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Tag: 2012

  • Justine Greening – 2012 Speech on International Aid Transparency

    justinegreening

    Below is the text of the speech made by the Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, which was held on 6th December 2012.

    Sustained growth and poverty eradication around the world have been underpinned by what the Prime Minister has called the golden thread of development: open societies and open economies where everyone can participate and use their skills and maximise their potential. Transparency is one of the building blocks of the golden thread. Transparency helps to create the basic conditions that people need to lift themselves out of poverty.

    The Prime Minister has challenged us all to get our house in order, including in the developed world. Driving greater aid transparency is a critical part of this. I made it clear in my first few weeks in this job that I will continue to focus on getting value for money from our aid programmes and will do it transparently. UK taxpayers will demand no less from us.

    But it is not just citizens in Britain who need more transparency of aid budgets. Transparency means that recipient governments can plan and manage the resources coming into their country. It empowers citizens and parliamentarians in these countries to hold governments and donors to account.

    In India DFID supported the Government of Bihar to develop the Right to Public Services Act 2011 and implement a public awareness campaign to improve services for the poor. Establishing this as a right and raising awareness of it, led to a big increase in application for services. The first 5 months saw more than 9 million applications and there was an associated improvement in service delivery with more than 80 per cent of applications successfully processed.

    So transparency is important. I’m speaking to the converted here. Today I want to talk about two things. Firstly, I want to commend the UK aid sector for the progress that we have made together.

    And secondly, I will announce new work that means my department will be pursuing even faster progress.

    Progress

    The UK has played a leading role on aid transparency amongst the major donors.

    The Prime Minister’s commitment to transparent public servicesand open data has enabled DFID to lead and drive a similar agenda in the aid world. DFID has made great strides over the last couple of years. We were the first development organisation to publish data according to the International Aid Transparency Initiative’s standard.

    We redesigned project documents to make them more accessible to the public. Transparency featured heavily in DFID’s Country Operational Plans and in the Multilateral Aid Review. We have continued to put more new and detailed information on our aid spend into the public domain. And we are continually working to improve the quality of this data.

    All organisations receiving DFID Partnership Programme Arrangement funding will now publish data in line with the International Aid Transparency Initiative standard this year. UK Civil Society Organisations, such as CAFOD, Oxfam GB and Save the Children UK, are leading the world in this area. DFID is promoting greater transparency and accountability in the countries with which we work – encouraging work towards more open government and fiscal transparency.

    These efforts have borne fruit – we saw DFID jump from 5th place to 1st place in the space of a year in the Publish What You Fund Aid Transparency Index. It was great recognition of our achievements and the effort put in by DFID staff all over the world.

    Even so, this also needs to be an international effort. Transparency was one of the four key principles that countries agreed in Busan.

    The International Aid Transparency Initiative agreed a common standard for aid transparency in February last year. This is now a shared objective of 35 major aid providers. It is endorsed by 22 partner countries. And in November UN Women became the 100th organisation to publish their data.

    DFID has a bold and ambitious vision on transparency.

    We believe it should be possible for anyone, anywhere to track our aid spending right through the aid system – from the taxpayer to the beneficiaries. Increasing the traceability of aid will help beneficiaries feed-back on its impact, increase transparency of governments, and reduce waste, fraud and corruption.

    At the Open Up! conference, DFID shared the Department’s new Open Aid Information Platform. I think this is really exciting. The Platform will give line of sight on our programmes from start to finish. But the Aid Information Platform will only work if organisations and intermediaries down the aid chain provide information about what they are doing with DFID’s funding. What more do we need to do?

    So we are launching what I’ve called an Aid Transparency Challenge to ourselves and our partners to deliver this vision.

    Firstly, we will require organisations receiving and managing funds from DFID to release open data on how this money is spent in a common, standard, reusable format.

    They will need to require this of sub-contractors and sub-agencies – right through the aid chain. This will include the unique identifiers that will make it possible to follow the money.

    We will support our partners in this process and we’re going to make sure it is not an unreasonable barrier to accessing DFID’s aid. But we are very serious about making aid more traceable.

    Secondly, we recognise that making aid information open is the just the start. For transparency to be transformational we need to encourage the use of this aid data. So to do this we will establish an Aid Transparency Challenge Fund to stimulate work by developers to create tools promoting the use of open aid information, supporting the traceability of aid, and improving results reporting.

    Such tools may also help us answer critical questions on traceability of different delivery chain models; making data relevant to different users whether they are aid data experts in Kenya or activists in Britain; and relating aid data with other datasets, such as development indicators.

    We believe this is a public good so we will require that all tools developed through this Fund are made ‘open source’ so that others can use and further develop them. To go alongside this we will also bring developers together to build awareness of the business opportunities open aid data creates.

    New International Development Sector Transparency Board

    DFID will also seek challenges from the people who produce and use this data through establishing a new International Development Sector Transparency Board by March next year. This Board will have representatives from DFID, civil society, aid contractors, open data experts, partner countries, privacy experts and other government department representatives.

    Finally, we will improve our data through geocoding aid, showing on maps where DFID aid is spent at the local level. And we can make it compatible with partner country budget classifications, enabling government and citizens to see where aid is supporting their own priorities increasing accountability. We will improve our data by publishing feedback of those directly affected by aid.

    To conclude, we are at a critical juncture in development with discussions of a new framework for international development. Now is the opportunity to build on our progress in driving a more transparent aid system and look forward to the opportunities we now have to work together to embed the principles and practice of transparency in the heart of development cooperation.

  • Damian Green – 2012 Speech to the Police Superintendents' Association conference

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    Below is the text of a speech given by the Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice, Damian Green, to the Police Superintendents’ Association conference on 12 September 2012.

    Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you today.  It’s always daunting as a ,inister to come to speak to an audience containing so much experience and expertise, and that is particularly the case after only a week in the job.

    Like many other people I have had many experiences of police activity, when I have been a victim of crime, or when I have seen police in action in maintaining public order.  I also, famously, have some experience of police action which is perhaps unique for a Police Minister – I have been arrested, and this guarantees that I am not disposed to uncritical admiration of everything done by all police officers at all times.

    What I can guarantee is that during my time in this job I will be a candid friend of the police.  I want you to succeed in your job, because it is vital to a healthy society, and the best way I can help is to listen, learn, and express my own views clearly.  We may not always agree, but I will always be willing to engage and discuss.

    I am sorry that I wasn’t able to join you for the sessions and discussions that you have had this morning.  I have been in Coventry meeting with Chris Sims and West Midlands Police. I can confirm that as of 11am this morning the streets of Coventry were entirely peaceful and orderly. I was interested to see what they are doing with technology to make themselves better at their job by much better use of technology and various initiatives.

    Heart of our police force

    I am particularly pleased that my first major event and speech as Police Minster is to one of the police staff associations.  You, as key leaders of policing and as police officers, are the heart of our police force.  Yesterday I know the Home Secretary praised your professionalism and dedication, and I straightforwardly want to echo those sentiments.  This professionalism and dedication is particularly valued as you drive change within your forces.  And there is a lot of change taking place.

    I accept that this is a challenging period for officers and the force as a whole, and I understand that there is some suspicion about the changes we have made and are continuing to make.  I am not here to tell you that I will be slowing the pace of change or reversing decisions that have been made – the reform of policing is too important for that – but I hope that we can all follow Derek’s call to ‘move on’ from these changes and the debates and arguments of the past and work together to build a strong police force in the public interest.

    To that end I want to put on record our thanks for all the work that you and your colleagues have done to address the challenges so far.  Despite necessary reductions in budgets, crime is down and, as Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary has said, the service to the public is largely being maintained, response times have held up and victim satisfaction is improving.  This is down to the dedication and professionalism that officers and leaders like all of you show every day.

    I know that inevitably, everything that has happened, all those changes, have dominated the conference over the last couple of days.

