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Mr Speaker
Order. I draw Members’ attention to the fact that the book for entering the private Member’s Bill ballot is now open for Members to sign in the No Lobby. It will be open until the House rises today and when the House is sitting on Wednesday 15 May. The ballot will be drawn on Thursday 16 May, and a note setting out those arrangements and the dates when ten-minute rule motions can be made and presentation Bills introduced are published in the Order Paper.
BUSINESS BEFORE QUESTIONS
Sessional Returns
Ordered,
That there be laid before this House Returns for Session 2012-13 of information and statistics relating to:
(1) Business of the House.
(2) Closure of Debate, Proposal of Question and Allocation of Time (including Programme Motions);
(3) Sittings of the House;
(4) Private Bills and Private Business;
(5) Public Bills;
(6) Delegated Legislation and Regulatory Reform Orders;
(7) European Legislation, etc;
(8) Grand Committees;
(9) Panel of Chairs; and
(10) Select Committees.—(The Chairman of Ways and Means).
Oral Answers to Questions
(11 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab)
Q1. what fiscal steps he plans to take to stabilise the housing market.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
My right hon. Friend the Chancellor is in Brussels today at ECOFIN, exercising the considerable influence that Britain enjoys as a full member of the European Union. The Government are committed to the vital reforms needed to address long-term structural issues in the housing market. They have already committed to investing £11 billion during the spending review period, and in the Budget we announced the Help to Buy scheme, a major new package to increase the supply of low-deposit mortgages for creditworthy households, which I hope the hon. Lady will welcome.
Ann McKechin
In evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, the distinguished commentator, Martin Wolf, described the Government’s mortgage indemnity guarantee as
“good politics and horrendous economics.”
Why are the Government pursuing a policy that is likely to increase the price of already over-inflated property, rather than financing affordable social housing that is needed by hundreds of thousands of people across the country?
Danny Alexander
The hon. Lady comments on affordable social housing, but I note that during Labour’s 13 years in office the amount of social housing fell by 421,000. This Government’s policies will increase the amount of social housing by 200,000—a record on which she should compliment us. On the mortgage indemnity guarantee, offering support to many households who cannot afford the large deposits now required is a thoroughly good thing, and by involving the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England in a review after three years we also have a guarantee of financial stability.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
The Government’s fiscal and other policies have cut the deficit by one third, helping to keep interest rates low. What would happen to the housing market and domestic mortgage costs were interest rates to rise, even by just 1%?
Danny Alexander
My hon. Friend makes an important point, and he will know that if mortgage rates increased by 1% it would add more than £10 billion a year to the costs for British households—not a consequence any of us on the Government Benches would welcome.
Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)
When the priority should be helping first-time buyers, will the Chief Secretary finally rule out the Help to Buy scheme being used to buy second homes—yes or no?
Danny Alexander
Actually, I have been very clear on this question throughout. It is not the intention of the Help to Buy scheme to aid people in buying second homes. The part of the scheme already up and running—the shared equity scheme—is available only for someone’s primary residence, and we will set out details of the mortgage indemnity guarantee as we go forward. The intention is not to help people buy their second homes.
Cathy Jamieson
Is it not staggering that two months after the Budget the Chief Secretary is still unable to rule out people buying a second home for themselves under this scheme? Let me try another question. With house building at its lowest since the 1920s and the housing benefit bill rising, why did the Government not use funds from the 4G auction to build 100,000 more affordable homes?
Danny Alexander
The hon. Lady will know that housing completions are 19% above the trough of 2010, numbers of housing starts are 58% above the trough of 2009, and she should welcome that improvement. In the Budget, we announced a £5 billion package to help the construction sector through the Help to Buy shared equity scheme, which will support the construction of 76,000 properties, as well as a massive expansion of the Build to Rent programme. It is staggering that the hon. Lady cannot bring herself to welcome those measures.
Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)
Will the Minister welcome today’s figures showing that the number of first-time buyers increased by 20% this month? Will he also welcome the fact that the Department for Communities and Local Government has shown that 37,000 new homes for social rent were built last year, which is a record since 1997?
Danny Alexander
I welcome those figures. They suggest that the policies being pursued by this Government are having the desired effect.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
Q2. What assessment he has made of the effect of current fiscal policy on the level of youth unemployment.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
The UK labour market is showing signs of recovery. More people are in work than under any previous Government.
Andrew Gwynne
The Chief Secretary says the economy is healing but he should take more seriously the fact that youth unemployment is growing again, with nearly 1 million young people unemployed for the last year. Will he explain why, in the past year, youth unemployment has grown by a staggering 355% since the Work programme was introduced? Is that not disgraceful? Should not the Government prioritise a compulsory jobs guarantee paid for from a bank bonus tax?
Danny Alexander
In this matter, a wee bit of humility from the Labour party would not go amiss, on the basis that youth unemployment has been a persistent problem in this country for many years—youth unemployment has been rising since 2003 or 2004. I note that, in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency between December 2010 and December 2012, youth unemployment fell by 11.8%. Through measures such as the Youth Contract and the Work programme, we are deploying considerable support for the task that he and I agree on, which is getting more young people into work.
Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle) (Con)
Did the Chief Secretary to the Treasury note that, while Finance Ministers seemed remarkably cheerful in Aylesbury last weekend, the Archbishop of Toledo was warning that their fiscal policies were threatening to cause social breakdown and the overthrow of democracy in Spain and much of southern Europe?
Danny Alexander
I am afraid that I had not noted the comments of the Archbishop of Toledo, but I did notice the successful G7 Finance Ministers meeting.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
Fiscal policy is not the only thing providing a difficulty for young people. Welfare policies mean that they have to stay at home and cannot move to places where there might be jobs. The policy on youth services, which are being dramatically cut throughout the country, means that young people are not getting the skills that might make it possible for them to get into work. Is not the truth of the matter that the only people in this country who are doing anything to get young people into jobs are those in the Labour-run Welsh Assembly?
Danny Alexander
I cannot agree with anything the hon. Gentleman says. The truth is that this Government are creating more opportunities for young people to take steps towards work than any previous Government. Let me give an example from the Department of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. One million apprenticeship starts—a 50% increase on the previous Government—are creating valuable opportunities for young people to gain experience in the workplace and employment afterwards. The hon. Gentleman should welcome and support those efforts, not condemn them.
Stephen Williams (Bristol West) (LD)
The Archbishop of Toledo might well have been concerned about high rates of youth unemployment in Spain, which are much higher than they have ever been in this country, but does my right hon. Friend agree that, despite the fact that the problem, as he has just said, has been intractable for more than decade, the Deputy Prime Minister’s Youth Contract gives an opportunity for young people to have work experience in the private sector, from which most of the growth and job opportunities of the future are likely to come?
