Category: Cambridgeshire

Nationwide willing to lend money to pensioners

It tends to be the older people in society who’ve got a bit of cash. And the mortgage lenders just want some of that.

17:43 Monday 9th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: At what age are you too old to be in debt? One of the UK’s biggest lenders says it will lend mortgages to people until they are would you believe eighty five. But is that sensible, and what difficulties might it create? Kevin Peachey is the BBC’s Personal Finance Reporter and he joined me a little earlier.
KEVIN PEACHEY: Well lenders general wanted people to pay off their mortgages by retirement, so they ensure that all of those repayments were made while people had a working wage. But now Nationwide, one of the biggest lenders in the country, says that from July it will allow some existing customers to have their mortgage until they’re eighty five. So that means a sixty year old taking out a twenty five year mortgage. And this move comes after their competitor Halifax raised its age limit from seventy five to eighty. So people in their eighties will still be paying off mortgages.
CHRIS MANN: I suppose it all reflects the changing demographic, and quite simply people are living longer anyway. Can everyone get such a loan?
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Equal access to democracy

07:18 Friday 6th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: And just to go quickly to Anthony Carpen once more, who’s a political blogger and community activist in the Cambridge area. I haven’t been canvassed once in the run-up to this local election, which is a source of some disappointment, because I like to play a game where they knock on my door, and then I open it and try and guess the name of the councillor before they tell me their name. I know. The long evenings really do fly by in my household. Do you feel that canvassing has been at fever pitch?
ANTONY CARPEN: Certainly in some of the wards it has been. For example, Market and Romsey had the doors canvassed the hell out of.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Knocked on heavily.
ANTONY CARPEN: Whereas in other wards, Cherry Hinton for example, there were complaints from various people that they hadn’t received any election literature whatsoever. Now I think there are a couple of things to say about this. One is that there’s obviously a negative impact of political parties just targeting a small number of wards. But also for me democracy is not a spectator sport, and one of the things for me that goes with being a citizen is that isn’t there a responsibility for us as citizens to be proactive and find out who is standing in which areas. It’s one of the reasons why I created over fifty short YouTube videos featuring a number of candidates from all of the political parties standing either in the elections for local councils or for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And Daniel, Anthony mentioning there Cherry Hinton ward, where I believe Rob Dryden who’s the Mayor of Cambridge, very very well known local figure, was standing and re-elected for Labour. Do you think there are some wards within the city where your party Labour has become complacent?
DANIEL ZEICHNER: I don’t think complacent, but I think all organisations work the system they’ve got. So you concentrate your resources. I think actually Labour does make a consistent attempt to make sure that everyone gets election literature. I’ve (something) Liberal Democrats have almost withdrawn completely from whole areas of the city, and just contest very hard these very marginal areas. So it does mean that everyone else gets left out, which is why I and others think a change to our electoral system would actually be good for our local democracy.

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Cambridge City Council election 2016 – the city’s housing crisis

08:11 Tuesday 3rd May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Cambridge City Council is under Labour control at the moment. How much do you think local politicians can do about this housing crisis?
SOPHIE BARNETT LABOUR: Well I think Cambridge City Council has already done quite a lot, but there’s obviously the national restrictions that we’re facing. So in terms of council housing, not being able to build enough. But what Labour have managed to do in thr two years that they’ve been in is to build a lot more council housing. They’ve bought back some land that had previously been sold and built council housing on it.
DOTTY MCLEOD BBC: So when you say a lot more council housing, how many properties are we talking about?
SOPHIE BARNETT LABOUR: I think it’s around 100, but I’m not sure of the exact figure.
DOTTY MCLEOD BBC: That’s nothing though is it, in the context of the number of people who want affordable homes.
SOPHIE BARNETT LABOUR: No and I think it’s really unfortunate with the national policies that we’re unable to borrow against the housing stock that we’ve currently got. So it means that you can’t get the finances up to build more housing.
DOTTY MCLEOD BBC: And you blame who for that?
SOPHIE BARNETT LABOUR: The national government really.
DOTTY MCLEOD BBC : OK. Let’s go to Roy then standing for the Conservatives. Sophie says it’s your party’s fault.
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Eastern devolution – the wooing begins

10:24 Wednesday 27th April 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Is your neighbourhood getting a rough deal from the rest of Cambridgeshire? That’s our question, after the Leader of East Cambs. District Council launched a scathing attack on fellow-council leaders across Cambridgeshire. James Palmer said they were too Cambridge focused. Areas like East Cambs have been forgotten about. One of his quotes: “I’m afraid some councillors who represent the city of Cambridge have no idea what exists within two or three miles of them. They think East Cambridgeshire is off the edge of some cliff, Fenland is at the bottom of it.” He’s happy to go it alone without Cambridgeshire, and forge a union down the Yellow Brick Road of Norfolk and Suffolk. Well let’s speak to the head honcho, Lewis Herbert, Labour Leader of Cambridge City Council. Morning Lewis.
LEWIS HERBERT: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Have you forgotten about some parts of Cambridgeshire, forsaking all others unto Cambridge?
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Heidi Allen on child refugees

