Roger Godsiff MP

2011 Archive

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Wednesday, 7th December 2011
‘Stimulate the economy from the bottom upwards...we have paid homage to the Bank and financial institutions for too long’, says Roger Godsiff MP 

Birmingham Hall Green MP, Roger Godsiff, called for an overhaul of the UK financial system during a general debate on the economy, yesterday. 

Mr Godsiff said: “Ordinary people in my constituency who face massive pressures on their household budgets and look forward to a bleak Christmas are not too concerned about the blame game that is taking place between the parties, but there is a smouldering resentment of the financial sector, including the banks and financial institutions that have plunged the economy into recession, destroyed jobs and ripped people’s lives apart. That resentment is heightened by the fact that those self-same banks and financial institutions are once again acting as they did before they brought the crisis upon us. There are bonuses galore, and veiled threats that if regulations are introduced they will go elsewhere.

“It is three years since the financial crisis struck, but it needs to be said again and again that that crisis was not caused by nurses and teachers. It was not caused by public sector workers, or by people working in the private sector. It was not caused by small business men, students or retired people, or indeed by the majority of people working in the financial sector. It was caused by the greed and irresponsibility of a small, self-serving group of people who made the decisions and played the casino, and now everyone else is paying the price.

“Between 1992—when the United Kingdom was thankfully forced out of the exchange rate mechanism—and 2007, the British economy grew every year. It grew under the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke) when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it grew under subsequent Labour Chancellors. Public sector borrowing was consistently between 2% and 3% of GDP, which was perfectly sustainable. However, in 2008 it shot up to 11% because the financial crisis caused by those I referred to earlier had resulted in a full-blown recession and a collapse in tax revenues, and, furthermore, in the need for the Government to bail out the banking sector. I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling), who spoke earlier, referred in his book to an interesting deputation that he received—when Treasury officials informed him that the only way of resolving the crisis was for him to nationalise the banks—and I understand why Mervyn King told the Treasury Committee that he was surprised that there was not more public anger about.

“However, we must look forward. Britain and the rest of the western world are witnessing the death throes of an ideology that has dominated for 30 years. The Anglo-Saxon neo-liberal market model has failed, and we must consider adopting different models if we are to have a financial services sector that is fit for purpose. We need to be more innovative: we need to try out new ideas rather than adhering to traditional recipes which we have already tried, which have been found wanting, and which have now been totally discredited.

“Why, for example, should we not use RBS as a national investment bank—or call it what you will? After all, we own 87% of it. Why should it not be modelled on America’s Small Business Administration, which has supplied 20 million small business men with financial help since its establishment after the second world war, or indeed on Germany’s state development bank, which lent €30 billion to businesses in 2010 alone? Instead of printing money through so-called quantitative easing and giving it to the banks—which do not lend it, but hoard it to rebuild their capital base—why should we not give consumers money vouchers that are time-limited and must be spent on household goods or on, for instance, car scrappage schemes? We should try out some new ideas. The fastest way to stimulate the economy is from the bottom upwards, and no job creation scheme could have a more immediate effect than bringing our high streets alive. All Members know of high streets in their constituencies with boarded-up shops, and where the only new shops are Poundland stores and charity shops.

“This is not revolutionary thinking. It has been tried before in America, Japan and China. People are looking for new ideas for the future, and they are prepared to accept radical and innovative policies. They do not want to be lectured by the Government or the Governor of the Bank of England, who can hardly be thought to have had foresight in seeing the recession coming given that he was arguing for increased interest rates right up until the end of 2008 in order to head off inflation, which he said was the biggest threat to the recovery.

“We have paid homage to the Bank and financial institutions for too long. We must construct a better financial system that is fit for purpose, and we need to do that sooner rather than later.”

At the end of the debate, the coalition government lost a surprise vote forced through by Labour whips.  Members voted against the government by 213 votes to 79.

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Wednesday, 2nd November 2011
Cuts to the BBC Midlands

‘Broadcast economics gone crazy’ and ‘self-defeating’ says Hall Green MP, Roger Godsiff on cuts to BBC Midlands

Birmingham MP, Roger Godsiff, believes that it is: ‘Self defeating to dismantle capacity in the second city in the country and move it to Bristol’.

