Clarity on Huntercombe role

I have sought to allay fears about another change to HMP Huntercombe. Huntercombe is the only prison in the Henley constituency. The prison was for many years a youth offending institution but in 2010 it was converted into a prison housing adult male category C prisoners. The Ministry of Justice has recently announced (February 2012) that the prison will go through a further change and will now be used to hold Foreign National Offenders prior to being removed, where appropriate, from the country.

This Government believes that foreign criminals should be returned to their home country at the earliest opportunity. Last year we removed more than 5,000 foreign criminals, 43 per cent by the end of their prison sentence. It make sense to bring these prisoners into one prison so that the UK Borders Agency can deal with individual cases more effectively and remove those that can be removed more quickly. Huntercombe is strategically placed near, for example, to Heathrow to help facilitate this. However, local residents have quite rightly, been keen to understand just what the implications will be for them and whether there will be any change in the level of security required around the prison. I have, therefore, sought assurance from the Ministry of Justice on these and related issues.

The Ministry of Justice has now confirmed that although the nationality of the prisoners housed at Huntercombe will change "there will be no change to the security classification of the establishment or the security categorisation of its prisoner population."

HMP Huntercombe is a Category C prison and will remain so. As such it will only be able to hold prisoners "who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who do not have the resources and will to make a determined escape attempt". There is no intention to house more prisoners there who have committed more serious crimes such as terrorism.

It is right that we should seek to deport foreign criminals as quickly as possible towards the end of their sentences. The system was so chaotic under the last Government that over 1,000 foreign national offenders were released without being considered for deportation. It makes sense to use Huntercombe for this purpose. However, I am pleases to have received the reassurance I asked for that this will not affect issues of security for those who live near the prison.

New Initiative for Local Business

I have launched a new initiative aimed at ensuring that local businesses have the skills for growth and a strong economic future. The initiative, which is supported by The Henley College and the Oxfordshire Local Economic Partnership (LEP) will start with a major event to be held at The Henley College around the end of April. The purpose of this event will be to help identify the skills businesses see themselves as needing and showing them where and how they can get them.  A similar event will be organised around Thame towards the summer.

At the height of the recession I organised a number of events in Henley and across the constituency aimed at helping our local businesses survive. What we now need is to help our businesses prepare for growth. At the heart of this is ensuring that they have or know how to get the right skills.  The Government has made considerable amounts of money available, for example, to support apprenticeships. It has also taken significant steps to help cut red tape, reduce corporation tax, expand loan guarantees and provide cash incentives to take on apprentices. However, we want to hear from business whether there is more that can be done. For example, running a small business is like being head cook and bottle-washer. What sort of apprenticeships would best prepare someone for this sort of business?

The picture of the skills training available is often complex. Tom Espley, principal of The Henley College, commented:

"We can add real value to this initiative as the leading local provider of skills training by providing a route map for businesses as to what is already available and helping to put shape to what might be required for the future."

Feedback from business will be a major feature of the event. This will complement the work already being undertaken by the Oxfordshire Local Economic Partnership (LEP) to find out what are the barriers to growth and what are the issues around skills and recruitment.

Dr Martin Dare-Edwards, Chairman of the Oxfordshire LEP, said:

"Through the Oxfordshire LEP we are working to tackle the barriers to economic growth throughout our county, which includes encouraging more entrepreneurs to start-up & grow their businesses, and also to support their needs for talent and skills. I am delighted to support John's initiative and to hear from business itself in and around Henley what it wants for the future."

I want to encourage our local businesses to take up the opportunity of apprenticeships and skills training. These opportunities are there no matter the size of the business.

Apprenticeships are about giving individuals the skills they need for the future and about giving business the skilled workforce it needs to support success. I hope that this initiative will help our local businesses prepare for growth.

Details of the event and how to book a place will be made available in the middle of March.

Coming to your doorstep

Following the success of my tour of 80 villages in the constituency in just 8 days last year, I have announced plans for a series of tours within some of the larger communities of the constituency. The first of these tours will be in Henley itself.

On 30 March, I will be visiting seven locations in Henley to conduct a series of local drop-in sessions at which local residents can come simply to meet their MP or take up issues with me whether international, national or local. Like the village tour in 2011, the programme of visits will be branded under the title "On Your Doorstep". That tour was the largest programme of face-to-face meetings with constituents ever organised by an MP in the constituency.