    Today I want to talk to you briefly about some of the themes of professionalism and public confidence underpinning the reforms that have been made, and what I think the benefits will be.  But before moving on I want to be clear that even after  reform of structures and pay and conditions police officers will continue to be among the best paid of the public services, retiring earlier than most and with pensions that are among the most generous. But is equally worth saying that this is right, to reward the exceptional job that you do.

    Reducing bureaucracy

    The Home Secretary has been determined to restore discretion to the police and to enhance professionalism, and I am equally committed to this agenda. The proper use of discretion is important for all ranks of the police, but it is essential to you as superintendents.  It is a prerequisite to reducing bureaucracy and to end the culture of the Home Office – the Police Minister, Home Secretary, officials – looking over your shoulders as you make decisions.  I want you to be able to get on with the job they joined the force for: fighting crime, and you can’t do that if you’re tied up in red tape and bogged down by form-filling.

    I am please that great strides have already been made in this area which could see up to 4.5 million hours of police time saved across all forces every year, but I want to see more done to build on this. That is one of the things I am keen to drive through as police minister. This morning I spoke to Chris Sims, the ACPO lead on reducing bureaucracy, about what more we can do.  We’ve changed a lot from the centre, but we have to work with forces, and with you, to identify where further improvements can be made.

    This agenda to restore discretion goes hand in hand with that to improve professionalism.  At the outset, it’s important to say what the professionalism agenda is not about.

    It’s not about criticising you or saying that the way you have been doing your jobs up to now has been fundamentally flawed.

    And it’s not about making policing a graduate profession.

    But it is about accepting that the threats we face have changed and that to support the new landscape, and particularly the increase in your discretion, we need to continue to develop skills and ensure that they are properly recognised and rewarded.

    College of Policing

    Key to this work will be the creation of the new policing professional body – the College of Policing.  The College will be established by the end of the year, taking on functions from the NPIA and ACPO business areas, with a powerful mandate to enable the service to implement the required standards for training, development, skills and qualifications.

    And, crucially, it will be independent of government, with a board made up of representatives from across the ranks, with PCCs and independent members helping to give advice and improve accountability.  And, as the Home Secretary said yesterday, the Chief Executive will be a senior officer.  I was pleased to learn on taking over the post of Police Minister that work on the College has been progressing well over the summer, and I’m grateful for the engagement of the Superintendents’ Association during this.

    The other key part of the drive to develop professionalism and restore discretion is considering and taking forward the recommendations of the Winsor review.  I know, even in my very short time in this role, that you have concerns about some of these proposals.  But the principles supporting these changes are important.  If we are to properly support professionalism we have to value the skills that officers, using their warranted powers, gain to carry out their roles.  A pay system that rewards time served, rather than skills and professional development cannot do this.

    Yesterday the Home Secretary spoke about the benefits of these proposals to you as operational leaders: the signals you can send to your officers and staff and the flexibility that you will be given.  And these benefits will flow to all officers and to the public, because it will support the central aim of policing: to cut crime.

    And that relationship between the public and police is where I’d like to end my comments today.  You all know that it is a relationship that needs to be won every day, by every action and decision an officer takes.  Contrary to what some people think, confidence in the police has been steadily improving, but too many people still feel disconnected from their local force, thinking that policing is something that happens to them, rather than something they need to engage with.

    That is why I am excited about the elections for Police and Crime Commissioners taking place on 15 November.  Public awareness of the elections is increasing and people are now starting to talk about policing priorities in their areas, often in a way they haven’t before.  You will always be the ones taking the operational decisions, but with a directly elected figure, accountable to the community they represent, the link with the public will be renewed.

    We all know a healthy society requires the police and public to be at ease with each other, and the triumph of the policing operation at the Olympic and Paralympic games is testament to this. I visited the Olympic Park several times but it was not just there, it was everyone involved in the torch relay, the spectators and they were only able to throw themselves into the spirit of the games because of the work that dedicated officers were doing quietly behind the scenes.  The fact that no one mentioned public order during the Olympic period is a huge testament to the success of the operation that police all over the country were involved with. You were essential to helping deliver a safe, secure and enjoyable Games that did prove to be one of the best things to happen to this country for many decades. This easier relationship between the police and the public needs to be one of the legacies of the Games.

    But it is not just for you as leaders or individual officers or forces to work to win this confidence, as elected representatives politicians have a duty to help build this too. So I look forward to working with you, and getting to know you, and my door will always be open to representatives of policing.  I also want to get out to meet with you and hear your concerns by visiting forces around England and Wales.  I visited Coventry with West Midlands Police this morning, so I only have another 42 forces to go.

    I want to thank Derek for his contribution as president.  I know that he has been a source of good counsel for Ministers, and I look forward to working with Irene and continuing what has been a very important relationship that the Home Office has with the Superintendents’ Association.

    I’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Steve Williams on becoming chair-elect of the Police Federation.  In my briefing I note that he is a trained hostage negotiator; I was pondering that and I’m sure he will find it a useful skill.

    I know many people have said that this is an opportunity for a new start and personal relationships will be very important and I am more than happy to do what I need to do to ensure we have a creative, constructive, evidence based dialogue. That is the way to make progress. Of course we will not always agree, reform and change is always a painful period for all involved but we need to have those discussions on a regular basis.

    It is true that we have a dedicated and professional police service, and I am excited about the future of policing in this country.  At a time of great change the central mission for policing remains the same: to cut crime.  And as Police Minister I will always support you to do this, in the interest of the people of this country.

    Thank you.

  • Chris Grayling – 2012 Conservative Party Conference Speech

    chrisgrayling

    Below is the text of the speech made by Chris Grayling on 9th October 2012 to the Conservative Party Conference.

    A few months ago I was in the Clink.

    Not the famous prison in Southwark. But the prison restaurant which bears its name in High Down prison just a few miles to the south.

    It’s one of the most innovative projects I have ever come across. A restaurant, open to the public, but where the cooks and the waiting staff are all prisoners, learning a new trade, getting ready for a return to the outside world, and with the real hope of getting a job.

    It’s an inspirational project and a real example of what our criminal justice system should be doing to try to turn lives around.

    That is only one part of what our criminal justice system should do. I was at High Down not too long after last year’s riots. Being close to London, it had a fair share of the people involved in those disgraceful events.

    I asked one of the prison officers about the rioters who had been sent there. His reply was illuminating to say the least.

    Many of them were really shocked, he told me. They didn’t really believe that anything would happen to them. Still less that they would end up in prison.

    Too often those who offend think that nothing will happen to them.

    Our job is to make sure it does.

    I’ve made no bones about my intention to be a tough Justice Secretary.

    That means I want our justice system to be firm, fair and transparent.

    One in which the public have confidence.

    A system that punishes offenders properly.

    A system that supports the hard work done by our police.

    A system which looks after the victims of crime.

    But that’s not enough on its own.

    It also has to be a system which recognises that our prisons are full of people who face huge challenges. A system which is designed to ensure that they do not return to a life of crime when they are released.

    Before I set out my plans in detail, I want to introduce you to the team of people who will be making all of this happen with me. My Ministerial team, here on the front row.

    We’ve already heard from Damian Green.

    There’s Jeremy Wright and Helen Grant. Our Whip David Evennett, and our two P.P.S.s Lee Scott, and David Rutley.

    Ladies and gentlemen, that public confidence issue is so important.

    We cannot deliver the reforms that are so desperately needed unless the public believe in us.

    And so to law-abiding citizens, I want to say ‘we are on your side’.

    That is why today I am announcing a change to the law about protecting yourself and your family from intruders to your home.

    None of us really know how we would react if someone broke into our house.

    None of us really know how frightening it would be if we were confronted by a burglar in the middle of the night.

    Or how terrified we’d feel, if we thought our family was in danger.

    You might well hit out in the heat of the moment, without thinking of anything but protecting your loved ones. And right now you’re still not sure the law is on your side.

    I think householders acting instinctively and honestly in self defence are victims not criminals. They should be treated that way. That’s why we are going to deal with this issue once and for all. I will shortly bring forward a change to the law. It will mean that even if a householder faced with that terrifying situation uses force that in the cold light of day might seem over the top, unless their response is grossly disproportionate, the law will be on their side.