Danny Alexander
I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. The Youth Contract, which was launched in April, supports 500,000 young people into employment through a range of measures, including an in-work subsidy and access to work experience. Alongside the 1 million apprenticeships that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills is starting during this Parliament, the Youth Contract offers a range of new opportunities for young people, which are necessary in getting more young people into work, which the House agrees is vital for the country.
Mr Michael McCann (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (Lab)
Q3. What estimate he has made of the value of the reduction in the additional rate of income tax to 45% to a person earning £1 million a year.
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
The cost of reducing the additional rate of income tax to 45% is estimated at around £100 million per year. That is set out in table 2.2 of Budget 2013. We have not broken down the impacts of income ranges because a significant behavioural response is associated with the additional rate of income tax. The behavioural response is estimated in aggregate and reflected in the costing.
Mr McCann
I am grateful for the Minister’s answer, but I can give him the answer to the question I asked: millionaires will get a cut of £42,000 under this Government’s policies. Does he think it right that those in receipt of tax credits are making a bigger financial contribution to the country’s coffers than millionaires?
Mr Gauke
Of course that is not true. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown, the biggest contribution to reducing the deficit is coming from the wealthiest 10%. The hon. Gentleman might also wish to ask himself why, when his party was in office, it had a top rate of income tax of 40% for all but 36 days out of 4,758.
Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)
The Minister will be aware that in 1978-79 the top 1% of taxpayers paid only 11% of total income tax. That is now nearer 30%, which shows that the Laffer curve works and we are better off with lower rates. May I therefore encourage the Government to cut rates further?
Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)
The Government should listen to people such as the deputy chair of Harlow Conservatives, who has said:
“The voters are disillusioned with Cameron…They don’t like the fact that he didn’t keep the 50p tax. That has really grated and people feel here that he is not working for them, he is working for his friends.”
No wonder the Conservatives in Harlow lost so many seats to Labour last month. Will the Minister explain again, for the people of Harlow and elsewhere, just why the Government have prioritised a tax cut for those at the top while ordinary taxpayers are struggling?
Mr Gauke
This is the Government who have raised the personal allowance that has taken millions of people out of income tax and resulted in tax cuts for some 26 million people. A tax rate that does not bring in revenue is a flawed tax rate, which I assume is why, despite everything we hear from the Opposition, they will not commit to returning to a 50p rate of income tax. They know that it does not raise revenue.
Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)
Q25. Can the Minister confirm whether, all things considered, the richest people in this country are paying a greater or lesser proportion of their wealth in tax than they were under the previous Government?
Mr Gauke
They are paying a greater proportion of their income. If we look at what the Government have done across the board, including stamp duty, capital gains tax and the cap on reliefs, we see we are ensuring that the wealthy are paying more. The reality is that there are better ways to ensure that than the 50p rate of income tax, which was uncompetitive and failed to raise revenue.
Graham Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
Q4. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on levels of construction output.
Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)
Q11. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on fiscal incentives for the construction of affordable housing.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
The Government are committed to supporting new housing supply while maximising value for money. The Government committed £4.5 billion to support 170,000 affordable homes over the spending review period, and we have added a further 30,000 to that figure through the guarantee programme that was announced last year and extended in the Budget a few weeks ago.
Graham Jones
In my constituency, that would ring hollow. I note that all three insolvency industry associations stated this week that nearly one third of construction companies in the north-west of England were at risk of financial collapse, which is a higher rate than in the non-construction sector of the north-west’s economy. Is not that an indictment of the Government’s record in the north and their failure to get growth going in the regions?
Danny Alexander
The hon. Gentleman should recognise that—while the previous Government presided over a decline of more than 400,000 in the number of affordable properties—the Government’s action to increase the numbers by 200,000 is a welcome support to the construction sector, as is the Help to Buy scheme that we announced in the Budget, which will produce a significant additional demand for properties to help the companies to which he refers.
Dr Whitehead
Does the Minister not recognise that the Help to Buy scheme will not produce a single new affordable home? It will simply enable people to buy other people’s homes. In my constituency, it costs eight times the average annual income to purchase a house in the city, so does the Minister not accept that action to improve affordable house building should have been taken in the Budget?
Danny Alexander
The Help to Buy shared equity scheme is available for the purchase of new build properties only. It is a multi-billion pound scheme that will help to fund an extra 75,000 or so construction sites in the next couple of years—a welcome boost to the construction sector. In the Budget, we announced funding to extend the guarantee scheme for housing associations to build new affordable properties, doubling its extent to ensure that 30,000 affordable homes are built over and above the 170,000 already announced. The hon. Gentleman is a close observer of these matters, and it will not have escaped his attention that the net number of affordable homes during Labour’s time in office fell by 421,000. That is not a record for him to be proud of.
Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)
Does the Minister accept that a tax on transactions reduces the number of transactions? Does he therefore agree that the current level of stamp duty is reducing the number of housing transactions, and as a result is disadvantaging the construction sector?
Danny Alexander
I have to say that I do not really accept that. The evidence of previous attempts to support housing transactions through stamp duty cuts is not all that positive. The Government have sought to make the stamp duty system more progressive, asking those with the largest properties to pay more. Indeed, I hope my hon. Friend welcomes the introduction, from the beginning of April, of a new annual charge for homes owned by offshore companies—a mansion tax for tax dodgers, as it were.
Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
New housing requires land for building, so it is good news that the Government are making significant sites available for new housing, such as the surplus Ministry of Defence land in Bicester. We intend to take advantage of that by building a new garden city in Bicester, because people need decent homes for the 21st century.
Danny Alexander
I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. I particularly welcome his comments on the potential for garden cities to add substantially to the housing supply, a matter on which the Government will make further statements in the next few months.
Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op)
The Government have presided over a massive collapse of our construction sector. How can they maintain the pretence that they support the economy when just seven projects out of the 576 that were set out in their infrastructure plan are completed or operational? The director general of the CBI says:
“I have a queue of businesses at my door telling me the Government’s Infrastructure Plan needs speeding up.”
Will the Chief Secretary confirm that, so far, they have managed to deliver only two projects—less than one quarter of 1% of the underwriting guarantees authorised by his emergency legislation last summer?
Danny Alexander
The hon. Gentleman is stretching somewhat beyond the area of housing, Mr Speaker, but with your permission I would like to address his question. Some £10 billion worth of infrastructure projects prequalified for the guarantee scheme, bringing forward substantial investment in infrastructure. We are investing more in transport infrastructure in this Parliament than his Government managed during the economic good times. We are investing more in the railways than has been done since Victorian times. He should compliment the Government on our approach to infrastructure, because, whether in transport or communications and broadband, more is happening than his Government ever managed.
Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)
Q5. What steps he is taking to implement the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 in his Department in relation to its procurement procedures; and what guidance his Department has given to its agencies on this matter.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)
Those buying services on behalf of taxpayers should be continuously looking for ways to maximise value for communities. As part of the sustainable procurement agenda, the Department and its agency already consider social factors when evaluating relevant tenders. The Cabinet Office guidance on the Public Services (Social Value) Act has been shared with all procurement staff in the Department and its agencies.
Hazel Blears
I thank the Minister for that reply, but as economic growth and job creation are proving somewhat elusive for the Government, will he now take practical steps to include in major infrastructure contracts—such as High Speed 2, defence procurement and house building programmes—social value clauses that promote local labour, apprenticeships, local supply chains and small and medium-sized enterprises? That is a practical measure that he could put into action now.
Sajid Javid
First, I hope the right hon. Lady will join me in commending the work done by my hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Chris White) to ensure that the 2012 Act reached the statute book. I also commend her for her work to promote and help its passage. However, I do not recognise her comment that jobs and growth have been elusive. We have seen 1.25 million jobs created in the past three years: one of the fastest rates of private job creation ever. Returning to her main point, it is important that social impact is taken into account in public procurement. The Treasury takes that very seriously, and we expect other Departments to do so too.
Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)
Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating Hereford Futures on its new construction project in Hereford, which precisely targets drawing in local labour and local firms for the reasons of social value that the right hon. Member for Salford and Eccles (Hazel Blears) mentioned?
Sajid Javid
Yes, I join my hon. Friend in commending Hereford Futures. It is just the kind of procurement we want in promoting social impact.
Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)
Q6. What recent assessment he has made of the performance of the economy in the north-east; and if he will make a statement.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Clark)
Last year, the north-east was Britain’s biggest destination for inward investment, after London and Greater Manchester, it doubled its trade surplus in goods to the highest in England and saw unemployment fall faster than in any other region of the country. The north-east independent economic review, published last month, shows the region’s further huge potential, which the Government are determined to support.
Helen Goodman
In fact, after the £2.8 billion of cuts that the Government have imposed, unemployment in the north-east is 10%, which is the highest in the whole country. I am pleased that the Minister mentioned the independent review, which recommended a doubling of apprenticeships, significant investment in transport infrastructure and the locating of major public institutions, such as the business bank, in the north-east. Have the Government put forward any resource to make any of those things happen?
Greg Clark
First, I congratulate the hon. Lady’s team of Spennymoor on, I am afraid, beating my team of Tunbridge Wells in the final of the FA Vase at Wembley 10 days ago. If she was there—I am sure she was—she will have seen that Spennymoor’s approach was characterised by very positive play, and she would do well to pay tribute to the efforts made in the north-east in much the same way. Exports are growing, employment is growing and the number of apprenticeships has doubled since we came into office. I will visit Newcastle in two weeks to discuss the implementation of the economic review, which I hope she will support.
Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)
Will the Minister go a little further north when he goes to Newcastle and have a look at Northumberland, where we are proud of our record on exporting manufacturing businesses? Will he also continue the good work of Treasury Ministers in encouraging the Department for Transport to consider a properly dualled A1 to link us to the markets and places where we can do business in this country and abroad?
Greg Clark
I shall certainly do that. One of the bright spots in the north-east is its exporting of manufacturing goods, particularly in areas of high technology. Exports in specialised manufacturing were up 24% in the last year and power-generating machinery was up 20%. I shall certainly visit some of the businesses in the north-east, including in Northumberland, to encourage them to do more.
Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)
Despite what the Minister says, the north-east’s unemployment is the highest in the country and continues to rise, with youth unemployment having reached dangerously high levels in constituencies such as mine. When will he introduce those recommendations in the economic review targeted at helping young people in the north-east?
Greg Clark
I welcome the hon. Lady’s support for the economic review and its proposals. She will know that under the city deal that we negotiated with Newcastle, which is already being implemented, sites are being prepared for new businesses to move in, creating valuable jobs. I hope that she will maintain that support for the proposals as we implement them.
Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)
Q7. What fiscal steps he is taking to support private sector job creation.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
More than 1.25 million private sector jobs have been created since the first quarter of 2010. At the Budget, we took additional steps to support job creation—for example, by further reducing the rate of corporation tax to 20%, through a new employment allowance for national insurance to encourage every business to create jobs in this country and by extending the seed enterprise investment scheme to encourage start-up investment in the UK.
Stephen Metcalfe
Will my right hon. Friend consider taking further measures? For example, the provision of cheap, easy-to-access finance remains an issue for many small and medium-sized enterprises. With more than 3 million SMEs in our country, will the Government consider creating their own easy-to-access, less risk-averse provision, which I think would seriously stimulate both growth and job creation?
Danny Alexander
I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who raises an important issue. We are all aware of the continuing difficulties of small firms in getting access to the finance they need. The business bank, which is being taken forward by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, is acting to address gaps in the financial offering for small firms. The funding for lending scheme is substantially expanding lending to small businesses, which is one of its objectives. The business finance partnership is investing £87 million through non-bank channels, such as peer-to-peer platforms, that can reach SMEs in a different way.
Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)
Does the Chief Secretary agree that an EU-US free trade agreement would help private sector job creation and that the noise about EU exit is undermining such an agreement? We would get no benefit from such an agreement if we were out of the EU, so why don’t they shut up?
Danny Alexander
I agree, as do the entire Government, that an EU-US free trade area would be of substantial benefit to the United Kingdom and to the whole of the EU. I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister is in Washington this week precisely to advance that agenda.
Mr Brooks Newmark (Braintree) (Con)
The Government is to be congratulated on creating over 1.25 million private sector jobs, but youth unemployment is, as we have heard, still a sticky problem. Will the Minister join me in encouraging businesses to take advantage of the £2,000 tax break provided by the national insurance contributions Bill to try to hire one, two, three or even four young people?
Danny Alexander
First, I congratulate my hon. Friend on the work he is doing on the million jobs campaign to support young people in getting back to work. I echo his words on the employment allowance, which ensures that one person on an average wage and three on the minimum wage can be employed national insurance-free. That should be a substantial incentive, especially for small businesses, to take on more staff.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
On skills training and apprenticeships for young people, there is a two- pronged approach: employment opportunities through apprenticeships and skills training. What is the Chief Secretary doing to ensure that companies can provide skills training in conjunction with colleges?
