David Lepper

SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS

Since being elected to Parliament in 1997 I have had the chance toplay a direct part in legislation on many issues about which I havebeen campaigning for years ?
? Reform of the residential leasehold laws;
? Access to the countryside and protection of wildlifesites;
? The repeal of Section 28, the equalisation of the age ofconsent, adoption and immigration rights and civil partnerships forsame sex couples - and the Gender Act;
? The abolition of hunting with hounds.
? New laws to encourage and protect co-operatives and otherforms of mutuals
? The National Minimum Wage
? Schemes such as Business Improvement Districts to revitaliseour town and City centres
? A Tenancy Deposit Scheme to protect both private sectorhousing tenants ? and their landlords.
In the Press Releases and Speeches sections of the website you canfind more about my involvement in these campaigns and in otheron-going campaigns, especially the need for a community Stadium atFalmer for Brighton and Hove Albion.
BELOW YOU CAN FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SOME OTHER CONTINUING CAMPAIGNSIN WHICH I AM INVOLVED

Campaign to change the Single Room Rent forunder-25s.

When the House of Commons debated the Welfare Reform Bill inJanuary 2007 I raised once again the fact that current HousingBenefit or Housing Allowance rules often leave under-25s with a biggap between the rent they have to pay and the support they receivebecause support is based on the idea of living in sharedaccommodation.
Julia Harrison, the housing manager for Hove YMCA, which manageshousing for young people, tells me that one of the consequences ofthe single room rent or youth rent is that young people are forcedinto inappropriate shared accommodation, often with no propertenancy contract at all. That makes them increasinglyvulnerable.
! called on the Social Security Minister to review the way thesystem works as it is rolled out nationally and was told that thegovernment would indeed review the local housing allowance over thenext two years to monitor its impact.

The Minister also accepted that the way the single room or sharedrent for under 25s is worked out would have to change, saying:?When the local housing allowance is rolled out nationally, weshall look to define shared room rate accommodation. I believe thatthat will mean a significant increase in affordable accommodationbecause we shall use a different calculation system? which will nolonger disadvantage young people.?

My view is that the new local housing allowance scheme tested inBrighton and Hove for private sector tenants has worked well. Butit doesn?t work for under-25s any better than the old housingbenefit scheme did.
Raising this is the House of Commons was the latest stage in acampaign which I have been backing since 1998 to get the ruleschanged for young people. The YMCA, Shelter, the CAB are among theorganisations campaigning on this issue.

I shall keep a close watch on what the Hove YMCA and other agenciesworking with young people have to say as the new system comes intooperation.

In a high rent area like our city I am still concerned thatunder-25s will be severely disadvantaged in terms of privatelyrented housing unless the lower rate is scrapped.

AFFORDABLE HOMES

All three of the City?s Labour MPs backed the then Labourleadership of the Council when the Planning Inspector?s Report forBrighton and Hove criticised the city council for requiring 40 % ofnew housing developments to be at affordable prices. By saying thisfigure is too high the inspector is showing how out of touch he iswith the housing situation here.
I have consistently raised with ministers ? including Tony Blair asPrime Minister ? the problems faced by young people wanting to rentor buy in our area. I have welcomed the government's Starter Homesinitiative in Brighton and Hove to help some teachers and healthservice staff with housing costs and am pleased that thegovernments has now responded to calls from me and others to extendthe scheme to other groups of workers.

Proposals announced since May 2005?s general election for moresupport for first time buyers could help many in our area. As amember of the parliamentary committee dealing with the 2003 LocalGovernment Act. I am pleased to have played a part inchanging the rules to allow councils to charge full council tax onempty and second homes which Brighton and Hove City Council is nowdoing.

Now Gordon Brown?s commitment on affordable housing made in May2007 is an important sign that further action will be taken.

In the press releases and speeches section the website you can finda selection of information about other work which I have done onhousing.

A NATIONAL PARK FOR THE SOUTH DOWNS

National Park status for the South Downs is essential to protecta unique landscape, which is under threat.

Our local campaign, backed by the then-Labour leadership ofBrighton and Hove Council, persuaded the government to begin theprocess of designation and to announce the proposed boundaries andsystem of administration. I am pleased that following my requestson behalf of local residents Green Ridge and Coney Hill areincluded within the proposed boundaries.

However there has been fierce opposition from some landowners andConservative local councils in East and West Sussex and thegovernment has carried out a public inquiry.
Now that is complete and legal challenges have been settled I havecalled for the final report to go to Government by the Summer of2007.

In the speeches section of my website you can find speeches I havemade about the South Downs.

