Read excerpts from the interview below or listen to the interview in full here: Tony Blair spoke to BBC Radio Berkshire's Andrew Peach. We know that thousands of Eastern European migrants are arriving in Reading, Basingstoke, and Slough. Is that a good thing?"It's inevitable when you enlarge the European Union. What we've got to do is make sure that in Slough, and in Reading, the local authorities have the resources they need to cope with additional people. We're trying to make the money available for them to handle that situation. "We went through this with Spain and Portugal some years previously, and in the end it works its way through. With this enlargement come huge job opportunities for us because those countries expand their trade, their economy, and we improve our own economic growth." Slough borough council are pretty cross with you - they say you've under-funded them to the tune of £15,000,000. Why haven't you come up with some of this money?"We've come up with quite a lot of money but we're in discussion with Slough. There's huge investment in the school system and NHS in Slough and Reading, and we need to keep the economy strong there. | "You guys are a bit higher up the table than us but I can't ditch a lifetime commitment to Newcastle United just because of the local elections" | | Labour leader Tony Blair on Reading FC |
"But Slough, in particular, is keen for us to support them more - there's been quite a lot of cash already but we'll see what more we can do." You're a supporter of the voluntary sector and it's thriving in this area. But many smaller charities are being forced to close down because funding is drying up. What do you make of that?"The reasons are various why funding can dry up. There's a lot of misunderstanding about the Lottery and the Olympics - no money will be transferred from them prior to 2009. It's not often our decision as to whether funding continues or not. "We want the voluntary sector to play a bigger role, for example helping people with addiction problems, and in the spending review this year we'll look at giving them longer-term funding. "The most common complaint from these organisations is they want greater certainty of funding, and that's what we'll look at trying to do." We've been featuring a story about a couple called Richard and Fiona. Fiona's 16 and seven months pregnant. They've come to Reading and they're living in a tent in a car park. There's a red tape battle between the council here and in the north east. Should someone just get on and put these people in a house?"If she's seven months pregnant she shouldn't be living in a tent. Someone should take responsibility." The cost of living is expensive round here. You said you'd try to do something about that in your second term of office. What have you done?"We've kept the economy strong. Of course house prices continue to go up because interest rates are historically low, but we're also developing more land for building homes and trying to make sure they're on brownfield sites. "That can be controversial because people don't necessarily like those developments coming but that's what you've got to do. We're also introducing more shared equity schemes." And Reading against your team, Newcastle, on Monday - who's going to win?"That's a really unfair question to ask a Newcastle supporter! "Reading have done a fantastic job and Steve Coppell's been a great manager. I'm afraid you guys are a bit higher up the table than us but I can't ditch a lifetime commitment to Newcastle United just because of the local elections..." | 
