Teignbridge Matters
24th July 2009
Read Anne Marie’s views in her weekly column; an advertisement sponsored by Conservative supporters.
View point
When he was Chancellor, Gordon Brown cut the helicopter budget by £1.4 billion – a bad mistake. The result is that after eight years in Afghanistan our troops have fewer than 30 helicopters in Helmund. This compares to over 100 helicopters that the Americans have for the same number of troops. It’s a scandal that the Government has not dealt with this shortage… and talking to many of you on the doorstep, I am not alone in that view.
Housing
Every week I receive at least one call asking for help with housing. Since 2007 the number of people on the housing waiting list in Teignbridge has risen by 60% to 3,800 this year – yet there are 1,700 vacant houses in the district. We have no local Development Framework to guide planning decisions, so we have no strategy to guide the provision of affordable housing – whether new build or refurbishments.
While I can help with practical advice and form filling – the real issue cannot be addressed without a very different approach by a very different government. Planning must be about building communities not concrete jungles, decision making needs to be local not regional, and the extra council tax revenue from building needs to be ploughed back into local community infrastructure, not hived off back to central government.
Local Businesses
Earlier this year I sent 2,000 local businesses a survey to find out what was helping and what was hindering their success. The biggest concern by far was fuel, water and energy costs – over 90% are finding this the biggest burden! This is reflected in what you have been telling me on the doorstep – South West water rates are too high and this has to be addressed at the highest level – in Parliament! This was followed by a concern with the near impossibility of getting financial support from the banks – the bank guarantee scheme simply isn’t working!
Over half those responding believe that their businesses will contract over the next six months. What they need most is a cut in small company corporation tax – which we as Conservatives have pledged to do. I have been spending time with businesses in Teignmouth, Dawlish and Newton Abbot individually or as trade groups. While the economy and business rates are key issues, many have also pointed the finger at health and safety regulations and employment legislation. Here bureaucracy has gone mad! ….we need to bring back common sense.
Tourism
Believe it or not tourism is the 5th largest industry in this country and is worth £85 billion to our economy. Devon is one of Britain’s top destinations – so just think how valuable Dawlish and Teignmouth are to us as seaside towns! Yet there is no incentive for Teignbridge as a local authority to invest in tourism – and the Visit Britain budget to promote tourism has been cut by 20% over the last three years. I invited Tobias Ellwood, shadow tourism minister to meet local businesses across the constituency in Newton Abbot and in Dawlish Warren to hear what they had to say. That was pretty unanimous – proper marketing support to raise the profile of what a wonderful place this is to visit.