    We’ve all backed this change in the past. It’s time it happened.

    We are about to start another important change too.

    It’s called ‘two strikes and you’re out’.

    So, if you commit two serious violent or sexual offences, you will get an automatic life sentence.

    Everyone deserves a second chance. But those who commit the most serious offences, crimes that would attract a sentence of 10 or more years, cannot be allowed to just go on and on causing harm, distress and injury.

    Those people are a real threat to our society, and we must treat them as such.

    Thirdly, I am announcing today that we are making big changes to community sentences, so that they deliver proper punishment in the community. Right now large numbers of those sentences deliver no punishment at all. We will change that. We will legislate to make sure there is a punitive element as part of every community order.

    We are also legislating to use more state of the art technology to enforce curfews and exclusion zones. So, for example, we’d be far better placed to know whether a paedophile has broken his order by hanging around local schools.

    We need to do everything we can to safeguard our communities.

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    I will not compromise on punishing offenders or protecting the public.

    But the biggest challenge in our criminal justice system is a very different one.

    I want to see more people who deserve it go to prison. But I also want to see far fewer coming back.

    The failure of our system to prevent reoffending is stark.

    Half of offenders are reconvicted within a year of leaving prison. Some re-offend within a matter of weeks, or even simply days, of leaving jail. Around one-third of offenders sentenced for indictable offences last year had

    15 or more previous convictions or cautions.

    You know what we do?

    When someone leaves prison, we send them back onto the streets with 46 quid in their pockets.

    Back to the same streets.

    Back to the same groups of people.

    Back to the same chaotic life styles.

    Back to the same habits as before.

    So why are we surprised when so many commit crime all over again?

    It costs the economy at least £9.5 billion a year.

    It blights communities, and ruins lives.

    It is a national scandal.

    But the impetus to break this cycle is not just an economic one, or an issue of public safety.

    We know – and have known for some years – the factors which affect people’s life chances.

    But the statistics – even if we think we know them – really are grim.

    Around a quarter of prisoners were in care as a child;

    Just think about that.

    A quarter of people in our jails today were in care as children.

    I find that truly shocking.

    Nearly a third of them experienced abuse as a child;

    Half our prisoners have no qualifications;

    Half haven’t been in paid employment in the year before custody;

    About two thirds have used drugs in the month before entering prison;

    Nearly a quarter have a severe and enduring mental illness.

    Nearly three quarters of the prison population were identified as having either a severe and enduring mental illness, a substance addiction … or both.

    These are issues we simply cannot ignore.

    We have to address them if we are to stop re-offending.

    I want to say to offenders ‘We will send you to prison. But we want to change things so that you don’t keep coming back’.

    Over the past two and a half years I have been working with Iain Duncan Smith to transform our welfare state. It’s now time to do the same in justice.

    As Employment Minister I pioneered the use of large scale payment by results contracts to help the long term unemployed through our Work Programme. It’s a simple proposition really. You decide what works best, and we pay you when you are successful.

    It’s an approach that’s already beginning to make a difference getting the long term unemployed back to work. I plan to bring that same approach to preventing reoffending. We will allow nimble private and voluntary sector providers to innovate, to find the right mix of training and mentoring, to do what works in ensuring that those leaving prison and community sentences do not reoffend.

    And there will be more.

    Inside prison, there will be more purposeful regimes. Maidstone prison for example has a textiles facility which produces work wear, and a laundry that employs offenders working a 33 hour week. There is plenty offenders can, and should, be productively doing.

    Inside prison we must give prisoners proper skills and training. Take the Timpson’s academy in Liverpool prison. Prisoners receive training in shoe repairs, engraving, and dry cleaning. The workshop is fitted out to look like a Timpson’s shop, and offenders have the opportunity to apply for a job with the company on release.

    We will make more effective use of drug rehabilitation and alcohol treatments to help tackle the root cause of crime and re-offending. In Kirkham prison for example, they have recruited 2 ex users and offenders as ‘Recovery Champions’ to support the Substance Misuse Services. We will also build on the already ongoing work to make prisons drug free, not somewhere that offenders get sucked into ever more damaging cycles of behaviour.

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    We are already proud as a Government of our reforms to Welfare and Education.

    When we meet here again in a year’s time, I want there to be a real sense that our justice reforms are starting to make an equally big difference to our society.

    When you think about the reality for the people who are in our prisons, you realise that we have absolutely no choice. It just has to happen.

    There’s one other aspect of our prison system that also has to change.

    We have to do something about foreign national prisoners. Their number has increased by forty per cent in the last ten years. They account for more than ten thousand of the places in prison.

    It is a tough task. But it’s one we are already tackling, so that more foreign prisoners are sent back to serve sentences in their own countries.

    It’s something that Jeremy Wright and I will be putting a lot of effort into sorting once and for all.

    There’s another priority for us as well.

    Just before the General Election David Cameron and I went to a small community centre in Liverpool to meet a group of mothers, all of whom had seen violent crime rip their families apart. They all told the same story, of a criminal justice system that seemed to be more on the side of the offender than of the victim and their family.

    They said they didn’t receive enough information about what was going on. Sometimes the offender was back on the streets and they didn’t even know it. They felt that they were being forgotten.

    Well I haven’t forgotten that conversation, and I think it’s time to make sure we put the victim and their family first. That’s why one of my first actions on becoming Justice Secretary was to appoint a Minister for Victims, Helen Grant. I am sure she will do an excellent job.

    Her first task will be to appoint a new Victims Commissioner to work with her to make sure we put victims first. I want that person to be someone who knows at first hand what the impact of crime can be. Then I want them both to work with victims and their families to make sure their interests come first.

    There’s one other promise I want to make to you today.

    At the last election we promised to do something about our out of control human rights culture.

    It’s just crazy that people who are determined to attack our society are able to go back to the courts again and again and claim that it would infringe their human rights to send them back to the countries they come from.

    We know we cannot deal with this in the way we want while we are in coalition.

    But we cannot go on the way we are.

    So my commitment to you is that Damian Green and I will give this Party a clear plan for change on human rights.

    A plan we can take to every doorstep. A plan we can use to fight the battle that we all want to win at the next election – to secure a majority Conservative Government.

    Ladies and Gentlemen.

    My goals for our criminal justice system are simple.

    I want to send a message to law-abiding citizens that says ‘we are on your side’.

    I want to send a message to victims that says ‘we will support you’.

    I want to send a message to criminals that says ‘we will send you to prison, but we will also help you go straight’.

    This is what I believe a tough, fair justice system should look like.

    This is what a revolution in rehabilitation should look like.

    And that is what we will deliver.

  • Chris Grayling – Speech at Swearing in Ceremony

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    Below is the text of the speech made by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling, at his swearing in ceremony on Monday 8th October 2012.

    Mr Attorney, I am very grateful for the Lord Chief Justice’s kind words.

    It has long been an ambition of mine to be appointed Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor and I am hugely honoured to be here.

    I know there is curiosity about having a former journalist and businessman stepping in to this high office, and not someone steeped in traditions of the legal profession, like my many distinguished predecessors.

    So let me say a word about the office and how I intend to approach it.

    I have the highest respect for this country’s judiciary, which rightly enjoys a worldwide reputation for integrity and quality.

    I also believe very much in the rule of law, which is obviously vital for good government and prosperity.

    So I am as committed as any of my predecessors to the serious, weighty responsibilities that come with being Lord Chancellor – whether that is the protection of judicial independence, the robust defence of justice, or working closely with the Lord Chief on judicial appointments and discipline.

    I’m really honoured and proud to receive the Great Seal, and it’s a particular privilege to share today’s ceremony with two such accomplished men.

    Lord Dyson I have not met previously. But his eminence and reputation as a Justice of the Supreme Court certainly precede him. I congratulate him on his appointment as Master of the Rolls – an office he will perform with the same distinction he has shown in the rest of his sparkling career.

