Jason Sugarman Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Lewes Constituency attended the Conservative Spring conference held at the Brighton Metropole hotel, this weekend.

The event was held over two days with speeches from members of the shadow cabinet. David Cameron closed the conference by delivering a very confident and impressive speech surrounded by his shadow cabinet and local parliamentary candidates.

Jason Sugarman said

“The whole conference was very empowering, and it was an honour to be able to sit on the stage whilst David Cameron delivered his speech. It is clear at the next election it is either five more years of Gordon Brown’s tired Government making things worse or a Vote for Change, with David Cameron and the Conservatives with energy, leadership and values to get the county moving. 

It is imperative that residents in the Lewes constituency support the need for change for too long our constituency has been neglected, a vote for Norman Baker is a vote for five more years of Gordon Brown’s failing government.

We can’t go on like this, a vote for Conservatives is a**Vote for Change**”

 Vote for change the Conservatives will: 

1.      Act now on debt to get the economy moving.  Deal with the deficit more quickly than Labour so that mortgage rates stay lower for longer with the Conservatives.

 2.      Get Britain working by boosting enterprise. Cut corporation tax rates, abolish taxes on the first ten jobs created by new businesses, promote green jobs, and get people off welfare and into work.

3.      Make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe. Freeze council tax and raise the basic state pension, recognise marriage in the tax system and back couples in the benefits system, support young families with extra health visitors, and fight back against crime.

4.      Back the NHS. Increase spending on health every year, and make the NHS work for patients not managers.

5.      Raise standards in schools. Give teachers the power to restore discipline, and create new smaller schools.

6.      Change politics. Reduce the number of MPs, cut Whitehall and quangos by a third, and let taxpayers see where their money is being spent.

Jason Sugarman Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the Lewes Constituency today welcomed major new policies from Conservatives to reform England’s ‘broken’ planning system.

 A new system of ‘Open Source’ democracy and neighbourhood involvement will help deliver sustainable development across the Lewes Constituency. Whitehall targets and unelected quangos will be scrapped, to be replaced with collaborative working and new incentives to promote and reward local homes and jobs.

 This comes as official Government surveys show only 1 in 3 people think they can influence decisions in their local area, and just 1 in 5 people think they can influence national decisions.

 Under a new policy initiative, entitled Open Source Planning, Conservatives will:

•  Abolish the undemocratic and ineffective tier of regional planning overseen by unelected quangos.  
• Use collaborative democracy to allow local communities to create ‘bottom-up’ local plans, helping residents shape and protect the character of their neighbourhoods.
• Tackle the scourge of ‘garden grabbing’ and over-development in residential roads, giving Lewes and Wealden district councils new powers to protect the character of neighbourhoods.
• Reward Lewes and Wealden District Council and communities through incentives to encourage building new homes and businesses, in contrast to the current regime where Whitehall effectively grabs back the money raised from new homes and business.
• Maintain national Green Belt protection and other special protections for wildlife and the countryside, whilst allowing sustainable development elsewhere in accordance with the local plan.
• Use new local infrastructure blueprints to coordinate strategic matters crossing boundaries, with a new duty on public authorities – including the Highways Agency and Network Rail – to cooperate with East Sussex County Council.
• Abolish Labour’s new unelected and unaccountable central planning quango – the Infrastructure Planning Commission, whilst retaining a fast-track process to avoid planning inquiries taking years; and give Members of Parliament a new role to vote on and ratify national planning policy.
• Increase council and police powers to tackle unauthorised traveller sites and illegal trespass.
• Change Whitehall’s restrictive parking rules to ensure more parking spaces are provided in family homes and near local shops, taking the pressure off crowded residential streets.

  Jason Sugarman said:

“The Government’s planning system is a source of immense frustration and concern for many residents across the Lewes constituency. Under Labour, planning rules are too complex and too many decisions are taken by unelected officials, ignoring the views of local residents.