Full details will be provided nearer the time but the programme will include at least the following areas of the town, each location taking in a wide number of streets around it: the area of streets around Friday and Queeen Street; the area around Gillotts School; the central area around Henley College; the area to the south of the town around the YMCA; the area around
Brunner Hall (e.g. Greys Road) and the town centre.

This is a vast constituency stretching from the edge of Bicester to the edge of Reading. Although I have a full programme of
traditional surgeries which are held all around the constituency, they only allow me to meet a few people at a time. 'On Your Doorstep' allows me to come to local residents and  meet them where they live.

I am pleased that in 2012 we are starting off in Henley. It already accounts for 25% of my surgeries. However, going out 'on tour' in the town gives me another and more informal opportunity to meet people, to hear their views on a range of things,
to answer questions or simply to say 'hello'.

Ending lazy stereotypes

A version of this article first appeared on ConservativeHome on 10 February 2012

If you want an idea of what the concerns of Conservative MPs are there is no better snap-shot than the nature of the questions raised each Thursday in response to the statement by the Leader of the House on what the business in Parliament will be for the next week or so.

On the back of the statement, MPs are able to ask that the business just announced be replaced by a debate or statement on an issue of concern to them. In justifying these requests, its gives MPs the opportunity to raise a wide range of topics whether international, national or local about which they feel strongly.

The range of issues raised breaks the old stereotypes and shows the level of engagement Conservative MPs have with issues of fairness and social justice. It is a good example of how Conservative MPs are on the side of aspiration: people who want to get on and who want their families to get ahead. The spread of questions shows the strong recognition that, in this tough economic climate, help should go to those most in need of it, and that we are on the side of those basic rate tax-payers who struggle to make ends meet.

To illustrate this, take the 225 questions that were raised by Conservative MPs from September to December 2011. My analysis of the questions shows a heavy emphasis on a wide range of social antd economic issues. The pie chart below sets out the broad themes into which the questions fell. Unsurprisingly, the largest covers business, finance and the economy. Many of the questions related to small and medium sized businesses and pointed to the positive announcements made by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement designed to help them. Two examples give a good picture. In mid December, Sarah Newton (Truro & Falmouth) welcomed the £20 billion national loan guarantee scheme. In mid November, Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) asked for a debate on small business rate relief. Both spoke from the perspective of the benefits of such schemes on the ground in their constituencies.

Inevitably, given the nature of Business Questions, one frequent theme related to the working of Parliament and issues relating to MPs. This could easily have become a case of navel-gazing. However, the questions more often related to how MPs and Parliament could better serve the interests of constituents and how democracy could be improved. An example of this
was concern about how the e–petitions system could be made to work.

Another prominent theme revolved around a group of issues relating to equalities, women, families and children. In late October Charlie Elphicke (Dover) asked for a debate to highlight the work the Government was doing to increase the number of health visitors and support childcare. A number of Conservative MPs picked up on the Government's policies to help women and families including specific situations such as the importance of foundation years and early intervention for families struggling to bond with new babies. In December, Guy Opperman (Hexham) asked for a debate on equal pay for women in the context of his support for women in Northumberland who were fighting for equal pay with their local council whilst Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) in December again returned to the importance of the Government's commitment to health visitors.

Education and health have also been prominent themes. A consistent request has been for a debate on the success of the Academies programme and Michael Gove's education reforms. These requests have been backed up by strong evidence from constituencies of how the reforms are working. Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) at the end of October summed it up in a request for a debate on how the Government's education reforms are transforming the life chances of deprived children in his
constituency pointing to the improved results of local schools. Similarly, there has been genuine concern to welcome the increased investment in the NHS and to evidence the impact that is having on the ground with local GP support.

Business Questions may not normally have the media coverage of PMQs but its scope is just as broad. That makes it a telling pointer to where the heart of Conservative MPs really lies.

Helping small and medium-sized businesses

I set up my first small business after having been a partner in a major firm of accountants and consultants for a number of years. One day I was surrounded by sophisticated accounting and expenses systems, secretaries and administrative support; the next I had to do it all myself. I remember my then business partner and I going to our first sales pitch and ending up afterwards in a rural post office in Kent where the manager kindly let us have a table on which to stuff envelopes with our first mail shot and post them. Setting up your own business can be a lonely affair and it is nice when someone's on your side.

