Archive for the ‘Local Government’ Category

A huge team this afternoon including two new younger members who were both confident and effective on the doorstep.  The number of new workers now taking part in our campaign is very encouraging and gives the stalwarts a great boost.

With 15 of us out and two markers we were able to do a detailed canvass of a good part of the Mostyn Ward and were delighted to analyse the figures over a coffee to find over 80 new pledges compared to the 2007 Assembly Campaign.  Seriously encouraging!

The state of some of the back alleys in Mostyn Ward with rubbish left to rot (including soiled nappies) raises real questions about some of the claims being made by the environment portfolio holder at Conwy Council.  Happily our local councillor Janet Howarth was on the case immediately and there should be a response from the Council sooner rather than later.

Guto

One of his best. Our next Prime Minister in my view;
It’s great to be back in Wales.

It’s four years since I first addressed this conference.

Back then we were just a footnote in Welsh politics.

And just look at what we’ve done since then.

We’ve won council seats in Denbighshire, in Powys, in Pembrokeshire.

We’re running councils in Monmouthshire and the Vale of Glamorgan.

We’ve got over sixty more councillors…

…in cities, towns and villages … and even in Labour’s heartland, and yes, even deep in the valleys, even in the Rhonda … let’s not forget Joel James – he may be the only Conservative in the village but were proud of the progress we’ve made.

And four years ago, who would have thought that the Conservative Party could top the poll in Wales…

…beating Labour for the first time since the First World War, like we did in last year’s European elections?

Forget ‘how green was my valley’…

…it should be ‘how blue is my valley’…

…because the great dragon of Welsh Conservatism has awoken once more.

So I want to thank you for everything you’ve done.

And I especially want to thank Cheryl and Nick.

You have dedicated yourselves to our revival in Wales.

You have led our campaigns from the front.

And you should both feel incredibly proud of what you have achieved.

FIVE MORE YEARS

Yes, you’ve all been working hard.

But today I’m here to ask you to double your efforts.

That general election is just over sixty days away.

This isn’t an election that it would be quite nice to win.

It is an election it is absolutely essential we win because our country is in a complete mess and we have to turn it around.

Everyone knows five more years of Gordon Brown would be a disaster for this country.

Another five years of his spending, bloat, waste, debt and taxes.

Another five years of failing to get to grips with our big social problems.

Another five years in our politics of that big, top-down, bossy “I know best” sort of approach.

That’s why the choice at the next election is as simple as this:

Five more years of Gordon Brown’s tired government making things worse…

…or change with the Conservatives, who have the energy, leadership and values to get the country moving again.

Change in our economy, backing aspiration and opportunity and aspiration for all.

Change in our society, encouraging responsibility and backing those who do the right thing.

And change in our politics, giving people more power and control over their lives.

THE CHOICE IN WALES

And Wales needs that change as much as anywhere else in Britain.

In fact, I’d argue it needs it even more.

Do you know what Peter Hain said last month?

He said “compared with Rwanda…Wales is indeed still a wealthy country”.

Now, I’ve been to Rwanda and it’s a beautiful place.

And I’m proud that Conservative Party volunteers have been there to help out in social action projects.

But what does it say about this Government – and these Ministers – when they compare Wales to the 17th poorest country on the planet?

What does it say about this Government – and these Ministers – when the scale of their ambitions for Wales do not seem to go beyond a country that in the last twenty years has been ravaged by war and genocide?

What does it say about this Government – and these Ministers – when they think the Welsh should put up with this and just be thankful for what they get?

I tell you what it says.

It says this Government is arrogant, out-of-touch and has completely lost any right to govern.

So at this election, I want you to show your real passion and anger at how Labour have let down Wales.

Because there is a simple fact about what’s happened here in the past decade.

There’s not just a border separating Wales and the rest of the UK – there’s a prosperity gap.

And under Labour it’s got deeper and wider.

This is the poorest nation on these islands.

