Agenda item

The Queen’s Speech 2014

It was moved by Councillor Julie Dore, seconded by Councillor Steve Wilson, that this Council:-

(a)       regrets that the Queens Speech completely failed to tackle the challenges facing Sheffield and the country as a whole, providing no vision and positive action to improve people’s lives and simply offered more of the same, recycled measures already announced;

(b)       further regrets that the Government’s Queens Speech failed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, felt by people in Sheffield, with a plan to secure a strong and sustained recovery that delivers rising living standards for the many, not just a few at the top;

(c)        calls on the Government to:

(i)         act to boost housing supply and ensure at least 200,000 new homes are built each year;

(ii)        introduce an independent infrastructure commission;

(iii)       reform the energy and banking markets to make them more competitive for consumers and businesses;

(iv)       make work pay by expanding free childcare for working parents;

(v)        raise the value of the minimum wage over the next Parliament;

(vi)       introduce a lower ten pence starting rate of tax;

(vii)      introduce a Mansion Tax;

(viii)     set out reforms to ban recruitment agencies from hiring solely from overseas and put in place tougher enforcement of minimum wage laws to tackle the exploitation of migrant workers that undercuts local workers;

(ix)       introduce a compulsory jobs guarantee for young people and a new gold standard vocational qualification and give business a real say on apprenticeships in return for increasing their numbers to ensure that every young person gets the skills they need to succeed in the future;

(x)        give local authorities and communities greater control over fracking in their areas and address the completely inadequate payments to communities in which fracking takes place, considering the enormous amount of revenue to be gained by the companies from fracking activities, in particular given the tax breaks awarded by the Government;

(xi)       introduce an NHS Bill, to put a stop to its privatisation and improve access to GPs; and

(xii)      give people a greater say over pay day lenders and betting shops on their high streets; and

(d)       believes that the country needs a new direction to deliver these changes and welcomes the agenda set out by the Labour Party to make work pay, reform the banks, freeze energy bills and build more homes.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Colin Ross, seconded by Councillor Joe Otten, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all words after the words “That this Council” and the addition of the following words therefore:-

(a)       believes Liberal Democrats in Government are committed to building a stronger economy and a fairer society, creating opportunity for all;

(b)       welcomes measures set out in the 2014 Queens Speech, which will help to build a stronger economy and a fairer society in Sheffield, specifically:

(i)         an increase in the total number of apprenticeship places to 2 million by 2015;

(ii)        greater support for families with up to £2,000 a year per child in a childcare subsidy;

(iii)       more power for workers to control their own pensions and new ‘defined ambition’ pensions to help boost savings;

(iv)       new regulations to allow all new homes to meet a zero carbon standard by 2016;

(v)        new powers to crack down on employers who abuse zero-hour contracts;

(vi)       tougher penalties for employers who do not pay the Minimum Wage;

(vii)      a new 5p levy on plastic bags, with proceeds going to charity;

(vii)      a new independent adjudicator to protect pub landlords and community pubs from exploitative ‘pub-cos’;

(ix)       tougher powers to tackle Female Genital Mutilation; and

(x)        a new power of recall over constituency MPs;

(c)        notes research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies that the spending commitments set out by the last Government would have added an estimated £201bn to the national debt;

(d)       notes the comments of John Cruddas MP, who is leading the Labour Party’s Policy Review, that the Labour Leadership have “parked” ideas and replaced them with “cynical nuggets of policy to chime with our focus groups and press strategy”; and

(e)       calls upon the Administration to admit that the policies put forward by the national Labour Party are not credible and back proposals in the Queens Speech, which will help to improve the lives of ordinary Sheffielders.

On being put to the vote, the amendment was negatived. 

Following a right of reply by Councillor Julie Dore the original Motion was then put to the vote and carried, as follows:-

RESOLVED:  That this Council:-

(a)       regrets that the Queens Speech completely failed to tackle the challenges facing Sheffield and the country as a whole, providing no vision and positive action to improve people’s lives and simply offered more of the same, recycled measures already announced;

(b)       further regrets that the Government’s Queens Speech failed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, felt by people in Sheffield, with a plan to secure a strong and sustained recovery that delivers rising living standards for the many, not just a few at the top;

(c)        calls on the Government to:

(i)         act to boost housing supply and ensure at least 200,000 new homes are built each year;

(ii)        introduce an independent infrastructure commission;

(iii)       reform the energy and banking markets to make them more competitive for consumers and businesses;

(iv)       make work pay by expanding free childcare for working parents;

(v)        raise the value of the minimum wage over the next Parliament;

(vi)       introduce a lower ten pence starting rate of tax;

(vii)      introduce a Mansion Tax;

(viii)     set out reforms to ban recruitment agencies from hiring solely from overseas and put in place tougher enforcement of minimum wage laws to tackle the exploitation of migrant workers that undercuts local workers;

(ix)       introduce a compulsory jobs guarantee for young people and a new gold standard vocational qualification and give business a real say on apprenticeships in return for increasing their numbers to ensure that every young person gets the skills they need to succeed in the future;

(x)        give local authorities and communities greater control over fracking in their areas and address the completely inadequate payments to communities in which fracking takes place, considering the enormous amount of revenue to be gained by the companies from fracking activities, in particular given the tax breaks awarded by the Government;

(xi)       introduce an NHS Bill, to put a stop to its privatisation and improve access to GPs; and

(xii)      give people a greater say over pay day lenders and betting shops on their high streets; and

(d)       believes that the country needs a new direction to deliver these changes and welcomes the agenda set out by the Labour Party to make work pay, reform the banks, freeze energy bills and build more homes.

(Note: Councillors Simon Clement-Jones, Richard Shaw, Rob Frost, Joe Otten, Colin Ross, Martin Smith, Penny Baker, Roger Davison, Diana Stimely, Sue Alston, Andrew Sangar, Cliff Woodcraft, Ian Auckland, Steve Ayris, Denise Reaney, David Baker, Katie Condliffe and Vickie Priestley voted against paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) and abstained on paragraph (c) of the above motion and asked for this to be recorded.)