Danny Alexander
I hope that the hon. Gentleman will have a look at the employee ownership pilot on apprenticeships, the purpose of which is to put much more of the funding, and more of the control over the way in which apprenticeships are designed and supported through colleges, in the hands of employers to make sure that the skills training that the young people get is suited precisely to the needs of the employers concerned.
Mr Alan Reid (Argyll and Bute) (LD)
Small businesses in remote areas such as Argyll and Bute have been greatly helped by the Government’s decision to freeze fuel duty and to introduce the island fuel duty discount. This means that businesses on the islands of Argyll and Bute benefit from fuel duty being 18p a litre less than it would be under Labour’s plans. I very much welcome the Government’s policy, and will the Chief Secretary make the case to Europe to extend the island discount to remote parts of the mainland, such as the Kintyre peninsula?
Danny Alexander
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Every small business in the country is benefiting from the fact that fuel taxation is 13p a litre less under this Government that it would be under Labour’s plans. It is the coalition Government who are on the side of those firms. I will make the case to the European Commission to extend the discount to the most remote areas. We are working to build a case on that and I would welcome his support, and that of his local authority, in doing so.
Karl MᶜCartney (Lincoln) (Con)
Q8. what steps he is taking to secure economic recovery.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)
The Government’s strategy of deficit reduction, monetary activism and supply-side reform is designed to protect the economy and to lay the foundations for stronger, more balanced growth. There are encouraging signs that the economy is healing. The deficit is down by a third, GDP is growing and the private sector is creating jobs at a near-record rate.
Karl MᶜCartney
I commend the Government’s efforts to reduce the budget deficit. The Opposition are yet again advocating more spending to achieve economic salvation, but such expenditure in the past has left us with a current national debt of close to £1.2 trillion. Does my hon. Friend agree that the British public, and certainly my constituents in Lincoln, will not trust the Labour party with the nation’s finances as long as it continues to hold on to such reckless ideas and to a shadow chancellor who continues to peddle them?
Sajid Javid
I could not have put it better myself; I agree 100 per cent. with my hon. Friend. The economy is healing after suffering the deepest post-war recession this country has seen, which destroyed the hopes of many working families up and down the country. The deficit is down by a third, which has brought confidence and helped create jobs at a record rate: 1.25 million created in three years.
Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)
Is the Minister familiar with the universal jobmatch website created by one of his colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions? If he has looked at the nature of the jobs being advertised there, he will have seen that in my area, 57 out of 76 advertised shop vacancies were for one company, operating all over the east of Scotland, which wanted people to work on a self-employed basis, distributing catalogues and selling things from them—
Mr Speaker
Order. I do apologise to the hon. Lady, but we must press on. There is a lot to get through. We need short questions and brief answers.
Sajid Javid
In the last decade of the previous Government, youth unemployment rocketed by more than 70%, so the hon. Lady is in no position to lecture this Government on jobs. In three years, 1.25 million private sector jobs have been created, more people are now employed in the private sector than at any other time in our history and we had a faster rate of job growth last year than the rest of the G7.
George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)
I congratulate the Government on having created six private sector jobs for every public sector job loss. Has the Minister seen the latest news from the CBI, which this week shows trend growth for this year running at 1.8%, and has he seen this quote from the CBI’s director of economics:
“We continue to expect UK economic growth to strengthen and become more broad-based over this year and next”?
Sajid Javid
I have seen the report to which my hon. Friend refers. I have also seen similar reports—for example, from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research—which also show encouraging signs. Together, all those reports show that this Government’s policies are working.
Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)
In reply to a question I tabled, which eventually ended up with the Cabinet Office, I was informed that between June 2010 and September 2012, 741,000 private sector jobs were created. Can the Minister explain the discrepancy between that figure and the fanciful figures of 1 million, and now 1.25 million, private sector jobs that he and his colleagues use?
Sajid Javid
The numbers I tend to look at are those provided by the Office for National Statistics. Those numbers show not that 1.25 million jobs were created in the private sector since the end of the first quarter of 2010, but that 1.31 million jobs were created. If we allowed for transfers from the further education sector, which we do not, the figure would be 1.5 million jobs.
Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove) (LD)
Q9. What plans the Government have to use the UK’s presidency of the G8 to tackle corporate tax evasion.
Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)
Q10. What plans the Government have to use the UK’s presidency of the G8 to tackle corporate tax evasion.
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
Tax evasion and tax avoidance undermine public revenues and the public’s confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of our tax system. The UK is pursuing action on both fronts through the presidency of the G8. We are promoting the development of new global standards on automatic information exchange and increased transparency of company ownership in order to better tackle tax evasion. We are seeking strong endorsement through the G8 of the importance of the work of the G20 and the OECD on tackling avoidance by multinationals.
Andrew Stunell
I thank the Minister for his reply. Does he think that it is now time to take a second look at the USA’s experience and its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act to tackle the question of international tax avoidance?
Mr Gauke
My right hon. Friend makes an important point; indeed, we are doing that. We have signed an agreement with the US to implement FATCA as the new standard in tax transparency, and we are promoting that type of information around the world. We have reached agreements with the overseas territories and the Crown dependencies, while France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK have all agreed to exchange information based on the FATCA standard. That is very much the approach that we are taking in the G7, G8 and G20, and we have made remarkable progress so far.
Stephen Gilbert
Does the Minister recognise that, as well as capacity building in their domestic authorities, developing countries need better access to international tax information? Can that be part of the negotiations with the G8?
Mr Gauke
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is important that we have better information that we can provide to developing countries. Whether we do that by exchanging information along the FATCA lines or by encouraging better global reporting to tax authorities by multinational companies, that information will prove very helpful for both developed and developing countries.
John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)
The Minister will be aware that some employers are increasingly using payroll companies and umbrella companies to avoid paying tax and national insurance. What can the Government do to address that tendency?
Mr Gauke
We are taking measures to address this: the hon. Gentleman will be aware of the action that we took in the last Budget to close the loophole relating to offshore companies. We of course want a tax system that ensures that the tax is consistent with the economic reality, and that is what we intend to have.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
Do the Government believe that cutting £2 billion from HMRC’s budget will help or hinder its ability properly to address tax evasion and tax avoidance in this country?
Mr Gauke
This is the Government who have found £1 billion to support HMRC in dealing with tax evasion and tax avoidance. This is the Government who have provided resources in that area. Yes, we can find efficiency savings in HMRC—just as the previous Government did, to be fair—but we are putting more into those parts of HMRC that get the money in. We are making dramatic progress, with HMRC’s yield hitting record levels.
Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab)
Q12. If he will introduce a statutory code of conduct for the banking industry.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Clark)
The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards was established to consider and report on professional standards and culture in the UK banking sector. The Government look forward to considering the commission’s report and we will make decisions on the need for further action in the light of its recommendations, including on whether there should be a code of conduct.
Katy Clark
A recent survey by Which? showed that 87% of the public wanted an independent code of conduct for bankers. Does the Minister agree that such a code would restore trust? Does he also believe that he should look again at the amendments on banking reform tabled by Labour proposing a licensing system that would enable bankers who broke the rules to be struck off?
Greg Clark
As the hon. Lady knows—her colleague the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) might also like to comment on this—the commission has been hard at work considering various representations, including those from Which? and the British Bankers Association, on whether there should be a code of conduct. I am sure that the House would expect us to wait for the commission’s recommendations and then to respond to them.
Mr Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) (Lab)
Does the Minister agree that it was politically unwise for the Treasury to brief that it hoped the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards would endorse its politically motivated attacks on the previous Chancellor’s bail-out of the Royal Bank of Scotland? Does he further agree that the uppermost criterion for the reprivatisation of RBS must be the interests of the taxpayers who bailed it out, rather than any political or electoral timetable?
Greg Clark
It goes without saying that the interests of the taxpayer must be paramount, and I am not aware of any of the briefing that the right hon. Gentleman refers to.
Paul Goggins (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)
Q13. What assessment he has made of the obligations owed by Yorkshire bank to investors in Arck LLP.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Clark)
A Serious Fraud Office investigation into Arck is under way, and the Government cannot comment specifically on any ongoing investigations. However, lawyers acting on behalf of Arck investors have themselves announced that the Financial Ombudsman Service is investigating complaints about Yorkshire bank’s role as custodian to Arck LLP. If the FOS were to determine that there had been any regulatory breach or failure by Yorkshire bank, and that that had led to investor detriment, it would be able to set an appropriate level of restitution.
Paul Goggins
I am grateful to the Minister for that reply. A constituent of mine is one of the 750 investors who placed about £60 million of their pension funds and savings into a ring-fenced, segregated account at Yorkshire bank. When Arck LLP went into liquidation, it was discovered that there was just £25 left. The Minister must agree that Yorkshire bank has some serious questions to answer. Will he raise this case with the Financial Conduct Authority and do everything he can to ensure that those investors are properly compensated?
Greg Clark
I will certainly do that, but I happen to know that the Financial Conduct Authority is already well aware of the case, and it is obviously taking a close interest in the continuing police investigation.
Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)
Q14. What steps he is taking further to reduce Government expenditure.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
In the Budget this year, we set out the envelope for the spending round that will set budgets for 2015-16, looking to deliver a total of £11.5 billion of savings from departmental current expenditure, and that process is ongoing.
Mr Baron
The Government have done well to reduce the deficit by a third, but they know that much more needs to be done. Are they going to re-examine their spending priorities to ensure that Departments such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence do not suffer disproportionately in comparison with other Departments that deal with international aid and welfare?
Danny Alexander
The Government have rightly put in place protections for the budget for the national health service and for schools. We have also made a strong commitment to reaching the 0.7% objective on international aid, which I think most Members would agree is absolutely the right thing to do. Of course we will consider submissions from all Departments throughout the spending round process, but in the end every Department will have to bear its fair share of the reductions.
Mr Graham Allen (Nottingham North) (Lab)
Q15. What steps his Department has taken to promote the growth of a municipal bond market in the UK.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Clark)
Under the prudential system, local authorities are able to borrow for capital projects, providing they can afford the borrowing costs. Local authorities can choose the source of these funds and they are free to use municipal bonds where they wish to do so.
Mr Allen
I thank the Minister for his warm welcome for my second report about the financing of early intervention, entitled “Early Intervention: Smart Investment, Massive Savings”. One of the report’s recommendations was to free up local authorities to issue early intervention social impact bonds in order to fund early intervention in the localities. Will he meet me to discuss how we can take this forward?
Greg Clark
I certainly will meet the hon. Gentleman, who has been a pioneer in these matters. I have been very taken with his report’s recommendations. He points to some initiatives taking place in the US to have social impact bonds, and the authorities in London are keen on this, too. I am sure that he will want to continue his campaign; he will find a receptive counterpart in me.
Ian Austin (Dudley North) (Lab)
Q16. What recent assessment he has made of the extent to which the rate of increase of average earnings has kept up with the rate of consumer price inflation.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)
The best way to deal with today’s cost-of-living challenges is to have paid employment. In the UK, the number of people employed has risen by 2.1% compared to a year ago—a faster rate of growth than those of our major competitors, including the US, France, Germany, Japan and the euro area as a whole.
Ian Austin
Instead of being complacent, the Minister should look at what the Office for Budget Responsibility says, which is that real wages will be lower in 2015 than when this Government came to power. A survey in Dudley shows that nine out of 10 families do not think they will be better off next year than this year, that eight out of 10 spent less at Christmas, and that a similar number have stopped saving. Can the Minister tell me why his Government are cutting taxes for millionaires instead of helping hard-pressed families in places such as Dudley?
Sajid Javid
I think that the hon. Gentleman joined the House in 2005, and he is probably scarred by his experience during his first term in government, when he saw unemployment in his constituency rise substantially, with youth unemployment going up by more than 100%. He will know that paid work is the best way to raise earnings. As I said earlier, this Government have helped to create 1.25 million jobs over the last three years—more jobs in the private sector than at any other time in our history. He referred to tax cuts; the tax cuts that have come through the personal allowance are for the lowest paid.
Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) (Con)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
The core purpose of the Treasury is to ensure the stability and prosperity of the economy.
Mike Freer
Will my right hon. Friend advise us what assessment he has made of the effect of the £2,000 employment allowance on employment in general, and on small businesses in particular?
Danny Alexander
The employment allowance will reduce the cost of employment and will therefore support small businesses aspiring to grow by hiring their first employee or expanding the work force. In total, up to 1.25 million employers will benefit from the allowance, with over 90% of that benefit going to small firms with fewer than 50 employees.
Ed Balls (Morley and Outwood) (Lab/Co-op)
This is now the slowest economic recovery for 100 years, and the International Monetary Fund is in town and openly questioning the Treasury’s economic plan. May I remind the Chief Secretary of what he said in October 2009? He does not need to worry, as this is not the one where he reconfirmed the Liberal Democrat commitment to an EU referendum; it is a different article. He said:
“Cutting spending now would plunge us back into recession…The Tories claim…they can fix the country’s finances, but their plans are economically illiterate.”
