Youth unemployment is now one of the greatest challenges facing the country. Youth unemployment is the highest since records began.  Nearly 1½ million young people are currently not in education, employment or training –   over 1 in 5 of all young people.

Swindon has been particularly hard hit – identified as a youth unemployment hot spot by the recent report by the Association of Chief executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACVO).  The percentage of young people (18-24) out of work in Swindon has more than trebled from 2.5% in 2000 to 8.8% in 2011.

There is a real danger we create a lost generation.  We know how corrosive and damaging unemployment is to local communities, and how demoralising the search for work can be.

For young people, long-term unemployment scars for life. It means lower earnings, more unemployment, and more ill health later in life. It means more inequality between rich and poor.

It also affects young people’s mental and physical health. It increases susceptibility to illness, mental stress, and helplessness, and loss of self-esteem leading to depression.

Youth unemployment means that those people affected are more likely to be unemployed and welfare-dependent later in life and it creates a long term divide in aspiration passed down the generations.  According to the Princes Trust 25% of those from deprived homes believe that ‘few’ or ‘none’ of their career goals are achievable.

Studies have found that increases in youth unemployment relate to increases in burglaries, thefts and drug offences.  Overall it is it is urgent that we take action to tackle youth unemployment.

Unfortunately at a time when we need to create new jobs and open the door for opportunity, many of the key support mechanisms have been dismantled.

•          The Future Jobs Fund, cut

•          The Connexions Service, Cut

•          EMA’s cut

•          And Tuition Fees Trebled

The ACVO report recommends 3 key strategies to tackle youth unemployment:

1. Young people need more job opportunities:

It calls for a Youth Contract Work Programme and for young people to be guaranteed a part-time ‘First Step’ job as a stepping stone to unsupported employment.

2. Young people need better preparation and motivation for work

The raising of the education participation age from 16 to 18 is a massive moment for the country.  They also call for the creation of national Job Ready programme for those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed.

3. The creation of Youth Employment Zones

Starting in the youth unemployment ‘hotspots’ across Britain, the key organisations responsible for tacking youth unemployment should come together and coordinate their efforts.  It must become everybody’s business to get young people into work.

Tackling Youth Unemployment is one of political challenges of our times.  It is a challenge we must face together.  It is essential that we develop a clear strategy for Swindon and make a real positive difference to the future of young people across our town.

It was a surprise to get a call this week inviting me as a guest on the BBC Sunday Politics Show.  It was first real experience of TV and the recording seemed to pass by in a flash.  The show focussed on two key issues – restorative justice and regenerating deprived neighbourhoods.  I was joined on the panel by South Swindon MP Robert Buckland; and so I also took the chance of pressing him on youth unemployment and the lack of a strategy for rebuilding the economy.

Swindon has been chosen to pilot restorative justice.  It has been used by the Youth Offending Team for 12 years but is now being extended to adults.  Restorative justice connects the criminal with the consequences of their actions; and shows the victim that justice is being served.  Restorative Justice holds offenders to account for what they have done, and helps victims to get on with their lives.  In other parts of the country restorative justice schemes have seen a 50% reduction in the reoffending rate of young offenders.  According to Cambridge University every £1 spent on restorative justice saves £9 in criminal justice system.

Under Labour crime came down.  However under the Tories personal crime has gone up by a shocking 11 per cent. This is the biggest annual increase in personal crime for over a decade.  In Wiltshire, nearly 6 per cent of front line police officers have been cut and there has been a 5% rise in burglaries. In Gloucestershire the Chief Constable said he feared budget cuts mean they are about to go over a “cliff edge” in police services in the County. Labour introduced Neighbourhood Policing Teams and we increased police numbers by 17,000 and created 16,000 new PCSOs.  However HMIC estimate that over 16,000 police officers will be lost by 2015 as a result of the Tories 20 per cent cuts – 8,000 police officers have already been lost since the election.  Tories plans are to cut police numbers rather than cut crime.

Regeneration of our towns and communities is vitally important.  The successful regeneration of Cabots Circus, Gloucester Docks, Bath Southgate and Plymouth are inspirational – and are hugely important in rebuilding the economy and restoring community.  However after a decade or urban transformation, regeneration is stalled. The RDA’s have been abolished and programmes such as the Pathfinder programme have been cut.  In Swindon 8 years of Tory control have failed to deliver regeneration: the town is blighted by waste land, derelict buildings and eyesores.  Regeneration has turned into degeneration.

