Chuka Umunna MP

This week’s Pre-Budget Report reflects Labour’s determination to maintain frontline public services, protect the environment and ensure bankers do not continue to profit while taxpayers pay for their mistakes.

Employment
Unemployment continues to be at the forefront of issues the government is tackling. Several new measures were included in the Pre-Budget Report:

- Guarantees of a place for every 16 and 17 year-old in education or training to be available to school leavers again in September 2010.
- From next month, no one under 24 will be unemployed for longer than six months before being guaranteed work or training – down from 12 months.
- The minimum number of hours those over 65 need to work to receive working tax credit will be reduced.
- The government is offering financial support for 10,000 undergraduates from poor backgrounds to take up internships in industry and the professions.

Pensions and Benefits
- Basic state pension will rise by 2.5 per cent in April.
- Additional support for mortgage interest scheme for the unemployed extended for six months.
- Child and disability benefit will rise by 1.5 per cent in April.
- Free school meals to be extended among primary pupils in low-income families from September 2010.

Taxation
- A one-off levy of 50 per cent is being applied to bank bonuses above £25,000, to be paid by the bank, not the employee. This is expected to create £550 million which will be invested in jobs for young people. Chuka has campaigned for the government to impose a one-off tax on banks.
- New tax avoidance laws ensuring that an extra £5bn per year will be protected from evasion and avoidance.
- No increase in income tax.

Environment and Energy
Streatham’s recent Q&A on Climate Change with Chuka and Ed Miliband reflects Labour’s commitment to protecting our environment:

- A new scrappage scheme, similar to the highly successful car scrappage scheme, to help replace 125,000 inefficient boilers.
- From April 2010, people who have a home wind turbine or solar panels and send power back to the national grid will receive, on average, a tax-free payment of £900 a year.
- Electric cars will be exempted from company car tax for five years, with a 100% first year capital allowance for electric vans.
- Doubling government finance for carbon capture and storage demonstration projects.
- An additional £200m of funding for energy efficiency schemes.
- £120m for new low-carbon industries in the UK.
- Helping more vulnerable households with energy bills; doubling support provided by energy companies to £300m by 2013/14

Small Businesses
The government is committed to helping local businesses through the recovery:

- An increase in corporation tax for small firms will be deferred.
- The Time To Pay scheme, allowing firms to spread tax payments will be extended for as long as is needed.
- Allowing the scheme for bank loans to small businesses to be extended for a further 12 months, guaranteeing a further £500m of loans.
- Encouraging growth and innovation through reductions in corporation tax relating to new patents.
- The new Growth Capital Fund will be set up to invest in small and medium enterprises.

In this video, filmed after the recent Q&A with Ed Miliband MP and local people organised by Chuka at Lambeth Town Hall, Chuka talks to the Climate Change Secretary about the event and the UN conference on climate change currently taking place in Copenhagen.

Businesses in Streatham are looking forward to an upturn in trade next year.

That is according to research released by BT to coincide with the launch of Small Business Week.

The report questioned 1,000 company managers and bosses in the capital. It also revealed that 61 per cent of the city’s firms remain confident or very confident about their own business prospects. The survey also highlighted the importance of technology in reducing costs and increasing efficiency and competitiveness.

Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den fame said the economy had recovered well after “bottoming out” in May, and small firms should be optimistic about their chances of battling their way out of the recession.

All of which is positive news for small businesses in Streatham.

I started using Streatham Swimming Pool as a child when my swimming club, Leander S.C., used to compete there against other local clubs such as Streatham S.C. and Battersea Jacs S.C. Until recently we used to hold Keith Hill MPÂ’s constituency surgeries there too, where we dealt with hundreds of constituents problems. So I was greatly alarmed when I heard the pool had to close because of health and safety concerns.

Others will seek to make political capital out of this closure and use it to knock the current Lambeth Council administration but local residents have no interest in that – all they want is for their pool to re-open.

The fact is that administrations of all different political persuasions have not greatly invested in the pool because they expected the Streatham Hub scheme – of which a brand new leisure centre is a part – to be developed by Tesco.

Tesco are currently negotiating with Lambeth Council about the future of the Hub scheme. It is therefore imperative that we keep up the pressure on the retailer, which recently announced interim pre tax profits of £1.4bn, to deliver what it promised to this community. I do not see how engaging in the usual political knock about will help us get our pool back.

Chuka Umunna
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Streatham

The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a new investment programme to tackle unemployment for young people aged 18-24.

The government has pledged £1bn, and any organisation from the public, private or third sector can apply for funding with the long term aim of creating 150,000 additional jobs aimed at young people who have been out of work for nearly a year to deliver real benefits to communities.

During these tough economic times, it is important that our young aspiring men and women have access to work, training and education. This is a new approach for creating jobs and will provide hope for young people and job seekers in deprived communities.

Organisations in Streatham, which is one of the youngest constituencies in the country, can take the lead in providing new jobs for young people.

Lambeth First has already been awarded more than £1.2 million to help 18-24 year olds into local work under the Future Jobs Fund. The new central government funding will help create 198 new jobs in the borough over the next six months for young people who would normally be at risk of becoming long-term unemployed.