It has the highest rates of unemployment and the highest rates of child poverty.

There is only one word for what Labour have done in Wales this last decade: failure…

…and I don’t want you to let anyone forget it.

But more than that, I want you to tell the people of this great country that it doesn’t have to be like this.

Explain to them the real difference between Labour’s approach and the Conservative way.

Take the economy.

Labour think you get the economy moving by opening up the big government toolbox, pulling out the old tools like regional development agencies and new initiatives and trying to crank it to life from on high.

We understand that in the end it’s not government that will get the Welsh economy growing…

…it’s enterprise, it’s entrepreneurs, people with a great idea and the courage to start their own business.

That’s why we’ll cut corporation tax rates, abolish taxes on the first ten jobs created by new businesses and get people off welfare and into work.

And look at our different approach to our biggest social problems.

Labour say we’re wrong to talk about mending our broken society.

But when there are towns in Wales where one in five of the working age population live on benefits…

…. when one in ten are on some type of incapacity benefit …

…when there are 140 violent crimes a day in this country…

…when about 500 people in Wales die each year from alcohol…

…when so many children are deprived the structure of stable family life…

…how can you pretend our society doesn’t need mending?

We need a government that’s going to face up to the facts, roll up their sleeves and get on with the job.

That’s exactly what we’ll do.

It’s our ambition to make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe, by recognising marriage in the tax system, supporting couples in the benefits system and fighting back against crime.

And there is a massive difference in the way Labour and the Conservatives see our politics.

Labour see a system that is fundamentally sound but just needs a bit of tinkering to sort out the expenses scandal.

We see a top-down, bossy, power-hoarding, unaccountable relic that needs to be re-built from the bottom up.

Yes, we’ll sort out expenses – and we’ve been leading the way on that – but we need to go much further.

We will give everyone in Wales a sense that they are in control of their own destiny.

That’s why we’ll reduce the number of MPs, cut Whitehall bureaucracy by a third and make our politics more local, more transparent and more accountable.

That’s the difference between Labour and the Conservatives.

Inaction vs action.

Defeat vs optimism.

Despair for Wales vs hope for Wales.

There’s no iron law that says Labour must win in Wales.

So at this election, I want you to get out there and fight…

…fight for our party and fight for the change we want bring…

…above all, fight for Wales and fight for the future of Britain.

DEVOLUTION

But let me say this, whatever the outcome in Wales at the next election, we want a relationship of co-operation, not confrontation, between Westminster and Cardiff.

I will be a Prime Minister who acts on the voice of the Welsh people and will maintain strong relationships with the Assembly Government.

That’s why I’m happy to come to the Assembly each year and make myself available to answer questions on any subject.

It’s why I want Westminster Ministers appearing in front of Assembly committees – and Assembly Ministers appearing in front of Westminster committees.

And it’s why I will always support devolution and make sure it works for the benefit of everyone.

And if people in Wales want a referendum on full law-making powers that is a matter for them – so a Conservative Government will not block it.

But let’s resolve right here and right now that we will be the ones who stop the endless round of arguments that too often block progress in Wales – and start working together to build this country’s future.

THE BIG QUESTION IN POLITICS

But today I don’t just want to talk to you about how we can secure the future of Wales…

…I want to set out how we can secure the future of the United Kingdom itself.

The greatest task of all will be getting to grips with the monster budget deficit that Labour have created.

I think people know by now that the Conservatives are the ones with the grit and the guts to cut public spending to cut the deficit.

We’ve been upfront that there will have to be cuts, upfront about where they will come and upfront that they will have to start straightaway.

And people say ‘yes, we agree with the Conservatives when they say they want to cut the deficit.’

But when we also talk about our big ambitions to reform schools, shake-up welfare, help the poorest in society…

…they can sometimes think: “hang on a minute, how are you going to make this country better at the same time as dealing with these massive debts?”

They’re right to ask – because their question goes to the heart of the big argument in British politics today.