People want action on regeneration – and that’s what we have delivered in my ward in Swindon.  Cavendish Square had been abandoned with half left as a derelict building site.  After a failed Tory regeneration project, locals likened it to a bombsite.  However I worked in partnership with the community and after numerous meetings the Square has been resurfaced.  It has been a long wait but we think that the resurfacing has made a huge difference to the look of the Square; and shows that we can make a difference to our communities.

The latest unemployment figures are deeply worrying.  UK unemployment rose by 48,000 to 2.67 million in the three months to December.   Youth unemployment is the highest since records began.  There is a real danger we create a lost generation. We need a plan for growth and a long term vision for rebuilding our economy.

The Conservative- austerity plan is hurting, but not working.  They should be taxing the bankers’ bonuses and using the money to help young people back to work.  However we also need a long term plan for rebuilding the economy.  The root cause of the current economic crisis is the overreliance of our economy on the banks.  We need a plan for rebuilding our manufacturing base and growing the green economy.   Employment in the environmental sector has been growing at 7% since the year 2000, whilst the wind energy sector has seen a 91% leap in employment over the last three years, and now employs more people than the coal industry.    This is a long term vision to rebuild our economy and create the new businesses and new jobs of the future.

My overall conclusion from the experience is how after the Tories in Swindon have nothing to offer on the key issues of the economy and jobs.  The Tories have left a legacy of failure, debt and waste.  They have failed to deliver regeneration, there is no economic plan for growth and they have racked up debts of £80m.  Labour has a clear vision for the future of the town – to create the new jobs and businesses of the future; to kick start regeneration and to create a new masterplan to shape the future of the town; and to tackle youth unemployment.  Labour has the clear plan to take Swindon forwards and is ready to take power if we win the local elections in May.

You can watch the whole programme on iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c156q/Sunday_Politics_West_19_02_2012/

On the 23^rd of February Swindon’s Councillors will be setting a budget for the forthcoming financial year. The Conservative administration has proposed a budget based on their priorities last week.

There is some common ground on this budget. Recognising the tough times for many of Swindon’s families, Labour welcomes the use of government funding to freeze residents’ council-taxes next year. Labour also welcomes the Conservative administration’s decision to reverse their previous policy to switch off many of Swindon’s streetlights- something Labour had campaigned for. And we welcome the fact that the Conservative administration listened to residents’ and Labour’s concerns and will now provide funding for a bus service to Penhil & Coleview- albeit an off-perk service for only one year.

However with the Conservative-led government cutting its funding to Swindon Borough Council, it is hugely important that the Council ensures that all of its income is spent on essential and frontline projects, while doing its best not to lose Council jobs.

That is why it is unforgivable that the Conservative administration has increased the Council’s consultancy budget to £1.3m during recent times. And it is unforgivable that £11m of next year’s budget will be allocated to debt charges, to pay off the administration’s £116m debt- an increase of £36m in the previous year.

Meanwhile, this administration is embarking on one off the biggest cuts to frontline services in Swindon’s history, on top of the cuts it has already made since May 2010. This will mean that £150K will be cut next year on bus services to the Great Western Hospital, £154K is being cut from Swindon’s Children Centres and £250K is being cut from Supporting People projects that help poor young families, people suffering from mental health illnesses and homeless people.

So the proposals put forward by the Conservative administration will mean that £12.3m of your money will be spent next year on unnecessary consultants and to the Council’s creditors to pay off part off the Tories debt. Meanwhile services to our town’s elderly, to our poor and to our young people will be stripped back. And this will cost 120 Council jobs for Swindon people in the process.

If elected in May, a Labour administration would have a different set of priorities. We would start by cutting £2m in senior management and consultant costs and by establishing a clear plan to reduce the Tories £116m debt. And these savings would then be reinvested in to services provided for the elderly (like protecting bus services), young people (through protecting Sure Start) and the poor (through protecting Supporting People projects).

Cllr Jim Grant

Swindon Labour Group Leader

You only need to take a trip to the Town Centre to see that Swindon is in urgent need of regeneration. The Tory Council has failed to regenerate the Town Centre.  They have had 8 years in power in Swindon and yet our Town Centre is still scarred by wasteland, derelict buildings, and eyesores.  The old College site with its broken windows is the most visual reminder of the Tory failure on regeneration. Promised regeneration projects have failed to be delivered. 

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Councillor Jenny Millin died earlier this week. Councillor Millin had been the councillor for the Moredon Ward since November 2010. She won her seat through a by-election.

The Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Jim Grant, said:

“It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Councillor Jenny Millin. Our thoughts are with her family at this very sad time.

Since she came on to the Council back in November 2010, Jenny had been a breath of fresh air, working hard for the people she represented in Moredon and speaking passionately about matters affecting the most vulnerable people in our town . In the space of a year, her hard work was rewarded through having her surname used as a name for a recently built pathway which local residents requested and I appointed her as Labour’s Lead for Health & Social Care.

I can say with confidence that Councillor Millin will be greatly missed by her Councillor colleagues and even more by her constituents, who I know valued the hard work she put in to make the Moredon area a better place.”

Last week the Swindon Advertiser covered a public meeting where an estimated 150 Old Town residents attended an open meeting to discuss how to fight Swindon’s Conservative Councillors against their decision to propose a school on the Croft site and the granting of planning permission for the school to be sited at Croft.

I  have no doubt that the Conservatives will see those who attended this meeting as merely nimbys and self-interested. After speaking to some of those residents who attended this meeting, I hold a very different view and believe the large turnout highlights a recurring theme of the actions and decisions Swindon’s Conservative administration has taken.

• We saw it with the way this Conservative administration dismissed residents’ concerns over the administration’s Wi-Fi decision
• We saw it with the Whalebridge changes where the Conservative administration decided to make a massive change to the town’s road network without consulting one member of the public or ward councillor
• And we saw it with the allocation of the Haydon 3 S106 money, where Haydon Wick and Abbey Meads’ residents were bypassed in order for the Conservative administration to divert 83% of the £15m pot to other areas of Swindon

Swindon’s Conservative administration is neither listening to, nor working with the people of our town.  While providing warm words about engaging with local communities and residents, the Tories’ actions speak louder than their words and over the last 9 years of them being in administration, their actions have irreversibly alienated many of Swindon’s communities and residents.

The local Labour Party have recognised this and we believe we have a package of policies that will begin to recover local communities’ and residents’ trust in Swindon Borough Council, after nearly a decade of neglect. These policies would include:

•  Seeking to devolve more powers and services down to a lower tier of local government- parish and community councils.
• And we would get the Council to agree a set of rights that each resident in this town will have when interacting with their council. These rights should be proposed by an independent local resident after they hold an Independent Review where they consult with local residents about what they want from their council.

Should Labour take control of Swindon Council and I become Leader of the Council, gone will be the days where members of the public are targets of scorn from senior Conservative Councillors; gone will be the days where there are proposals to restrict the powers of parish councils and gone will be the days where decisions that affect all residents of the borough are nodded through without any public consultation.

Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, talked to Swindon Labour Party members in Broadgreen last night following an afternoon meeting with representatives of business and local Councillors.

Rachel emphasised how important Swindon was for the economy – and how much she was looking forward to Labour retaking the Council in May 2012, and the two parliamentary seats in May 2015.   She focused on economic issues – in a week when new figures showed we were on the cusp of another recession, when debt had passed £1trillion, when youth unemployment had passed  26% and had doubled in Swindon in the past year.  Borrowing was a staggering £158 billion more than the Tories had planned.  And why?  Well they blamed it last year on snow and the royal wedding; now they blame it on the Eurozone – but its their own blinkered ideology which places cuts to pensions, to small businesses and to famility policies before creating jobs and creating wealth.   She explained Labour’s 5 point plan for jobs and growth, and how well it had been received by business representatives she’d met in Swindon. Politics was about choices – the Tories had chosen to protect their friends the bankers and preserve their bonuses.  Labour had chosen to target jobs and growth.

Questions focused on the disastrous state of the health service, tax evasion by big business, why the finance sector had been preferred to productive industry, and why bonuses and greed couldn’t be controlled by the Tories or Lib Dems.   The audience were left full of questions about the failure of the current Government and wishing Rachel well in her new and demanding role.

Caption: Rachel Reeves and Jim Grant (Labour Group Leader) (Courtesy of O’Brian Media)

The Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, has called for a halt to the Croft Development until local residents’ concerns about the process of the school being granted have been heard.

The Labour Group Leader has also written to the Leader of the Council, Councillor Rod Bluh, requesting that he join him in meeting leaders of the Croft Community who have expressed their concerns about the proposed new Old Town School.

I am calling for a temporary halt to the development of the Croft School, based on the evidence the Croft residents have provided to me. The reason I am doing this is because the Croft residents have shown me evidence that undermines the robustness of the information that has been provided to justify the school being on the Croft site.

