Vaisakhi Food Drive in Leicester

Last weekend I was pleased to be able to support the Vaisakhi Food Drive at Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara in Leicester.

I want to congratulate everyone involved in organising the Food Drive. Whilst it is regrettable that we need such events organising, it was inspiring to see so many people, including many young people, supporting the event. Donations on the day totalled 11 tonnes of food which will support local food banks.

There is a video of the event here, and coverage from Pukaar News here.

It was an honour to be able to speak at the Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara and pass on my Vaisakhi greetings. It was also good to visit Guru Amar Das Gurdwara for Vaisakhi celebrations as well.

Supporting the Vaisakhi Food Drive
in Leicester.

Food poverty should not exist and we are seeing increasing demand at food banks across the area. A few weeks ago I took part in a panel discussion at Leicester Cathedral chaired by the Bishop of Leicester on the issue of food poverty. In my view food poverty is a national scandal requiring urgent action. Prices are going up whilst earnings are stagnant. Many households have also been hit by the Government's changes to welfare benefits. There is a report of the 'Chewing the Cud' panel discussion here.

Reforms needed to protect local shops | Leicester Mercury column

Column calling for planning law reforms to protect local, independent shops. A version of this article was published in the Leicester Mercury on Saturday 1 February.

In December we celebrated the UK’s first Small Business Saturday, an important opportunity to recognise the contribution local small businesses make to Leicester. These small businesses are the engine room of our economy and independent shops play a vital role.

In Leicester we are fortunate in having a diverse range of independent shops in the city centre and in the popular neighbourhood shopping areas. Whether it’s the Golden Mile, Narborough Road, Stoneygate shops or Evington Road – to pick just a few – shoppers find an exciting range of independent shops.

As well as variety and decent prices people shop at local independents because they are motivated to back local businesses. Whether it’s the butcher, baker, greengrocer or florist, these are quintessential mainstays of our high streets and we would miss them if they were gone.

This is why the campaign against Tesco’s plans to open in Clarendon Park is so important. If this store opens it will present a very real threat to local independent traders. Small businesses in parts of the city where supermarkets have opened report falls in their trade.

I am not against supermarkets. They make a significant economic contribution and provide many jobs. I am against an unfair balance in favour of large, powerful companies at the cost of local, small independent traders. At the heart of this debate is an important principle.

Over two thousand residents have signed a petition and hundreds attended a public meeting against Tesco’s plan to open in Clarendon Park. Locally elected councillors for the area are opposed. Councillors for other parts of the city have expressed concern, recognising this could repeat itself in other local shopping areas.

There is a real frustration that the city council is limited in what it can do to prevent a supermarket like this opening. Current laws allow for ‘change of use’ from a bank to a supermarket without the need for full planning permission. Minor permissions are needed for things like illuminated signs or cash points, often granted as a matter of course. This loophole needs addressing.

Councils should have real power to decide whether or not new supermarkets should open, and this should reach beyond routine planning matters. Councils should be able to take into account the impact on local, small businesses and wider community concerns.

The principle at stake is one of local democracy. Planning law at present deals a much better hand to big business than it does to local communities. The Secretary of State should act and could do so at the stroke of a pen.

A version of this column first appeared in the Leicester Mercury, Saturday 1 February 2014.

Discussing climate change on BBC Radio Leicester

On Friday I joined a panel on the Jim Davis Show on BBC Radio Leicester to take calls and discuss the important issue of climate change.

You can listen to the discussion here.

Thank you to everyone who called in with questions and to my fellow panellists for an interesting discussion.

Find out more about Leicester City Council's Climate Change Action Plan here.

World Mental Health Day | Leicester Mercury column

Column for the Leicester Mercury for World Mental Health Day.

Thursday this week is World Mental Health Day. This is an important and timely occasion to consider the city’s approach to mental health.

Good mental health is as important as good physical health and this should be a guiding principle of all those organisations providing health services in Leicester. In recent years we have seen improvements in the NHS approach to mental health but there is much more to do. Much of what the NHS does for mental health problems does not share the same limelight as services for physical illness.

This has to change. There remains an urgent need to push mental health services beyond their historic Cinderella status in the NHS. There are two reasons why this is vital. First, because anyone accessing services for mental health problem deserves nothing but the best. I want mental health services in our NHS and in Leicester to be the best. This should not just be an expectation but our challenge to organisations providing services.

