Tag Archives: andrew stunell

Battle of the Andrews over 5 Days in May: Lib Dem Stunell lambasts Labour’s Adonis for “spurious rubbish”

By The Voice | Tue 14th May 2013 - 1:10 pm

Lord (Andrew) Adonis, a former SDP councillor and the very model of a modern Blairite New Labourite, has a new book out offering his assessment of those five heady days in May when the alternative Lib-Con and Lib-Lab coalition options were discussed.

In the main it confirms what was already known: that Labour had not given any thought to the fact they might have to work with the Lib Dems in the event of a hung parliament.

But his Lordship, having conceded how ill-prepared Labour was, is nonetheless mustard-keen to lay much of the blame for the failure of the Lib-Lab option at the door of Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems. Andrew Stunell, Lib Dem MP and one of the party’s five-strong negotiating team, is having none of this revisionism — as he points out punchily in a letter in today’s Guardian.

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Posted in News | Also tagged andrew adonis | 17 Comments

Nick Clegg’s speech on immigration: the good, the bad and the ugly

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 22nd March 2013 - 3:52 pm

The much-missed Conrad Russell said you should read something three times before you pass comment on it. I’ve done that with today’s speech on immigration by Nick Clegg. I’ve also had several cups of tea and am frantically hunting for some smelling salts to revive me. Leaders are supposed to lead and to challenge established thinking. I have no problem with him sticking his neck out on an issue if that is what he wants to do. It’s important that we listen to him and if we don’t like his ideas, to calmly and respectfully tell him so.

It seems …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged immigration and nick clegg | 32 Comments

Don Foster MP writes… The Integration Strategy: one year on

By Don Foster MP | Thu 21st February 2013 - 10:25 am

The Government’s Integration Strategy, Creating the Conditions for Integration was published a year ago on 21 February 2012. Since becoming a minister a few months ago, this is one of the areas about which I’ve had some of the strongest feedback from party members.

The views I’ve heard range from “the strategy is welcome, but not enough” to “it isn’t a serious substitute for a strategy to tackle racism and racial injustice”. Some have said that the document skates over the fact that integration is a two way process of mutual accommodation. Those with this view argue that there’s …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged fiyaz mughal, Jo Swinson, joseph rowntree foundation, mo farah, multiculturalism, nick clegg, racism and sayeeda warsi | 8 Comments

Polls and predictions: The Chris Rennard Interview

By The Voice | Tue 18th September 2012 - 2:25 pm

Liberal Democrat News has just published extracts from an interview with Lord (Chris) Rennard, former Lib Dem Chief Executive, and Director of Campaigns and Elections. The interview appears in full below.
Journalist York Membery is a regular contributor to the nationals. He is also a contributing editor to the Journal of Liberal History.

Chris is credited with masterminding a string of past by-election victories as well as the target seat strategy that increased our number of MPs from 19 to 63. He tells York Membery that we should look to the future with hope not fear…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged chris rennard, tony greaves and york membery | 4 Comments

Opinion: Good news on affordable housing, but spare me the house builders’ crocodile tears – their share prices have doubled

By Mike Tuffrey | Fri 7th September 2012 - 12:11 pm

Winning an extra £300m from the Treasury for affordable housing and tackling empty homes is good news by any standard (well done, Andrew Stunell, and thanks for all you did at DCLG). Moving forward on the £10 billion government guarantees for infrastructure spending is positive too. And if the Montague Review to encourage private renting is implemented, that’s proof patience can be rewarded…. I spent ten years on the London Assembly calling for both Labour and Conservative mayors to act. Back in June I had put housing at the heart of a four-point plan for a sustainable recovery. So it is great to see this issue come to the fore.

But forgive me for not believing the crocodile tears from developers about how they can’t afford to start work on ‘commercially unviable’ sites. The Times just revealed they’ve been quietly squirreling away land banks big enough for a quarter of a million homes. Not unviable, so much as slightly less massively profitable. Just look at their share prices. They’ve doubled over the last year even before the boost this announcement gave them (Taylor Wimpey up from 30p to 54p; Barratt up from 76p to 150p; Persimmon up from 425p to 700p). Yes, doubled. Not bumping along the bottom, like the rest of the economy.

