- 10 minutes ago
Catch up on the latest political news from across Kent with Rob Bailey.
This week we were joined by Habib Tejan of Medway Conservatives and Charles Gibson of the Liberal Democrats in Swale to discuss the government's latest budget, North Sea drilling and their Be Ready campaign.
This week we were joined by Habib Tejan of Medway Conservatives and Charles Gibson of the Liberal Democrats in Swale to discuss the government's latest budget, North Sea drilling and their Be Ready campaign.
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TVTranscript
00:22Welcome to the Kemp Politics Show on KMTV. I'm Rob Bailey.
00:25Next week, John Healy will deliver his first budget since becoming Chancellor. But will
00:30it be a Halloween horror for Kent families? We'll discuss that later.
00:34But first, should we be spooked by the government's new Be Ready campaign? It's telling people
00:39to stockpile food, water and supplies to survive a critical emergency. And this week it also
00:44gave the green light to gas drilling in the North Sea, in part to reduce dependency on
00:49foreign imports. Let's start there. Reporter Sophie Denny found out what new gas drilling
00:54means for Kent. Heating homes, boiling water, the gas running through our pipes could soon
01:00be coming from somewhere slightly closer to home. The government has given the green light
01:05to Project Jackdaw, which allows drilling for gas in a new area of the North Sea. But what
01:10could this mean for people in Kent? Jackdaw is one of the largest unexploited gas fields
01:16in the North Sea. And this approved drilling means that its gas could start supplying British
01:20homes and businesses by as early as the end of this month. Now some say they're concerned
01:26about the plan's environmental impact, while those in favour emphasise the need for Britain
01:31to improve its energy security. But what do people here in Rochester make of the plans?
01:37Awful. They shouldn't be doing it.
01:39And why is that?
01:40I just understand that it massively impacts the climate and it shouldn't be happening.
01:44I understood it had been banned. That was the end of it. Just understanding that it's been
01:48completely flipped the opposite direction is terrible.
01:52We need the gas. We're going to need it for some time because there's not enough electrical
01:55capacity in the country at the moment. The solar and wind power isn't good enough yet,
02:01so we still need gas. And the fact that we're using for the UK rather than selling it onto
02:07the open market, I think that's a good idea.
02:09Obviously, if we have energy, that will probably boost the economy, which would be good. Obviously,
02:15fuel prices are crazy. But on the other hand, the more that we just kind of use the earth
02:22in that way, it's going to be worse for climate change. And we need to think about future generations.
02:27The government says they are also investing in renewable energy projects through a new energy
02:31wealth fund. But Councillor Mark Hood says he isn't convinced.
02:35It's absolutely climate vandalism. It's, it's incomprehensible. And again, this nonsense
02:43with the, with the, with the wealth fund. This is too little too late. It's a shock to the
02:48environmentalists who have been campaigning against this. It will achieve almost nothing.
02:54Energy Secretary Miata Fambula has said the decision will support the country's energy security,
02:59and will help minimise the UK's use of imported higher emission fuels. She added the decision is
03:05compatible with climate commitments, and they remain resolute in ending new licences for oil and gas
03:10and achieving net zero by 2050. But one energy researcher says the impact of Project Jackdaw will
03:16be limited. I think in the short term, it's not going to really change things for people very much.
03:23They've said it's not really going to affect the needle in terms of how much our energy prices are at
03:27the
03:27moment. And it gives this tiny little bit of improvement, perhaps, to our energy security.
03:32As we begin to turn the heating on, the debate over where our gas should come from continues to heat
03:37up.
03:38Sophie Doney for KMTV in Medway.
03:41And here with me is Habib Tijan of Medway Conservatives and Charles Gibson of the Liberal Democrats in Swale,
03:47Faversham. Welcome and thanks for joining me. Habib, obviously this has been a policy debate that's been
03:54going on a while. Kemi Badnock, the Conservative leader, is on the record saying she wants more
03:58drilling. So this is Labour doing something that you approve of, presumably.
04:02Absolutely. I mean, energy security cannot be more important for everyone in our resident at this
04:10current time. Jackdaw has been approved previously. The reason why it wasn't being explored is because of
04:20legal ramifications. And I'm glad the government have taken a decision to get, you know, gas into
04:26people's homes. And hopefully, I know, I listened to one of the interviewees who said that it wouldn't
04:35move the dial, but every little bit helps. And I'd rather that coming from Jackdaw rather than somewhere
04:43else where, you know, we may struggle to get them or it might cost us a lot more money.