 “This bold new Conservative vision will put our residents in the driving seat to help shape our community, transferring power from Whitehall bureaucrats and Labour’s unelected regional quangos. This will help deliver new homes and jobs, whilst championing local democracy and protecting our local amenity and environment.”

Become your own boss, Jason Sugarman offers public sector workers

New plans for employee-owned co-operatives to help improve local services

Public sector workers across the Lewes Constituency could become their own boss and deliver better services under new Conservative plans, backed by Jason Sugarman, Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Lewes Constituency, this week. Under bold proposals, public sector workers would have a powerful new right to form employee-owned co-operatives to take over the services they deliver. This will empower thousands of public sector workers across our area. The new right to form employee-owned co-operatives will apply throughout the vast majority of the public sector – including JobCentre Plus offices, community nursing teams and primary schools. Employee-owned co-operatives will continue to be funded by the state so long as they meet national standards, but will be freed from centralised bureaucracy and political micromanagement. They will be voluntary sector, not-for-profit organisations; any financial surpluses would be reinvested into the service and the staff who work there, rather than distributed to external shareholders.

 Jason Sugarman said:

“Public sector workers should have the chance to become their own boss. Employee-owned co-operatives can help cut waste and deliver better services for everyone across the Lewes Contstituency. This could be the biggest shift of power from government to people since the right to buy your council house in the 1980s.

 “This shows how Conservatives will give power to the public sector workers who are fed up with Gordon Brown’s top-down control of their working lives.”

Botched care plans could add £26 to council tax bills across the Lewes Constituency

Gordon Brown to make local taxpayers pay the price for personal care changes

Jason Sugarman, Conservative parliamentary Candidate this week warned of a Government plan to leave East Sussex County Council with a massive bill to pay for new social care plans. Analysis has revealed that Gordon Brown’s unfunded plans for free personal care at home could put £26 a year on the average council tax bill, on top of other local pressures. This is due to an estimated £580 million black hole left by the government.

• Senior councillors in East Sussex have warned that Gordon Brown’s plans “are unclear, unfunded and are likely to have a significant impact on existing local services, including possible cuts and rises in council tax”.
• Town hall experts at the Local Government Association have added that “this is clearly a new burden” on councils, while Social Services directors from across the country have asserted that Gordon Brown has “significantly underestimated the true costs involved.”
• On top of the council tax hike, there is also the threat of an additional £20,000 “death tax” by Gordon Brown to pay for new National Care Service proposals.

Jason Sugarman said:

“Everybody wants to give older people more support in their old age, especially the most vulnerable. That is why Conservatives will introduce a voluntary Home Protection Scheme to allow people – for a one off £8,000 payment – to make sure they never have to sell their home to pay for residential care.

“But Labour’s plans to extend free personal care and to introduce a National Care Service are in chaos. Labour ministers in Whitehall are considering levying a compulsory death tax of up to £20,000 on every person in England, and now it looks like they’ll put another £26 a year on on our area’s council tax.  Gordon Brown needs to come clean about who will pay the price for his plans.”

Let’s give the Lewes Area superfast broadband – without an unfair phone tax

Jason Sugarman, Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Lewes Constituency, today welcomed new Conservative plans to deliver the roll out of superfast broadband at speeds of up to 100 Mbps across the Lewes area by 2017. This stands in stark contrast to the Government’s new £7 per year ‘phone tax’ on every telephone line.

Gordon Brown’s Government wants to impose a new £6 + VAT tax which will be levied on every fixed telephone line in all homes and businesses across the country. Homes with multiple lines might pay multiple times. The tax would be levied on homes with and without broadband access.

Conservatives have unveiled alternative proposals to increase competition and introduce superfast broadband across the United Kingdom. The action plan will:

• Open up BT’s ‘local loop’ monopoly to other telecommunication operators, and review unfair business rate rules.
• Investigate the use of sewers and other utility infrastructure to lay broadband cables.
• Allow telegraph poles to be fitted with fibre optic cables, rather than old fashioned copper wire.
• Ensure that all new homes are capable of receiving superfast broadband through a fibre to the home network.
• Use money currently allocated to the digital TV national switchover to help establish a universal network, and after 2012, look at using this money to ensure superfast broadband reaches rural areas.