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Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged affordable housing, coalition, housebuilders, localism, nick clegg and planning | 13 Comments

Tim Farron MP writes… My thoughts on the Cabinet reshuffle

By Tim Farron MP | Thu 6th September 2012 - 6:38 pm

The first proper reshuffle for our party since the 1920s was always going to be a weird situation. I am extremely sad to see Sarah Teather, Nick Harvey, Paul Burstow and Andrew Stunell leave the government. Sarah’s work on the Pupil Premium will leave an outstanding legacy for the next generation, Andrew’s work on releasing empty homes to meet the needs of those in desperate circumstances will make the difference to thousands of people and Nick Harvey’s tenacity in ensuring that a like for like replacement for Trident is kicked off into the long grass has been a quite immense …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david heath, david laws, nick clegg, nick harvey, paul burstow, sarah teather and trident | 30 Comments

Transfer deadline day: Laws, Brake, Foster & Swinson in, Burstow, Teather, Harvey & Stunell out, Clarke loan finishes

By James Percival | Wed 5th September 2012 - 1:32 pm

I love reshuffle days, they’re just like transfer deadline day. You sit there at your office computer pretending to work while secretly updating the Guardian live blog to see who your side has brought in and let go.

So, have we strengthened the side for the second half of the season or left gaping holes in our defence?

Well, we have managed to hold on to all our big players – Cable, Alexander, Davey and Moore – and, despite losing his place to Alexander after his suspension early in the season, we now have a fighting fit Laws back and ready …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged Danny Alexander, david heath, david laws, don foster, ed davey, jeremy browne, Jo Swinson, ken clarke, lynne featherstone, Michael Moore, nick clegg, nick harvey, norman lamb, paul burstow, sarah teather, tom brake and vince cable | 3 Comments

Reshuffle thoughts: how does it score against my four criteria?

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 9:31 pm

Ahead of the reshuffle, I posted four criteria against which the Liberal Democrat part of the shuffling should be judged. Now nearly all the details are in, how does it look?

Most importantly, have people been put in jobs they’ve got a decent chance of doing well? It’s hard enough being a minister in the smaller party in a coalition government without having lots of people thrown into policy areas they are completely new to.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david heath, david laws, don foster, featured, jeremy browne, Jo Swinson, julian huppert, nick clegg, nick harvey, paul burstow, reshuffle, sarah teather and tom brake | 18 Comments

Lib Dems push for ‘blind marking’ to level the playing field for ethnic communities

By The Voice | Tue 31st July 2012 - 3:10 pm

The Observer this weekend reported on the Lib Dems’ latest attempts to push for more equal treatment of citizens from different ethnic backgrounds:

Ministers are seeking to introduce “blind marking” of pupils’ schoolwork by teachers as part of a push to tackle a history of underachievement among black and ethnic minority groups, while banks will be required to carry out ethnic monitoring of people to whom they lend money. Under the proposals, the identities of pupils would not be a factor when teachers mark work, and banks could be held accountable for the racial profile of their customers. The controversial

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Posted in News | Also tagged meral ece and nick clegg | 33 Comments

Stephen Gilbert MP writes… Welcome news for park home residents

By Steve Gilbert MP | Thu 28th June 2012 - 3:23 pm

We all deserve a safe and secure place to live. But all too often for the 160,000 people living in park homes up and down the country the reality fails to live up to the utopian dream offered in the marketing brochure.

For those readers not familiar with the term, a ‘park home’ is a static caravan. Usually found grouped together in modestly sized communities (2,000 of them in all) often by the coast or in areas of natural beauty. This ‘peaceful’ life primarily attracts the retired, the elderly and the infirm – often seeking more peaceful surroundings to live out …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged annette brooke and park homes | 1 Comment

Which of the five Lib Dem reshuffle options will Nick Clegg pick?

By Mark Pack | Mon 14th May 2012 - 2:23 pm

Five scenarios for your delectation:

The Lib Dem night of the long beards

The drastic, dramatic and painful option. Clegg says the Liberal Democrats need David Laws’s expertise and media savvy at the heart of economic decision making, restoring him to Chief Secretary to the Treasury and expressing tearful regret that Danny Alexander is off out of the Cabinet, with a resting place as a new Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Cabinet Office where he will not have to handle quite so many tricky TV interviews.

