Category Archives: Announcement

The Social Liberal Forum welcomes the Coalition Government’s commitment to building 150,000 affordable homes over the course of this parliament, which goes some way to benefiting some of the 4 million people on social housing waiting lists. However the SLF remains concerned that the proposed changes to housing benefit, announced by the government as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review, are likely to impact particularly on vulnerable families in inner-city areas across the country.

The SLF is particularly concerned over the following aspects of the government’s proposals:

* cuts to housing benefit for the long-term unemployed receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance
* raising new social housing tenants’ rents to up to 80% of the market rate
* bringing the Local Housing Allowance into line with the bottom third of rents (not the bottom half as currently) and
* linking social rents to CPI and not rent inflation.

It is vital that the Coalition Government takes an holistic approach to policy, ensuring that excellent progressive policies such as the Pupil Premium and the higher ‘Citizen’s Pension’ are not counter-acted by changes to housing benefit.

The SLF are also troubled by the use of insensitive and unhelpful language – from the Labour party and the Mayor of London – referring to ‘cleansing’ in criticising the government’s proposals, particularly given that the former’s General Election manifesto contained plans to cap housing benefit.

There is a clear need to reform social housing, to both end the subsidy of extortionate private-sector rents and to provide as much affordable housing as possible; the SLF insists that in doing so, the government ensures that the most vulnerable are not priced out from inner cities by commissioning an independent impact assessment of their proposals.

The Social Liberal Forum supports the Coalition Government’s commitment to maintain and develop the network of post offices. In particular, it warmly welcomes the announcement from the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, that he will be doubling the subsidy to the Post Office over the next four years.

We greatly regret the closure of some 2,500 post offices by the previous Labour Government, as we are very aware of the impact of their loss on many small communities, especially in rural areas. Liberal Democrats believe in supporting and enhancing the role of post offices, and in future would like to see many more services available through them.

For some time, post offices have offered access to a range of public services offered by DVLA, the Passport Office, the Royal Mail and its own banking accounts. Some councils already encourage people to make payments through post offices, and we believe that they could become the local access point of choice for public services.

The SLF does, however, have some concerns about the privatisation of Royal Mail. Lib Dem party policy is to support the injection of much-needed private capital, but crucially 51% would remain in public hands through a mix of mutualisation and direct public ownership; the same arguments for keeping the Post Office network in public hands apply to Royal Mail too, particularly given the pressing need to retain a universal and affordable service. Indeed, whilst we support employee ownership, we believe a greater proportion than 10% should be owned in this way.

The SLF therefore reiterates its strong support for Coalition policy towards the Post Office, and calls on Liberal Democrat ministers to carefully bear in mind the impact of reforms to Royal Mail, giving full consideration to increased worker-and public-ownership.

Having examined the announcements in the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Social Liberal Forum has released the following statement:

“The Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review contains a range of measures to reduce public spending, some of which the Social Liberal Forum welcomes. There are however some aspects of the Review that cause grave concern, as many of the proposed cuts will impact on the most vulnerable in society. Others risk deepening the lack of economic demand whilst expecting the private sector to fill the gap left by shrinking the state.

It is heartening to see policies that we as Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for being delivered: the Pupil Premium, the universality of most welfare payments, the creation of a Green Investment Bank, Regional Growth Funds and the protection of spending for schools, the NHS, international development and science. We are pleased to see the levy on banks made permanent and Trident not renewed. These are all to be welcomed as progressive policies designed to make Britain fairer and more prosperous. There can be no doubt that they are all the result of Liberal Democrats’ presence in government.

There remains a significant danger, however, that many of Chancellor George Osborne’s measures will disproportionately affect the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalised in society – precisely those that depend on public services the most. The steep cuts to welfare payments – including withdrawing disability benefits after a year and the reforms to housing benefit – are in direct contradiction of the government’s rhetorical commitment to fairness.

Without rigorous, holistic impact assessments of the cuts, there is a serious risk that cuts in one service today may lead not only to greater spending elsewhere but also greater misery for those already under great duress – such an impact assessment will become more crucial as details of specific spending cuts emerge in the coming days.

The deep cuts to local government budgets, only partially mitigated by allowing authorities to raise bonds, will also mean an end to many vital services. As Liberal Democrats, we strongly oppose any reduction in the capacity of councils to provide for their local communities.