At the last few elections, according to Labour the big question in politics was: “who do you trust to spend some more of your money?”

That was Gordon Brown’s question. Well I’ve a message for you, Gordon: it’s over. There isn’t any money left. You’ve spent it all.

No, the question today is this: “how do we make things better without just spending money?”

This is the question that will define British politics for the years to come …

… and today, I want to show you how it’s only the modern Conservative Party that has the answers.

BIG SPENDING FAILS

We’ve always known that you don’t improve things by just spending more money on them.

For years now at Prime Minister’s Questions I’ve faced Gordon Brown – and Tony Blair before him – droning on about resources going up, spending going up, investment going up….

…all to cheers from the Labour benches.

They were always less forthcoming about what that money had actually bought.

Social mobility. Stagnant.

Inequality. rising

Hundreds of thousands more living in severe poverty.

They thought it was all about money. It wasn’t. And no there is no money left there is nothing left to say.

Labour never understand that it’s not the numbers on the government cheque that count …

…but the number of people who are lifted out of poverty; who get a chance in life; who get helped or cured or taught or given the opportunity to live their dream …. that’s what it’s about.

MORE FOR LESS

So after all this waste, all this failure and now all this debt, it falls to us, the modern Conservative Party, to restore hope in all those Labour have let down.

Showing government can be smarter, better, more imaginative and more competent.

Explaining how we can make things better without just spending money, how we can deliver more for less.

More for less is not some pie-in-the-sky political promise.

It’s something that businesses up and down the country do day-in, day-out.

They think: how can I deliver more for my customers while reducing my costs?

Imagine if they took the Labour approach, believing that every reduction in spending and costs was automatically a calamity for their customers.

Think of the advertising.

Good food costs more at Sainsburys.

Not “Every little helps” from Tesco, but “Every little Hurts”.

Businesses are constantly looking for creative ways to get more bang for their buck.

Reforming work practices. Buying wholesale when they can. Eradicating duplication. Innovating new delivery systems. Cutting out waste.

We need to bring that business sense and imagination to government.

Let me make clear: we are not offering a simple efficiency drive.

We’re not promising that the path to less spending and better public services is paved with just a few well-chosen cuts.

What we propose is something entirely different – something so bold and radical I would call it a whole new type of government.

Where it spends money, how it spends money, the way it spends money – that’s all got to change.

We’re going to shape government in a way it has never existed before so we use our instincts as Conservatives, our understanding of how people and communities really work and the latest technology to deliver more for less.

And this means doing three things in particular:

First, tackling the root causes of our social problems so that we can make millions of lives better while at the same time reducing the costs on the state.

Second, reforming our public services so we deliver both choice and efficiency.

And third, making government more local and more transparent so we cut waste as well as improve outcomes.

Let me take each in turn.

REDUCING THE DEMANDS ON THE STATE

First, reducing the long-term demands on the state.

In plain English that means asking the obvious question: why is public spending so high in the first place?

We spend so much on prisons because there is too much crime.

We spend so much on welfare because there are too many people not properly equipped for work.

We spend so much on health because our lifestyles are so unhealthy.

We need to rewind and ask: what are the causes of these things?

Do you know how much social breakdown costs our country each year?

Over £100 billion.

That’s one and a half thousand pounds for every person in our country.

That money gets spent on the family that’s broken, the man who’s never known what it is to work, the child who’s growing up in desperate circumstances, the communities who live in fear of violence and crime…

…and it passes through our education system, our healthcare system, our criminal justice system, our care system, our welfare system.

Now just imagine if we got to grips with our social problems – gave everyone the hope that comes with work; every child the chance that comes with love; every community the purpose that comes with security.

We would make life so much better for so many people.

And we’d also massively reduce the bills for government.

In other words, delivering more for less.

The question is: how do we do that?

And here, there’s a real difference between our approach and Labour’s approach.

Labour’s approach is just to treat the symptoms of our big social problems by spending more money.

