From: Greg Hands M.P. news@greghands.com Subject: News Bulletin from Greg Hands M.P.

#391 Date: 27 January 2014 12:43 To: news@greghands.com

In this edition:
Greg Hands M.P.s Diary Website of the Week: West London Churches Homeless Concern Hands welcomes record fall in unemployment locally and nationally Photo news: Draycott Avenue Tenants and Residents Association AGM Crime in H&F hits all time low Hands in the media: Greg Hands M.P. on BBC Sunday Politics Hammersmith Bridge closures Official launch of new joint e-procurement from local councils New Homes for Chelsea Hands in the media: Greg Hands M.P.: Its three years today of Labours deficit-denying, Goodwinknighting, zero-credibility Shadow Chancellor How to contact Greg Hands M.P.

Issue 391 - Monday 27th January 2014

Since the last edition, Greg:

Attended and chaired the elections of the Tenants and Residents Association of the Draycott Avenue Estate in Chelsea. Greg told tenants of his work, and took questions on a variety of topics, most of which were critical of the landlord, Guinness South. Appeared on the BBC Sunday Politics programme, talking against the RMT unions threatened Tube strike, and praising well-run Conservative Councils for achieving Council Tax cuts, whilst still improving services. Visited the Flood Street night shelter in Chelsea to see the important work of West London Churches Homelessness Concern. Greg helped with the serving of dinner, and chatted at length with those attending the shelter, around 80% of whom were Eastern European. Was in the House of Lords for the Committee stage debate of Lord (Michael) Dobbs and James Wharton MPs EU Referendum Bill, which seeks to give the British people a referendum on membership of the European Union in 2017, after a renegotiation of Britains terms of membership. Labour and LibDem peers are strongly opposed, but Greg thinks its time to #LetBritainDecide Met representatives of a Fulham cigar business set to be adversely affected by possible changes to the rules relating to the packaging of tobacco. Carried out his duties as the Governments Deputy Chief Whip. Held a regular, weekly, advice surgery for local Chelsea and Fulham residents, at Fulham Library, on Fulham Road, close to Parsons Green tube. Gregs surgeries are generally weekly, on Monday mornings, at either Fulham Library, or Peter Jones, Sloane Square, Chelsea. To make an appointment, email mail@greghands.com or telephone 020 7219 5448.

Website of the Week:

www.wlchc.org

The website of West London Churches Homeless Concern. Greg visited their Flood Street, Chelsea, shelter this week. Churches across the constituency are taking part. Why not volunteer and get involved?

Hands welcomes record fall in unemployment locally and nationally

"Government's long-term economic plan is working"
Greg Hands M.P. has this week welcomed new national statistics that show a record fall in unemployment, seen in the Office for National Statistics publication of labour market statistics for the three months to November. They revealed that the number of those in jobs in the UK has reached 30.15 million, up 280,000 this quarter and up 1.3 million since the election. Meanwhile unemployment has fallen by 167,000 this quarter, representing the sharpest fall in unemployment in 17 years. Youth unemployment also fell 39,000 in the last three months. Locally, in Chelsea and Fulham, unemployment fell to 1,415 in December 2013, which is 16 % less than last year. At borough council level, there were 4,014 across Hammersmith and Fulham borough and 2,327 in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea this is a fall of 18% and 20% respectively from just one year ago. Chelsea & Fulhams M.P. Greg Hands said: It is great news that unemployment is falling so fast, both locally and nationally. There are 306,000 more people in work in London than in 2010. That means 306,000 more people getting a regular pay packet, with the chance to give themselves and their family a more secure future. I welcome strong falls in unemployment in both Hammersmith & Fulham and in Kensington & Chelsea. "Of course there is still more to do, but these figures show the Conservatives long-term plan to fix the economy is working, creating more jobs by backing small business and enterprise with better infrastructure and lower jobs taxes, and delivering a more secure future for people in my constituency and the whole of London who want to work hard and get on in life.

Photo news:

Draycott Avenue Tenants and Residents Association AGM

Greg Hands with the officers and committee of the Draycott Avenue Tenants and Residents Association at their Annual General Meeting this week.