As this was the dark days of the last Labour Government, I knew that the then Government was not on my side. How much easier life would have been, for example, if the previous Government had been as serious about cutting red tape as is our current Government. The article by Business Minister, Mark Prisk, on Conservative Home pushes home this point http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2012/02/mark-prisk-mp.html Red tape not only costs cash; it costs time. That is something you do not have lots of when you are setting up your own business and when you need to keep your focus on winning new work.

For all businesses, of course, cash is king. Having experience of international trade, I set out to ensure that each year at least half our income was generated in foreign markets with which we were familiar, including the Middle East. Good prices; but perhaps with more difficult cash flow implications! To be fair, our bank was reasonably understanding at the time but something like the National Loan Guarantee Scheme would have helped. Under this scheme, the Government will allow participating banks to raise up to £20 billion of cheaper funding over the next two years under a Government guarantee provided that the lower cost of funding is passed on to small businesses.

Finding funding other than from the banks has always been a problem for small businesses. Schemes like the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme which provides tax breaks on investments in early stage start-ups would have been something we would have seriously looked at to encourage venture capital and diversify rather than rely purely on bank loans.

If Government measures to help get money in to the business would have helped us, so would measures to limit the money going out. For many small businesses, business rates make up a significant chunk of expenditure. Doubling small business rate relief for two and a half years is a measure which I know from small businesses in my own constituency has brought real help. And when it comes to tax, a combination of the corporation tax cut for small businesses to 20%, the doubling of tax relief for entrepreneurs and the simplification of the tax system are all most welcome.

Whether you set up your own company or you chose the route of self-employment, this is not just about the Government encouraging growth and business for their own sake and that of the economy, important though they are. This is also about encouraging aspiration and helping those that wish the exciting challenge of living their dream through business to do so in the knowledge both that Government is on your side and that the Conservative Party has MPs who understand what you are going through because they have been there and done it.

Hosting Housing Association report launch

I hosted a reception in Parliament yesterday (31st January) to launch a report on the performance and efficiency of housing associations in England. The report, produced by the Chartered Institute of Housing, looks at how well-equipped the sector is to respond to change and how Housing Associations can deliver value for money.  South Oxfordshire's leading player in this field, SOHA, was a major contributor to the report. In 2009, SOHA was the first housing association to achieve a 3 star equivalent rating for Value for Money and Resident Involvement.

The regulator for social housing will shortly be producing a new regulatory standards framework for this sector and one result will be that there will be less monitoring from the centre and more powers given to tenants and their representatives to hold landlords to account. This mean there will more emphasis on value for money and the challenge of doing more for less.

I welcome the initiative of the Chartered Institute of Housing and all three providers involved in carrying out this study. Affordable Housing is a key issue for this constituency and I was glad to see this constructive approach to ensuring they deliver value for money. I am pleased that the new regulatory standards framework will give more power to tenants.

I was particularly pleased to be able to welcome SOHA to Parliament including the chairman of its Board, Carole Burchett, who is also a tenant. I have been pleased that SOHA has invested so much time in establishing good relations with its tenants and I have also been pleased to have been asked to be involved on a number of occasions.  What this report shows is that to get the best economies of scale you do not need to be a big, national housing association and that associations with the geographic concentratioin of SOHA can have an advantage in their closeness to their tenants."

In addition to changes in social housing regulation, the Government is committed to bringing about greater transparency within the Housing Association sector as a driver of efficiency and accountability.

Richard Peacock, SOHA's Chief Executive, commenting on the event said: "I was delighted that John hosted the launch of this important report. The government is right to challenge all housing providers to deliver value for money. Tenants expect high quality services and clear accountability. I'm pleased the report shows that Soha is delivering value for residents and that we are a good size to continue to remain an effective housing organisation based in the Oxfordshire community."

Engagements in 2011

As in the past, I have prepared an analysis of the engagements and activities I have undertaken in support of the constituency for the past year. In 2011 I undertook 254 engagements. These included almost 30 visits to schools or other educational organisations, over 20 visits to businesses or meetings with businesses, and over 20 meetings with charities and local councils.

MPs are based in Westminster Monday to Thursday. These types of activities are generally undertaken on constituency Fridays, and over weekends (especially for surgeries) as well as in the parliamentary recesses. The variety of these activities was wide in 2011 but a key compenent was my visit to 80 villages in the late summer in the course of 8 days – the most direct face-to-face engagement programme conducted by an MP in this constituency.