For example, when it comes to poverty they think a tax credit here or a benefit change there will make all the difference.

But all this does is keep people stuck in poverty while at the same time leaving the state with an ongoing role.

Our approach is to tackle the root causes of poverty…

…like welfare dependency, addiction, debt, poor schooling and above all, family breakdown…

…so the state is no longer so dominant.

That’s why we have put such focus on school reform, welfare reform and strengthening families…

…giving people the chance to lift themselves up and out of poverty…

…breaking the cycles that have existed for generations…

…and being the ones who will make British poverty history.

PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM

The second way we can deliver more for less is through reform of our public services.

In 2001 Gordon Brown said “there is not going to be one penny more until we get the changes” we need to reform our public services.

But there’s been trillions of pennies since then – and where’s the reform?

It was blocked.

By guess who?

Gordon Brown.

He now poses as the champion of public service reform.

The truth is that he is to reforming public services what Nero was to fire safety …

….or Tiger Woods to marital fidelity.

Speak to doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers and they’ll tell you what a nightmare it is working in Labour’s bureaucratic state machine.

They start out idealistic, they go into their training because they have a vocation, they have a love for what they do but that passion is being killed.

It’s death by a thousand tick boxes, targets, performance indicators, inspection regimes.

They’re left feeling demoralised, disrespected, disillusioned.

Most of all they’re pulling their hair out because they see all that money being wasted and they know that it could be spent so much better.

That’s why our reforms will all led by this common, clear Conservative principle:

Public services work better when they’re driven from the bottom-up, by people on the frontline.

So we’re going to take apart the centralised apparatus of command and control…

…and we’re going to give that power to people who work in our public services – even going as far as giving them the chance to take complete ownership of the organisation they work for in.

We’ll also smash open the state monopoly and open the door to charities and private companies who can play a part in the public sector.

And we’ll pay them all by the results they achieve.

To those who say ‘you can’t do that’, I say ‘of course we can – and of course we must.’

Our reforms will unleash a new culture of public sector innovation, giving higher morale, better results, lower costs and – you’ve got it – more for less.

CUTTING WASTE

All these changes will have a profound impact on how much government spends.

But the truth is it may take years to feel many of the benefits – and we can’t afford to wait that long.

We need to start getting more for less from day one.

So there is a third component to our plans – cutting out waste.

Labour’s spendaholic culture needs no introduction.

This is the Government that has elevated money-burning to an art form.

We’ve all got our own ridiculous Labour waste story.

Since 2003, this Government have paid out £10 million in tax credits – to people who are actually dead.

Then there’s an agency of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills – they spent, and I promise this is true, £12,000 on branded golf balls.

Or how about the Department for International Development?

They spent £240,000 on Brazilian dancing in London.

Here in Wales you had the huge upheaval of 22 health boards, launched to a great fanfare….

…and scrapped just six years later.

And of course, no list of Labour waste can be complete without Ed Balls.

You don’t suffer his rule in Wales, but your taxes pay for it…so let me share this with you.

His Department for Children, Schools and Families reportedly spent £3 million on lavish new offices – which included a massage room and ‘contemplation suite’.

While we’re on that department, I found my own story this week.

Flicking through the Guardian I saw an advert they’d placed taking up a third of a page of prime-time space.

Sadly they weren’t advertising for a new Secretary of State.

They were asking people – and let me quote this accurately – ‘to put questions to the National Strategies about primary children’s writing.’

Leave aside the question of how you put a question to a strategy; just think of the bureaucratic carnival of waste behind an ad like this.

A group of civil servants emerge, presumably from the ‘contemplation suite’ with a novel idea.

They want to set up a taskforce for primary reading.

The taskforce books a weekend away to devise a strategy.

The strategy needs further thought so they hire consultants.

Then there’s the branding. The auditing. The monitoring.

The strategy needs to be legally reviewed, peer reviewed, benchmarked, mentored and mainstreamed…

…but not before there’s an allocation resources impact assessment.

