The Brown Government - action needed on the Environment, Housing and the NHS

July 2007

So, Blair has gone and we have a Brown government. But as well as Brown, this Government must be green. It has produced a draft climate bill but it needs to be beefed up considerably. For example it does not propose annual targets for cutting carbon emissions.

But these are important so there can be no backsliding by this or any future Government. For ten years, Brown has also ignored the growing housing crisis. Yet, we have some 10,000 people on the council housing waiting list here in Portsmouth alone and 1 million children nationally still living in over-crowded accommodation.

The average house price in Portsmouth is now eight times the average annual wage. Private rents are high too and those on housing benefit have 65p taken off for every pound a week they earn over a certain amount – acting as a disincentive to work. It is not a question of building more properties locally than currently are but building ones that can be afforded. So the Lib Dems have proposed the idea of “equity mortgages” to ensure that affordable housing is built and maintained for the benefit of generations of buyers.

And for ten years, Brown as the Government’s money man, has not ensured enough of the extra money for the NHS which we supported and the Conservatives opposed has gone into frontline care. To take one example, the cost of the multi-billion pound NHS computer system has spiralled from an initial £6.2bn to an estimated £12.4bn. Yet only a third of GPs would advise their patients to allow their personal data to go on the national database because of concerns over patient confidentiality. That’s why the Lib Dems have launched an “SOS for the NHS” campaign – calling for a greater local say over the NHS and for doctors and nurses to be freed from bureaucracy and red-tape so they can do the best for their patients.

Gordon says he is for change. The Environment, Housing and the NHS are three crucial areas where I will be campaigning for him to do just that and take urgent action.