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If business rates were replaced by a commercial land levy, Newcastle under Lyme businesses would pay 29% less.

The plan also includes:

1 Reform of planning law to free up councils to ensure that commercial space is used flexibly and efficiently.

2. Subsidised work space and support for business start-ups.

3. Publicly-accessible asset registers so that entrepreneurs can easily identify opportunities.

4. A new body to help retailers adapt to the digital economy.

The land levy plan would ensure that small town centre businesses pay much less, while big business including internet operators pay more.

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Dear Member,

Three of us from Newcastle under Lyme attended the Lib-Dem conference in York last weekend and we are pleased to say there were good debates. There were a variety of types of people speaking, including an encouraging number of younger people; the youngest was 15 years old who spoke extremely well.

The conference agreed to have a registered supporters scheme, but voted that people who are members of another party could not be registered in the scheme, registered supporters cannot vote for the leader of the party and the leader should be an MP. Only members can be officers of any kind in the party and only members can vote at conference.

The supporters will have the right to attend meetings and give their views and also serve on policy working groups.

As chair of the Lib-Dem Education Association, I spoke in the debate on ‘Eradicating Racial Inequality’, advocating the education section of the policy paper that accompanied the motion.  Although much progress has been made in the UK in recent decades, there are worrying signs among some sections of the population that this issue still needs to be tackled.

Another matter of concern to me is the demise of local services, so it was good to have a debate calling for a major re-investment in local youth services.

I hope you are well and can consider ways in which you can contribute to our local party; we really do need new people if we are to reach out to the local population on local and national issues and encourage support for and understanding of, our Liberal Democrat values.

Best wishes,

Nigel Jones

Chair, Newcastle under Lyme

Liberal Democrats

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 As well as outlining its principles and its faults below, Vince has called this month (October 2018) for it to be stalled in order to overcome the hardships it is causing and to put £3bn more into it.  The £3bn was cut from welfare spending soon after the coalition ended.  When Lib-Dems were in government we prevented this from happening. “The problems stem from conflicting objectives: providing minimum family income; providing incentives to work; simplification; and saving money. Simplification, saving money and work incentives have taken precedence over the first, crucial, priority.

“Practical problems have been ignored creating real hardship, payment delays in the switchover, penalties for the self-employed; use of a single bank account for divided families; barriers to work from lack of childcare; monthly payments for those on weekly or casual wages; technical complexities in establishing online payment; and the use of Universal Credit to facilitate debt collection… 

“[But] the fact that UC is becoming loathed and is being implemented incompetently and harshly does not invalidate the reasoning behind it. I strongly repudiate the Labour Party’s suggestion that Universal Credit should be scrapped without being clear what the replacement is: a classic case of soundbites taking precedence over thought-through policies .” 

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At the Liberal Democrat Conference in York on Sunday 17th March the party voted for a motion addressing the lack of support for young people and families in the light of an increase in knife crime.

The motion states:

 “Conference calls for a major re-investment in youth services, both universal and targeted, with national government making youth services clearly a statutory service, working with local government to develop clear guidance on what councils should be providing and ensuring there is sufficient grant funding to match that service provision.”

Due to the lack of funding for Local Authorities there has been a decline in youth services for many years with a massive reduction since 2015.

This not only affects crime among young people and other kinds of misbehaviour, it affects their progress in school and hence their future lives.  In 2013 a comprehensive report by RISE (Research and Information on State Education) concluded that around 80% of the differences in achievement of young people in school is due to factors outside school. In 2018, a report by the Education Policy Institute said that in spite of great efforts, the gap between the high achievers and the low achievers in our schools has in some communities widened.

In another conference debate (on racial inequality), Nigel Jones, chair of the Newcastle under Lyme Liberal Democrats, said “Education can play a big part eradicating racial inequality, but teachers cannot solve the ills of society on their own.”

                                                                                           21 March 2019

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