Mr Godsiff has written to Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, regarding the reported intentions of the BBC to end the production of Factual television and radio in Birmingham by the end of 2012 and to move the majority of programmes that are currently made in Birmingham to Bristol.

He commented: ‘Birmingham is in the heart of the country whereas Bristol, although a pleasant and attractive place, is most certainly not in the centre of the country’.

 ‘More practically, the BBC will have to pay out significant relocation or redundancy packages to around 100 members of staff. They will also be abandoning the state of the art technical facilities at the Mailbox where the BBC is situated in Birmingham that cost £40 million to install.  The lease for the Mailbox has no break clause and the BBC will be paying 2.4 million pounds a year to rent the Mailbox space, whether there are any people in it or not. This is broadcast economics gone crazy and a complete waste of the licence fee’.

Mr Godsiff thinks that before you take a knife to regional programming the first savings should surely be targetted at the BBC’s London headquarters and the tiers of staff which service the centre and the expenditure of huge sums of monies on ‘celebrities’ such as the £2 million spent on Jeremy Paxman and the millions that were formerly spent on Jonathon Ross, former presenters of the ‘One Show’ as well as Gary Lineker and his pundits on the Saturday night football highlights show.

Roger Godsiff concluded: ‘The BBC should be setting higher standards and you ought to have up and coming talents in the BBC capable of taking the place of the millionaire celebrities.  If not then senior management are not doing their job’.

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Wed, 25th October 2011

I voted for a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, together with some of my hon. Friends. I will vote tonight in support of a referendum.....

SEE BLOG FOR FULL TEXT OF ROGER SPEECH IN EU REFERENDUM DEBATE.

HIGH SPEED DEBATE (HS2)

Mr Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Hall Green).  Many people are using public transport more these days, particularly the railways, despite the extortionate fares that train operating companies extract from customers for the cheap but not very cheerful service they usually get, particularly on commuter lines. I very much welcome the increased use of public transport, because it reduces carbon emissions and is generally better for the environment.

Two acts of monumental folly have affected the railway industry in the past 50 years. The first was the decision in the early 1960s by the Conservative Government of the day to let Dr Beeching butcher Britain’s network of branch lines, which had linked communities across the country. The second was the decision by another Conservative Government to privatise the railways in the early ’90s, a decision that even the arch-privatiser, Mrs Thatcher, had the good sense not to pursue. Of course, this has meant that the taxpayer has been paying vastly more in subsidy to train operating companies and to the network than was ever paid pro rata to British Rail. I hope that the coalition and the Minister will not, over this decision, make it three monumental follies in a row.
13 Oct 2011 : Column 567

The coalition proposes that we spend £32 billion by 2026 on a new rail project from London to Birmingham, which then goes on to Leeds and Manchester by 2032, allegedly saving 30 minutes’ travelling time from Birmingham and 50 minutes from Manchester.....

FOR TEXT OF FULL DEBATE SEE ROGER'S BLOG.

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18th August 2011
COMMENT BY ROGER GODSIFF ON THE COUNTRYWIDE DISORDERS OVER THE LAST WEEK.

The attacks on individuals and property and the looting and thieving from shops as well as the burning of commercial premises and people’s homes is a national disgrace and should be condemned unreservedly. 

Whatever happened over the shooting in Tottenham can in no way be offered as a justification or excuse for the wanton destruction and looting which has taken place in areas and cities far removed from Tottenham.  The family of Mark Duggan who was shot dead have totally disassociated themselves from the acts of violence and looting. 

The first and only priority was, rightly, for the forces of law and order to reclaim control of the streets of our cities so as to allow ordinary citizens to feel safe and for shops and businesses to re-open.  Those individuals who have been involved in the wanton acts of violence, looting and arson are being brought before the Courts and I welcome the speed with which this is being done.