Then they call the communications department to create a website, design an ad and get it placed.

I could have saved them all that bother and all that money.

Writing is about the imagination.

What you need is some great teachers, some good books, some pencils and some paper.

Is that really too difficult?

Now of course, the golf balls, the dancers, the lavish offices, the advertising campaigns – these are just the small examples of waste under Labour.

There have been monumental ones too.

The £4.5 billion spent – each year – on NHS bureaucracy.

That’s more than we spend on maternity and reproductive health.

The £3 billion lost in benefit fraud and error.

That’s more than we spend on winter fuel payments.

Every pound Labour waste is a pound that should be spent on keeping us safe, educating our children, improving our hospitals.

That’s why their spendaholic culture isn’t a diverting amusement or a mild irritation – it is a complete outrage and we will obliterate it.

I know there are those who will hear us talking about cut waste and say “you’ll be no different, you’ll have your pet projects, you’ll go native when you start living in the land of bureaucrats”.

So let me explain why we’ll be different.

We’ll be different because we are different.

First, our attitude is different.

Conservatives loathe waste.

Efficiency is in our DNA.

We never forget that fundamental fact about public money, which is that it’s public … it’s yours, not ours.

It doesn’t undergo some magical transformation at the Treasury to become government money.

Those are the same pounds that were earned by you on the factory floor, on the hospital ward, in the office…

…and we will never forget that we have a moral duty not to spend your money but to save it where we can.

Second, our philosophy is different.

We don’t believe in top-down control; we believe in local control.

We don’t believe in taking power; we believe in giving it away.

And this will have a massive impact on our quest to cut out waste and deliver more for less.

It’s not just that a pound spent closer is a pound spent wiser – by those who really know the needs of a local community.

It’s also that a pound spent closer is a pound spent more efficiently – by those who have an interest in keeping costs down.

And third, our approach is different.

I don’t think people get quite how radical we propose to be.

The next Conservative government will be the first genuinely post-bureaucratic government in the world.

We will ditch all the wasteful, costly, old-world bureaucratic methods and instead use post-bureaucratic tools.

And when it comes to cutting waste, nothing is more important to this agenda than transparency.

We’re going to publish every item of government spending over £25,000 online.

And we’re going to publish every government contract worth over £25,000 in full – every clause, every performance measure, every penalty trigger – too.

Think what this simple act of throwing things open will mean.

It will mean an army of ‘armchair auditors’ will be crawling all over the books, scrutinising them and acting as a straitjacket on wasteful spending.

It will mean the Minister who lazily signs off a monster contract without checking if he could get it cheaper will be caught out and will have to answer for their actions.

It will mean that businesses and social enterprises can compete to offer better government services for less money.

I defy anyone to call our plans of changing the way government works timid.

They are bold – and they will make a massive difference.

And they are why we can look the British people in the eye and say a Tory pound will go further than a Labour pound…

…that good government costs less with the Conservatives.

CONCLUSION

We know what we’re fighting for.

When you’re out there on the doorstep, when you’re writing a leaflet at 2am, when you’re pounding the streets for hours I want you to keep two pictures of Wales in your mind.

First, an image of Wales under Labour.

Limping on with high unemployment, increasing child poverty and a government who puts this country in the same bracket as a developing nation.

Then alongside that, a vision of Wales with a Conservative government.

It would be a more confident Wales, with public spending under control and the deficit being cut.

A more prosperous Wales, with enterprise unleashed and jobs created.

And a more family-friendly Wales, with marriage recognised in the tax system and parents given more time with their children.

These two visions of Wales are so far apart, but they come together in the polling booth with the real choice that people have at this election.

It’s our job to keep explaining that choice for the next sixty days.

Yes, we have a fight on our hands, but believe me – the Wales that would emerge from our victory – a confident, prosperous, family friendly Wales – will be worth it.