Crime in H&F hits all time low

Crime is down to an historic low in Hammersmith & Fulham after falling by 15% last year, according to the latest Met Police figures. There were 3,295 fewer crimes in Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) in 2013 when compared to 2012. Overall there were 19,250 crimes recorded in H&F in 2013 compared to 22,545 crimes in 2012. A detailed breakdown of the stats reveals the number of personal robberies is down by 21%, while burglary has fallen 18%, or 337 offences. There were 1,789 fewer offences for theft and handling offences and the number of motor vehicle crime decreased by 21%. Violent crimes such as common assault, harassment and use of an offensive weapon fell by 278 offences. The news comes as H&F Council continues to spend 1.3million a year for three squads of extra town centre beat Police with local businesses adding an extra 350,000 a year. The additional cash means the borough has 42 more Police officers than it would do otherwise. The council is also deploying the latest in CCTV and mobile camera technology to target and deter offenders. The councils state-of-the art CCTV command centre at Hammersmith town hall streams images from more than 800 cameras 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Around 500 incidents are captured each month leading to around 100 arrests on average. Meanwhile, the councils parks police officers are using lapel worn cameras to crack down on crime in the boroughs parks and open spaces. The pager-sized gadgets utilise the latest high definition technology and enable officers to capture court ready evidence at the touch of a button. Cllr Greg Smith, H&F Council Deputy Leader, says, Crime is at an alltime low in H&F and continues to fall thanks to the fantastic joint working between residents groups like Neighbourhood Watch and various council and police teams. Extra beat Police combined with a comprehensive network of CCTV cameras and good work from the councils neighbourhood wardens and parks police teams mean H&F is now safer than ever. We will continue to relentlessly target the criminal minority and are determined to drive crime down further. Greg Hands M.P. added: "This is fantastic news and testifies to the hard work being done by the Hammersmith & Fulham police and to Cllr Greg Smith and the whole team of Conservative Councillors, who were elected in both 2006 and 2010 on a strong pledge to bear down on crime. Nobody wants to go back to the bad old days under Labour of high crime and rampant anti-social behaviour". To read more about the ways the council is fighting crime and antisocial behaviour in the borough visit www.lbhf.gov.uk/crime.

Hands in the media:

Greg Hands M.P. on BBC Sunday Politics

Click on the image above to watch Greg on the BBC Sunday Politics.

Hammersmith Bridge closures

Hammersmith Bridge was closed last weekend (January 25-26), for the first of a series of weekend road closures over the next month. Hammersmith & Fulham Council began urgent repair works to the bridge last week (Monday January 13) and has plans to fully close the bridge in both directions for the weekends of February 8-9, 15-16, and 22-23. These are from 8am on Saturday to 5am on Monday. There will no longer be a closure on February 1-2. The work also means that the bridge continues to be partially closed on weekdays until February 28. The southbound lane over the bridge (A306) is closed between 7am and 3pm every Monday to Friday to allow essential repairs to the 126-year-old bridges wooden decking panels. The work must be done to make sure that the road is safe for motorists and cyclists. After years of wear and tear, the current timber panels on the bridge need to be repaired or replaced, and then resurfaced. The worn wooden decking means that steel panels on the road, which provide an anti-skid surface, are failing to work properly. There are also several pot holes in the road which have been patched up temporarily and this work will allow the defects to be properly and permanently repaired. Cllr Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, Hammersmith & Fulham Councils cabinet member for transport and technical services, said: These works are simply unavoidable and must be done now, to make sure the road surface holds up for the next decade. Of course, if there was any way we could keep the road open then we would. We are doing everything we can to keep disruption to residents to a minimum and we apologise for any temporary disruption this may cause. To minimise disruption and avoid clashing with Transport for Londons night-time closures of Hammersmith Flyover, the works have been planned for when southbound traffic flow is low and traffic heading north is at its peak. However, access is being maintained in both directions over the bridge for emergency vehicles and pedestrians, while the 72, 209 and 609 buses are still running via the bridge during the week. Cyclists have to dismount and walk their bikes across the bridge. There is access for local residents living near the bridge, on either side of the river (for example, those living in Rutland Grove and surrounding streets). The diversions are via Fulham Palace Road and Putney Bridge for southbound traffic and, during the weekend closures, northbound traffic will be diverted to Chiswick Bridge. Advance warning and diversion signs are up on both sides of the river. Greg Hands M.P. added: "Work on bridges is often needed, but with the Hammersmith Flyover works, and threatened works to Putney Bridge later this year, I am concerned that we need to keep traffic moving in my Chelsea & Fulham constituency. I will be watching this situation closely in the coming months." For more information on the works, contact Anvar Alizadeh or Michael Masella on 020 8753 3033 or 020 8753 3082. Alternatively the highways duty officer is available outside of office hours on 020 8748 8588.