The second reason is that we need to shift perceptions and understanding of mental health in society. There remains a stubborn stigma around mental illness. Take the recent examples of two major supermarket chains selling ‘Mental Patient’ and ‘Psycho Ward’ fancy dress costumes. These offensive products led to a public backlash and both costumes were withdrawn from sale and the supermarket companies made donations to mental health charities.

This example illustrates the challenge we still face in tackling stigma and securing a more positive, mature and understanding approach to mental health in society. It remains too easy for some to slip back into clumsy language and a view of mental illness that is of a bygone era.

I am determined that here in Leicester we work to be a city that challenges stigma, properly understands mental health and has an ambitious approach to better mental health and wellbeing. Improving mental health is one of five key priorities set out in the city’s joint health and wellbeing strategy which was agreed and adopted by partners, including the city council, in April this year.

The city’s health and wellbeing board will work with partners including the city council, GPs, hospital trusts, voluntary groups and patients to make this happen. Mental health services in Leicester need to meet the expectations of patients and the whole community.

Challenging stigma and improving levels of understanding and awareness of mental illness requires a collective effort across different organisations. World Mental Health Day is a useful opportunity to reflect on the importance of this task but to also to reaffirm our commitment and determination to address it.

This column was first appeared in the Leicester Mercury, 10 October 2013.

Bold decisions are needed on health

Earlier this week I published a letter in the Leicester Mercury calling on the Government to show more ambition on public health. This follows decisions not to proceed with minimum unit alcohol pricing or plain packaging for cigarettes.

I agree with the Mercury Opinion "Decisions on public health are wrong" (July 23).

The Government's recent decisions not to proceed with minimum unit pricing for alcohol or plain packaging for cigarettes raise serious questions.

Based on these decisions it is clear this Government has no ambition when it comes to public health.

To make significant improvements to public health and to tackle long-term illness and preventable deaths, governments need to be bold and radical.

The big decisions necessary will always be controversial and generate heated debate.

Take, for example, the ban on smoking in public places. This law has had a significant and positive impact on public health.

I remember well the controversy this created at the time, as well as the criticism the then Labour Government faced for proposing this radical and reforming legislation.

In Leicester, we are determined to see public health improve.

The city council, together with its partners, will continue to invest in its successful stop smoking campaigns.

Smoking is the UK's biggest killer and Leicester has a smoking rate higher than the national average.

Our aim is to see Leicester as a smoke-free city by 2035. This is a bold and ambitious target.

Sadly, the Government appears not to share our ambition as moving to plain packaging would have had a major impact on reducing smoking, as shown by evidence from other countries.

In 2010-11, there were more than 6,000 alcohol-related hospital admissions in Leicester. Health partners in the city are determined to address this problem and ensure a good range of services for people affected by alcohol misuse.

Minimum pricing could have played a big role in reducing the misuse of alcohol.

There are significant health challenges in Leicester. The council and NHS partners are determined to see improvements and to help residents lead healthier lives.

From my discussions with organisations and residents, I know there is a shared commitment in the city to improve health and to tackle health inequalities.

While the Government shies away from the bold decisions needed on public health, locally we will continue to set out ambitious plans to improve the health of our city.

Rory Palmer
Deputy City Mayor

This letter was first published in the Leicester Mercury, 25 July 2013.

Youth unemployment: my top priority for the East Midlands

Since it was announced that I would be a Labour candidate for next year's European Parliament elections people have asked me why I want to represent the region and what my priorities are.

My top priority for the region is youth unemployment.

The latest figures will be published this week and I fear we will see youth unemployment going up again. We cannot afford a lost generation and we need urgent action at local level, national level and in Europe.

In the East Midlands youth unemployment is 18.7% with 63,000 young people out of work.

I grew up in this region and have seen the impact of industrial decline. I have seen the impact on communities when good, decent jobs in industry and manufacturing disappear. As well as the youth jobs crisis we have to deal with the problem of under-employment and the low wage economy. We need to see employers paying the Living Wage and we have to deal urgently with the scandal of zero hours contracts.

I back proposals for a European Youth Guarantee. In Europe almost 6 million young people are out of work. We need a European Youth Guarantee to give young people hope: ensuring that every young person is offered a job, further education or work-based training within four months of leaving education or becoming unemployed.

We need to see government's invest in programmes like Labour's Future Jobs Fund that got young people back into work.