    Oliver Heald I have known for many years as a fine lawyer and colleague. I applaud him on a richly deserved two-for-one honour: taking silk and being appointed Solicitor General certainly counts as a good day at the office.

    My views on the justice system are, I believe, pretty mainstream. I want to deliver reform to strengthen public confidence but also ensure that our system does much better at turning offenders away from crime. The rehabilitation revolution is my vocation.

    I know that judges have been leading a wide range of reforms already and made good progress. I want to support you in your efforts to go further and faster.

    No doubt we won’t always agree on everything. But I’m very conscious of my responsibility to support your role.

    And I’ll defend your independence, even as I push for improvement and modernisation in our justice system.

    It’s a pleasure to be here and a profound honour to serve in this high office. I look forward to working with you all as colleagues and friends and intend to live up to the big responsibilities I’ve taken on.

  • Ed Vaizey – 2012 Speech to the Future of Library Services Conference

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    Below is the text of the speech made by the Minister Ed Vaizey to the Future of Library Services Conference in London on 28th June 2012.

    I’m delighted to have the opportunity to speak at today’s conference. This is a great opportunity to talk about the thriving library service that we have in England.

    • A library service made up of more than 3,300 libraries;
    • A library service in which councils invest £900 million a year;
    • A library service which continues to innovate and develop;
    • A library service that continues to open libraries and refurbish library buildings.

    For example: Southwark’s new library in Canada Water is a state-of-the-art facility for the community, and just one of several new libraries in the borough; Oldham’s impressive Fitton Hill Library and Neighbourhood Centre has just opened; and Worcestershire is opening The Hive – the first ever joint public and academic library in the country.

    Add to that significant refurbishment programmes – from Nottinghamshire to Newham – and you get a taste of the good news out there.
    And Birmingham is planning to open the biggest library in Europe next year, costing almost £200 million.

    And thanks to stories like this, we learned from today’s Taking Part survey that library visits remain stable – they are not declining. I know that the library service is facing challenges. But I want to get the good news out, and present a more balanced picture.

    Arts Council: a development agency for libraries

    As I often point out, libraries are emphatically a local authority service, and are fully funded by local government and run by local government. Nevertheless, they can benefit from having a national development agency to push innovation and best practice.

    And our decision to give responsibility for libraries to the Arts Council (ACE) will provide exactly that service.

    The move unites cultural policy with library policy for the first time, as was envisaged in the 1950s debates that led to the Public Libraries and Museums Act of 1964. It builds on the work ACE already does – funding important organisations that support libraries, such as the Booktrust, the Reading Agency, and Writing West Midlands to name just a few.

    This also includes financial support. The Government and the Arts Council have already invested more than £500,000 to support development work by library authorities.

    Today I am delighted to announce that the Arts Council will be allocating £6 milllion from its Grants for the Arts programme over the next two years for library authorities to lead projects working with artists, arts organisations and other cultural organisations on arts and cultural activity through libraries.

    This fund will aim to stimulate ambitious, innovative partnerships between libraries and artists and arts organisations. It will help raise the ambition and expectation of libraries, and represents a significant commitment by the Arts Council to their new role.

    As well as supporting libraries with funding for programmes, it’s also important that we identify library authorities that may need specific help to address particular issues.

    Today I am therefore also pleased to announce an initiative with CIPFA to identify areas where individual authorities might be able to improve.

    CIPFA’s new ‘comparative profile reports’ have been developed to benchmark local council services against comparable authorities, or “nearest neighbours” as CIPFA calls them. My Department will be commissioning reports on all library authorities in England, which will be available in December this year.

    My Department will use the reports to look for ways in which we can help local authorities.  I must emphasise that this is not an attempt to sanction local authorities and certainly not a return to top-down, inflexible library standards. But if we see wildly diverging opening hours between two similar authorities with similar budgets and infrastructure, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and look at how opening hours could be improved.

    Or if one authority is spending twice as much on book stock as another, but providing a similar number of books, we can ask if there are ways to improve efficiency in the authority in question.

    I should also say that these reports will be publicly available, allowing MPs, councillors and other interested members of the public the chance to see how their local service measures up, and to ask well-informed questions – and also make well-informed suggestions for improvement.

    Libraries in the Digital Age

    Library buildings are and remain important.  And in the digital age, paradoxically, a bricks and mortar service is still extremely valuable.

    The People’s Network put in place by Chris Smith made a big difference to libraries.  Millions of people now use their library to access the internet. I heard recently that the Society of Chief Librarians’ target to get 500,000 people on line for the first time by the end of 2012 was actually passed in April this year.

    Now we need to go further. In the age of the smartphone and tablet, wifi is becoming an essential aspect of every-day life, and it is an ambition of mine for wifi to be in every library in England by 2015.  So I’ve asked my officials to explore how best to achieve this, working with colleagues across government.

    Working Across Whitehall

    Government support for libraries can be more effective if it works across Departments.

    We are now working with the Department for Education to provide automatic library membership for primary school pupils, to encourage them to use their local library – a wonderful idea put forward by children’s author Michael Rosen.

    In September we will pilot different approaches to test the most effective ways of supporting children and their families to use their libraries and read more widely.

    And libraries have been a key part of the Cabinet Office’s Race Online 2012 initiative to get the digitally excluded on-line. Libraries’ staff and volunteers saw 2.5 million people getting online, which is a very real demonstration of the role they play in tackling the digital divide. Arts Council and SCL are currently working with the Post Office to support the Government’s programme to get more people using government services online. This approach will be piloted in Birmingham this autumn.

    And the Cabinet Office has recently awarded £127,000 from the Social Action Fund to the Reading Agency to support teenage volunteers in libraries.

    So more Departments are getting the message that libraries can help them deliver their services more effectively – whether it’s education, digital literacy or volunteering.

    Volunteers and Community Libraries

    Libraries have always benefited from the work of volunteers. And volunteers, particularly those who have retired but want to remain active in their community, have also benefited.

    I would also like to pay tribute to the growing number of young people who support the Summer Reading Challenge.  Last year there were over 3000 young volunteers and we are expecting a significant increase in that number this year.

    This is a really good example of where volunteers add value to a scheme and also where they gain a really valuable work experience.

    Volunteers are crucial to the library service.  But let me state again, as I have so often, they are not a substitute for expertise of professional librarians, as well as other people trained in specific aspects of the library service.

    I am also pleased to see community supported libraries coming into play, particularly where a local authority is planning to close a building. Community run libraries are contributing to a diverse picture of libraries located within village halls, pubs, shops, churches, day care centres, tourist information centres and enterprise hubs.

    Community managed and community supported libraries will never replace the extensive network of council run libraries we enjoy.  But they do provide an important additional element of provision, and an important alternative model which can add to the rich variety of services already available.

    It is precisely because of this that my Department is currently working with the Arts Council, LGA, Defra, and DCLG to create a new information resource  for authorities considering establishing community supported or community managed libraries in their areas.  It is important that local authorities and community groups work together to ensure that library assets transferred to communities are sustainable in the long term.

    Funding Context

    Let me take this opportunity to state once again, that libraries are and will remain a statutory service.  The challenge for local authorities therefore is the provision of that statutory service in a tight financial climate.

    The Arts Council’s Envisioning research will help Councils think about what their service should look like in the future. And as a highlight of best practice, the LGA yesterday launched an invaluable publication ‘Local Solutions for Future Local Library Services’ which – as the name suggests – is packed full of useful case studies, some of which I’ve referred to today. It picks up on areas where libraries can improve the delivery of the service – and offers tangible solutions.

    Library Closures and service reviews

    I have made it clear from the moment I became a Minister that no library authority should contemplate closing libraries unless they have conducted a proper review of their library service.

    While some local authorities have put forward controversial proposals since 2010, all of them have conducted a library review, as I made clear to them they would have to do when I took office. I have no doubt that the efforts of library campaigners have also brought about welcome changes in some of the more extreme proposals put forward.