04:49Charles, I'll bring you in just so I've got a snapshot of the opinion on both sides here. I mean,
04:53do you think that the political heat that Andy Burnham is going to attract from this has been
04:58worth it? Do you think he's taken a sensible step? I mean, I totally understand the motivation. As
05:02Habib said, the energy security is absolutely vital. And even if this is only 6% of our gas,
05:08that tiny move of the needle, I totally see where they're coming from. But for me, this is a, you
05:13know, this is a consequence of having a missed 10 years under the Conservatives where we've not done
05:18enough on renewables. You know, if we want our children and our children's children to have real
05:21energy resilience, we've missed 10 years of investing in that. And that's what we need to be
05:26doing much more of. So it's great to hear some of that is coming forward. But there needs to be
05:30a much
05:31bigger scale of that to get us where we need to be. Obviously, this is all happening off the
05:34Scottish coast. It's not on our doorstep here. But I am interested in what it means for Kent.
05:40An awful lot of experts saying it won't mean lower bills this winter, that it doesn't provide
05:45gas in that way. And the way that gas is priced means that even if there is more supply, it
05:49doesn't
05:49come down straight away. But also, I mean, obviously, Swale and Favisham on the North Kent coast there,
05:56this is an area where there's been heavy investment in wind. One of the responses to this from the UN
06:01was,
06:01okay, this might be a short term political win, but what's the long game? Do you think
06:07that this might come at the sacrifice of investment in renewables here in Kent?
06:11I mean, we certainly have to hope not, you know, the industries building those out are great employers
06:17in our part of Kent, and provide really kind of high skilled, high paying jobs, which is really,
06:22really important. But also, it's the resilience we need for the next 50, 100 years, not the next 10,
06:2820 years, which this is, you know, maybe this is a necessary step to achieve that in the next 10
06:32years. But that isn't the kind of long term planning we need.
06:35It's that time scale is the thing, isn't it? Because this drilling is going to give us 10 years
06:39worth of gas, which is only really a short term solution to anything, isn't it? Is it worth it?
06:44I mean, obviously, an alternative source of energy is always welcome. You can't put all your eggs in
06:50one basket. Yes, wind farm is good for the environment, and we welcome that investment,
06:56and we want that to continue. But we shouldn't go too fast, too soon. Unless we know we've got
07:02resilience, we've got a system has been building to support our growing population, our business needs,
07:08our investment, and our industry that we need, that we've so badly need in this part of Kent.
07:15Ultimately, this opening up this gas drilling, if Russia affects our pipelines from Norway,
07:22for example, this doesn't cover it, does it? We are still in trouble with this open. I mean,
07:25is this just a little bit of lip service to the idea of resilience rather than real resilience?
07:31No, I don't 100% agree that it's just lip service. This is real people, real job, real economy
07:40in Scotland. And there's been huge uncertainty around Jagdaw for quite a while. And now the decision
07:46has been made, finally, which happened a lot earlier. I think, you know, it's well-welcoming.
07:53And, you know, yes, let's carry on. I mean, let's get these gals into people's homes,
08:00whether it's in Scotland or in Kent. It provides everywhere, doesn't it?
08:04I mean, we're opening up this question about resilience. And today's government announcement
08:09has been about this Be Ready campaign. And what they're telling people is, have nine litres of
08:14water in your house, have three days' worth of food minimum, have blankets, batteries,
08:19wind-up radios. It's all a bit apocalyptic, isn't it? I mean, what do you make of, I mean,
08:23obviously in a week where we've had government websites shutting down because of a web insecurity,
08:28we've got increased threats of what Russia might do to our internet or energy supply. What do you
08:33make of all of this, Charlie? I mean, I think this is a really scary message to deliver to the
08:39public.
08:40And I'm really worried about the way it's been delivered so bluntly, so quickly, without very
08:45much warming up. I mean, it's absolutely sound advice. We all know the principles of life. You know,
08:49if everything switched off, actually, we'd all be all right without our mobile phones for a few days
08:54and without electricity, but we wouldn't be all right without any running water. So, you know,
08:57it's absolutely sound advice that people sort that out and have that resilience built in.