Once people can feel safe to go about their everyday lives there are wider questions which need to be addressed.  The events surrounding the shooting of Mark Duggan are rightly being investigated by the IPPC and questions need to be asked about whether his family were given appropriate information and counselling after the incident.  Questions also need to be asked as to why it is that we have individuals and groups in our society who are so alienated that they think nothing about engaging in opportunistic crimes such as looting and destroying their own communities. 

We also need to consider how we can break-up the ‘gang culture’ which has grown up in a number of our cities and which acts as a magnet - particularly for disaffected young people.  These and many other questions need to be asked - will be asked - and need to be discussed and debated over the coming months once normality has returned to the streets of our cities. 

I commend the bravery of the Police in confronting the rioters and the spontaneous efforts by thousands of ordinary citizens in Birmingham and throughout the country who set about clearing and cleaning up their neighbourhoods which had been attacked. 

I welcomed the commitment given by the Prime Minister that all necessary resources will be made available to the Police in order to reclaim the streets of our cities but his Government also needs to look again at their policy of cuts in Police numbers which are bound mean that there are less Police, PCSOs and Special Constables on our streets in future.  Taking Police Officers from behind desks to put on the streets is all very well but somebody has got to prepare the charge sheets and paperwork for the Courts otherwise the Courts will dismiss the cases and criminals will walk free.

Furthermore what happened last week cannot be divorced from what is happening throughout society at the moment.  Every section of our society – except those who are extremely wealthy – are facing increasing financial pressures caused by the financial crisis which began in 2007 when the Government had to bail out Northern Rock and accelerated in 2008 when Lehman Brothers went bust.  The crisis was not caused by ordinary people.  It was not caused by nurses or teachers; public sector workers; people working in the private sector; small businessmen; students or retired people.  It was caused by the greed, selfishness and irresponsibility of a small group in the financial sector but everybody is now paying the price.  The squeeze and drop in living standards for ordinary people is the severest since the 1930s.

Nothing that I have said should be interpreted as any form of justification, excuse or apology for the despicable acts that we have witnessed over the last week but there is an old saying - ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’.  Most, but not all, of the individuals involved in the in the acts of criminality have been young people.  With youth unemployment, including graduates, standing at 20%; cut-backs taking place in a whole range of support services; the Future Jobs Fund and Education Maintenance Allowance abolished; youth centres and leisure facilities being closed or their usage restricted and recreation grounds and parks having their maintenance reduced it is self apparent that there are going to be a lot of young people, many of them very impressionable, hanging around on our streets with very little to do and no money in their pockets.  It was like a tinderbox waiting to be set alight. 

There are two more points I would wish to make. 

Last week the Prime Minister said that he wouldn’t allow Human Rights Legislation to interfere with seeking out the perpetrators of these acts of criminality.  This might have superficial attractions and is certainly a popular ‘sound-bite’ but we need to be careful.  If we are saying that we are standing up for the rule of law and that it must be upheld in a democratic and civilised society then we have to stand by the rule of law as it is - even if it can be an impediment to swift action.  Certainly all the individuals involved in these acts of criminality need to be arrested and brought before the Courts but we need to do this within the law and if changes need to be made in our Human Rights Legislation, or our relationship with the European Convention on Human Rights, then these changes need to be made for the right reasons and not as a kneejerk response to these acts of criminality for which the Police have plenty of existing powers to arrest, detain and charge the people involved.

The last point I would make is that the disturbances and destruction have not just resulted in property and possessions being lost but have also resulted in three tragic fatalities in Birmingham and one in London.  The three young boys who were tragically killed in Dudley Road were doing nothing more than trying to defend, with others, their properties.  Similar groups of people and shopkeepers have joined together in many other towns and cities.  These are not vigilante groups.  They are just groups of ordinary innocent people whose lives and livelihoods are suddenly under threat and if the Police were too stretched to respond to their calls for help then, so far as I am concerned, they were perfectly entitled to join with others in protecting their own property and possessions.  The three young people were killed as part of the madness that descended on Birmingham on Tuesday night and our thoughts and condolences have to be with their families of these three young men.  The dignified and measured comments of the father on one of the victims was incredibly moving and clearly shows that even at a time of despair goodness and dignity can prevail.

We owe it to those who lost their lives to make sure that everything is done to prevent similar occurrences happening again.