CAMAPIGN AGAINST THE 16 HOUR RULE

Despite erratic progress on funding immediately after Labour?s 1997victory, I believe 16+ further education is one of oursuccesses.

Funding has improved ? in the year to March 2006 the Learning andSkills Council-funded spending was up 13% on the previous year at£10.4 billion.

Labour?s Education Maintenance Allowance now helps many fromlow-income families to enter or stay in education or training post16, gaining skills to improve their chances for the future -and which are vital to our economy. Take-up of the EMA is now 82%. By the end of 2005 76.2% of our 16-18 year olds were ineducation or training.

But there are still obstacles for some.
In November 2005, as chair of Parliament?s cross-party group onFoyers, I helped launch the Foyer Federation?s ?Give Us A Chance?campaign in Westminster to persuade the government to change apolicy which stops some young people entering further education andmakes others drop out at the age of 19.
The country?s network of Foyers provides supported accommodation tosome 10,000 young people each year who can no longer live at homeand are potentially vulnerable. Their tenancy contract is linked toa commitment to education and training.
Most Foyer residents have missed out in education up to 16 forreasons beyond their control, but are now determined to change thatas a vital step to independent living as adults.

But their average age is 19 - the age at which a regulationcomes into play removing eligibility for Income Support and, withit, for Housing Benefit. Instead the option is to claim Job SeekersAllowance - which means declaring yourself available for work andfor New Deal help.

Fine. Unless you are about to start a further education course of16 hours or more a week. Then you are deemed not eligible for work,or for JSA and, because of that, not eligible for Housing Benefit.How do you play your rent?
At the campaign launch parliamentarians heard from young people,including some from the Foyer in my own Brighton Pavilionconstituency, who had faced the difficult choice of switching to adifferent, less appropriate course of less than 16 hours tomaintain their Housing Benefit eligibility or staying on theircurrent course and leaving the secure home the Foyer providesbecause they can no longer pay the rent and going back to?sofa-surfing? in friends houses.
These are committed young people who want to succeed.

Since the campaign launch we have put the case to government thatto change the 16 Hour Rule would be good for young people and forthe government?s targets to improve the economy?s skills base.

In April 2006 came a change which has not been widely enoughpublicised allowing anyone already on a 16 Hour + non-advancedcourse at 19 to keep their HB until the course ends or they reach20.

In early 2006 Jane Slowey and Sophie Livingstone, the Foyer?s ChiefExecutive and Head of Policy, and I met Department of Works andPensions Minister James Plaskitt. He has visited Foyers and shownreal interest in looking again at the rule, which, of course,doesn?t only catch those in Foyers. As Learning and Skills CouncilChief Executive Mark Haysom pointed out when I raised the issuewith him in October. I have also met with the Association ofColleges which backs the campaign.

However, the Foyer?s link between housing and education couldprovide a basis for a pilot scheme to test if relaxing the 16 HourRule improves participation at 19+. This is a continuingcampaign.

RESTRICTIONS ON THE SITING OF MOBILE PHONEMASTS

I have backed local residents protests about mobile phone mastssited near residential areas and schools.
Campaigning for more powers for local councils to regulate thesiting of masts and for a national plan for sites, I was a sponsorof Debra Shipley's Private Members Bill on this issue.

REMEMBERING JANE LONGHURST

People across the country were shocked bythe murder in early 2003 of Brighton teacher and musician JaneLonghurst and the revelations about the use of extreme internetsites inciting violence against women.

Longhurst and the revelations about the use of extreme internetsites inciting violence against women.

Jane lived in my constituency and taught at Uplands special school.Her mother Liz and sister Sue from Reading started a campaign forinternational action against these sites.
In 2003 I went with them and their MP Martin Salter to a meetingwith the then Home Secretary David Blunkett and Home OfficeMinister Paul Goggins who pledged to raise the issue of the needfor greater international regulation of these sites with the US, EUand other G8 governments.

There followed a meeting with Charles Clarke soon after he becameHome Secretary in the early winter of 2004 and were encouraged byhis support.

In August 2005 the Home Office announced a consultation onproposals for a new offence of possession of a range of differentkinds of violent pornographic images downloaded from theinternet.

Mrs Longhurst, Martin Salter and I welcomed this as a useful stepforward which recognises that getting international agreement todeal with the source of this pornography will take a long time butshows the government?s determination to take someaction.
Now new laws were promised in the Queen?s Speech in November 2006to be brought before Parliament in this Session.

I welcome the support the Argus gave to Mrs Longhurst?s petitionand thanks the thousands of local residents who have already signedit.