09:02But it's also really important we look at what resilient communities look like. You know,
09:06people looking out for their neighbours and looking out for each other is a really,
09:10really important part of building a resilient country. And I think that's missing a little
09:15bit from this wave of government communications. We're going to be talking in the second half of
09:19the show about the budget and about the cost of living. And there's an awful lot of people out
09:22there all around the county, living hand to mouth, who are now being advised by the government to
09:26not just buy the food you need now, but buy the food you need for another week or more
09:30in case there is a problem. They can't afford to do it, can they?
09:34Yeah. And the way everything was delivered, Rob, and I'm following from Charles there,
09:40it's terrible. I mean, the message didn't go far enough. I think it's created a lot more
09:46uncertainty and more worry for people with, you know, not clear understanding. I think we need
09:52more leadership in terms of advice that you give to your community. You know, what do you need to do?
10:00What's going on? A little bit more with us and that information should be repeated. Just one announcement
10:07yesterday is not enough. I mean, that communication should be everywhere and flowing and telling us
10:12exactly what. But you hit on a key point that with the cost of living, people, bank balance are left
10:19a lot less favorable in thinking about spending, making future spending. You know, most people,
10:28even our council is spending on credit card. I mean, we borrow it. The council borrowed to spend.
10:34Just last week, we're in a council meeting where a paper came through to borrow almost four million.
10:41You know, yes. I mean, so are we telling people to use the credit card? You know, I mean, real
10:50wages
10:50hasn't grown for quite a while. Inflation is moving up and there's, you know, that's forecast that even
11:02rise further. So I think, you know, the government needs to think about real solution, a real solution,
11:09rather than just telling people to, you know, go on a shopping spree and probably use it.
11:14We've only got a very small amount of time. Could people afford to be resilient, Charles?
11:17I think it's a really tough ask. You know, there's so many people in our communities who are really
11:21struggling. You know, people who are working possibly full time, who are still dependent on
11:25food banks. You know, those people have no capacity at all to do that. And the real risk of this
11:30is that
11:30those families that are just about managing and maybe can afford to do that, you know, maybe the cost of
11:35that is one less charity donation, one less tin in the food bank box for those families who really
11:40need it lower down. So it's really, really tough, tough ask. It's time to take a short break. When
11:45we come back, we'll stick with the budget. Can Kent businesses expect a boost? Stay with us.
12:06You know, we'll be right back.
19:49people and relieve this cost of living crisis that we are facing.
19:54That's been the interesting thing with since obviously getting a new Prime
19:57Minister there's been this kind of new broom element to some of the policies
20:00and they have hinted at changes, quite significant changes. I mean there's
20:04been talk about the national insurance rise, one of the things you were hinting
20:07at there possibly being reviewed and that being brought about to take less
20:10pressure off of businesses. There's been talk about looking at the
20:14triple lock and the cost of pensions, there's been talk of looking at mansion
20:17tax, the farmer inheritance tax. Do you think we'll see movement on any of
20:22those? Because all of those will help people in Kent potentially or affect
20:24people in Kent. Do you think we'll see any of those next week? I mean it's really
20:28hard to say and it does sound from what we're hearing from the Labour Party is
20:31that they are they're promising lots of things and are not yet keen to set out a
20:35timetable to deliver any of them. You know the Liberal Democrats proposed
20:38removing the farmers inheritance tax just last week and sadly that wasn't
20:43supported by by the Labour Party at the time and you know that's really
20:46disappointing because that will make a huge difference to lots of our small
20:49farms here in Kent and across the country. But that you know we we need some
20:54of these proposals to come forward. If Labour are serious about changing the
20:58nature of the economy and the nature of taxation we need to know what that looks
21:02like and get on and have those debates as quickly as possible.