So let’s get out there and win it.”

I Benmachno brynhawn Gwener ac ymateb rhyfeddol o dda.  Do, fe gafwyd cefnogwyr i Blaid Cymru ond fe gafwyd mwy oedd wedi cael llond bol o ddiffyg ymdrech y blaid honno dros yr ardal. 

Yn syml iawn y mae’r pentref wedi cael AS Plaid Cymru ers 1983 ac yn un o bedair ward etholodd gynghorydd yn ddiwrthwynebiad yn etholiadau 2008.  Y mae’r cynghorydd dan sylw yn aelod o Blaid Cymru ac fe ddylai deimlo cywilydd mawr am ei ddifaterwch llwyr o’r ardal.  Bu i mi dderbyn cwynion am broblemau gyda’r toiledau cyhoeddus, diffyg rheolaeth parcio, diffyg maes parcio a glanweithdra ar y stryd.  Materion i Gyngor Conwy yw’r rhain.  Yr oedd POB UN o’r rhai gwynodd yn drigolion lleol gyda’r Gymraeg yn iaith gyntaf iddynt.  Doedd gan yr un ohonynt – DIM UN – wybodaeth ynghylch pwy oedd eu cynghorydd Plaid Cymru lleol.

Fel yn achos rhannau helaeth o Feirionnydd a Dwyfor (drodd at Llaid Gwynedd yn 2008) ymddengys fod Plaid Cymru, fel yn achos y Blaid Lafur yn y cymoedd, yn trin pobl Penmachno ac Uwch Conwy fel dim mwy na ffynhonnell bleidleisiau – cywilydd iddynt.

Mae Penmachno yn haeddu llawer gwell ac wedi 27 mlynedd o AS Plaid Cymru a dau dymor o gynghorydd Plaid Cymru heb wrthwynebiad y mae’r angen am newid yn amlwg i drigolion lleol.  Nid cyn pryd chwaith!

To Penmachno on Friday.  A good session and a large team.  Yes, we found a few Plaid supporters but we found more residents who were sick and tired of the way in which Plaid MPs and councillors have taken them for granted.

I received complaints on the doorstep about issues such as on street car parking, dog fouling, a lack of a central car park in the village and the state of the public toilets.  I stated that all these issues were issues that should be dealt with by their local councillor.  Not a single one of the residents knew who he was and they could not even name him.  He was, as a plaid candidate, elected unopposed in 2008.  Unopposed and unwilling to work it would seem.

As with large parts of Meirionnydd and Dwyfor (which voted for Llais Gwynedd and not Plaid Cymru in 2008) it would appear to be the case that Plaid Cymru see Penmachno and Uwch Conwy as nothing more than a source of votes.  It is apparent that the elected members, councillor and MP, has done almost nothing to deal with issues in the village and to communicate with local residents – shame on them.

After 27 years of a Plaid MP and two terms of an un-elected Plaid councillor Penmachno is crying out for change.  Plaid Cymru will be surprised but that change is coming!

Guto

 

The Labour Government renewed relations with the Muslin Council of Britain (MCB) last week.  It was, in effect, a Government u-turn although surrender might also be an appropriate word.  What is the issue?

 

Back in 2009 the then communities secretary, Hazel Blears MP suspended relations with the MCB due to the decision of the deputy secretary-general of the organisation, Daud Abdullah, to sign the ‘Istanbul Declaration’.  The ‘Istanbul Declaration’ threatens those who would impede the work of Hamas against Israel.  When the declaration was signed by Mr Abdullah the Labour Government stated that the declaration “called for attacks on foreign warships, potentially including the Royal Navy, and also advocates violence against Jewish people and their supporters around the world”.   

 

On this basis Hazel Blears suspended relations with the MCB as reported by the Guardian.  She re-stated the difficulties caused by Mr Abdullah signature on the decleration in a letter to the Guardian which confirmed the position.  In short there would be no governmental interaction with the MCB whilst Mr Abdullah’s signature remained on the Istanbul Declaration. 