    Nevertheless, I am always mindful that libraries are a local service, paid for by local taxpayers.  As far as possible, local democracy not Whitehall diktat should have an impact on how they are shaped. A library inquiry is a power of last resort – it has only ever been used once in fifty years. It is not a tool to be used lightly, or for political expediency

    A figure of 600 library closures is regularly quoted in the media – but it is very wide of the mark.  A truer picture of building closures would be about a tenth of that.

    But even while there have been closures, sometimes services merge or move to community-management, and it’s important that we are able to have an intelligent debate about this. And it’s also important to remember that many libraries are also opening.

    Conclusion

    I remain resolutely optimistic about library services. I have never, even in opposition, depicted the library service as being in crisis.

    I look to a future where:

    • The Arts Council acts as a development agency for libraries;
    • Libraries can access funds and support from the Arts Council
    • Poorly performing authorities are identified and helped to improve;
    • Key initiatives can be taken forward by central government, such as wi-fi or automatic enrolment for school children;
    • Government and local authorities understand what a vital resource libraries are across a whole range of activities.

    But we must always remember that libraries are a local service – free to serve their local community, to innovate and adapt to local needs.

    I hope you will join me in continuing to spread the good news, and to highlight the excellent service provided by so many people throughout England.

  • Paul Kenny – 2012 Speech to TUC Conference

    Below is the text of the speech made by Paul Kenny to the 2012 TUC Conference on 9th September 2012.

    I am proud and honoured to address this 144th Congress of the TUC as President.

    This past year has flown by. A year in which our trade union movement, mobilised millions of people into campaigning for pensions justice.

    The biggest demonstration of civil and political defiance in living memory brought home to politicians and pundits that trade unionism was alive, well and kicking.

    The Prime Minister called last November’s demonstrations ‘a damp squib’.

    Sounds of laughter over his ill-advised refusal to acknowledge the two million plus people taking action could be heard from Glasgow to Gloucester, Cardiff to Carlisle.

    Predictions of our demise as a movement were again somewhat premature!

    One hundred years ago in Newport, the TUC held its 1912 conference. The President that year was Will Thorne, acknowledged as a founding figure of the Gas Workers Union which today has become the GMB.

    Thorne was from the new breed of trade unionism, gas workers, labourers, dockers and general workers whose struggles culminated in the formation of new unionism, which by 1912 had come of age.

    The TUC met in 1912 in good heart, membership was up by just under 350,000 to two million, a staggering increase in just a year. Membership at two million, and it was said in the years up to that milestone that trade unions were spent, a thing of the past, trade unions were a dying breed.

    Will Thorne, Ben Tillet and others did not buy into that defeatist propaganda of one hundred years ago and we reject those same attacks today.

    Two million became 12 million and today we stand above six million.

    The challenge to us, with all the physical, financial and organisational assets the movement possess, is to recreate the energy, vision and political will to define ourselves clearly again.

    This movement can be proud of what it has achieved for both the prosperity and people of our nation.

    Many things taken for granted in today’s society did not land courtesy of politicians’ slumbers.

    They came from the passion for social justice which has been at the forefront of our movement for the last hundred years and beyond.

    I have never been lucky enough to have worked for any employer who came in on a Monday morning and confessed they had been unable to sleep all weekend worrying about whether I had enough pay, holidays, sick pay, pension benefits, respect at work, dignity and rights to be treated fairly.

    These are the values our movement stands up for and it has been trade union collective bargaining and action which has secured work and social benefits which so many today rely on.

    It is easy to remember just a few short years ago how those trade union voices which called for equality in our society were rounded on.

    How trade union campaigns for gender, race and sexual orientation rights and an end to the discrimination endured by so many were attacked as political correctness and just plain loony left grandstanding.

    Who today would take anything other than pride for the changes in attitude and process achieved by those campaigns?

    But a word of caution, admiring what has been achieved must never slide into a failure of purpose over that which is still to be gained.

    It is also clear, as we know only too well, that hard won advances and rights through industrial and political actions have to be defended, particularly where such advances edge into the power of such vested interests as those employers and politicians who argue for a ‘no rights culture’ of exploitation, insecurity and social conflict.

    This year’s Congress badge is a simple message ‘Union and Proud’, because we should be. What working people have created by way of social change through their membership of trade unions is truly remarkable and deserves celebration.

    As trade unionists we are a particular type of human being, it is our values for fighting injustice, campaigning for others, and our vision of a society based on equality of opportunity, which drives our agenda.

    That is why so many in Government, the CBI or the IoD do not understand what makes us tick.

    Their values are based on individual wealth gathering and free market exploitation with some lip service to the deserving poor!

    Every essential requirement of a modern democracy is seen as a business opportunity to be exploited and ransacked, irrespective of the long-term costs to the economy or its citizens.

    The destruction of social housing, energy policy, rail and transport infrastructure, were all carried through for reasons of commercial exploitation and those basic tenets of a planned economy which require long-term planning and investment, swept away in favour of the quick buck.

    And see if you can guess who warned successive governments of the disasters of such moves.

    Who said PFI would be a financial disaster?

    Who said the culture of bankers’ bonuses was wrong and dangerous?

    Who said paying billions to the private landlords instead of building affordable social housing was nonsense?

    Who was it said that if you do not carry out maintenance on our railways, safety for passengers and staff would be compromised and, were we right?

    Who for years has demanded action over the tax avoidance and evasion schemes so beloved of certain politicians and the City?

    Who has led the charge for action on the scandal of over a million young people who are victims of this government’s economic experiments?

    On jobs, public services, welfare and so much more, it has been the trade union movement centre stage and sometimes the only voice.

    And who has been solid in demanding decent pensions for all?

    And our movement’s gains on health and safety in the workplace did not land from outer space.

    They arrived by way of a road built with the blood and broken bones of those thousands of victims of avoidable accidents, employer negligence and political indifference, which we continue to campaign against.

    Trade unions are often the only course of support a person has when it comes to defending themselves against bullying at work or when seeking training, parental leave or plain old fashioned respect.

    Trade unions are the largest collective body for good and social justice in the world and, if as a movement we do not stand for social justice, then we stand for nothing.

    Our challenge is to grow, to organise those industries and workers which in some cases we have avoided, perhaps because of the difficulty of the task.

    In the run up to the Pensions Day of Action, some unions discovered what some others had forgotten, people joined the union movement in their tens of thousands because we both spoke up for their interests and organised on a scale not seen for quite a while.

    This historic year for the TUC has culminated in the election of Frances O’Grady, the first woman to occupy the office of TUC General Secretary.

    Congratulations to Frances and best wishes for the future. But I hope that one day soon the election of a woman to leadership will create no more interest, comment or surprise, because it will have become far more frequent in all walks of life.

    And a brief word of thanks to Brendan Barber, history will show that a transformation took place under his time in office.

    Brendan leaves with the respect and thanks of us all for his contribution and help.

    The fact that he announced his retirement after spending twenty two hours in a plane with me, on route to Australia is merely coincidental.

    And a big thank you to all the staff at Congress House and in the regions for their wonderful dedicated work on our behalf. We truly have some very talented, principled, passionate people working for us all at the TUC and I for one am grateful for all they have done.

    To my own union, the GMB, thank you for giving me the support to carry out at least parts of the duties of President this past year.

    I end this address with a single message. Our trade union movement has so much to be proud about. We do not need to hide or apologise for who we are or for what we seek.

    Are trade unions, a vested interest?

    You had better believe it. We are.

    But for a better, more equal society.

  • Boris Johnson – 2012 Conservative Party Conference Speech

    borisjohnson

    Below is the text of the speech made by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to the 2012 Conservative Party Conference on 9th October 2012.

    Thank you first for all you did to make sure that we Conservatives won in London this year and thanks to that intrepid expeditionary force of volunteers from around the country.

    The busloads from Herefordshire who crossed deep along the Ho Chi Minh trail into Hackney where they of course found people’s problems aren’t really so very different after all.