21:07Same thing really I mean do you think that there is room or if the time is right to
21:12look at any of those things now? I mean would you like to see for example that
21:16national insurance being changed and if so I mean how does the government plug
21:20that financial gap do you think? I mean 100% I agree agree with that I mean the
21:25government I mean you cannot tax your way to growth and and you know the
21:30task has to be reviewed and by reviewing and by reviewing the burden on
21:34business they will invest that money naturally into the economy to grow the
21:39business and and and and you know increase the workforce and and hopefully
21:44well most likely have increased the salary or wages over time. I mean if you look
21:53across the the private sector race it has been frozen which has been frozen for
21:58quite a while. In the public sector it's that there's a huge disparity between public
22:03and private sector the sector a wage figures currently I think France 3.7% in
22:09the private in the public sector it's about six so so that's quite that's quite
22:13that's quite hard for businesses so people are not expanding when you speak to
22:18business owners I spoke to someone who just a couple days ago who had a a a a
22:24business saying just on the high street in Gillian that told me that they
22:28decided to close down because this government made it too difficult for
22:31them nationally with with some of the measures you're talking about employers
22:37national insurance and and and so forth and even locally you know
22:41restrictions on parking and making it difficult for people to visit the high
22:45street so somebody's policy hindering business they are not business friendly
22:49and I think that's what making it quite difficult. And just one of the stories that
22:55Kent online had in the run-up to it's a mortgage this week you might have seen it
23:00was about mortgages and was about the fear of an awful lot of people they
23:03estimated that there are about 22,000 people around the county who are going to
23:07be looking at a new mortgage deal in the next few months who's might see in you
23:12know up to sort of over a thousand pounds more a month coming out because of the
23:16way the interest rates have changed. I suppose I should ask you about this
23:21first I suppose because the the initial trigger for that enormous rise in the
23:25interest rates was the Liz Trust budget a few years ago do you think we're still
23:29paying the price of that? Look I mean I want government got to take
23:33responsibility from the action this government have been in power for two
23:37to two years or two almost two and a half years now so it's time they got to take
23:42some responsibility they came they came to power with a solution we haven't seen
23:48the solution yet they were given the mandate because they said they were going to
23:51bring growth and they were going to give people prosperity we haven't seen any of
23:56those yes every government make mistake Liz
23:59trust would have made mistake at a time when she did and it affected the economy
24:03in certain way but this is the Labour government now is a new Labour Chancellor so
24:08they need to come up with the answers. You were talking about about price of
24:12fuel and the cost of living but of course one of the big things for anybody who owns or
24:15rent a home is that this cost of property is a really big factor in in in the pinch
24:20isn't it? What would the Liberal Democrats do? I mean it's it's absolutely
24:24critical you know it's something I'm acutely aware of I was very fortunate in
24:28my timing to fix my mortgage about six months before Liz Trust became Prime
24:31Minister and as it turns out that's been one of the greatest financial
24:34decisions of the last five years but you know that's pure luck but that's what
24:37happened to me and it's it's a real a real risk we're facing in the next few
24:41months you know we've got to be more constructive about cost of living as a
24:47whole picture the fuel duty that 10p off a litre of fuel will make a real
24:51difference to commuters and families and give them a bit more wiggle room whether
24:56it's increased mortgage payments or the down the line in the rental sector those
25:00increased mortgage payments lead to increased rents as well
25:02disappointingly and here in Kent we've got we have got a real affordability
25:05crisis so it's it's so important we we work together across councils and across
25:11the the public and private sector to build more kind of genuinely affordable
25:14homes that can meet those needs because the private rental sector sadly is is
25:20pricing lots of people out of suitable accommodation. Charles obviously local
25:23authorities are looking closely at what he says next week as well your funding is
25:26is it all bundled into this and what are you looking for John Healy to do for
25:30Kent? I mean for local authorities what we really really need is
25:35consistent long-term settlements we we know we're not getting as much money as we
25:39wanted to we we're millions and millions of pounds down on where we were years ago
25:43but the long-term settlement makes it possible for us to budget properly and
25:47plan year-on-year I mean we've got all... Can they commit to long-term
25:50settlements when they don't even know what the shape of local government will be
25:53in a year's time is that is that is that a realistic expectation? Well you made me
25:59chuckle it's been such yeah this is people life that you know that I mean it
26:07shouldn't be funny really local government you know what no one the
26:13uncertainty brings you mentioned and no one knows what's going to happen with
26:17that it's been paused in parts of the country a review elsewhere and and and
26:22no one knows I mean you're right yes you rightly said how can council plan and and
26:27and with regards to council finances you know a council are expected to do a lot
26:32more with a lot less and really it can't continue. That's all we've got time for
26:37today thank you to both of my guests for joining us the Kent tonight's coming up
26:41next with all of the best news from around the county and we'll be back next
26:44week see you then