Official launch of new joint e-procurement from local councils

Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham councils are now using CapitalEsourcing, where suppliers can register and bid for any contracts tendered by one or more of the local authorities. The system alerts suppliers about potential contracts and when they are going out to tender, while firms will be able to monitor the progress of any bids they have made. Already a contract for ICT services has been awarded under the new system, which gives buyers one place to manage procurements, award contracts and monitor supplier performance. CapitalEsourcing has been developed by local government for local government. It standardises the way councils do business, simplifies the engagement process and provides efficiencies for the Tri-borough councils and their suppliers. If you run a business and are interested in entering a contract to supply goods or services to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster City Council or Hammersmith & Fulham Council register your company details at the councils' procurement portal, www.capitalesourcing.com. You will receive email alerts of contract opportunities relevant to your company profile.

New Homes for Chelsea

An unattractive and underused municipal car park in Young Street, Kensington, is to be replaced by a twenty-first century mansion block, the Council's Major Planning Development Committee has agreed. Of the 53 market homes in the new block, approximately 17 will be for sale, with the remainder for private rent. The income will be shared between the Council and its development partner, Grainger. Standing at the northern entrance to historic Kensington Square, the car park at 19-27 Young Street is something of an eyesore. The new development is an opportunity to dramatically improve the approach to the square, which is not only one of the oldest in London, but also one of the most desirable. Built to an exacting specification, the mansion block will complement the square's dominant architectural styles and materials. The expectation is that it will also yield a significant new income stream to support Council services. "This is a dated and ugly car park, which we can easily do without," said the Council's Cabinet Member for Housing, Property and Regeneration, Cllr Rock Feilding-Mellen. "Replacing it will be a fine building, far more appropriate to this important location. And if that wasn't justification enough, there will also be rental income and some badly needed affordable four-bedroom houses provided offsite at Hortensia Road." Also before the committee last night was the related development of land on Hortensia Road. Again this is a partnership development between the Council and Grainger. The committee granted permission for the land to be developed to provide 31 new homes comprising 19 one- and two-bedroom flats for market rent and five one-and two- bedroom flats for intermediate rent*. In addition, there will be seven new Council homes, one of them a two-bed flat, the other six, four-bedroom houses which are in very short supply for social housing tenants. Included in the development will be a commercial unit at ground floor level. "We are delivering the new housing that London so desperately needs," added Cllr Rock Feilding-Mellen, "built to a high quality specification and designed in a way that is sensitive to nearby listed buildings. We are convinced this is the best achievable future for our sites."

Hands in the media:

Greg Hands M.P.: Its three years today of Labours deficit-denying, Goodwinknighting, zero-credibility Shadow Chancellor
Greg Hands M.P., ConservativeHome Monday 20th January 2014