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8th August 2011
ROGER GODSIFF CORPORATE MEDIA

Dear All,

There was a supplement in yesterday’s Birmingham Post, “The Business of the Olympics – the West Midlands Connection”, which has inadvertently and mistakenly made a connection between Roger Godsiff MP and the Birmingham company, Corporate Media Ltd.

Advantage West Midlands, in its role of tracking firms in Birmingham which have won contracts to supply the London 2012 Games, keeps a list of these successes, broken down by Parliamentary Constituency.  AWM supplied this list to the Birmingham Post, as a good news story, to help preparation of the Olympic supplement.  

In the case of Birmingham Hall Green, the Constituency MP, Roger Godsiff, is named after his Constituency (as are all other MPs); and on the line below that is the first contract winner (in alphabetical order) in Hall Green -  Corporate Media Ltd.

By mistake, these two lines of text have been combined in the newspaper article, making “Roger Godsiff Corporate Media”.  This is an error, and Advantage West Midlands apologises for this and regrets any misunderstanding caused.  I am sure the Birmingham Post will also separately make the situation clear.

Jim Johnston
Business Manager - 2012 Games
Advantage West Midlands
Switchboard 0121 380 3500
Direct Line 0121 503 3299
Mobile 07880 740 141
Web  http://www.advantagewm.co.uk

Dear all, just to follow up from Jim's previous email, I would just like to reiterate the points he has made that the mistake is ours and that there is absolutely no doubt that Roger Godsiff has no connection whatsoever with Corporate Media Ltd or any other company that has benefitted from Olympic contracts, certainly to our knowledge.

While the mistake was completely unintentional, it has undoubtedly caused some distress to Mr Godsiff and for that we unreservedly apologise.

best regards

Alun Thorne
Editor
Birmingham Post

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7 August 2011
Birmingham MP slams removal of Coach Concessionary Travel Scheme (CCTS)

Hall Green MP Roger Godsiff has written to the Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, urging him to think again about the removal of the Coach Concessionary Travel Scheme which provides half price coach travel for disabled people and those over 60 in England and Wales. The scheme is scheduled for withdrawal at the end of October.

Mr Godsiff said: “I have a number of concerns about the plans to scrap this scheme but what concerns me most is that the Department has yet to conduct an impact assessment of the schemes removal. 

Undoubtedly, the removal of this scheme will have an impact on the viability of other services and represent an immediate rise in the cost of living of those who currently make use of it. More fundamentally, I don’t think it is sufficient just to allow ‘the market’ to provide a solution as business’s, quite rightly, pay regard to the bottom line only and not any form of social provision. There is no doubt, as history tells us, that services will contract”.

On a more broader point Roger Godsiff went onto say: “How can your Department justify support for High Speed 2 (HS2) London to Birmingham, cost £44billion, with a reported £17 billion taxpayer subsidy to cover ticket price shortfalls with the cost of scraping this scheme £20 million?

National Express, who obviously have a vested interest in the scheme continuing, have estimated that 400,000 passenger journeys which begin or end in Birmingham are made using the half price concessionary fare and that 400,000 is equivalent to over 20% of all journeys which begin or end in Birmingham.
In 2010, over 3 million journeys were made by passengers using the scheme on National Express coaches alone.  The equivalent scheme in Scotland – which provides free, not half price, coach travel for disabled people and those over 60 – remains in place.

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1st August 2011
Roger Godsiff urges a "No" to an elected Mayor for Birmingham.

The decision as to whether Birmingham should have an elected Mayor will be taken at the same time as the local elections.  People will have different views on this issue as they did on the AV Referendum.  Personally I am totally opposed to the idea of an elected Mayor for Birmingham because I do not believe that it will improve the governance of Birmingham and it will dilute still further the role of elected Councillors and will concentrate even more power (limited though these might be) in the hands of one individual.  Of course it will be argued by supporters of the idea that London has an elected Mayor so why shouldn’t Birmingham but the two situations are totally different.