He was right then, was he not?
Danny Alexander
The right hon. Gentleman mentions the fact that the IMF is in town; there are, of course, discussions going on, and we look forward to seeing the outcome of the proposals. I have to tell him, however, that given the situation that this coalition Government inherited in May 2010—the catastrophic mess that he and his colleagues made of the British economy—the measures we are taking are absolutely right. If we compare the progress this country has made with the forecast for our major European competitors, we see that on employment, for example, this Government are delivering the right policies for this country.
Ed Balls
The right hon. Gentleman also said in that article that
“at a time of crisis”,
the Tories
“have the wrong solutions and the wrong priorities…They claim to care about the poorest, but will only slash taxes for millionaires.”
He was right about that as well. Is it not the truth that the economy has flatlined, deficit reduction has stalled, living standards are falling and the IMF is saying that the Treasury is playing with fire? In January, the Prime Minister said that we should listen to the IMF, so why is the Treasury telling newspapers that if the IMF tells him to act to kick-start the recovery, the Chancellor intends to ignore it and plough on regardless with a failing plan?
Danny Alexander
The right hon. Gentleman talks of having the wrong solutions and the wrong priorities. That appears to be the verdict of many of his colleagues on his own approach as shadow Chancellor. I note that the former science Minister Lord Sainsbury has said:
“In retrospect the Labour government should have used the opportunity of a strongly growing economy to reduce the deficit.”
That would have reduced pressure on the Labour Government, but we are reducing the deficit now. I also note that The Sun quotes an anonymous shadow Cabinet Member as saying:
“Balls is a busted flush when it comes to economic competence because of his legacy with Gordon.”
I could not have put it better myself.
Mr David Ward (Bradford East) (LD)
T2. A recurring theme of yesterday’s debate on health and social care was the growing demand for social care against a background of declining resources. What commitments will the Chief Secretary make to provide extra funding for adult social care in the June comprehensive spending review?
Danny Alexander
That is an important question. My hon. Friend will have seen the statements published today by the Minister of State, Department of Health, our hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb), and we will address the issue seriously in the spending round. I am not going to pre-announce what we will do, but my hon. Friend will know that in the 2010 spending round we ensured that additional resources amounting to £7.2 billion were available over four years to support social care services. If we are to deal with these important issues while also reducing the strain on the national health service, further such transfers will clearly be necessary.
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
T3. In just over an hour, in an unprecedented move, the bishops of Sheffield and Hallam and a delegation of civic, community and faith leaders will present a petition to No. 10 from thousands of Sheffielders calling for a fair deal for our city. Will Ministers accept their argument that the unfair distribution of cuts is having a disproportionate impact on cities such as Sheffield, widening inequality, hitting those who have least the hardest, and weakening the capacity of the council and the voluntary sector to support them?
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Clark)
The hon. Gentleman should support the Sheffield city deal, which has been enthusiastically endorsed by civic and business leaders in Sheffield. The point of the deal is to improve the city’s record for getting people into work, thus ensuring that the growing businesses there can access a high-quality labour force.
Damian Hinds (East Hampshire) (Con)
T4. In the light of the Government’s commitment to helping families to save for their futures, can the Minister tell us when we will see the details of the consultation on the measure announced in the Budget to allow the transfer of savings from child trust funds to junior individual savings accounts?
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)
My hon. Friend has raised an important issue. The details of the consultation will be published today, and the consultation will close on 6 August. It will deal with the question of whether transfers should be allowed, and if so on what basis. The Government propose that voluntary transfers should be allowed if requested by the registered contact for an account.
Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)
T5. Can one of the Ministers here today explain exactly how publishing a Bill providing for a European Union referendum in four years’ time will first create jobs, secondly attract investment and thirdly secure Britain’s future in a global economy?
Danny Alexander
I do not think that it would achieve any of those objectives, which is why I do not support it.
Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)
T10. Perhaps the most welcome policy announcement in the Gracious Speech was the announcement that Ministers would“prioritise measures that reduce the deficit”.Does my right hon. Friend agree that that Government priority is crucial to my Montgomeryshire constituents, because it will keep interest rates low for home owners and for businesses?
Danny Alexander
I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend. Dealing with the deficit and repairing the mess that the Labour party made in the public finances must remain the No. 1 priority for the Government, and indeed for all Members of the House.
Graham Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
T7. The Government’s housing policy focuses on new build which is exempt from VAT, but in my constituency one in 13 properties is empty, and building companies tell me that they rely on refurbishments which are not VAT-exempt. They are really struggling. Do the Government recognise that building companies in areas such as mine are being penalised in that way?
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
The difficulty is that if we were to reduce VAT on repairs and refurbishments, that would have a substantial fiscal cost. It would result in more borrowing and that is not something we can afford because of the circumstances we were left.
Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)
We now know there was no triple-dip recession and almost certainly no double-dip recession either. Of course there is no room for complacency, which is why I am holding my seventh jobs fair in the centre of Gloucester this Thursday. Does the Minister agree that it is time for the party of doom and gloom on the Opposition Benches to recognise that the economy is beginning to recover and that it is time to support British business—especially things made in Gloucester?
Danny Alexander
I welcome my hon. Friend’s efforts in trying to help his constituents to find employment—something that every Member of this House could be engaged in. On the deficit, the Labour party did seem disappointed when the triple dip did not materialise; no doubt it will be even more disappointed if, in due course, the second dip dematerialises. The one thing we can be sure of is that the biggest dip took place when Labour was in office.
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
T8. On 25 June last year, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told me that a new agreement was to be reached on flood insurance. I understand that the Chief Secretary, who has been heading up the negotiations, has blocked this deal. As the statement of principles is due to come to an end next month, can he tell me what assessment has been made of the effect on the housing market of hundreds of thousands of householders in this country not being able to get house insurance?
Sajid Javid
The hon. Lady raises an important issue; it is important that affordable insurance is available to people on whom flooding could have an impact. That is why this Government, led by DEFRA, are engaged in intensive negotiations with the Association of British Insurers. In Thursday’s DEFRA questions, she will have an opportunity to put this question to DEFRA Ministers.
Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)
The latest dismal figures from the giant pub company Enterprise Inns show the disaster that the leased pub company model has been for the British economy. The boss paid himself nearly £1 million last year, while his tenants are struggling to make a living and are subsidised by the taxpayer, through tax credits, to the tune of millions of pounds. Will my hon. Friend conduct a Treasury study into just how many millions the taxpayer provides to subsidise this immoral business model?