As Deputy City Mayor in Leicester I have led the development of our Leicester to Work programme which has created new apprenticeships at the council and has introduced a new programme of paid work six month placements for young people out of work. For more information on Leicester to Work see here.

Last October I wrote for Labour Uncut on the need for urgent responses to the youth jobs crisis. I called on the British government to take action:

We know that this government is dangerously stubborn in its refusal to admit their plan is failing. When it comes to youth joblessness, political failure matters less than the economic and social consequences. When it comes to the risk of a lost generation it is the very real human cost that should motivate all politicians, whether in town halls, Whitehall or Brussels.

I am making youth unemployment the top issue in my campaign. We need a European Youth Guarantee and we need regional approaches to this, something more difficult to secure after the government abolished Regional Development Agencies. As an MEP I will work with local authorities, employers, unions, Local Enterprise Partnerships and training organisations to get real help from Europe, including funding, to get young people in the region back to work.

I want to see the youth jobs crisis and our determination to give young people hope and a better future central to Labour's campaign for next year's European Parliament elections.

Tackling the youth jobs crisis is my top priority now and it will be my top priority from day one if I am elected as an MEP.

Visiting rail apprentices with MEP Glenis Willmott
at Vital Skills in Leicester.

Health & Wellbeing Board's first meeting

Last week I chaired the first meeting of the city's new Health & Wellbeing Board.

Health & Wellbeing Board's were formed following the government's NHS reforms and bring together local councils, Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England, HealthWatch and other partners.

At this first meeting we endorsed Closing the Gap, a new health strategy for the city.

Leicester Mercury article following the first Health & Wellbeing Board meeting.

Our Healthy City: launching council's new public health work

From 1 April the city council took on new public health responsibilities. These responsibilities transfer to the council from the NHS Primary Care Trust as a result of the government's re-organisation of the health service.

The government's re-organisation of the NHS remains controversial and politically divisive. In my view the transfer of public health responsibilities presents an important opportunity for local government. There has been a close relationship between local government and public health ever since Victorian times; local government used to be responsible for public health functions.

In my view the big opportunity now is to embed a new public health approach across all the core services of the council. There are significant health inequalities in Leicester and I am determined that we adopt a renewed and determined approach to these trends. Health inequalities are interwoven with wider socio-economic inequalities, poverty and disadvantage. We need to see truly joined-up approaches across the council and that's what I am determined to see happen in Leicester.

Next week I will chair the first formal meeting in public of the city's new Health and Wellbeing Board where partners will adopt the new Health and Wellbeing Strategy for the city. This strategy sets out five strategic priorities. I will write more about this next week.

On Friday we launched the council's new public health agenda, Our Healthy City, with a live healthy cooking demonstration in Leicester Market. Our first public health campaign is about healthier eating, encouraging people to make small changes in their diet to eat more healthily. This campaign started yesterday with hundreds of free bags of fresh vegetables and recipe cards given away. There will be similar events over the next few months in communities across the city.

Launching Our Healthy City by cooking a
healthy curry at Leicester Market.

For more information about Our Healthy City, the new Health & Wellbeing Board and the council's approach to public health see www.leicester.gov.uk/ourhealthycity

The Our Healthy City vegetable curry recipe:

April Fools' Day was no joke

For those of us who care about living standards Monday of this week, 1 April, was no joke. April Fools’ Day it may have been but for people on the receiving end of the government’s savage clobbering of the welfare system that day will have very real consequences.

As if that were not enough, a day later we see coalition ministers apparently considering freezing or cutting the national minimum wage. This was well past the threshold for April Fools’ Day wind-ups. Freezing or cutting the national minimum wage would be outrageous and would have a devastating impact on living standards.

As the government was setting about wrecking the welfare system, this week, Labour-led Leicester city council increased the pay of 1,100 staff to the level of the living wage. This includes over 280 kitchen assistants and 270 cleaners. We committed to this in our manifesto, it was recommended by the Leicester Child Poverty Commission and I am pleased we have delivered it.

It won’t stop the coalition’s devastating welfare changes but it will make some difference to those workers and their families. It will strengthen our hand in encouraging other employers to pay the living wage. We have seen strong campaigns for the living wage. In Leicester, Labour Students at the university have run an excellent campaign and there are many others like it across the country. This movement needs to continue with energy and determination.

