All of these actions will play a role in delivering real help now and real hope for the future. And they will ensure that when we come out of this downturn we hit the ground running.

I am confident that we can steer Britain safely into the future.

First, because I am confident in the innate strength and decency of the British people.

Second, because Britain as a country has faced down many even greater challenges than those before us today.

And third, because this government has set short term, medium term and long term challenges before, and, more crucially, have met them.

Today the issues may be different, more complex, more global. And yet the qualities that are needed to meet them have been demonstrated in abundance by the British people before.

I believe that we will eventually look back on the winter of 2008 and 2009 as another great global challenge that was thrown Britain’s way, and that Britain met. Because we had the right values, the right policies, the right character to meet them.

That’s why I believe Britain is the best country in the world. And the British people will, in 2009, show the world the qualities we are made of - as we build tomorrow, today.

Labour Ministers today wrote to Conservative Shadow Cabinet members, challenging them to reveal if they support David Cameron’s cuts to key investment projects that Labour has brought forward to help Britain through the current economic downturn.

£800 million investment in schools and £100 million of improvements in GP surgeries are among the projects that will Labour is bringing forward to help stimulate the economy and improve services. David Cameron has made clear he opposes Labour’s economic stimulus and the Conservatives have voted against the government’s Pre-Budget Report that introduced the measures.

Liam Byrne, Labour’s Cabinet Office Minister, said:

“The Tory opposition to the Pre-Budget Report has exposed two key strategic weaknesses in the Conservative position in 2009: not just that they would do nothing now to help families and business through the downturn, but that critically they oppose the action we need to take to get Britain ready for the upturn. Families and businesses want real help now and real hope for the future. The Tories are offering neither. The consequence of their inaction would be a repeat of the past: a longer, deeper recession, with homes and jobs needlessly lost.

“If shadow ministers don’t want to see their party abandon Labour’s plans to speed up investment in key areas like primary schools, GP surgeries, and affordable housing, they need to speak out now against their leader’s opposition to the Government’s plan to stimulate the economy to get us out of the downturn faster.”

Christmas is a time of goodwill to all and a time to spend time with your family, if you are able. Spare a thought for others who are less fortunate than you if you can - look in on those who might be alone; don’t neglect your pets; and, if you can afford it, consider donating to charity.

A Merry Christmas to you and our troops serving overseas.

We expect contributions to be light over the festive season, but will continue to publish any contributions received.

Thank you for all of your support during 2008. Created in May this year, the number of readers we enjoyed in the first month of operation was on average in December surpassed daily. In the last six months Labour Matters has received 746,305 hits. We thank our contributors for this success and hope that 2009 will see many more joining Labour Matters in providing Labour news via the Web.

We leave you with Tom Harris MP’s number 1 Christmas song. Go argue with him if you don’t agree!