As well as this, I think local residents’ have been isolated from the Croft School process because they were legitimately concerned about a new school being on that site and that has meant the Croft community now feel completely alienated from Swindon Borough Council. This cannot be right and undermines one of the Council’s strategic aims- to better engage with its local communities.

If I have been given the correct information then reconsideration of the Croft School and a temporary halt to development is the minimum that is required. Following this I think the Leader of the Council and I need to meet with the leaders of the Croft community to listen and review their case.

Below is a letter to Councillor Bluh to ask him to join me in doing this. Anything other than him doing this will be a kick in the teeth for the Croft and wider Old Town community.

Cllr Jim Grant, Swindon Labour Group Leader

Labour Leader’s Letter to the Leader of the Swindon Council

 Dear Rod

I write to you as a matter of serious urgency regarding the proposed new primary school at Croft. Whilst we are political opponents I believe we have some things in common and this includes wanting good trusting relationships with Swindon’s communities.  Recently there has been a break down in trust with the Croft Community over theCroftSchoolproposal.

Originally I thought this was about the proposed school at Croft and the subsequent planning decision, however it is much deeper than that and I believe it undermines the ‘Stronger Together’ principles.

I recently met some of the Croft Community and the information they relayed causes me great concern. They feel an injustice has been done on the back of what they feel is incorrect and incomplete information that has been supplied to council members to make decisions.  Based on what they have told me it may contribute to an unsafe decision and I would be happy to talk to you about this in person.

Since the Planning Committee Meeting they have also been told that information presented to the committee can’t be challenged. In other words, there is no recourse for local residents’ on planning decisions. I am not comfortable with this and the residents have judged the Council by its acts and to them the Council has used all the resources at its disposal to ensure the building of a school at Croft, without thinking about alternative arrangements.

That is why I am callin g on you to temporarily halt the building of the proposed primary school at Croft. During this time I propose that me and you, as the town’s main political group leaders, meet with the leaders of the Croft community and review their case. This should not be a long process as all the information regarding this is in the public domain and this could have significant implications in signalling toSwindon’s communities that their council will hear them out.

I look forward to a prompt response from you.

Yours Sincerely,

Cllr Jim Grant

Swindon Labour Group Leader

Anyone who has looked at the budget proposals by the current “caring” council can’t fail to notice that it hits  the education, and I would suggest the welfare, of the most vulnerable children in Swindon.

Eight out of the twenty proposals listed on the budget proposal web page of Swindon Borough Council are educationally based and are targeted at those with either emotional or educational difficulties.  For example:

Review of supported living for those with learning disabilities
and
Review of Learning Disability care packages

These two reviews could potentially save £563,000 according to the figure it is either going to set out.

Even with the best case scenario coming from the review this is going to do one of two things.

1. Remove completely the service from any number of current clients .
2. Set the service on a course that will inevitably lead to the closure.

I say this because it doesn’t take a genius to see that taking this much funding out of any facility can do nothing but damage the infrastructure.

I can hear response from my living room:  So Where Would You Make the Cuts?

This may not be the most popular solution but I suggest that this Council look at themselves to find the answers.  For the past 10 years they have blamed the previous labour Council for the cuts, failing services etc.  At no time have they taken any responsibility for problems of their own making.

Four of the senior members of council cabinet are accountants, yet none of them saw the problems of giving a £400,000 wi-fi project to a company with no experience in the field. On top of that they failed to notice that despite the fact that the company had received over half of the total funding there was no progress at all.

Finally, whilst the company was in the throes of bankruptcy they rubber stamped a further £200,000 payment.

This is just one case where there appears to be a problem that is nothing to do with the previous labour administration. I am not privy to all of the transactions made by this administration over the past ten years but I would ask how many more of these amazing failures might one find if we looked a little closer?

Mass unemployment destroys the social morale of communities and forcing young people who have completed their training for work to remain idle is Tory politics of the vilest nature. It leads to disillusionment and rings true of Thatcher’s “laissez faire” leave it to the market approach. In Swindon young people need know that Tory policies are not working for them and only Labour has new ideas to tackle youth unemployment.

Labour’s solution to Osborne’s failed plan A and Cameron’s Tory laissez faire attitude to young people will be to tax bankers bonuses and create 100,000 jobs for young people.

People still fear for their job security as redundancies climb. The Office of National Statistics reports that there were 164,000 redundancies in September to November 2011, up 14,000 on the previous quarter and 5,000 on the year. When will Osborne ditch his plan A and accept that it isn’t working?