The government anticipates that 10,000 new jobs are to be created within the culture, media and sport sectors following successful bids to the Future Jobs Fund.

For more information visit the Future Jobs Fund site.

This week, Secretary of State for Climate Change Ed Miliband joined Chuka and Charlie Kronick, Senior Climate Adviser to Greenpeace at Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton for a question and answer session.

After speaking of the importance of getting a global climate change deal this week at United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, he answered questions and heard the views of Brixton residents.

Ed Miliband will be one of the UK’s principal representatives, along with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at the Copenhagen Conference this month.

At the Conference, the crucial next stage of the UN’s climate change strategy will be discussed. More than sixty five world leaders will be in attendance including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, who was the first leader to announce that he would attend in person.

The stakes could not be higher – the conference provides a unique opportunity to agree an effective, fair and ambitious deal for reductions in carbon emissions. The British government has stated its aim for new binding targets to prevent temperature rises.

Ed Miliband came to our area on the eve of the crucial talks to hear the views of an area which is fast becoming the Green capital of London and Britain’s first inner-city experiment in low-carbon living. As well as being designated an official Low Carbon Neighbourhood, the Transition Town Brixton Movement and the Brixton Green Project are helping to build the country’s first inner city model of a low-carbon future.

Nearby, Sustainable Streatham and the Hyde Farm Climate Action Network are having a impact in reducing our area’s carbon footprint.

At the end of the event, the Minister said he would take on board the views voiced in Brixton, particularly the strong desire for a global deal, when he goes to Copenhagen.

Sign Ed’s Pledge to help push for a global deal on climate change.  More photos of the event can be viewed here.

Minister for the Third Sector Angela Smith MP joined Chuka in a recent visit to Lambeth Voluntary Action Council (LVAC).

The Minister’s visit to Streatham recognised the important work being done by the voluntary and community sector in the local area, with Angela Smith making a speech highlighting the role of LVAC and organisations like it.

This was followed by a roundtable discussion chaired by Chuka with representatives from the local community organisatons which make up LVAC, including Volunteer Centre Lambeth, Park Hill Housing Co-Operatives and Emmanuel Youth & Community Centre.

The visit was arranged by Chuka, who recently met with the director of LVAC Conrad Hollingsworth and thought it would be useful for both the Minister and LVAC representatives to meet and discuss the issues facing the sector.

As well as showcasing Lambeth’s thriving third sector, the event provided an opportunity for representatives of local groups to ask the Minister questions and provide a view from the front line to help inform government plans for helping community groups.

LVAC is a membership organisation which represents, supports and develops Lambeth’s voluntary and community sector and promotes cooperation with public bodies.

The Streatham Constituency has one of the largest voluntary and community sectors in the UK, and LVAC plays an important role in coordinating different bodies to create a more powerful voice for its members.

The government has recently announced plans to set up a new national bank to fund community groups. Cabinet Office Minister Liam Byrne, who announced the new policy in a lecture at think tank Progress, argued that local civil society needs to be supported centrally by the state.

Commenting on Angela Smith’s visit to Streatham, Chuka said:

“The Minister’s visit is testament to our area’s thriving community and voluntary sector, and provided a fantastic opportunity for representatives from local organisations to feed their ideas and concerns directly to the top.”

“Since 1997, the government has made unprecedented investment in community and voluntary groups, and in doing so has strengthened local society.

“I welcome the proposal to set up a new bank for funding community and voluntary groups, which would give organisations like LVAC and its members even more freedom to do what they do best.”

The government has launched a new careers strategy to modernise careers education and make sure every that young person, whatever their background, can aim for the top.

The scheme was launched in collaboration with football legends Sir Alex Ferguson and Ryan Giggs.

It aims to make a real difference for children in Streatham by offering them support and guidance beginning earlier, at primary school.

The proposals include the following initiatives:

- Providing a £10 million fund to support innovative ways of delivering careers education.

- Every young person will have access to a mentor – two new national mentoring champions will help increase mentoring opportunities between schools, businesses and higher education.

- Moving careers advice into the 21st Century with better online access to careers advice through Facebook, You Tube, blogs and forums and a new dedicated online mentoring scheme from 2010 to enable young people to contact professionals online.

The scheme aims to give more help to disadvantaged and disabled young people in accessing work experience so that all young people – regardless of their background, ethnicity or gender – can realise their full potential.

Every young person will get careers education up to the age of 18 in line with raising the school leaving age.

The new strategy has been endorsed by Manchester United player Ryan Giggs:

“Mentoring was very important to my career, Sir Alex has been a mentor to me since I started out and has helped me not only in football but in my life. If young people can receive the kind of mentoring that I did it, it is sure to give them a good start in their chosen field and lead them to success.”

A key emphasis of the government’s scheme is the partnership of schools, businesses and parents, on which Sir Alex Ferguson said:

“All sorts of people can influence children in their career choices, but it is important that teachers, parents and businesses spot talent early on and nurture young people to achieve the best they can.”