Thursday, 20th January, 2011. I remember the day well. I was at Dorneywood, as the Chancellor of the Exchequers Parliamentary Private Secretary (or PPS) for the bosss very belated Christmas lunch. The team lunch had been postponed from its proper time, due to heavy snowfall in December. David Gaukes team had just won the Chancellors Christmas quiz, and everyone was settling down for some more gentle entertainment, when one of the Chancellors Special Advisers rushed in to announce that Alan Johnson had just resigned as Labours Shadow Chancellor. This was quite a shock, as there had been no indication of such a move. There had been a little disquiet about his performance from some Labour MPs in the Autumn of 2010, but it was more shocking that he had resigned for personal reasons. The Chancellor decided that we should all return to London at once. Whilst expressing sympathy for Johnson, it seemed like a developing situation, and it might require one or more of the Chancellors team to be on the media. In the car on the way to London, the news came through on the radio that Ed Balls had been appointed as Johnsons successor. I was sat next to the Chancellor, and his first words were something like Now Labour are getting serious. The Chancellor liked and respected Alan Johnson, but the feeling that day was that Ed Balls had the potential to be a more formidable opponent, particularly in the Commons chamber. Gordon Brown used to taunt his Conservative opposite numbers with the number of Shadow Chancellors he had seen off, but George Osborne was already facing his third, and had only himself been in the job eight months. Almost three weeks later, came the first Commons Chamber showdown between the two men. It was my job as PPS to ensure that all preparations were made. But the most important part, the Chancellors own response to Balls, was the work of the Chancellor alone. It is worth re-reading those first exchanges on 8th February 2011, as they show that, from day one, Balls was unable to escape his past and was exposed for having no credibility. After the customary polite welcome to his new role, Balls was quickly exposed as being Milibands second choice in the job, that he was a man with a past, that he was a deficit denier, the City Minister who knighted Fred Goodwin and that when it came to the deficit, the central question in British politics then and now, he had no plan at all. It was a very sharp critique, all shoehorned into 35 highly charged seconds at the dispatch box. The problem for Balls is that three years on, the Chancellors critique of his opponent is the same today as it was then. Not only that: the great majority of the public shares it too. Balls is known to exasperate his own leader. He still denies that the deficit is the central problem in UK politics, and barely acknowledges it as a problem at all. He has made no apology for his past mistakes. Most importantly of all, he still has no long-term plan for the economy. The Chancellors dispatch box critique of Ed Balls in 2012 and 2013 was the same as it was in 2011, because Balls hasnt used the opportunity of time in Opposition to move the debate forwards at all. In fact, it is hard to see anything that Balls has achieved in those three years at all. Major policy announcements and changes to Labours approach have all been made by others, even by the likes of newcomers like Rachel Reeves. Balls seems unable to change his policies, as any change would be an implicit admission that he was wrong in the past. Last weeks announcement by Miliband to reduce the size of the banks was an awkward one for Ed Balls, who was the Treasury adviser and City Minister who presided over the overconsolidation in the first place. Balls had said in 2011 that there is no need to break up institutions, which might have explained his almost complete absence last week from his bosss new policy launch. Seemingly, Balls hasnt felt the need to launch any Labour policy commissions or reviews. The Conservatives in Opposition 2005-2010 held many, and Labour now are reviewing policy in some areas, but none of them seem to be Ed Ballss. To Balls, it would seem that any policy review would be an admission that the existing policy might be wrong. Everywhere, Balls is trapped by his past. I understand that Miliband is, for example, relaxed about Gordon Brown returning to front line politics. Balls, however, has overruled him. Balls has him under virtual house arrest, one Labour MP, close to both Brown and Balls, told me last year. Ballss most prominent announcement in his three years as Shadow Chancellor was that all Labour spending commitments needed to be approved by him. Unfortunately, this has been an announcement which has been made now many times, but has been largely ignored by his front bench colleagues, and as a result, nobody in Labour has come any closer to explaining how they will pay for 27 billion of unfunded policy commitments. Ballss biggest problem is that his central thesis has been shown to be wrong; that public spending cuts would inevitably lead to a shrinking economy. His problem is that Plan A is working, that Plan B is now holed below the water (and being abandoned even in France), and Balls doesnt seem interested in finding any kind of Plan C. Balls said as recently as June, that he didnt think Labour had overspent, and therefore Labour had nothing to learn. As recently as March, Balls said: Ive said consistently!unless there is a Government led plan for confidence, for growth and jobs, the economy will get worse but also the deficit wont come down, itll go up. And Miliband has agreed with every word of it, too weak to stand up to Balls. Of course, Balls is both a symptom and a cause of Labours problem. Labour has no long-term economic plan, and just offers more spending, more borrowing and more taxes. Its the same old Labour. Yesterday, Miliband confirmed that Balls will remain in situ at least until the election. Judging by his first three years in the job, there seems little prospect of Labour developing a new economic policy in the next 16 months. Miliband leaving Balls in his position is good news for Conservatives and shows that neither is serious about doing what they need to do to try to gain economic credibility.

5 ways to contact Greg Hands M.P.:

By Phone: By email: By post: In person: 020 7219 5448 mail@greghands.com Greg Hands M.P. House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Click here for details of how to book an appointment at Greg Hands M.P.s weekly surgery

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