Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined a £1 billion pound Youth Contract to tackle youth unemployment. The aim is to ensure that all jobless young people are earning or learning again before long-term damage is done.

• Over three years, the Youth Contract will provide at least 410,000 new work places for 18 to 24 year olds into work. Starting April 2012
• Including 160,000 wage subsidies and 250,000 new work experience placements.
• In addition, there will be at least 20,000 more incentive payments to encourage employers to take on young apprentices.
• A new programme to help the most disengaged 16 and 17 year olds – getting them back to school or college, onto an apprenticeship or into a job with training.

Deputy Prime Minister addresses the Party Conference in Birmingham. You can read the full text of the speech here.

Thousands of Liberal Democrats gathered for their annual conference in Birmingham this week. They discussed what has been achieved in the first 500 days of Government and policies for the future. Highlights include:

• After decades of campaigning, and thanks to Lynne Featherstone: Equal marriage, straight or gay.
• More power for consumers over the energy companies
• Calling time on rewards for failure in boardrooms
• New powers to turn empty homes back into family homes.
• A £500m investment in growth.

The Lib Dems are opposing calls for an immediate cut in the 50% tax rate paid by higher rate taxpayers.

Nick Clegg’s party instead wants to give more help to those on middle and low incomes who need it the most.

NIck Clegg: We need fairer taxes to help ordinary people, not tax cuts for the richest

Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said, “At a time when the whole country faces serious financial challenges, the priority needs to be people on low and middle incomes.”

A key part of the coalition agreement was the Lib Dem commitment to making taxes fairer. The Lib Dems are well on their way to delivering on their pledge that no one should pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn.

Nearly a million low paid workers are no longer paying income tax thanks to this. All basic rate tax payers are paying £200 less in income tax.

Each year more and more people on low and middle incomes will gain more thanks to the Lib Dem fairer tax plan.

Danny Alexander said, “Fairer taxes is our goal. I don’t see why, in the next parliament, we shouldn’t be trying to get to a situation where people in a full-time job on the minimum wage are paying no income tax at all.”

This would mean that no one would pay tax on the first £12,500 they earn.

Nick Clegg: NHS reforms must deliver for patients

The Lib Dems are continuing to work in Parliament to ensure NHS reforms deliver a better deal for patients.

Nick Clegg’s party won major changes to the reforms earlier this summer.

These included measures to ensure there will be no privatisation of the NHS and no special favours for the private sector.

Nick Clegg said, “With the Lib Dems, the NHS will always be free at the point of use and will deliver top quality treatment for patients. We want to deliver a better NHS that can cope with the increasing demand and rising health costs.”

The NHS reforms will cut waste and bureaucracy that costs billions of pounds. They will help the NHS cope with the costs of Britain’s steadily ageing population and the rising cost of many treatments.

By making the NHS more efficient and by protecting the NHS budget from cuts, more money can be spent on improving care for patients.

NHS faced disaster with Labour
Had Labour won the last election, the NHS would have faced deep spending cuts. That along with Labour’s refusal to tackle waste and inefficiency would have been a disaster for our health services.

Labour rigged the market in favour of the private sector by giving contracts that were unfair for the taxpayer and for patients.

Over £250million of taxpayers’ money was handed over by the last Labour government to private providers for operations they didn’t even perform.

The Liberal Democrats have made sure that this kind of favouritism towards the private sector will now be illegal.

Commenting on last nights violence in Tottenham and on the police shooting earlier in the week, Cllr Richard Wilson, Leader of the Opposition on Haringey Council, said:

“The IPCC must go about their investigation into the shooting of Mark Duggan as quickly as possible, and keep the family and community informed.  To counter the problems of rumour and misinformation that may have helped trigger the unrest and may continue to do so, the council and police must continue to talk to community leaders and release as much information as they can.  But we must all recognise a proper investigation takes time, and be patient to find out the full details of what happened in this shocking incident.

“Anyone who cares about Tottenham and its residents will be very upset to see such wanton destruction and violence in their community.  It must have been a terrifying night for those living above shops and others accidentally caught up in the mayhem.

“There is no possible justification for violence, arson and looting.  Tottenham has a great many problems and challenges, none of which will be helped by these actions.”

“The looting and destruction will leave a scar on this area for many years, and risks setting back Tottenham’s regeneration decades. The vast majority of Tottenham residents will rightly be very angry about the damage done to the community they love.

“The police and authorities must do all they can to bring those guilty of such terrifying violence and destruction to justice.  The Council needs to do all it can to help Tottenham’s shops and businesses recover from this terrible damage.”

“On behalf of the residents of Haringey, I would like to thank all the fire fighters and police officers who worked so hard to try to keep people safe, and express our sympathy to those officers who have been injured.”

The Council has been forced to make an embarrassing admission that it does not know what the environmental impact is of its flagship publication Haringey People. Asked by Liberal Democrats at the last Full Council meeting what the carbon footprint for printing, paper, delivery and plastic packaging of the six issues of the magazine, the Council replied that “this information is not available at present.”