 

A year later and there has been no move by the MCB or Mr Abdullah to remove his name from the declaration and yet the Labour Government have decided to re-engage with the MCB.  In other words, John Denham, the new Communities Secretary, has performed an u-turn without receiving in return any assurances in relation to the support expressed by Mr Abdullah for violent direct action against the state of Israel, Jews and others.  A year ago this declaration was said by the government to embrace British service personnel – what has changed?

 

Call me a cynic but is this decision driven by the Labour Party looking for votes?  None of the issues deemed by Hazel Blears and legal advisors acting on behalf of HMG to be serious enough to warrant an ending of Governmental contact with the MCB have been addressed but the ban has been lifted.  So much for the Labour Party and their claim to be tough on those who advocate violence against British Service personnel and ordinary people in all parts of the world.   

 

Guto        

STOP PRESS

The Assembly have announced another very low settlement for Conwy (1%) which is certain to impact upon both Council Tax and services within the County.  It should be noted that Conwy is again amongst the worst settlements offered to any County in Wales.

We have a Labour / Plaid Assembly and we have Labour / Plaid on the Council.  And yet the money continues to flow to other parts of Wales to a much greater extent than what we see here in North West Wales. 

Guto Bebb

This is a press release sent to the North Wales Weekly News today;

October 13^th, 2009

 

BUSINESS RATE BOMBSHELL TO HIT MOSTYN STREET

Businesses face paying hundreds of pounds more in business rates next year, Welsh Conservative research reveals.

The party has learned that firms on High Streets across Wales will be hit with higher bills because of a revaluation which comes into effect next April.

The Government’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) carries out a revaluation of all rateable values in England and Wales every five years.

The next revaluation is due to come into effect on April 1^st, 2010. All properties will have their rateable value assessed on the valuation date of April 1^st, 2008.

Research undertaken by the Welsh Conservatives’ economic commission demonstrates that thousands of businesses, including those in some of the country’s most deprived communities, will be hit by the rates hike.  Llandudno will be badly affected:

• On Mostyn Street, Llandudno’s main shopping area, businesses will be paying an additional £550,000 which equates to an increase of 15 per cent on their business rates.

Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, who chairs the commission, said raising business rates in the middle of a recession could be disastrous for many small firms across Wales.

He added:

“I am astounded that during a time when every penny counts for the survival of small businesses, the Welsh Assembly Government has done nothing to stop the major increase in business tax bills next year.

“The Assembly Government is responsible for this form of taxation, yet has failed to realise that it is exactly the worst sort of tax during a recession.

“Unlike other forms of taxation on firms business rates remain the same regardless of the performance of the business as it is based on the property occupied by the business and not on turnover or profitability.

“To many businesses it is a fixed cost that must be paid regardless of success.

“It is one that becomes disproportionately higher for many small firms as their income reduces.

“While an increase of a couple of thousand pounds in business rates may not seem much to those in Government, it could mean the difference between survival and failure, especially for many small shops up and down our High Streets.”

Aberconwy Parliamentary Candidate Guto Bebb said:

“This is the biggest tax hike small businesses will have seen for five years – and bills will land on their doormats next April just weeks before the general election.

“During the last Assembly election campaign Plaid Cymru promised that if elected tens of thousands of businesses would be exempt from business rates.

“Two years after entering government and nothing has been done to keep this pledge.

 “This tax hike will have a significant impact on the main shopping street of North Wales.

“In March Welsh Conservatives said we would scrap or cut the level of business rates for up to 90,000 firms across Wales.

 “Measures such as this are vital to help the Welsh economy emerge from recession and to ensure small businesses get the help they need.

“The Assembly Government has failed to show the ambition shown in Scotland on business rate relief or along the lines we proposed for Wales earlier this year.

“Instead, they appear content to roll over and allow this massive tax hike to go ahead without any support for the firms that will be affected by it.”