    You showed that we can overcome a Labour lead and win even in places Ed and co are so cocky as to think they own. And if we can win in the middle of a recession and wipe out a 17 point Labour poll lead then I know that David Cameron will win in 2015.

    When the economy has turned round and people are benefiting in jobs and growth from the firm leadership you have shown and the tough decisions you have taken.

    And I was pleased to see the other day that you have called me a blond haired mop. A mop. Well if I am a mop then you are a broom. A broom that is cleaning up the mess left by the Labour government and a fantastic job you are doing. I thank you and congratulate you and your colleagues – George Osborne the dustpan, Gove the J cloth etc

    Because for the last hundred years it has been the historic function of Conservatives to be the household implements after the Labour binge has got out of control.

    And it is thanks to Conservatives here in this hall that I was allowed to bask in the glory – often wholly undeserved, I am afraid, but never mind – of the greatest Olympic and Paralympic Games that have ever been held.

    I think anthropologists will look back with awe at the change that took place in our national mood – the sudden switcheroo from the gloom of the previous weeks.

    You remember what they were saying? When the buses were on strike and the taxi drivers were blockading the west end. And thousands of the security staff seemed mysteriously to have found better things to do. And the weather men were predicting truly cataclysmic inundations on the night of the opening ceremony. And then sometime in that first week it was as though a giant hormonal valve had been opened in the minds of the people. And the endorphins seemed to flow through the crowds. And down the tube trains like some benign contagion.

    Until everyone was suffused with a kind of reddibrek glow of happiness and from then on it was as if nothing could go wrong. And the G4s guys turned up after all. And five million people were showed to their seats without delay. And the volunteers revealed a kindness and a friendliness that we had almost forgotten. And the tube trains ran with metronomic efficiency. The Jubilee line going three miles an hour faster than they did when I was elected. And the sociologists will write learned papers on that sudden feeling that gripped us all. Was it eudaimonia, euphoria, eupepsia or some other Greek word beginning with eu? You name it

    Was it relief? It was surprise, wasn’t it? There we were, little old us, the country that made such a Horlicks of the Millennium Dome. Putting on a flawless performance of the most logistically difficult thing you can ask a country to do in peacetime. And some of us were frankly flabbergasted, gobsmacked.

    And I want you to hold that thought, remember that feeling of surprise – because, that surprise is revealing of our chronic tendency in this country to underestimate what we can do. And we need now to learn the lessons of the Olympics and Paralympics. The moment when we collectively rediscovered that we are a can-do country. A creative, confident, can-do country.

    The Olympics succeeded because we planned for years and we worked together. Public sector and private sector. And we put aside party differences. And yes this is the right moment to say thank you to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and Tessa Jowell. And yes, Ken Livingstone. Ken old chum there is no coming back from that one. You have just been clapped at Tory party conference. As well as to Seb Coe and Paul Deighton and Hugh Robertson and David Higgins and John Armitt

    But for the success of these Olympics there is one Conservative we need to thank today. One Prime Minister who loves sport and who to this day is championing cricket in inner London. Oh yes. It is thanks to John Major, who put in the Lottery that we have gone from one gold medal in 1996 to the sporting superpower we are today.

    And we created the conditions in training and infrastructure that allowed our young people to take on the best of the rest of the world and do better than them. We gave them the stages to perform on. The stadia in which they could show their competitive genius. And that is exactly what we have to do with the economy today.

    I am a Conservative. I believe in a low-tax and low-regulation economy and I believe that as far as possible government needs to make life easy. For those who get up at 5 to get their shops or businesses ready – the strivers, the strugglers – whatever the vogue word is for them today. We know who they are, and there are many in this room. The backbone of the UK economy as Napoleon almost said.

    Britain is a nation of small and medium-sized enterprises and they make up 75 per cent of the London economy. And it is these businesses that have the capacity to grow. To take on young people, to expand and become world-beaters. And we need to think, every day, what we can do to create the right conditions for them to flourish. And to become more than medium-sized. To become the gold medalists of the global economy

    For the last four years my team in City Hall has been working – as you have been working, in Government – to fight the recession and to create the conditions for a dynamic recovery. And yes, we One Nation Conservatives are well aware that in a society where the gap between rich and poor has been growing – as it did under Labour – that we have to look first to the poorest and the neediest and those who cannot easily compete and that is why I am so proud that we have expanded the London Living Wage. Now paid – entirely voluntarily – by about 250 of the swankiest banks, law and accountancy firms in London putting about £60m into the pockets of some of the lowest paid people in London.

    We have protected or expanded every travel concession for young people, for people in search of work, for the disabled and we have taken Londoners off the age escalator and restored the 24 hour Freedom Pass. And I apologise to the people of Labour-run Birmingham as I generally and periodically apologise to so many other cities but that is a privilege that older people have only in Tory-run London. And we are delivering it on November 1 as I promised because we have been able so to manage the budget that we have cut £3bn in waste and have not only frozen council tax over the last four years but are now cutting our share by ten per cent.

    But when times have been toughand when the city has been afflicted by riots barely one year ago then we need to remember that there is one virtually all-purpose cure for want and squalor and anger and deprivation, better than more benefits, better than police crackdowns and that is a job. The self-esteem, the excitement, the fun, the human interaction and competition that a job can offer. Before you even talk about the money.

    London is an amazing creator of new jobs. But they don’t always go to kids who grow up in London and we need to work out why and we need to look at what is happening in our schools. I am a passionate supporter of Michael Gove’s free schools revolution parents, teachers, charities are coming together to create wonderful new places of learning, like Toby Young’s West London Free school in Hammersmith or the East London Science school, led by a formidable physics teacher called Dave Perks who wants all his pupils to learn triple sciences so that they can apply for top universities and the kind of high skill jobs created by the London economy.

    And I don’t want a handful of these schools. I want dozens of them, right across the capital. So I can announce today that I am setting up New Schools for London to help find the sites that they need. And we are opening up the GLA’s property portfolio to find the site.

    And I want to boost the teaching of the STEM subjects because it is an utter scandal that we are going through a golden age of engineering projects and yet this country is short of about 50,000 engineers and there are parts of London where A level physics or advanced Maths are hardly taught. And with so many school leavers failing to find a job we are seeing a tragic waste of talent 54,000 18-24 year olds on the dole.

    And that is why we are driving forward a massive programme of apprenticeships. We have done 76,000, and we are going to do 250,000 over this four year term and businesses won’t invest and shops won’t open unless they are confident that the place is safe. And so we have brought crime down by 12 per cent. And Bernard Hogan Howe has committed to reducing it by a further 20 per cent over the next four years. A further 20 per cent over the next four years. And in the last year the murder rate has fallen yet again to levels not seen since the 1960s. And it is no disrespect to my old friend Mike Bloomberg to say you are four times more likely to be murdered in New York as you are in London

    And for business to flourish they need employees who can afford to live within a reasonable commuting time from their place of work and so a job-creating economy needs good housing and good transport. And that is why we are not only building record numbers of affordable homes – 54,000 over the last four years – far more than Ken Livingstone

    But we have this week set out a new plan. To help the struggling middle to buy their homes. And if we invest in transport then we can not only drive the creation of thousands of new jobs in London – I am thinking of Battersea or Tottenham or Croydon – but we drive jobs across the country.

    I am pleased to inform you, Conference, that since we last spoke I have kept my promise to Londoners and introduced a new generation hop-on hop-off replacement for the Routemaster. They are the cleanest greenest new bus in Europe. They have conductors and unlike the hopeless broken-backed diplodocus of a bendy bus which was made in Germany, they are made in the United Kingdom. Aand that Ballymena factory has just received the biggest single order in its history. 608 of these great big dome-browed scarlet beasts. And unlike the hopeless broken-backed diplodocus of a bendy bus which was made in Germany, they are made in the United Kingdom.

    And when we buy new trains we drive jobs in Derby. Conductor rail from Chard. CCTV from Warwick. Railway sleepers from Boston. And if we build that platform for growth – with better education, with safer street, with more housing and better transport infrastructure then the private sector will produce amazing and world-beating results.