At present, 87 per cent of homes in the South East have a fixed telephone line, and 78 per cent have access to some form of broadband internet access.

 Jackie Arkwell of Arkwell Cleaning and Decorating Services in Seaford said:

 “Running a small business in the present economic situation is hard enough without the government adding a further cost burden. I thought they were supposed to be helping and supporting business, not taxing us further! A lot of our clients are older people, many of whom, can ill afford additional expenditure on something as essential as a phone line”

 Nick Robinson of Lewes-based Sussex Food said:

 “Last year, UK consumers spent £38 billion online. For a government to consider penalising this huge growth area seems to be economic madness.  My business just sells produce online and we wouldn’t be able to undertake what we do without broadband. 

“Lewes can’t get digital TV pictures, as converting the Newhaven mast would interfere with French television pictures.  As far as I’m aware, no authority has any plans to rectify this by the time that analogue services are switched off in two years time.

“A cable network was laid in Lewes by Redifusion several years ago, but just remains unused.  This could easily be used to pull a new fibre optic network through Lewes, but again, no one seems to want to know.”

Jason Sugarman said:

“Lewes area’s homes and businesses deserve access to the latest 21^st Century technology. It’s time to end the digital divide and deliver superfast broadband to all parts of the country, including rural areas. Conservatives will open up the BT monopoly and increase competition, while Labour just want to hit homes with an unfair new phone tax. There is nothing that Gordon Brown won’t tax, which is why it’s time for change.”

As we canvassed residents on their doorsteps, as I did on the day following the dinner, it is apparent that they are know that the only way to get change is to vote Conservative – a vote for the LibDems will simply deliver another five years of Gordon Brown.

Jason Sugarman Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Seaford area today commented on the fact that homeowners in Seaford face a 33 per cent increase from their Liberal Democrat run town council, on the town council proportion of their billl.

Jason Sugarman commented “Norman Baker’s Lib dem colleagues are hitting hard working families and pensioners at a time of great economic uncertainty with huge and unnecessary tax cuts. This follows on from the Lib dems tax rises in Newhaven last year of 16 %. Double for Seaford in raising local taxes by 33% now. Why can’t they follow the County Council which is cutting its burden on the tax payer and still delivering excellent services that have been given a 5 star rating by independent assessors.

The decision to raise the council tax was made at Seaford Town Council’s meeting last week.
Conservative Councillors opposed the increase and Councillor Laurie Holland challenged the recommendation to approve the precept at the sum of £450,242 for 2010/11 and asked instead it be lowered to £406,676.

However a recommendation to approve the council budget requirement of £450,242 for 2010/11 and the precept of the same amount was carried. This means homeowners in Band D will pay £45.27, an increase of £11.23 from the last financial year.

Jason Sugarman said `Newhaven and Seaford are being badly served by the Lib dems they are squandering taxpayers money. People need help to pay their fuel bills and keep a roof over their heads. This is not a time for a double tax bombshell from the Lib dems for the people of Newhaven and Seaford. If I am elected I would like to see, when we can afford it, tax cuts and efficiently run public services in Seaford and Newhaven with more targeted investment from the next Conservative government in our health services, schools and road system’.

In December 2009, Jason Sugarman, Conservative parliamentary, candidate for the Lewes constituency commented on the plans to create `land raise’ sites in the area. In a plan which was available for public consultation, several sites had been identified throughout the Lewes and Wealden constituencies.

As the Beddingham land fill site is now closed. The County Council is been forced by the Government to consider `land raise’ sites as alternatives. Although consultation documents say the new sites need to be near good road or rail links and away from any conservation areas or towns of more than 1,000 homes. Jason Sugarman strongly opposes their introduction stating:

 `I am completely against the idea of ` land raise’ sites. We need to find alternative workable solutions that can be used in the long term. We have many areas of outstanding natural beauty, and with the National Park on its way, such ideas should not even be contemplated’.