Education, education, education

Too problematic to bring back Laws in a tax and cut role? Bring him …

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Posted in Humour and Op-eds | Also tagged Danny Alexander, david heath, david laws, Jo Swinson, lembit opik, lorely burt, lynne featherstone, Michael Moore, nick clegg, nick harvey, norman baker and sarah teather | 45 Comments

The Local Government Slot: Fighting for a Better Deal for Park Home Owners

By Annette Brooke MP | Thu 1st March 2012 - 3:23 pm

We have recently seen a lot of activity in Parliament on the issue of park homes and the problems park home owners are facing across the country.

To some extent 2011 saw familiar frustrations and delays that have, unfortunately, often characterised attempts to solve park homes problems in the past.

However 2011 also saw headway being made. The tireless efforts of campaigners and activists have built real momentum and an appetite for change amongst my colleagues in Parliament. I firmly believe this is filtering through and that the Government will be drawn to action soon.

Events such as the Park Homes Justice Campaign’s demonstration in October have been hugely successful in raising awareness. As part of this campaign Downing Street was presented with new evidence showing that as many as 23,473 homes from across the UK could be living under the regime of an unscrupulous park owner. The fantastic work of this campaign, and of its organiser Sonia McColl, has had a real impact over these last months. Also of real importance has been the large number of letters written to MPs. I can only encourage this – the more letters that are written, the more MPs will push for change and the more chance we have of succeeding.

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Posted in Local government | Also tagged park homes and stephen gilbert | 3 Comments

In other news…

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th January 2012 - 4:45 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past week…

Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt is taking on sexism in the BBC: ‘The BBC must ensure there are more women presenters and executives working on its radio network if it is to justify its licence fee, MP Tessa Munt said today after she found that in some cases there were fewer female voices than 25 years ago.’

The FT reports how Danny Alexander, Lib Dem Treasury chief secretary, has highlighted a crackdown on high pay in the public sector: Danny has

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, Danny Alexander, nick clegg and tessa munt | Leave a comment

That’s the way to do it! How Liberal Democrats made the running on the Localism Bill

By The Voice | Wed 9th November 2011 - 10:15 am

Annette Brooke MP and Lord (Graham) Tope are the Lib Dem Co-Chairs of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on Communities and Local Government, and led the Lib Dem response to the Localism Bill. Here they outline what they, working with colleagues in the party and many beyond, helped achieve.

Last night the Localism Bill completed its final stage in Parliament and is set to become law when it achieves Royal Assent next week.

As Co-Chairs of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on Communities and Local Government, it has been our job over the last ten months to lead on the Bill for the party. We’ve helped shepherd it through both Houses of Parliament, and have led a Lib Dem team that in many ways has made the running on the Bill.

We’ve had strong engagement with Coalition ministers, who engaged with us constructively, particularly Greg Clark, Baroness Hanham and our very own Andrew Stunell, who was very helpful and willing to work together with us to improve the Bill considerably.

Colleagues in local government were also a constant source of help and good ideas, which never ceased to better inform our Bill team as the process went on.

Where we started from: “a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice”

When it was first introduced, I think many Liberal Democrats would agree that it was a good bill in theory, with several flaws in practice.

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged annette brooke, baroness hanham, graham tope, greg clark, housing, housing ombudsman, localism, localism bill, mayoral referendum, national planning policy framework, neighbourhood forum, neighbourhood plan, nolan principles, planning, standards board, sustainability and tenants | 13 Comments

Should councils be able to cap the number of second and holiday homes in their area?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 2nd November 2011 - 8:55 am

Earlier this week, the Lib Dems’ Communities and Local Government Minister Andrew Stunell wrote here on LibDemVoice about the Coalition’s measures to increase councils’ powers to cut tax relief to those with second homes:

… our plans to allow local authorities to charge an Empty Homes Premium – up to an extra 50% of council tax – on any property that has been vacant for two years or more. Crucially, we are retaining the exemptions for properties empty as a result of the death of an owner, or if the owner has moved into hospital or to give or

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Posted in News | Also tagged council tax, eric pickles, housing and stephen gilbert | 7 Comments

The Independent View: The General Power of Competence – Is the sky the limit?