    Go to tech city and see young Londoners devising apps so that teenagers in America can watch movies on their Xbox. Go to soho and see them doing the special effects for so called Hollywood movies When they eat cake on the champs elysees, they eat cake made in London. When they watch Gangnam style on their TVs in Korea, they watch it on TV aerials made in London. The dutch ride bicycles made in London. The Brazilians use mosquito repellent made in London. Every single chocolate hobnob in the world is made in London. We export everything from badger shaving brushes to ballet shoes. And as I look ahead I am filled with confidence about the capital

    We will sort out our aviation capacity problem. We will create new river crossings. We will regenerate East London and we will put in air conditioned and driverless trains. Wven if Bob Crow says his RMT drivers won’t test drive the driverless trains. We will continue to expand cycle hire and plant thousands of trees.

    We have the right time zone the right language and we have the right government in Westminster and I will fight to keep it there.

    We fought to keep London from lurching back into the grip of a Marxist cabal of taxpayer-funded chateauneuf du pape swilling tax minimisers and bendy bus fetishist.

    I will fight to keep this country from lurching back into the grip of the two Eds. Unreformed, unpunished, unrepentant about what they did to the economy and the deficit they racked up.

    We need to go forward now from the age of Excess under Labour. Through the age of austerity to a new age of Enterprise in which we do what we did in the Olympics and build a world-beating platform for Britain for British people and businesses to compete and win and we need to do it now under the Conservatives and we will and it begins here.

  • Boris Johnson – 2012 Speech at City Hall

    borisjohnson

    Below is the text of the speech made by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, at City Hall in London on 10th May 2012.

    Good morning everyone and thanks for coming.

    I want to clear up some myths about the recent elections. They were not decided on the basis of who said what  to whom in the lift. It wasn’t a question of tax returns or Cornish pasties or bus advertisements.The reality is that the people of London would not have given me a second term if they had not looked at the record of the GLA over the last four years and decided that it was respectable.

    In fact it was more than respectable.

    It was excellent.

    And so I want to thank the people in this chamber for everything you did:

    – crime is down

    – homes built

    – tube delays improved

    – air quality improved

    – green spaces created

    – bicycles across the city

    People were willing to give my administration a second term because they had seen that we kept our promises to London on everything from Oyster cards, to getting rid of the bendies and inventing a beautiful new bus for London.

    We had a mandate and we delivered!

    Now we have a new mandate and so we must deliver again, therefore I want to repeat my priorities. In fact there is only one:

    To do everything we can to create jobs and growth to help Londoners into work in tough times.

    Everything else flows from that. We will continue to keep police numbers high because a safe city is not just an end in itself; It is a vital prerequisite for economic confidence and investment.

    We will continue to fight for the funding London needs for transport, housing and regeneration because those projects will not only create the platform for future growth and prosperity, they will generate 200,000 jobs now when Londoners need them.

    I want us to look at all the steps we can take to make sure Londoners get those jobs.That’s why we have set up the education inquiry and we will be pushing for more of a role in education and that’s why we are rapidly expanding the apprenticeship scheme. We will continue to improve the environment and the quality of life because a city that is clean and green and full of bikes is more likely to attract investment.

    In making the case to government for London I will point out that a strong London economy is the key to growth in the country as a whole and it is essential that we frame and focus the vision for the city.

    So I am now asking you all to help me produce a 2020 vision for the city, encompassing everything from spatial and transport developments, opportunity areas and river crossings to air quality, cycling and health outcomes. Of course this should include projects that will not only be complete by 2020 but which must be underway.

    The need is urgent because the population is growing and we can so easily slip behind, we must not repeat the mistakes of the 50s 60s and 70s. One thing that the Crossrail argument has taught me is that if we can build a consensus around the future, then we are much more likely to make it happen and to help us all see what is happening and what we are doing right and wrong.

    We are going to be much more pro-active about statistics. I want this building (City Hall) somewhere to contain a physical resource where we can see – and members of the public can see what is happening on gun crime or affordable home starts or educational outcomes or air quality and we can use that clarity to drive performance.

    One thing the last four years has taught me is that four years is a very short time. The elections have slowed us all down so now is the time to put the pedal to the metal. We have 78 days to produce the greatest Olympic and Paralympic Games that have ever been held, but I see no reason why the GLA’s 2020 vision for London should not be ready well before Christmas.

    We know what it is – it’s there in the London plan and It’s there in the manifesto, but we need to articulate it and sell it to the treasury and to the rest of the country.

    Thanks very much everyone and back to work.

  • Boris Johnson – 2012 Speech to the London Assembly over the Budget

    borisjohnson

    Below is the text of the speech made by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, on the draft budget.

    Value for money and freezing the precept

    Good morning. This administration has been dedicated to delivering value for Londoners’ money, and to leading the city to a strong economic recovery. You must remember that in the last four years we have not only been dealing with the deepest recession for 50 years.We have had to overturn and reform a culture of waste in City Hall.I might mention the £37000 spent on first class tickets to Havana, the £10,000 spent on a subscription to the Morning Star.These were the just the symptoms of a regime that could casually spend £34 m on architects drawings and consultancy for a west London tram that had no chance of happening. A regime that was happy to squander tens if not hundreds of millions on LDA projects, some of which verged on the dodgy.

    We have delivered sound finance to London government, with a 25 per cent reduction in managers at TFL, which now has 3500 fewer staff and which will have vacated 23 buildings by March.We have secured £2bn in savings already, and those savings would have been unthinkable under the previous administration. This budget delivers a further £1.5 bn of savings. And it is those savings that have allowed us to concentrate scarcer resources on the priorities of Londoners.

    We promised a 24 hour freedom pass – and we delivered it and will protect it.We promised a booze ban on public transport. We delivered it and with the help of hundreds of extra crime fighters we have made the tube network the safest in Europe and brought bus crime down by 30 per cent.I scrapped the vindictive £25 charge on family cars, and I kept my promise and listened to what Londoners really thought of the western extension zone of the C charge. I promised the world’s best cycle hire scheme, and it has been so successful that there are demands for it to be extended to other areas.

    We didn’t rage pointlessly at the Train Operating Companies – we persuaded them to take oyster on the overground, with the result that millions of Londoners not only have that convenience but cheaper oyster fares.It is under this administration that the east London line was completed, on time and on budget – and it was this administration that drove forward its second phase, to Clapham junction, to finish London’s first orbital railway. We were the first administration to introduce a roadworks permit scheme, which now has 27 of the 33 boroughs signed up to and the rest shortly to come on board. This is now beginning to control the number of roadworks. They are now down a quarter on the TLRN from their peak. And when we get lane rental the war on roadworks will have a new and formidable weapon.

    Transport investment

    This budget builds on our success in securing – despite the tightest spending round in generations – funding to deliver in full Crossrail and the Tube upgrades. When we arrived in City Hall we found a creaking public transport system that had suffered from decades of under-investment. It was obvious that the PPP contracts were not delivering upgrades and were wasting hundreds of millions of pounds. It was this administration that ended that madness – and will allow us to ensure that we save Londoners hundreds of millions of pounds, and deliver the upgrades on time and on budget and in a way that suits the needs of the London travelling public.

    We know that TFL staff are dealing with antiquated assets – and that when a 1920s signal box goes wrong at Edgware road it can disrupt 250,000 journeys. The hole punch signalling technology at Earl’s Court and the 40 percent of the Tube’s rolling stock past its expected lifespan. If the upgrades didn’t happen these assets would fail more frequently, resulting in a 30 percent reduction in capacity. Londoners will be asking as they make their decision what will be cut by those who call for a £1.2 billion reduction in TfL’s revenue. Perhaps it’s the Bank station congestion relief work, or the upgrades on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines. Or perhaps the sub-surface lines. Or congestion relief works at Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street stations. Or cutting the Safer Transport Teams and the bus network. Which would it be? I know we will be rehearsing these arguments over and over again and I understand the politics of it. As has my predecessor who has made the same promise in 2000, 2004 and 2008 and yet has never actually delivered on that promise.