London has 8 million plus people living in it compared with 2 million plus in Birmingham.  London has 32 boroughs whereas Birmingham is one single authority.  London used to have a London-wide authority, the Greater London Council, sitting above the 32 boroughs.  It was abolished by Mrs. Thatcher in the 1980s because the GLC was a constant irritant to her.  The idea of importing an elected Mayor system from America was dreamt up in Downing Street by people who had no experience of being in, or running, local Councils and because it was American and trendy it was adopted by the Blair Government as an alternative to reinventing the GLC.  Other than being a focal point and advocate for London the Mayor of London only has real influence in a couple of areas which are under his control and neither of these apply to Birmingham.  The London Mayor controls London Underground and London buses but Birmingham does not have an underground system and the bus service is not under the control of the City Council.  Ken Livingstone introduced congestion charging in London and there would be a good case for doing this in Birmingham as part of wider transport policy but this can be done by an elected City Council and you do not have to have a Mayor to do this.

Elected Mayors were a ‘trendy idea’ and some Councils adopted them.  Some of these Councils, like Stoke, have since scrapped the idea while others, like Hartlepool, showed what they thought of the idea by electing a candidate who stood as a monkey to be Mayor!  What the people of Birmingham want is good governance by their elected Councillors and not a gimmick which will eliminate still further the role of the elected Councillor as is the case with the London Assembly which is virtually powerless.  I will urge anybody who cares to listen to vote ‘No’ and I am quite prepared to work alongside similar minded people in other parties to defeat this proposal.

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16 July 2011
Southern Cross Continued

Birmingham Hall Green MP, Roger Godsiff, today welcomed the assurance from the Dept of Health that there would be “continuation of care” for all those residents of Southern Cross Care Homes affected by the recent closure of the company.
Responding to a letter that Mr Godsiff sent to Paul Burstow MP, Minister of State for Care Services before the closure announcement, Paul Burstow said: “The Government is determined to maintain continuity and quality of care for all care home residents across the country.

“We are working with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association and the CQC to ensure that contingency plans are in place that will allow for the continuation of care in any eventuality. “
“Our principal concern is for the safety and wellbeing of the residents of care homes that might be affected. We will ensure they are protected and whatever happens, no resident - whether publicly or self-funded - will be left homeless or without care.”

Mr Godsiff was however not so reassured by the Minister’s belief that: “We consider the private sector should be fully capable of resolving this issue”. 
He said: “Residents of Southern Cross have no grounds to be confident in the performance of the private sector as they have learnt to their cost. If Government’s continue to abandon large areas of social provision to the private sector without adequate oversight vulnerable members of our society will continued to be viewed as tradeable assets and not people. The performance of the Quality Care Commission (CQC) has been worse than lamentable in this respect”.

One of the 753 homes currently run by Southern Cross is the Oaklands home in the Moseley district of Mr Godsiff’s constituency and he firmly believes that residents of Oaklands and all the other 30,000 Southern Cross residents can do without the worry and distress that is being caused by the present financial uncertainty.

There are 14 Southern Cross homes in Birmingham accounting for 700 places which is aprox 10% of all the care homes places in the area.

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7th July 2011
Roger Godsiff wishes Salma Yaqoob a speedy recovery.

Responding today to the news that the Respect Councillor, Salma Yaqoob, was stepping down as a Councillor in Sparkbrook due to her worsening health Roger Godsiff said “I was very sorry to hear about Salma Yaqoob’s deteriorating health problems.  It is perfectly understandable that she should concentrate on regaining her health and she will have the love and support of her family and friends in achieving this.  I wish her a speedy recovery.”

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6th July 2011
Whitewash in Whitehall

Speaking today after the latest revelations of phone hacking from the News of the World employees, Roger Godsiff MP said: “These events will have disgusted most people. The idea that a newspaper and its owners could access the mobile phone records of victims and relatives of terrible crime is utterly contemptible”.

Mr Godsiff went on to say: “What is needed is a full and independent judicial enquiry with the ability to subpoena witnesses and take evidence.

In the light of allegations of large amounts of money having been paid to sources within the police for stories and the poor record of police investigation in this matter to date, the Metropolitan Police or any other police force is not an appropriate body to conduct this investigation. Nor is the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) which has shown itself to be toothless and serve the interests of newspaper proprietors and not those of the general public.

