04/07/11 - The Way I See It: Chris Kelly MP writes for the Dudley Chronicle

I’ve done a lot of work on how we can combat the scourge of metal thefts since I was elected last year. This particular crime has been plaguing our area in the Black Country for a long time now. I’ve raised it directly with Home Office ministers and arranged for Black Country business leaders to tell the minister, James Brokenshire MP, directly about their experiences down in Westminster. The Government are now working on implementing a cashless system for metal sales to increase traceability of metals and, last week, I urged the minister, Baroness Browning, to include mandatory digital photographing of everyone who sells metal. If we’re photographed at British airports prior to boarding a domestic flight then I don’t see why we shouldn’t be photographed if weighing in thousands of pounds worth of metal.

Another problem for Black Country businesses is the amount of red tape and bureaucracy they suffer after 13 years of Labour. That’s why we’ve set-up www.redtapechallenge.co.uk. If you run a business log-on today and tell us how we can make your life easier and help you to get on with creating jobs and prosperity in our area.

I instinctively don’t like banning things but I was ready to vote to ban wild animals in circuses – in defiance of a threatened Government three line whip – last week. In the end, however, I am pleased to report that the motion for a ban was carried without opposition.

As readers are starting to take their annual summer holidays, I thought it would be useful to highlight vital bit of administration everybody should complete before travelling within Europe.

In order to access the health services of European countries without charge, UK travellers should take with them a European Health Insurance Card, issued free of charge by the government to UK citizens.

It only takes a couple of minutes to sign up for your card on the website www.ehic.org.uk

For those who do not have internet access, phone 0845 605 0707 or write to EHIC Enquiries, PO Box 1114, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 2TL.

Public Sector Pensions and Strikes

What last Thursday showed is that the vast majority of hard working public sector employees did not support the premature strike action and went into work; I want to thank all those in Dudley who went in, ignored the pickets and put the public first. 

I was not at all surprised by the very low turnout for the strike action – with only around 42 per cent of Public and Commercial Services union's own members choosing to take part. Very few civil servants wanted this strike at all – less than 10 per cent of them voted for it - and they are right. It is simply wrong for their leader to be pushing for walkouts when serious talks, set up at the request of the TUC itself are still ongoing. As Brendan Barber himself said, the government are approaching this whole process in good faith.

Reform of public sector pensions is essential, but the government is ensuring that they will still be among the very best, with a guaranteed pension which very few private sector staff now enjoy. The coalition are proposing that they will be paid later because people live longer, and public sector staff will pay more, for a fairer balance between what they pay and what other taxpayers pay.

Striking now is premature

It is premature to strike while the discussions – set up at the request of the TUC – are ongoing. There is very limited support amongst public sector workers for strike action this week – for instance less than 10 per cent of the whole Civil Service workforce has even voted for strikes.

Reform is essential

As the Labour Peer and former Labour Pensions Minister Lord Hutton said in his report: ‘the responsible thing to do is to accept that because we are living longer we should work for longer’. In the 1970s, when a civil servant say retired at sixty, they could expect to claim a pension for around twenty years. Today, when they retire at sixty, they can expect to claim a pension for nearly thirty years – about a fifty percent increase on before.

The coalition's proposals are fair on the taxpayer

The taxpayer currently contributes over two-thirds of the costs of maintaining public sector pensions. In the Civil Service pension scheme for example, employees contribute between 1.5 and 3.5 per cent, whereas the taxpayer contributes nearly 19 per cent. The coalition's reforms mean that the costs of these pensions are more fairly spread between public servant and taxpayer.

The coalition's proposals are fair on public sector workers

Public sector pensions will still be among the very best. They’ll be guaranteed, something very few private sector workers now enjoy. But the pension will be paid later because people are living longer. Public sector staff will pay a bit more – to help ensure a fairer balance between what they pay and what other taxpayers are expected to contribute.

Fairer for lower paid public sector workers. The government has proposed that the defined benefit will be linked to career average salary, not final salary. This is fairer because it means that everyone will get broadly the same amount for every pound put in. As Lord Hutton put it ‘the unfairness of big benefits to high flyers is removed’.