Trailblazing Thame

When I was wriritng Open Source Planning, the paper on which the Government's planning reforms are based, I had a firm belief that given the opportunity to shape where they live, local people would want to participate with confidence and would do so positively. What I heard on Wednesday when the planning minister, Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, and I came to listen to feedback in Thame on how its Neigbourhood Plan was coming together showed just how positive people were finding the whole experience.

Neighbourhood Plans are a key component of restoring local control over the planning process. They can make a big contribution to shaping the future of a local community and in Thame's case that means not losing its market-town character. Unlike the old-style parish and town plans Neighbourhood Plans become a formal part of the planning system.

Local residents who had been involved so far recognised the need to plan for the future of the town and they were setting about doing it with enthusiasm and with a long-term view. My experience has been that the fears from some developers that such plans would be NIMBY charters and used to frustrate development are being shown to be misplaced.

My congratulations to the Town Council for organising the feedback session. I believe that all of us who were there found the experience of great assistance. Thame is amongst the first in the process of putting a Neighbourhood Plan together – what the Government calls a frontrunner. After what I heard, the town's own description of themselves as a 'trailblazer' seemed perfectly appropriate.

Fears for local oak trees

Fears have been raised that oak woodland in the Henley constituency could soon be attacked by the Oak Processionary Moth. Its caterpillar attacks the leaves of oak trees and is a major source of leaf loss. The pest has spread widely in London, where it was only recently first discovered in the UK, and has proved difficult to control.  The moth is native to central and souhthern Europe but has spread north as far as Sweden arguably as a result of global warming. The caterpillars of the moth are covered with irritating hairs which contain toxins which can lead to skin irritation and allergic reactions in humans including respiratory problems.

The moth has already reached Pangbourne and has spread over an area of a kilometre around the village. Local MP, Alok Sharma, (Reading West) took up the challenge of dealing with this problem and sought my support and other local MPs in raising this issue with DEFRA Minister, Jim Paice and the Forestry Commission.

I am grateful to Alok Sharma for alerting us all to the problems this moth causes. The area in this constituency which is currently most at risk is Whitchurch due to its proximity to Pangbourne. A key priority therefore was to make sure that a large area centred on Whitchurch was properly surveyed to identify if the moth is present and where. I am pleased that the Whitchurch area will now as a result be included in the survey work being undertaken by the Forestry Commission in June this year.

The meeting with the Minister reviewed the spread of the pest and its impact, including the financial impact on property owners. Property owners will still be responsible for treating infected trees in 2012 – and possibly neighbouring trees if these are considered at risk. It also reviewed plans to eradicate the pest with further treatment of infected trees in spring 2012.

A key part of the programme of eradication is to understand which trees are infected and how extensive the spread of the moth has become. Although Whitchurch was not originally a priority for the Forestry Commission's programme because it was considered to be too far from the Pangbourne outbreak, as a result of our lobbying the area will now be surveyed. It is essential to me to ensure that this pest does not cross the river. I am glad that the Forestry Commission has accepted that Whitchurch should be comprehensively surveyed as early as possible.

Picture provided courtesy of the Forestry Commission

SODC and the planning inspectorate

A number of constituents who live in my constituency but near Wallingford have written to me to question the powers of the planning inspector appointed to examine SODC's Core Strategy simply to change the plan.  Under the existing law introduced by the last Government that is exactly the power planning inspectors have and it is yet another good example of why the previous planning system was broken.

Constituents have rightly asked where does such a power leave localism. Such a power does not fit with localism which is why the Government has abolished it in the Localism Act.

Under the old legislation, the inspector produced a report determining whether or not the plan was suitable for adoption i.e. to use the technical jargon was it 'sound'. The inspector was able to recommend modifications to the draft document. The local planning authority was bound to implement the inspector's recommendations.

Under the new legislation, there will still be a public examination of a local plan under a planning inspector to ensure that it is sound (but using different tests) e.g. does the plan comply with national planning policy. A Council will not be able to adopt an unsound plan.  However, the local council alone will have the power to ask the inspector for recommendations as to how the plan may be changed if he or she thinks it might be found unsound and which would make the document suitable for adoption. If the local council does not make this request, the inspector will be unable to recommend any changes.

In addition, local councils do not have to implement inspectors' recommendations. Where the inspector thinks the plan is unsound, the council will be able to make its own modifications and re-submit the draft document to the inspector for examination.

Although the Localism Act has now received Royal Assent, its provisions come into force at different times. This reform came into effect during January 2012.