With regard to Jeremy Hunt’s decision to give Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation the go ahead to acquire BSkyB, I can only reiterate what I have said previously that I am totally opposed to this take-over.
I share the views of many others that the assurances which Murdoch has given about the independence of Sky News is not worth the paper that any such assurance was written on. Recent events have only served to confirm my worst fears in this regard”. 

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Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Scandal of Southern Cross

Birmingham MP Roger Godsiff joined the attack over the scandal of the financial crisis at Britain’s biggest nursing homes group, Southern Cross Healthcare, tabling an Early Day Motion (EDM1863) highly critical of the financial management of the company as well as naming both a former and current senior Government advisor who benefited substantially from the flotation of the company in 2006.

The hard hitting EDM tabled by the Hall Green MP states that: ‘Elderly people who need residential care should be helped to live out their lives with care, support and dignity rather than having their futures determined by the avaricious greed of financial entrepreneurs and their apologists who view care for the elderly as just another commodity and market opportunity to make vast sums of money’.

One of the 753 homes currently run by Southern Cross is the Oaklands home in the Moseley district of Mr Godsiff’s constituency and he firmly believes that residents of Oaklands and all the other 30,000 Southern Cross residents can do without the worry and distress that is being caused by the present financial uncertainty.

Former and current senior Government advisors involved with Southern Cross are Baroness Morgan of Huyton and Jeremy Heywood.

Baroness Morgan, who served as Tony Blair’s political secretary, is one of the longest serving board members at Southern Cross and sits on the company’s remuneration committee which determines the pay of senior executives and directors. She received £53,000 from the company last year. Jeremy Heywood who was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office in 2008, was co-head of UK investment banking at Morgan Stanley which acted as financial adviser and lead manager for the 2006 flotation and yielded a 300% return on its investment in Southern Cross for its private equity group owner Blackstone and its directors a year before the share value collapsed.

The 2006 flotation valued the company at £423 million and raised £175. It is normal for advising banks to charge a fee of at least 1%.

Mr Godsiff has also written to Heath Secretary, Andrew Lansley MP asking him if the Government will undertake a financial review of other care sector providers to ensure that they are fit for purpose
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3rd June 2011
MP slams Council decision to sent Birmingham jobs to India.

Following on from the news that Birmingham City Council are to transfer over 100 jobs to India Roger Godsiff, the MP for Birmingham Hall Green, slammed the Council’s decision. 

‘Sacking Council employees and sending their jobs to call centres in India is not going to offer improved services for the people of Birmingham.  It is a shabby decision by the Council and their private sector partner, Capita, to get low paid non-union people in India, who have minimum employment rights, to do the jobs on the cheap thereby making savings for the Council and bigger profits for Capita.’

‘I find it ridiculous that the International Development Secretary, who is a Birmingham MP, should be giving large sums of development aid, paid for out of the taxes paid by hard pressed British taxpayers, to India, which is one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world, while at the same time supporting the Conservative/Lib.Dem Council in Birmingham sacking Birmingham staff in order to transfer their jobs to India leaving, once again, the British taxpayers to pay for the ongoing cost of these redundancies.’
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23rd March 2011
LOCKHEEED MARTIN AND THE 2011 UK CENSUS 

Roger Godsiff MP  today tabled a motion in the House of Commons expressing his deep concerns at the involvement of Lockheed Martin, a leading US arms manufacturer, in data processing information for the UK 2011 Census.

Roger Godsiff said:  ‘I am all in favour of the ‘special relationship’ but not when it comes to the processing of personal and sensitive national data about our population and by a leading US arms company with the closest of commercial links to the US Dept of Defence and which is involved in surveillance and data processing for a number of American government agencies including the CIA and FBI’.
 
‘ I am certainly not reassured by assertions by claims by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that our data will be safe particularly so as  all US companies are subject to the Patriot Act which allows the US Government to access any data in the companies possession’. 