Since December, Jason has canvassing the views of hundreds of local residents who could be affected by the proposed plans and last week met with Conservative County Councillors’ Matthew Locke and Meg Stroude, to pass on those residents objections to the government’s proposals.

Councillor Lock explained that the County Council has to follow a specific procedure imposed by the current Labour Government. “It is the Council’s legal duty to consider all the options during the consultation period”.  However, Councillor Peter Jones, Leader of the County Council turned down the proposed plans 10 years ago and still has reservations about `land raise’ in our area.

Jason Sugarman said `This is another example of Labour controlling everything from central government and insisting the South bears the brunt of its policies. Labour refuses to invest in the infrastructure in our area; they just want to use it as a dumping ground. I will do everything in my power to prevent the County Council from using outdated and environmentally unfriendly forms of waste disposal. This is another example of why we need a Conservative MP locally to represent this constituency in a Conservative Government. Nothing else will do. If we want to change the government we must change the local MP.  I expect a Conservative government, if elected, to ensure that the County Council has the scope to make the right decision over this.

More firms have gone bust during this recession than in any previous downturn.  Latest Government figures show that since November 2009, 10 companies have gone bust and 431 people faced bankruptcy.

New Conservative proposals would end Labour’s practice of pushing thousands of businesses into bankruptcy over small amounts of unpaid taxes. Labour claims that small businesses are being given time to pay their taxes, but in fact, they are being pushed into insolvency. Conservative plans would save jobs and businesses.

Conservative plans will also reduce small company corporation tax rates to 20p; to make small business rate relief automatic in England, and that could save small firms up to £1,260 per year. David Cameron would also abolish tax on the jobs created by new businesses in the first two years of a Conservative Government.

Jason Sugarman said:

 “To move out of recession, local firms in Lewes area need a strong helping hand to help create new jobs and expand their businesses. Conservatives will remove the obstacles in the way of new firms and stop the taxman kicking local firms when they’re down.

“The message from Labour Ministers is ‘don’t start a business, don’t buy your home, don’t try and leave money to your children, don’t try and get on’.  They’ve made it so difficult to employ people and so difficult to start a business.  We can’t go on like this, and it’s time for change.”

Jason Sugarman, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, today strongly endorsed radical and bold new plans – set out in the Conservatives’ draft election manifesto – to tackle crime and to restore confidence in Britain’s ‘broken’ criminal justice system.

Their importance is underlined by new analysis revealing that there were 997 violent attacks on people across Lewes area in the last year, a rise of 44 per cent in the last decade. Under the manifesto plans, a Conservative Government would:

• Give Lewes’ citizens greater protection if they have to defend themselves against intruders in their homes, or if they stop a crime being committed in the street.
• Create fifteen new rape crisis centres across the country, and give all existing rape crisis centres stable, long-term funding.
• Grant local councils new powers to fight booze-fuelled antisocial behaviour in Lewes constiuency and stop supermarkets selling alcohol at below cost-price which is destroying law-abiding local pubs and fuelling low-level crime.
• Publish detailed street-by-street crime statistics online every month, in an open and standardised format, so people know the real level of crime in their neighbourhood.
• Make it clear that anyone caught carrying a knife in a public place can expect to be prosecuted and sent to prison.

Jason Sugarman said:

“Labour have launched endless initiatives and top-down schemes which have made little difference. Their broken promises have undermined people’s trust. We can’t go on with the police filling in forms instead of fighting crime.

“Our hard-working local police officers deserve the highest praise. But many people across Lewes are hugely frustrated with our criminal justice system. They feel that it’s just not on their side anymore. These major Conservative proposals will help put the law back on the side of local people in Lewes and give our police the full support they so richly deserve.”

As a Legal aid barrister, specialising in crime cases, I am very aware how difficult the Police’s work is and if elected, will do all I can to support them and fight hard to ensure we have a properly resourced Police Force in Lewes”