The living wage has become a practical example of how Labour councils are doing their bit to help and deliver fairness in these tough times. As the coalition continues to create hardship and misery for hard-pressed families it will fall to Labour councils to help. It will fall to the next Labour government to pick up the pieces. The living wage can play a big part in this. As Labour we have always, and will always, be about lifting living standards and protecting workers from poverty pay.

There is a compelling argument for the living wage to be central to Labour’s economic and social priorities and a cornerstone of our next manifesto. We have to make the case for the living wage but it now seems to do that we may have to fight to defend the minimum wage: this argument is one and the same.
It is an argument we must win.

This article was published by Progress, 5 April 2013.

Child poverty: welfare changes will have devastating impact

The dreadful welfare changes that happen today will hit many households hard. These changes will also have a devastating impact on child poverty.

Figures show that the number of children living in poverty will increase because of the government's changes to the benefits system and tax credits. The Institute of Fiscal Studies project 800,000 more children will be living in poverty by 2020 because of the coalition's welfare cuts. On top this a further 200,000 children could fall below the poverty line because of the benefit uprating changes (increasing benefits by 1% instead of at the rate of inflation).

At the same time as pushing through these changes the Government has also been consulting on how child poverty should be measured. This has been seen as a way to downplay the importance of income in measuring poverty, the government arguing that other social and economic factors should be included in a single 'multidimensional' measure of poverty. I disagree with this approach. Attempts to redefine measures of child poverty which downplay the importance of an adequate income as a central measure should be resisted.

This critique of the Government's approach and consultation by Alison Garnham of Child Poverty Action Group is worth reading.

The Leicester Child Poverty Commission which I chair has also responded to the Government consultation, the response can be read here.

The Leicester Child Poverty Commission Report, with 66 recommendations on tackling child poverty and its worst impacts, can be found on the Your Britain website. I hope people will comment and share their thoughts. Reducing child poverty has to be a central theme of Labour's thinking as we develop policy solutions to the challenges we are seeing today.

In February the End Child Poverty campaign published the child poverty rate for each local authority and parliamentary constituency in the country. Of course data at local authority and constituency level does not tell the full story; areas with overall relatively low levels often have wards where rates of child poverty are extremely high.

I have set out the data for the East Midlands below:

Child Poverty by local authority in the East Midlands

Amber Valley	15%
Ashfield	20%
Bassetlaw	16%
Blaby	7%
Bolsover	20%
Boston	16%
Broxtowe	12%
Charnwood	11%
Chesterfield	18%
Corby	18%
Daventry	9%
Derby City	22%
Derbyshire Dales	7%
East Lindsey	19%
East Northamptonshire	10%
Erewash	16%
Gedling	13%
Harborough	5%
High Peak	11%
Hinckley & Bosworth	10%
Kettering	13%
Leicester City	29%
Lincoln	22%
Mansfield	21%
Melton	8%
Newark & Sherwood	14%
North East Derbyshire	13%
North Kesteven	8%
North West Leicestershire	11%
Northampton	18%
Nottingham City	32%
Oadby & Wigston	11%
Rushcliffe	5%
Rutland	5%
South Derbyshire	11%
South Holland	13%
South Kesteven	11%
South Northamptonshire	Below 5%
Wellingborough	16%
West Lindsey	13%

 Child Poverty by parliamentary constituency in the East Midlands

Amber Valley	18%
Ashfield	21%
Bassetlaw	16%
Bolsover	20%
Boston & Skegness	18%
Bosworth	10%
Broxtowe	11%
Charnwood	7%
Chesterfield	18%
Corby	14%
Daventry	9%
Derby North	19%
Derby South	27%
Derbyshire Dales	7%
Erewash	18%
Gainsborough	13%
Gedling	14%
Grantham & Stamford	12%
Harborough	8%
High Peak	11%
Kettering	13%
Leicester East	24%
Leicester South	28%
Leicester West	34%
Lincoln	19%
Loughborough	14%
Louth & Horncastle	17%
Mansfield	21%
Mid Derbyshire	8%
Newark	11%
North East Derbyshire	13%
North West Leicestershire	11%
Northampton North	20%
Northampton South	22%
Nottingham East	33%
Nottingham North	37%
Nottingham South	24%
Rushcliffe	5%
Rutland & Melton	7%
Sherwood	16%
Sleaford & North Hykeham	8%
South Derbyshire	11%
South Holland & The Deepings	12%
South Leicestershire	6%
South Northamptonshire	5%
Wellingborough	15%

Data from End Child Poverty, February 2013.