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18th March 2011
Roger Godsiff MP calls for freeze in Beer Tax, as new figures show importance of beer and pub industry to Birmingham, Hall Green

Newly released figures by leading economists Oxford Economics, have shown that the beer and pub sector sustains almost 1,572 jobs in Birmingham, Hall Green, and is capable of generating many more given a supportive duty regime.  The analysis also shows that the local economy is £41.9 million better off thanks to the industry.

In response Roger Godsiff MP has welcomed these new figures and called on the Government to scrap the controversial beer duty “escalator” in next month’s Budget.

Instead, the recent VAT increase (6p per pint), followed a 26 per cent increase in beer duty since 2008. The vast majority (85%) of pubs are small businesses which cannot absorb these tax shocks, further increasing the price differential between pubs and supermarkets. With the current high rate of inflation the sector is facing a further record-breaking 7.1 per cent beer tax increase via the “escalator” in March. This would result in beer duty having increased by 35 per cent in three years.
 
Roger Godsiff MP is supporting a joint campaign led by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), to freeze beer duty and scrap the controversial beer duty escalator ahead of this year’s Budget.
 
Roger Godsiff MP said:

“With the beer and pub sector injecting over £41.9 million into our local economy each year, I hope that the Government will think twice about the destructive duty escalator in the forthcoming Budget.”
 
Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the BBPA, said:

“The broad political support for our campaign reflects the strategic importance of beer and pubs in Britain. The beer and pub sector is ready, willing, and able to create jobs and help lead the country out of recession - but we need the right tax policies from the Government.”

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8th March 2011
Cuts Demonstration

There is a big demonstration against the Council cuts on Saturday 26th March 12.00. Meet at Birmingham cathedral.
For further information, see:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Birmingham-Against-The-Cuts/182475438433616

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8th March 2011
Moor Green Football Club ground- Local demands on redevelopment are met

Birmingham Hall Green MP, Roger Godsiff, said that he was delighted that following discussions with the developer and the Planning Dept of Birmingham City Council, a new planning application was going to put forward for the development of the site.

The new application meets many of the objections that both he and local residents made and also incorporates alternative suggestions which were put forward.

One acre of the site is going to be incorporated into Hall Green Junior and Infant School to provide new sports facilities and £45,000 is going to be spent on improving existing play equipment at nearby Marion Way and £96,300 is going to be spent at Highfield Hall to provide a junior football pitch and new changing facilities. 

The original proposal from David Wilson Homes, who sort planning permission to build 80 new homes, incorporated proposals for two large play areas and a ‘community house’ which the Council had asked the developer to incorporate and these have now been dropped.

Mr Godsiff made the point repeatedly that the play areas and ‘community house’ would be a potential magnet for anti-social behaviour and that there are were alternative play areas and community facilities in the area and believes that the developer has met the objections that he originally had.

David Wilson Homes will be writing to local residents explaining these new proposals but Roger Godsiff MP said: “My view is that my first preference would be for the Moor Green Football Club site to remain as public open space or for sporting use but if the Council can satisfy local concerns over the question of vehicular access and are mindful to give planning permission for redevelopment of the site then the scheme now put forward by David Wilson Homes meets the objections that I had”.

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07 February
Birmingham MP slams cab closures.

Hall Green MP, Roger Godsiff, today slammed the proposals to close Citizens Advice Bureau's (CAB) across Birmingham.

Roger Godsiff said; “I know from my own personal experience of dealing with casework what an important service the CAB's offer to constituents in assisting them with information and advice. To lose this service just to save money is not only madness but borders on the criminally insane.

In one fell swoop we will not only loosing an invaluable facility but the whole wealth of experience of the people who work there, many on a voluntary basis -  and who have an understanding of complex legislation particularly in relation to benefits and council service provision.

Mr Godsiff went onto say:'To say that you can move that service overnight to already overstretched neighbourhood offices without a profound impact on the service beggars believe and is yet another cost-cutting measure that will disproportionally hurt the most vulnerable.'

It is understood that withdrawal of £600,000 funding will lead to the closure of all 5 CAB offices on Feb 11th, in three weeks time.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT ROGER GODSIFF on 07732 469082 or Ian Hughes on 0207 219 5191

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