First year

1.     The UK economy has grown by 1.8 per cent.

2.     The private sector has created over half a million extra jobs.

3.     Youth unemployment has fallen below the level we inherited from Labour.

4.     Businesses have invested £88.6 billion across the economy, up 6 per cent on the year before.

5.     Britain's credit rating, which was put on negative outlook under Labour, has been restored to its previous highest possible level.

Why we needed to deal with Labour's Debt

Put the TV on any channel and watch the news about
Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain with a hit of Italy and the Euro

Enough said

New School funding for Sandwell

It transpires that Sandwell will not be getting any more of the £125 Million in money for the old BSF programme, but a new multi £billion re-build programme has also been announced.

The reasons stated are simple.

From Mr Gove’s statement to the house 19^th July

In order to ensure we spent money properly I asked Sebastian James of

Dixons Store Group to review the entire DFE approach to capital funding.

 

His report makes compelling reading. I commend it to the House.

 

He found that the whole capital system was bedevilled by

 

A complex allocation process with multiple funding schemes

 

A lack of good quality building condition data

 

Inefficiency in building design

 

A lack of expertise when it came to improving new buildings

 

A failure to make procurement as efficient as possible

 

A lack of clarity on maintenance

And overly complex regulatory and planning requirements

 

See the whole statement here

http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/m/michael%20gove%20school%20funding%20statement.pdf

he went on to say

I am also announcing that an extra £500 million of capital funding will be available this financial year for those local authorities where rising pupil numbers is putting severe pressure on school capacity. Details of how allocations will be made will be provided over the summer and finalised in the autumn.

The statement is based on an independent report on the BSF by Sebastian James

See the whole report here

http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/c/capital%20review%20final%20report%20april%202011.pdf

Good News

We now ask the thousands of families in Sandwell to lobby their councillors and Schools so they can apply for new rebuild money from the new programme

More extracts from Mr Gove

Furthermore, I am pleased to be launching a new privately financed school building programme. This programme will focus on the school buildings in greatest need of repair.

The programme will be available to all publicly funded schools. I am determined that criticisms of the previous model for private financing must be addressed and I will only agree to projects when a series of rigorous value for money tests have been passed.

Local authorities, schools, and organisations with responsibility for schools will be able to submit applications for the programme.

Information and guidance on preparing applications will be available online. Applications can be submitted between 3 and 14 October.

Will Sandwell apply ????

We very disappointed that Sandwell has not told the parents that funding is available for rebuild programmes; we want the best for our children and teaching staff, so we can raise the educational standards in Sandwell, which allow our people to get good well paid jobs 



Unemployment rate is now down to 8.5%

Only 6 months ago the West Midlands had the highest number of job seekers in the whole of the UK
But the latest information released by the ONS (Office of National statistics) may come as a bomb shell to the Labour’s (gloom and doom, spend some more, you’re doing it all wrong) 
  
Why ?, the answers simple unemployment fell by 32,000 to 226,000 in the West Midlands in the last three months. It was one of the largest drops in the UK.

In London the unemployment rate is 9.3% in the North West its 9.8% but in the West Midlands the unemployment rate is now down to 8.5%

Business leaders have welcomed the improvement and it’s the hot topic on the TV and local press with manufacturers saying they are picking up work

More good news
inflation – was 4.2 per cent in June, down from 4.5 per cent in May.

Sandwell Tory said
Manufacturing is returning to our area with traditional industries leading the way, but we need well trained and skilled people to fill these new jobs and we are still finding the time to pay off Labour debt

Take a look your self

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=19

£2 trillion in debt

The old saying

If you wait long enough the truth will come out, seems very true

                                                                                                                

It’s now revealed that the debt left by Labour is over £2 trillion; yes £2 trillion, that’s the same as saying each family in the country, owes £78,000.

Now I know why a lot of people have said our kids, kids will still be paying off this debt

But the rescue mission on our economy continues, dealing with this huge deficit we inherited from Labour was the single most important step towards our recovery and growth, while sadly other European countries that carried on spending are in a mess.

Remind me just what political party kept saying we were doing it wrong and we should spend??

Other good news is that the indicators are now saying that our manufacturing is taking off and over 500,000 new jobs have been created in the last few months and this month’s unemployment figures are down again, getting our people back to work.   

West Bromwich Town centre

We asked and then we begged “please help West Bromwich Town Centre”  

Then we asked “Is West Bromwich a healthy Town?”

http://sandwellconservatives.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-11-07T11%3A10%3A00Z&max-results=5

Then we used a form issued by a Government department called BIS for monitoring High streets

take a look here  

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/business-sectors/docs/h/10-1224-healthy-high-street

Then the local press ran a story “Ghost town fears”

http://sandwellconservatives.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-11-16T23%3A54%3A00Z&max-results=5

Your local Conservatives asked the council to open up some roads so as to make vehicular access easier as traders said parking was becoming a serious issue to their business's 

http://sandwellconservatives.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-12-14T22%3A00%3A00Z&max-results=5

All to no avail

Here is an extract of the bis.gov document

Car parking

The crucial issues are quantity, location, quality, pricing, security and management. Don’t underestimate the problem: car parking issues are important but can be difficult to resolve.

Much research has shown how closely parking costs are linked to travel choices although the extent of the impact can vary. Often the pricing structure can be significant – eg: varying with time of day. Are you maximising the opportunity for shared use of parking spaces? Measure the peaks and flows, the time of day used, dwell time, etc. Is there always sufficient availability of good quality, secure parking? If not, it’s probably affecting visitor frequency. Check too that car parks for retail outlets aren’t filled with commuter vehicles and, conversely, that railway car parks aren’t taken over by local shoppers’ bikes and cars.

Bomb shell

Now we have the latest bomb shell from property consultants Colliers that shop rents are falling in West Bromwich town

Quote

Nick Round, Colliers’ Birmingham-based national head of shopping centre leasing, said: West Bromwich is one of the worst performing locations in the UK. The drops in retail rents there have been staggering.”Prime retail rents there dropped by a staggering 28.6% to £50 per sq ft.

Meanwhile rents in Birmingham average £139.60 per sq ft, compared to Manchester's Market Street fetching £149.60, while London's Old Bond Street achieves £598.65 per sq ft.

Sandwell Tory said

But again we have to ask

Were can you park ??? give us a clue ??

Read more: http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2011/07/06/west-bromwich-town-centre-is-one-of-uks-worst/#ixzz1RhtOYrHo