By Richard Carr | Thu 8th September 2011 - 3:51 pm

As the Localism Bill moves into Report stage in the Lords, local authorities are getting ever closer to gaining their much discussed General Power of Competence (GPoC).

For Lib Dems the passage of the Localism Bill is an interesting moment. Many, one suspects, might echo the views of former Lib Dem LGA leader Cllr Richard Kemp who in January blogged his ‘support about 80% of the Bill, like the direction but have concerns about the deliverability of 15% of the Bill, and actively detest 5% of it.’

Though Kemp’s reservations were reserved for the provisions concerning elected mayors, Lib Dems …

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Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged david ward, localism bill and richard kemp | Leave a comment

Opinion: The Government’s new Prevent strategy – a missed opportunity

By Issan Ghazni | Wed 6th July 2011 - 1:41 pm

The government has just launched a revamped version of the old failed and worn out counter-extremism strategy initiated by Labour whilst it was in power. Prevent was originally launched after the 7 July bombings in 2005 to stop the spread of home-grown terrorism. Labour’s approach failed, proved divisive and also led to inevitable alienation in Muslim communities. Can the new hardline approach succeed in preventing acts of Islamist violence on the streets of Britain?

The new framework runs counter to the liberal and sensible arguments proposed and hard fought for within Government by Nick Clegg and Andrew Stunell for …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged counter-terrorism and nick clegg | 9 Comments

Opinion: The ‘democratic filter’ disempowers tenants

By Cllr Terry Stacy | Tue 14th June 2011 - 10:42 am

As Liberal Democrats we should be very welcoming of the Localism Bill. The measures included in it to bring power back to local communities have been at the heart of our politics for many years, and will give people a real say in local decision making. Empowering people was key to me becoming active in the tenant’s movement in the 80’s, why I joined the Liberal Party back then and cut my teeth in politics in Tower Hamlets, and why I stood for Council in Islington years later.

Empowering people is key to being a Liberal Democrat, Indeed, Andrew Stunell …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged coalition agreement and localism bill | 6 Comments

Our lost phrase: community politics

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th June 2011 - 12:28 pm

On a hunch, earlier this year I did a little research ahead of writing a blog post for Liberal Democrat Voice: how often is the phrase “community politics” used by the party’s national spokespeople since the May 2010 election?

The answer was far worse than I’d feared. Looking through all of Nick Clegg’s major speeches, all the news release from him and also all those from others issued via the Liberal Democrat press team, I could only find one use of “community politics” – by Paul Burstow. Andrew Stunell deserves an honourable mention for using it in an LGA pamphlet …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bernard greaves, big society, community politics, featured, gordon lishman, nick clegg, paul burstow and tim farron | 8 Comments

Good news for local government as capitalisation budget increased by half

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th March 2011 - 1:25 pm

There was some good news for local government yesterday with the announcement that the capitalisation budget is being increased from £200m to £300m for 2011-12.

Since the £200m figure was set in autumn spending settlement, Liberal Democrats in local government and also ministers such as Danny Alexander and Andrew Stunell have been pushing hard for an increase – with the result being yesterday’s news.

Capitalisation is a technical financial measure but in brief it allows councils more flexibility in their financial decisions. It is the process of letting revenue costs be treated as capital expenditure in limited circumstances, the primary advantages of …

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged Danny Alexander and richard kemp | 4 Comments

Nearly a fifth of homelessness funds to go to voluntary sector as new figures reveal true extent of problem

By Mark Pack | Mon 21st February 2011 - 8:55 am

The Government has overhauled the way in which the number of rough sleepers is counted in order to more accurately show the reality of what is happening around the country. The new figures show that on average 1,768 people sleep rough each night, compared to 440 under the old system.

The big increase is due to every council taking part in the new counting measure. Previously figures were only gathered from areas considered hotspots for rough sleeping. In addition, the figures are now verified by the umbrella group Homeless Link rather than relying on government officials.

Further details have also been published …

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Posted in News | Also tagged housing | 12 Comments

Community politics: is it set to disappear as a core Lib Dem belief?

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th February 2011 - 8:55 am

One of the reasons – in fact, probably the main reason – why so many Liberal Democrats are relaxed about the Conservative Party leadership’s enthusiasm for the Big Society idea is the overlap between the Big Society and the traditional Liberal Democrat belief in Community Politics. That’s a topic I wrote about at greater length before Christmas, but what has struck me since is how little senior Liberal Democrats talk about Community Politics now.