There is also a danger that as jobs are lost, tax receipts will fall and a second recession could ensue. The Social Liberal Forum therefore calls on the Government to revive demand in the private economy by investing directly in skills training and small business development, as outlined by the recent Liberal Democrat conference motion Fairness in a time of Austerity .

Finally, the SLF believes that reducing the deficit must not come at the expense of creating a fair and just society. We cannot support a package of measures that will widen the gap between the rich and the poor – and we fear that the CSR is likely to do that. Spending decisions taken today will shape both the economy and society for years to come. We remain unconvinced of the need to seek to reduce the bulk of the deficit within a single parliament. It is vital that Government carefully avoids cuts that hurt the vulnerable and focuses on rebalancing the economy to make it more diverse, sustainable and equitable.”

“In his report on the financing of Higher Education (HE), Lord Browne has made several recommendations that, if implemented by the government, would put at risk the key principles in Higher Education – widening participation, fair access and financial equity – that must remain at the heart of Liberal Democrat policy.

Business Secretary Vince Cable has recently sought to reaffirm the Liberal Democrat commitment, and that of the Coalition government, to the principle of fairness in Higher Education.

Large increases in fees will lead to even greater debt, working against fairness because the poorest students will tend to have the greatest debts. Using differential interest rates rising with earnings as a means of providing for a more progressive system is less fair than a graduate tax, a graduate contribution or general taxation because those from wealthy backgrounds will have smaller debts as their families can afford to pay up front.

Any benefits of higher repayment thresholds would be lost by the introduction of commercial interests rates, and low paid and women graduates would be faced with the prospect of rising debt through their twenties and thirties.

The Social Liberal Forum now calls upon Dr. Cable, and all Liberal Democrat MPs, to continue to press for a system that ensures the abolition of student tuition fees, the reduction of student debt and their replacement with a graduate contribution, varying progressively with income and set at levels which do not deter students from taking less well paid, but socially beneficial, post-graduate employment.

In particular, we call upon all Liberal Democrat MPs to honour their pledge to vote against any increase in tuition fees. The higher student debt proposed by Lord Browne would be a serious threat to fair, merit-based, access to Higher Education, .

The abolition of fees remains central to Liberal Democrat education policy and the Social Liberal Forum believes that unless HE is paid for through general taxation, a fairly instituted graduate contribution, with repayments that reflect graduates’ ability to pay, is the best policy to help the UK’s HE sector remain world-class without placing a burden of debt on young graduates.”

Following Chancellor George Osborne MP’s announcements regarding child benefit, the Social Liberal Forum has released the following Position Statement:

“The Chancellor’s announcement of the end to the universal payment of child benefit will have both welcome and regrettable consequences. The recent Liberal Democrat conference voted overwhelmingly to support a Social Liberal Forum policy motion that called for the Coalition government to ‘Ensure that any cuts to welfare benefits are progressive in nature: reducing benefits enjoyed by the most affluent before cutting benefits for the poorest and most vulnerable.’

There is little doubt that those earning higher incomes should bear the greatest burden of any cuts to benefits, protecting those who rely on the payments the most. There is real concern, however, that the breach of the principle of universality of child benefit could erode the public’s trust in the welfare state. In addition the government’s clumsy approach creates inequities due to the individual nature of taxation, as the government’s own analysis indicates the single-parent (or single-earner) families earning just over the 40% tax threshold would lose their entire child benefit payment, leaving two-parent families earning up to £86,000 with theirs intact.

Coupled with progressive taxation, child benefit should remain universal to ensure the inclusive nature of the welfare state is protected even as the overall cost to government is reduced.”

The Social Liberal Forum Motion also called on government to ‘safeguard universal child benefit in conjunction with progressive taxation in order to provide a reliable source of income protection throughout childhood.’ We therefore call for the evaluation of proposals such as those put forward by the Institute for Public Policy Research, whose figures demonstrate that if subjected to progressive taxation child benefit can be kept universal, with those who need the payments the least forgoing some of their allowance and lower earners retaining theirs. Such an option avoids the unacceptable means testing of child benefit, whilst ensuring that payment is directed towards those who need it most.

The Guardian has also published the following letter from Chair of the Social Liberal Forum, David Hall-Matthews:

The virulent media reaction to the proposed reforms to child benefitshows how hard it will be for Liberal Democrats to persuade the Tories to target cuts towards the rich rather than the poor. Defending the rights of households earning over £44,000 a year does Labour little credit. The deficit has to be reduced as fairly as possible.

