Martin Salter's Westminster Diary

Martin Salter MP • Published 23 Oct 2008 12:00 0 Comments

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Letter: Young families still need homes

WELCOME back to Westminster Diary.

Parliament actually returned from the summer recess and party conference season on October 6. I'm afraid I missed the first week back in the Commons as I was away in India and Bangladesh with the Home Affairs Select Committee looking at the how the Government's new points-based immigration system is working in practice.

We met representatives from many of the large Indian high-tech, global companies who obviously want to ensure they could continue to obtain work permits to place their staff on various assignments in Britain. We also heard the concerns of the Bangladeshi restaurateurs who are worried the new system will prevent trained curry chefs from working in British restaurants.

I have never made any secret of the fact that while I believe immigrant communities have made a great contribution to our country there has to be limits placed on the numbers of people allowed to settle here balanced against the needs of the economy.

I have spent a fair bit of my time on the Gurkha issue in my capacity as one of the founder members of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on Gurkha Rights. I arranged for Labour members of the group to meet a delegation of Gurkhas at Labour Party Conference in Manchester and have secured a slot for them to give evidence, next month to the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Following the recent High Court judgement, Government has announced a review of the decision to exclude Gurkhas who retired before 1997 from having the right to settle in the UK.

My colleagues and I believe it is wrong to have two classes of soldiers serving in the British Army. The Gurkhas are known as 'the bravest of the brave' and it is right and proper that we acknowledge the tremendous debt we owe them for putting themselves in harm's way on our behalf.

Other summer campaigns have included challenging the Environment Agency's half-baked plans to get rid of 22 of the 57 lock keepers' houses along the Thames; opposing proposals to knock down the lovely Victorian church of St Saviours in Old Coley; seeking to protect the settlement boundary of Tilehurst which is under threat from developers who want to build 900 houses south of Pincents Lane and lobbying Reading Borough Council's Planning Committee to reject Thames Water's attempts to build all over the Bath Road Reservoir.

Obviously we had some good news in Reading West earlier this summer with the news that the Planning Ministers had deleted the Prudential proposal to build on the Kennet meadows from the South-East Plan.

This followed years of campaigning by councillors and residents in Southcote, Minister and Burghfield wards and some ferocious lobbying by yours truly. I couldn't help smiling at the ludicrous attempts by my political opponents to try and claim credit for other people's hard work. Luckily, the public record will show exactly who did what and when.

It will also show which Tory MP has a financial stake in this development and which political party received donations from companies seeking to develop on the Kennet floodplain.

Watch this space!

This blog appeared in Reading Chronicle 23 Oct 08

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