Despite the frequent media discussion about the Big Society, which provides an opening to talk about the Liberal Democrat alternative/supplement (delete as you wish), Community …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged community politics, nick clegg, paul burstow and simon hughes | 22 Comments

Lib Dem council leaders attack Pickles over speed and scale of cuts

By Sara Bedford | Thu 10th February 2011 - 12:00 pm

Over ninety senior Liberal Democrat councillors have written to The Times (£) today, attacking the front-loading of local government cuts imposed by central government. The letter is as interesting for what it doesn’t say as for what it does. Despite the spin placed on the letter by the BBC this morning, the letter does not deny either the need for cuts, nor the deficit which has required them. Rather the letter argues that the cuts are too big and proceeding too quickly, and that councils could protect more frontline services and save more money in the long term if spending reductions were carried out in a more controlled manner. The senior councillors are stating publicly what many Lib Dems in local government have been muttering for a while: that councils recognise that they must play their part in reducing the national deficit and controlling spending, the speed and depth of the cuts to government grants have left local authorities with little room to manoeuvre.

The attacks have centred on the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, EricPickles, who despite his local government background is widely seen as not having put up a fight for his own departmental spending and having been too keen to offer cuts. The letter is scathing about the seeming inability of Pickles to work with local councils to promote efficiencies and minimise the impact of the cuts on vulnerable people. The Secretary of State has kept a public silence over the letter, leaving Lib Dem Communities Minister Andrew Stunell to call on the party not to fall out over “pointless debate”. Stunell said, “Whilst I fully understand the real challenges councils face I think it will be much better to direct all our energy to solving these problems rather than falling out between ourselves”. The full text of the letter is reproduced below.

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged eric pickles | 42 Comments

Andrew Stunell reveals details of government plans to get empty homes put to use

By Mark Pack | Tue 11th January 2011 - 8:55 am

Liberal Democrat Communities Minister Andrew Stunell has been laying out details of how the Coalition Government is intending to get more empty homes put to use housing people. As the press release says:

Councils will receive powerful new incentives, with the coalition matching the council tax raised for every empty property brought back into use. Local authorities will be given the freedom to spend this money as they see fit. The government is also investing £100m in a fund for Housing Associations to bring empty homes back into use.

There are around 300,000 empty homes across the UK, and local residents are being encouraged to work with the council to identify where these homes are, so that their local community can start benefitting from the extra cash that can be used to improve their local area.

Andrew Stunell himself said,

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Posted in News | Also tagged housing | 24 Comments

Localism and council funding: today’s announcements

By Mark Pack | Mon 13th December 2010 - 6:21 pm

Two big pieces of local government news today – more powers and less money.

On the more powers front, here are some of the highlights from the Localism Bill:

A General Power of Competence for Councils – in other words, councils will in future be able to do what they think is right for their area, rather than only be able to take action in areas laid down by central government
Letting councils return to the Committee System if they wish, and introducing the option for more Directly Elected Mayors
Abolition of the Standards Board
Giving local people the power to veto “excessive” council tax increases
Devolve

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged localism bill | 30 Comments

LDVideo: Andrew Stunell’s latest visit to Oldham East and Saddleworth

By Helen Duffett | Fri 19th November 2010 - 6:37 pm

Government minister and Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell has already been to Oldham East and Saddleworth three weeks in a row to support Elwyn Watkins’ campaign and on his latest visit has recorded this message:

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Posted in Lib Dem TV and Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged elwyn watkins and oldham east and saddleworth | 4 Comments

Andrew Stunell writes…Open Government is Better Government

By Andrew Stunell MP | Fri 15th October 2010 - 3:21 pm

Earlier in the year, my colleague Eric Pickles announced that local authorities would be required to publish details of all of their spending above £500. This reform will go hand in hand with a requirement from November for central government departments to publish monthly details of all spending over £25,000. The Department for Communities and Local Government, however, have decided to go one better, and join our local government colleagues and publish everything over £500.

Why is this important, I hear you ask? Won’t it just provide the opposition, and for that matter, organisations like the Tax Payers Alliance with greater …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged open government | 17 Comments