 ENDS

 NOTE TO EDITORS

REVALUATION TO FORCE UP BUSINESS RATES IN WALES

Businesses across Wales will receive bills based on the new valuation by April next year. The Valuation Office Agency says the revaluation is not designed to raise extra revenue from business rates – it is used to ensure that business rates liabilities are redistributed in line with changes in the property market

Premises subject to business rates are given a rateable value by the VOA. Local authorities use the VOA's assessment of a property's rateable value to calculate business rates bills. The rateable value is based on the likely annual open market rent for the premises at a particular date. Rateable values are reviewed every five years – this is called a revaluation. They were last updated in Great Britain on 1 April 2005, based on market rents at 1 April 2003. Properties that have been changed since the last revaluation (eg extended) can be reassessed.

The VOA has updated the new rateable values which are effective in England and Wales from 1 April 2010, based on market rents at 1 April 2008. Details of every 2010 valuation can be found on the VOA website: http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/advanced

 

CONSERVATIVES PLEDGE TO CUT BUSINESS RATES

In March Welsh Conservatives unveiled ambitious plans to scrap or reduce the level of business rates for thousands of firms. The £53mn scheme will exempt companies with a rateable value of £10,000 or less from paying rates, with tapered relief for firms worth up to £15,000. The proposals could help as many as 90,000 firms across Wales.

http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2009/03/Rate_relief_scheme_will_help_1000s_of_businesses.aspx

 For further information, contact /

    Os am wybodaeth bellach, cysylltwch â:

Guto Bebb

Parliamentary Candidate, Aberconwy Conservatives

 07767 493750 

Darren Millar AM has a swipe today at a recommendation made by an Assembly Specialist Panel that County Councillors should be given a 'communication allowance' in order to tell their constituents what it is that they are doing.  This seems to replicate the current Westminster communications allowance of £10,000 given to all Members of Parliament.  I'm glad to say that the Conservative Party are committed to end this allowance and we should not even consider implementing a similar allowance for local councillors.

At a time when the need to prioritise spending with due care and attention it is unacceptable that the panel of the politically acceptable Welsh 'self-appointed' elite should consider that this type of propaganda funding should be provided to hundreds of Councillors across Wales.

Have a read of the report – this proposal is just the tip of a very silly iceberg.  They have, as a panel, produced no fewer than 35 recommendations ranging from the plain silly to the extreme political correctness.  What else was to be expected from an 'expert' panel which was Chaired by a former Labour Assembly Candidate and included the current Chief Executive of both the Labour Party in Wales and Plaid Cymru and also a former Chief Executive of Plaid Cymru.

Just consider the fact that this type of rubbish has been developed at your expense thanks to the efforts of the Labour / Plaid Cymru government in the Welsh Assembly.  Makes you feel proud.  I fully expect no comment from Cllr. Ronnie Hughes or Cllr. Phil Edwards on this report – after all can they really criticise the big guns of their own political parties?   

I met with numerous business owners in the Gloddeth Street area of Llandudno yesterday (8/9/09) to discuss the increasing concerns that they have as Llandudno traders in relation to the use of former hotels and Guest Houses in the area for social housing purposes.  Some of the events and incidents that they has witnessed over the past few weeks were a real concern especially when you consider that Llandudno prides itself on the basis of being a resort that has retained it's character and old world charm.  If the behaviour that has been witnessed by the trades has been seen by visitors I wonder whether they will want to come back.

I have, with the support of the team of Conservative Councilors, instigated discussions with the local authority to identify the source of funding for these residents (Conwy state that they are not paying the bills) and also the issues arising from the use of Guest Houses and Hotels for social housing purposes in relation to planning law and  Health & Safety legislation.

I was also interviewed on the matter by Judith Phillips from the Weekly News.  I'm sure that the coverage of the Weekly News will hasten responses to our questions from officer within CBC.

I will keep you informed of any developments. 

Guto Bebb