Liberal Democrats say the lack of information shows Labour’s failure to take action on the Council’s impact on the environment despite the Council claiming to be leading the way on climate change.

Cllr Jim Jenks, Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson, comments:

“The failure by Labour to know the carbon footprint of their flagship publication is lamentable. For a Council that claims to be leading the way on climate change how do they not know the environmental impact of this magazine.

“I’m afraid this is another reason to finally cut Haringey People magazine down to size.”

Haringey Liberal Democrats are calling on Labour to set the record straight about whether disgraced councillor Charles Adje will be readmitted to the Labour Group, when his suspension from the Council ends in 9 days time on 7th August 2011.

The call comes after Labour Group Leader Claire Kober refused to answer repeated questions on the subject from Liberal Democrat Leader Richard Wilson at last week’s Full Council meeting.

Charles Adje, a former leader of the Labour Group and Haringey Council, was suspended from the Council for 4 months for misconduct over the botched deal to lease Alexandra Palace to Firoka, which cost local taxpayers £1.5 million.  This is the second occasion that the Council’s Standards Committee has found Charles Adje guilty of breaking the councillors’ code of conduct.

Liberal Democrats argue that re-admitting Charles Adje into the ruling Labour Group would be a “kick in the teeth to local residents” and would call into question efforts to turn round Alexandra Palace after years of mismanagement.  The Palace’s Board are currently investigating whether he is liable for any of the £1.5 million losses resulting from the failed Firoka deal, but Labour’s majority on the Board means its independence could be questioned.

Cllr Richard Wilson, Haringey Liberal Democrat Leader, comments:

“Charles Adje’s suspension from the Council ends in just a few days time and it is still unclear whether he is going to be welcomed back to the Labour Group. His actions have resulted in this Council losing millions of pounds, and in my view it is unthinkable that any political party should allow him into their group. His re-admission would be a real kick in the teeth to local residents.”

“For the sake of local residents, the Labour Group should set the record straight on whether he is being readmitted.”

“The Alexandra Palace Board is rightly investigating whether Charles Adje can be held legally liable for any of the £1.5 million loss, and be pursued through the courts.  If he returned to the Labour Group then residents could question whether the Palace’s Labour-dominated Board was really committed to getting that money back.”

A decision to spend millions of pounds of local taxpayers’ money to replace 4,500 computers for all Council staff should be reconsidered, Liberal Democrats have said today, after it was revealed in Council papers that the Council only received one bid for the contract.

Liberal Democrats have branded the decision by Labour councillors to proceed without a competitive bidding process “disgraceful” and have said it fails to ensure the Council and local taxpayers are getting value for money.

This revelation comes after the Public Administration Committee published a report today saying that an “obscene amount of public money” was being wasted under the last Labour government on IT after it found that big IT ‘cartels’ were charging up to 10 times the commercial rate for computers.

Local Liberal Democrats have said in a formal letter to Council finance chiefs that the process for buying new computers, worth anything from £3million to £7million, should stop until the Council is sure that it is getting the best deal.

Cllr Richard Wilson, Haringey Liberal Democrat Leader, comments:

“Every local resident when buying a new washing machine or getting a builder into fix the guttering gets a few quotes to gauge the best price. Labour councillors, by considering only one valid bid to replace all the Council’s computers, are failing to get value for money – it is disgraceful.

“Haringey Council has a long history of failed and overspent IT projects under Labour. This cannot continue. We all know that money is tight – the borough cannot afford another bungled and expensive IT project.”

Lynne Featherstone MP, added:

“It’s clear that Haringey’s Labour Council is as bad as the last Labour government for failing to get value for money for IT projects. This is yet another example of Labour’s out of control spending on IT.”

The future of services for children and families in Fortis Green, Crouch End, Highgate and Hornsey continue to hang in the balance this week, despite a further report from Haringey Council setting out a new model for Children’s Centres. Liberal Democrats have criticised the “pitiful” level of detail in papers which fails to provide give a clear commitment of funding for Rokesly, Highgate and North Bank Children’s Centres.

The Labour cabinet were forced to reconsider their plans after Liberal Democrats successfully called-in Labour’s decision to reduce funding for Children’s Centres. At a special meeting of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 8th June 2011 local residents, head teachers and Children’s Centre managers were unified in their opposition to Labour’s plans. The Labour cabinet member then agreed that additional funding would be made available yet today’s (28th July 2011) report fails to indicate any further details.

Cllr Katherine Reece, Liberal Democrat Children’s Spokesperson, comments:

“Unified opposition forced the cabinet member to rethink Labour’s plans and we all welcomed further funding for North Bank, Highgate, and Rokesly. Yet, nearly two months on, we have a no commitment from the Council on funding and no detail on what services local families can expect.

“Labour need to state now their funding intentions and show some commitment to these superb Children’s Centres.”