Sajid Javid
My hon. Friend cares deeply and passionately about the pub industry, and has done great work to help, including welcoming this Government’s decision to cut beer duty for the first time in decades. He makes an important point. He will know that Ministers in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are looking at this issue, and I will bring it further to their attention.
Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op)
T9. The Chief Secretary was absolutely right on the question of the EU referendum Bill. He cannot speak for the Conservative party, but will he ensure that his party leader once again exercises his European veto and ensures that any such Bill does not come forward as a Government Bill and does not have Government backing?
Danny Alexander
The Government’s position was made very clear in the coalition agreement and was confirmed in the mid-term review document published at the beginning of this year: we wish to maintain British membership of the European Union and during this Parliament we will exercise our influence to the utmost to win the arguments in Britain’s national interest, in favour of jobs, investment and growth in this country.
Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)
Research and development is key to current and future growth, and I welcome the Government’s support for it. What measures are the Government taking to ensure that we rise to the level of our major competitors on research and development?
Mr Gauke
One measure that I know my hon. Friend will be well aware of was the reform of research and development tax credits. We are making those more generous and bringing in a new above-the-line R and D tax credit. That is making the UK increasingly competitive in this sector.
Naomi Long (Belfast East) (Alliance)
Developing countries need assistance from the west with collecting the tax due to them from multinational companies. How will the Government use their presidency of the G8 to ensure specifically that the strengthening of disclosure standards takes place multinationally?
Mr Gauke
The hon. Lady is right to raise this issue, which we touched on earlier. One of our priorities for the G8 presidency is to bring forward measures on tax evasion and tax avoidance. It is worth pointing out what the Prime Minister said in an article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday; he wants to encourage
“better global reporting to tax authorities in both the developed and developing world”.
That could make a big difference.
Mr Brooks Newmark (Braintree) (Con)
Will the Minister join me in supporting Lord Young’s report on growing micro-businesses, which was released yesterday? It suggests a new package of support for starting and growing small businesses.
Danny Alexander
I strongly welcome that report. The Government have already introduced a package of measures, including start-up loans to support new small businesses. Lord Young has presented his findings to the Government and we will respond in due course.
Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)
Given the increasing evidence, such as last month’s Carbon Tracker report, showing that so-called unburnable carbon assets pose a serious risk to the financial system, will the Minister look seriously at the proposal that companies should be required to disclose the carbon emissions potential of their fossil fuel assets?
Greg Clark
The first requirement is to assess the risk that the hon. Lady has described, and it is for the Bank of England to consider the systemic consequences. Should the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England conclude that investment in high-carbon assets poses a risk, it would have to report and explain that risk in its financial stability report.
George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)
Our banking sector is suffering the consequences of a state-sponsored boom in bad loans under the last Government. Has the Minister seen the news of the Co-op’s bad debts, including to the Labour party, and noted the withdrawal of Labour party funding from Lord Sainsbury? Does he agree that nothing better exemplifies the risks of Labour’s addiction to borrowing and trade union funding?
Greg Clark
I understand that the Co-op has lent more than £3 million to the Labour party. I would assess that as not being a particularly good credit risk; the Labour party has a toxic credit rating, and the experience has been that when it starts to borrow, it never pays the money back.
Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)
The youth employment rate is lower now than in 2009, with a shortfall of nearly 400,000 jobs, so why are the Government continuing to resist a tax on bank bonuses that would help put young people back into work?
Danny Alexander
As I said in answer to earlier questions, the Government have taken forward a package of measures. The Youth Contract, which is helping half a million young people, the massive expansion and improvement in the quality of apprenticeships, helping young people all around the country, and the Work programme make up a proper package of measures to do what the hon. Gentleman and I agree about—try to help more young people off benefits and into work. The problem has been building up for many years, and he should be a bit more humble about it.
Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)
Would a meaningful G8 outcome on tax evasion involve the Chancellor’s revisiting the controlled foreign company rules that he introduced? They incentivise the use of tax havens and deny revenue to the Exchequer here and, more so, to developing countries.
Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)
If the Government were to go out and borrow £28 billion as some suggest, what would the effect be on fiscal stability and interest rates for homeowners?
Danny Alexander
My hon. Friend rightly draws attention to the figure of £28 billion—the extra borrowing in the alternative Queen’s Speech put forward by the Opposition. It confirms yet again that their approach is to borrow more and more, taking no account of the consequences. Perhaps that is one reason why the Leader of the Opposition, in a well-known radio interview, refused to accept that his party would increase borrowing and why his proposals have rightly been dubbed a “Milishambles”.
Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
Research by the House of Commons Library shows that no peacetime Government since the 1920s have presided over fewer housing completions than this Government over the past two years. When will the Chancellor and his team stop tinkering with allowing a few people to buy new homes, and instead deal with the systemic problems by increasing housing supply?
Danny Alexander
The hon. Lady should study the figures more carefully. They show that the low points in housing starts and housing provision were in 2009 and 2010 respectively—both years in which her party was in office.
Access to Eculizumab
Sir Nick Harvey (North Devon) (LD)
I rise to present a petition on behalf of the sufferers of atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome, known as aHUS, a rare disease that causes irreversible kidney failure. Until recently there was no effective treatment for this condition, which has 139 known patients in England, of whom 20 live in Devon. I am presenting the petition to press for aHUS sufferers’ access to Eculizumab, a new drug that has been proven to cause a dramatic improvement in kidney function and, indeed, in the quality of life of patients diagnosed with aHUS. The petition has received almost 30,000 signatures nationally and is presented on behalf of the national group, aHUS Action. It was brought to me by one of my constituents, Elena Lilley, who suffers from aHUS. She received Eculizumab as part of a clinical trial three years ago and it has transformed her life, avoiding the need for her to be put back on dialysis and enabling her to resume a full-time job.
The Advisory Group for National Specialised Services has recommended that Eculizumab should be nationally commissioned by the NHS, emphasising its life-saving potential and ability to improve the quality of life of all aHUS patients. However, earlier this year health Ministers decided to refer Eculizumab to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence for a further review of its affordability. Some patients have already been waiting over 18 months for a decision, and an announcement is not expected until December. The petition urges that action should be taken to ensure that all aHUS patients, including those already on the drug, should be given access to Eculizumab without delay pending the outcome of NICE’s review.
Following is the full text of the petition:
[The Petition of Miss K Bazzichi and Miss E Woodward Trustee Officers of aHUSUK,
Declares that aHUS patients should be given access to Eculizumab when they need it, without delay, and not be disadvantaged by the Ministers' decision not to implement the AGNSS recommendation ahead of a review by NICE.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons issues instructions to the NHS CB to take such action, whilst waiting for NICE's decision.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.]
