*UK pledges money to help homeless people FWD
Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Mon, 5 Oct 1998 15:05:18 -0400
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk%5Fpolitics/labour%5Fconference/newsid%5F=
1830
00/183684.stm
=46WD BBC News September 30, 1998
PRESCOTT PLEDGES 'URBAN RENAISSANCE'
JOHN PRESCOTT: MONEY HAS BEEN RELEASED TO HELP THE HOMELESS
Deputy Labour leader John Prescott promised tough action to
regenerate "sink" estates and tackle homelessness as part of an "urban
renaissance".
The deputy prime minister told the Labour conference the
government had "inherited a Britain that was divided,
over-centralised, and which had gained the title 'the dirty man of
Europe'."
Mr Prescott told delegates central government no longer saw local
government as "an enemy".
Instead it had established a new partnership with it, ended capping
and was abolishing compulsory competitive tendering.
Action over homelessness
Mr Prescott also praised local authority employees: "We value local
council staff. We believe they should be treated decently and we are
prepared to legislate to achieve that."
And he said his own "super-ministry", the Department of the
Environment, Transport and the Regions, was responsible for issues
that "touch the daily lives of millions of people".
To tackle homelessness, ministers had released =A35bn of council
capital receipts for new housing and injected =A3177m to tackle the
root causes of rough sleeping.
In addition, there was an =A3800m programme to regenerate poor
neighbourhoods under the government's New Deal for Communities
programme.
=46rom workhorse to thoroughbred
On the environment, he told delegates Britain had "led the way" in
setting new targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases at the Kyoto
world summit.
"Remember the old adage - we hold this world in trust for future
generations. It is not ours to squander," he said.
He said it was essential to boost public transport and reduce
pollution. "In other European countries they own more cars but they
use them less and they use good quality public transport more."
He defended the bus, saying it has been "the workhorse of the 20th
century. We want it to be a thoroughbred for the 21st century."
He promised to give buses priority on the roads and improve
conditions for both passengers and bus workers.
Promise to end bus pension wrangle
The latter, he said, were "all too often the ones who have borne the
brunt of deregulation."
"Look at what happened when they privatised the National Bus
Company. The Tories raided the pension funds and refused to
recognise the pensioners' claim to millions of pounds of pension
surplus.
"The legal wrangles have gone on for years, while thousands of
pensioners have had to wait."
Mr Prescott then announced the government was stepping in to
speed the way to a fair resolution: "I have instructed our lawyers to
stop the legal fancy-dancing.
"I have told them to open discussion with the pension trustees, to
achieve a just out-of-court settlement as quickly as possible in the
coming months and end this shameful delay."
He also told the conference he would end the inconsistency in
concessionary bus travel for the elderly across the country: "We shall
establish a national minimum concessionary bus scheme for Britain's
pensioners, to enjoy wherever they live."
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