17:45 Tuesday 26th April 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: One of the other big things you’ve been doing at the moment of course is your work with refugees.
HEIDI ALLEN: Yes.
CHRIS MANN: Trying to get the Government to agree to take more. Now that got blocked.
HEIDI ALLEN: Well yes and no. We had an announcement from the Government on Thursday/Friday last week that they would take 3,000 more, principally children and associated family members, so up to a maximum of 3,000 from the region. And that was a direct result of the fact that this amendment was coming back from the Lords this week. And that I think did help to stem the rebellion if you like. So ultimately that’s great news. We’re taking 3,000 more. But I’m still concerned about the child refugees who are in Europe, and that announcement didn’t do anything at all to help with that.
CHRIS MANN: So what can you do?
HEIDI ALLEN: Well it’s not over as they say. The Lords will be looking at it again tonight. Ping-pong, you’ll have heard the phrase.
CHRIS MANN: Yes.
HEIDI ALLEN: So we’ve pinged it back for one final time to the Lords tonight, who will look at the result of the Commons vote last night, and I believe Lord Dubs is tabling a slightly wider amendment that doesn’t have this magic 3,000 number associated with it. And I’m feeling pretty confident it might get through, in which case it’s most likely we’ll get to debate on it again next week. And I think because .. you know, if we get the wording right, something that the Government can be happy with and MPs can be happy with, then I think there’s still room for us to bring some more children in.
CHRIS MANN: Heidi, thank you so much. Heidi Allen there, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire.

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Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner – the four candidates

Meet with the four candidates for Police Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire

Tuesday 12th April 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: In a month’s time, or just under a month actually, you will have the chance to have your say on how Cambridgeshire should be policed. It is the Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Over the next few days you’re going to hear from each of Cambridgeshire’s four Police and Crime Commissioner candidates, talking about why they want the role and what their priorities for policing would be. Continue reading “Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner – the four candidates”

Conservative MP rejects forced academisation of schools

“Look at the disputes you’re going to have over redundancy. Look at the disputes you’re going to have over land disposals. It’s a recipe for disaster.”

10:24 Friday 22nd April 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Let’s get reaction now to our big interview from yesterday’s show with the Leader of Peterborough City Council John Holdich. It was quite late in the show. You may have missed it. If you have, you can listen to the whole thing again on-line on the BBC iPlayer. He exclusively revealed that if David Cameron forces schools to become academies, that the Council would consider setting up its own educational trust so it could still run schools in the city, effectively regaining control. Well his comments came after the Government confirmed it would be forcing schools across Cambridgeshire to accept academy status, an idea councillor Holdich says is flawed. Here is he is explaining what he meant on yesterday’s show.

It started with bringing a few schools together. .. But now you’ve got academy trusts with a hundred schools. They’re no more than mini-LEAs. And they don’t focus on your city. .. I will .. see whether we can set up our own Trust, and have our own family of schools.

So why is the Leader of Peterborough City Council so against academies? Why is anybody? Well the whole thing was brought up earlier in the week in the House of Commons by the MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson. Morning Stewart.
STEWART JACKSON: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: John Holdich, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him quite so forceful, quite so against something. And there saying if we can’t beat them we’re going to join them and regain control of our schools. What’s the problem with academies per se?
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National Audit Office – reservations around devolution

“It is certainly very complex. The point for us is given that complexity it’s really important to spell out these things clearly, so that local people understand at what level responsibility sits.”

17:22 Wednesday 20th April 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: New doubts have surfaced today over the Government’s devolution deal for East Anglia. The plan announced by the Chancellor earlier this year would mean powers over planning and transport would transfer to a new authority, combining Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have rejected the current deal, and today fresh concern, this time from the National Audit Office. It says the plan is untested, and by giving so much power to so many councils, accountability could be a problem. I spoke to Keith Davis from the National Audit Office a little earlier.
KEITH DAVIS: So what we’re saying about these deals is they offer the prospect of local growth and of public service reform, but what we’re trying to say is that they’re new, they’re untested, and therefore it’s particularly important that there is clarification on exactly what they’re trying to achieve, how impact is going to be monitored and assessed, the questions about accountability also need clarifying, who’s going to be responsible, how is that going to work. The other big point we’re making is that this is taking place against the backdrop of reductions in the funding of local authorities, 25% over the last five years, another 8% coming out over the next four. And then that makes it more of a challenge in terms of their capacity to implement these kind of changes.
CHRIS MANN: These aren’t little concerns. These are big issues, aren’t they? So should it go forward with all of these unanswered so far?
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