But the fuss also shows why it is a bad idea to end universal benefits except as a temporary measure. As long as those on “middle” incomes are there to defend child benefit, it will remain an important form of welfare support. If they are cut out, who will stop it being eroded to nothing, via disgraceful rhetoric against the “undeserving” poor? Lib Dems overwhelmingly voted at our conference for universal benefits, paid for by progressive taxation. Those just above the threshold would lose out less and, crucially, the public’s support for a universal welfare state would not be diminished. Such an option would also avoid the miseries and inefficiencies of means-testing, while ensuring that payment is directed towards those who need it most. As soon as the deficit is under control, we must push for the rapid restoration of the universal principle.

Dr David Hall-Matthews

Chair, Social Liberal Forum

Following internal elections over the summer, the Social Liberal Forum are pleased to announce a new Council which will govern the work of the organisation over the next couple of years.

The following people will serve as members of the Social Liberal Forum Council 2010-2012:

Our governing council is as follows:

• Prateek Buch
• Theo Butt Philip
• Gareth Epps
• James Graham
• David Hall-Matthews
• Simon Hebditch
• Linda Jack
• Paula Keaveney
• Stephen Knight
• Peter Kunzmann
• Geoffrey Payne
• Geoffrey G J Payne
• Mary Reid
• Amy Rodger
• Naomi Smith

(Yes, you did read that right and it isn’t a typo: we do indeed have two Geoffrey Paynes!).

Congratulations to the new team!

Link: election results

We are delighted to have got this motion onto the agenda of this autumn’s Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool. It will be debated during the morning session on Tuesday 21 September.

F34 Ensuring Fairness in a Time of Austerity

34 conference representatives
Mover: James Graham
Summation: David Hall-Matthews

Conference notes:
i) The fragile state of the global economy.
ii) That the poor, the young and the vulnerable have historically suffered during periods of austerity.
iii) The crucial role the Liberal Democrats must play in government to ensure that during this downturn, those with the broadest shoulders carry the greatest burden, that the most vulnerable are protected and that the economic recovery is both sustainable and leads to greater fairness.

Conference welcomes the Liberal Democrat policies secured in the June Emergency Budget, including:
a) The £1,000 increase in the Income Tax allowance, freeing 880,000 low paid workers from Income Tax altogether.
b) A new tax on banks, ensuring that they help to pay to clear up the mess left by the financial crisis.
c) Ensuring that top earners will pay a full 10% more in Capital Gains Tax.
d) Ensuring that pensioners get a fair deal with the ‘triple lock’, raising state pensions every year in line with earnings, inflation, or by 2.5%, whichever is the highest.
e) Establishing a regional growth fund to ensure that regions, towns and cities that depend heavily on the public sector will not be forgotten, getting meaningful support to help create jobs and opportunities for all.
f) Cutting child tax credits for those who can most afford it, whilst increasing support for the poorest families.

Conference also welcomes moves to put the Office of Budget Responsibility on a statutory footing, siting it outside the Treasury and subjecting the appointment of its Chair to approval by the Treasury Select Committee.

Conference calls for Liberal Democrats in government to continue to work to ensure that the most vulnerable in society are not disproportionately affected by the government’s austerity measures and to ensure that the wealth and inequality gap does not widen. In particular, conference calls for Liberal Democrats in government to:

1. Ensure that the Office of Budget Responsibility is genuinely independent of government by having its committee appointed directly by Parliament, and expanding its remit to include assessing the socio- economic impact of Treasury policy, as stipulated in the Equality Act 2010.
2. Insist that Liberal Democrat ministers are given the freedom and resources to commission research to fully assess the viability and practicalities of increasing taxation on wealth – including land values.
3. Prevent the emergence of a ‘lost generation’ by fostering a strong economy and adequate investment in post-16 training, education, employment schemes and youth services. In light of the crucial role higher education will play in assisting the economic recovery, the party should explore the possibility of building cross party support around replacing tuition fees and student loans with a graduate tax system.
4. Promote jobs, sustainability, good health and social mobility by introducing strong incentives to encourage private investment in affordable, green housing stock and renovating empty homes.
5. Encourage the establishment of credit unions, mutuals and regional stock exchanges to revive the fortunes of the small and medium enterprises that have suffered as a result of the recession.
6. Ensure that the banks that remain dependent on public support increase direct lending to viable businesses.
7. Work towards ending child poverty in this Parliament.

Applicability: Federal, except 3, 4 and 5 which are England only.