    Policing and Crime

    Turning now to the MPS budget. It is the first priority of the Mayor to keep Londoners safe and I believe in keeping numbers high. That is why I am re-balancing the precept towards the police to maintain those numbers. And of course again I understand the politically motivated but frankly false claims made by some about “police cuts”. There will be around 1,000 more fully warranted police officers on London’s streets at the end of this term than I inherited. That along with more than doubling the number of specials from 2,500 to over 5,000 and single patrolling has meant that there will be one million more visible police patrols at the end of this term than at the beginning. All of this has meant an overall reduction in crime over this Mayoral term of over 10 percent.

    Youth violence is down over 15 percent, robberies down almost 17 percent. Remember back in 2007 the numbers of teenage homicides. Just one is one too many but programmes like Operation Blunt 2, which has taken 11,000 knives off the streets and Time for Action has had a genuine effect with the number of violent teenage deaths, with the number halved. This budget builds on the successes of this term and there will be NO police cuts while I am Mayor. We will keep numbers at what I believe to be a safe level, which is around 32,000. Safer Neighbourhood Teams are sacrosanct under me. They will all retain their structure of at least 2 PCs and 3 PCSOs overseen by a sergeant.I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all of those who served on the MPA the past 12 years. And to Kit Malthouse for his excellent chairing of that body and now leading the MOPC through difficult negotiations to deliver this excellent budget for the Met.

    LFEPA

    LFEPA has had real success over the last 4 years with the fire brigade engaging much more with the community, increasing the number of home fire safety visits by over 80 percent and the incidences of arsons has halved. This budget builds on the success delivering more savings to a total of £48 million during this Mayoral term. This year saw some of the busiest nights in the Fire Brigade’s recent history and I pay tribute to all of London’s firefighters for managing the situation with their usual professionalism and incredible bravery. The London Fire Brigade has been an exemplar of the public sector doing more for less and sensible investment for long-term savings. In this budget we are using £4.469 million in ear-marked reserves to buy-out outdated terms and conditions, which will save £1.362 million every year hereafter. Under this Mayor there will be absolutely no reduction in fire cover and we will continue to make London a safer city.

    City Hall (LDA + HCA)

    The last year has seen the LDA and the HCA successfully integrated into the GLA. My budget cements that ensuring full delivery of their programmes. I promised that I would deliver 50,000 new affordable homes – the most in any single Mayoral term. And despite the terrible economic conditions of the past few years by May they be. And during the next investment round, over 2011 – 2015, we will deliver a record breaking 55,000 affordable homes, which will not only house London’s workers but will also create 100,000 jobs.

    The apprenticeships programme has succeeded well beyond our expectations, surpassing our original targets with 40,000 already underway. The budget gives us the means to deliver our new target of 100,000 by the end of this year. This budget allows us to complete the delivery of £216 million to regenerate the capital coming from my Regeneration and Outer London Funds and the Growing Places Fund. Together, these are helping to give our high streets a real boost. Some traders in Orpington and Bromley have seen a significant increase in footfall and sales following investment from round one of the Outer London Fund. And I know we all look forward to the delivery of round 2, which will see 23 projects across 18 boroughs. This budget allows these investments without any extra borrowing – again showing how this administration’s careful stewardship of the public finances will not burden future generations in debt – in stark contrast to the former Labour government.

    Olympics

    Last but not least this budget delivers, through the new Mayoral Development Corporation, a true legacy for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, on time and on budget.And this budget delivers the legacy that had been promised. There will be 10,000 new homes – 40 percent of them family sized – and 10,000 permanent jobs in addition to all those already created by Westfield and other regenerated parts of east London. We are carrying forward a £30m programme in grass roots sport – with more to come – to deliver a sporting and health legacy. For young and older Londoners ; and I thank Kate Hoey for everything she is doing on this.

    Growing the economy

    This is a budget that builds on this administration’s achievements over the last 45 months. It delivers the promises I made four years ago and is a budget to grow London’s economy. London has a fantastic future. We are in the right time zone, speak the right language, and unlike virtually any other city in western Europe we have a young and growing population. But that dynamic and growing city needs investment if it is to compete. We need new river crossings. We need to extend and improve the tube network. We need to continue to improve reliability, and to end the scandal of overcrowding on a scale that would not be tolerated for the carriage of livestock.

    We have a choice. We could go for a short-term political swindle that will cut more than a billion from our investments – and which would simply drive fares even higher in the future. Or we can keep going with our programme of driving down crime, investing in transport, and growing the London economy.We can go back to the politics of waste and division and posturing. Or we can get on with the work of improving the lives of Londoners. I want to get on with that work, and I commend this budget to the assembly.

  • Tessa Jowell – 2012 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    Below is the text of the speech made by Tessa Jowell, the Shadow Minister for London, to the Labour Party conference on 2nd October 2012.

    Conference, it was an incredible summer of sport and culture – one whose shared memories will bind us for years to come.

    In this session we are going to answer the question and introduce to you some of the people it takes to make an Olympic champion.

    And so many thanks are due.

    But let me begin by saying thank you Manchester. Had it not been for your inspirational Commonwealth Games in 2002, we would not have had the courage to bid for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

    During those long years of preparation, when the doubters said it would cost too much, that the buildings would not be ready, that the public would not come, we always knew it would work.

    So to all those 40,000 construction workers, apprentices and contractors from all over the country who built the Olympic Park on budget and on time, thank you.

    The trades unions whose partnership with the contractors and the Olympic Delivery Authority delivered the biggest construction project in Europe with not even one reportable accident, let alone a death, of a worker in the Olympic Park. That is unprecedented and you did that. Thank you.

    Seb, Paul and Jonathan, and the outstanding organising committee which always stood aside from party politics even after the election. It proved Harry Truman was right when he observed that it is remarkable what a small group of people can achieve together when they don’t care who gets the credit. We all did that together and thank you.

    To the games makers, 70,000 representatives of the best of the British people, and thank you to the millions – 13 million who welcomed the torch to their communities across the UK, and the millions who cheered our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to such extraordinary success – thank you.

    To all our athletes who after years of support from scores of people did it on the day and who showed what talent, unremitting hard work and raw courage can achieve – we thank you and we salute you.

    Conference, in 1996 in Atlanta we won one gold medal, in London we won 29. It was the sustained and well-directed investment of public money in coaching and facilities which made that leap from the playground to the podium possible.

    When you were watching the Olympic and Paralympic summer was anyone out there thinking that Britain was broken? I don’t think so.

    This summer we showed ourselves as we are at our best: a country of progressive values, with an inclusive and joyous patriotism which celebrated our open, diverse and tolerant society.

    It was a terrible summer for prejudice, intolerance and cynisism.

    Our modern Britishness so perfectly embodied.

    Mo Farah, a man from Somalia, wrapped in the Union flag, as proud to be one of us as we are proud of him.

    And Nicola Adams who not only showed that there are no no-go areas in sport, but that there is not men’s sport and women’s sport, but just sport.

    And our Paralympians who showed us that disability is not a bar to athletic greatness. On the contrary: the limiting factor for any athlete in any sport in any circumstance is what his or her body can be pushed to do, which is why so many of our Paralympians proved themselves to be among the greatest athletes in either games.

    When we won the right to host the Games we made a promise. That the 2012 Games would inspire a generation. Until the election this was happening in schools across our country.

    The dismantling of this world class organisation for sport in our schools is beyond belief.

    So in order that we keep our promise, I have invited the Government to work beyond party to develop the facilities, coaching and curriculum space so that we keep our Olympic promise to young people across our country.

    Building the next generation of Olympic champions starts with that – a plan for sport at every level. Showing the young people of our country that when we said we would inspire a generation, we meant it.

    Because a moment like the summer of 2012 comes along just once in a lifetime.

    When we all come together it shows what we can do.

    Thank you.