[P001176]
Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North Devon (Sir Nick Harvey). The 500 signatures on my petition should be added to the 30,000 signatures on his. I was approached by my constituent, Trevor Murby, of Abbots Road, Leicester, because his grandson, Finley Murby, was having great difficulty in accessing this drug. As a result of the work of Trevor Murby and so many other people involved in the campaign, he was able to get the drugs that he needed. I concur with the hon. Gentleman that it is really important that everyone who needs this drug has access to it and that action is taken immediately to help those who are disadvantaged.
Following is the full text of the petition:
[The Petition of Mr T Murby and Mr Finley Murby Trustee Officers of aHUSUK,
Declares that aHUS patients should be given access to Eculizumab when they need it, without delay, and not be disadvantaged by the Ministers’ decision not to implement the AGNSS recommendation ahead of a review by NICE.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons issues instructions to the NHS CB to take such action, whilst waiting for NICE's decision.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.]
[P001177]
Operation Herrick
(11 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond)
With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement on troop rotations as we draw down our forces in Afghanistan.
First I would like to pay tribute to Corporal William Thomas Savage and Fusilier Samuel Flint, both from 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and Private Robert Murray Hetherington, a reservist from 7th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, who were tragically killed in action in Afghanistan on 30 April when their Mastiff vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device on route 611. Their deaths are a stark reminder of the continued dangers our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines face as they manage the transition of security responsibility to the Afghan national security forces. My thoughts are with their families and loved ones as they come to terms with their loss.
Although security in Helmand is steadily improving, with Afghan forces already responsible for the bulk of the province, the environment in which our troops operate remains dangerous. IEDs remain one of the greatest threats and present risks even to the very best-protected vehicles available, of which Mastiff is one.
As the House will be aware, at the height of operations we had around 9,500 military personnel in Afghanistan. Our troop numbers will be at 7,900 by the end of this month and, as the Prime Minister announced last December, they will reduce further to around 5,200 by the end of this year. This is a clear reflection of the international security assistance force campaign drawing to a close and the Afghan national security forces taking on increasing responsibility for their own security. Already the ANSF lead 80% of all security operations, covering nearly 90% of the Afghan population. By the summer, that figure will reach 100%. So after more than a decade in which fighting the insurgency has been a primary focus of the ISAF coalition, the campaign is changing and the UK’s military role in Afghanistan is evolving from combat to one of training, advising and assisting the Afghans; and, as the Prime Minister has made clear, UK forces will no longer be in a combat role by the end of 2014.
In the light of this, and of the changing nature of the operation, we have looked at how we can best deploy what will be declining numbers of troops and smaller amounts of equipment between now and then to deliver the best possible protection to our people while continuing to provide the Afghans with the support they need during this critical transition period. Brigades deploying to Afghanistan on Operation Herrick have routinely done so on a six-monthly cycle, with a relief-in-place occurring in spring and autumn each year. The phased nature of the rotation and the overlap of deploying and redeploying forces has meant individual tours of between six months and six and a half months for the vast majority of personnel. That pattern of rotation has worked well for the enduring deployment, but is judged not to be sustainable during the final months of the draw-down period. The Army has therefore decided that the brigade deploying in October on Herrick 19 will deploy for eight months from October this year until June 2014. The subsequent brigade, Herrick 20, will deploy for six months from June 2014 to December 2014 when the ISAF campaign concludes, but the deployment could extend to up to nine months for a relatively small number of individuals who may be needed to support final redeployment activity post-December 2014.
The rationale for this decision is clear and is based on advice from military commanders. First, it will better align the final tours with key milestones in the transition process such as the Afghan presidential elections in spring 2014. Secondly, it will help to maintain continuity in posts where we work closely with our Afghan partners at a time when retaining and bolstering Afghan confidence is critical, both for mission success and to ensure our own force protection. Thirdly, it removes the need to train and deploy another brigade at greatly reduced scale to cover the final couple of months of 2014. It will therefore minimise the total number of service personnel who deploy to Afghanistan over the next 18 months. That will allow personnel to focus on post-Afghanistan training, improving the general readiness of the Army as it reverts to a contingent posture for the future.
The Chief of the Defence Staff and I believe that extending Op Herrick 19 to eight months and allowing the possibility of some personnel on Op Herrick 20 deploying for up to nine months is the most effective way of maintaining force protection, meeting our commitment to the NATO ISAF mission, and supporting the Afghans until the end of 2014. Of course, as we have already made clear, the UK’s commitment as part of the international community’s assistance to Afghanistan will continue well into the future, beyond 2014, in terms of significant investment in development assistance and support to the ANSF, as well as UK-led military training.
The changed pattern of brigade rotations does not mean that all those deploying will do so for a longer time. I should emphasise to the House that, because of the expected steady reduction in numbers during Herrick 19 and 20, we expect that most personnel will continue to serve no longer than the standard six or six-and-a-half-month tour, while significant numbers will serve less than six months. At the same time, the amended tour rotations mean that some personnel will deploy for up to eight months, with a much smaller number potentially deploying for up to nine months. At this stage it is not possible to be precise about the total numbers of personnel who will be affected, although current estimates suggest that between 2,200 and 3,700 overall may deploy for more than six and a half months.
We have considered carefully how best to compensate affected personnel who serve extended tours and face increased uncertainty about their pattern of deployment and relatively more austere conditions which may be expected towards the end of the Herrick campaign as the redeployment of assets continues. Her Majesty’s Treasury has agreed the recommendation of the defence chiefs that a bespoke allowance should be paid to eligible personnel who serve more than seven and a half months in Afghanistan from September 2013. This Herrick draw-down allowance will be paid at the rate of £50 per day before tax and is payable on top of the standard operational allowance package. The new allowance will not apply to those personnel in the small number of established longer-term posts who are already compensated by the campaign continuity allowance. Service personnel who may serve longer terms and who may therefore be eligible for the new allowance have already been notified by their commanding officers.
As I said at the beginning of this statement, the campaign and the UK’s military role in Afghanistan are changing. During this period, it is critical that we retain the ability properly to protect our forces, as well as to maintain the confidence of the Afghans as our combat operations draw to a close and they take on full security responsibility. The number of UK forces in Afghanistan may be reducing, but they still have a vital job to do, and this initiative is the most effective way for them to do it successfully, while remaining as safe as possible. I commend the statement to the House.
Mr Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire) (Lab)
I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and for providing notice of it, although unfortunately much of it appeared in this morning’s media.
I wish to start in the same way as the Secretary of State by paying tribute to those who lost their lives recently in Afghanistan: Corporal William Thomas Savage and Fusilier Samuel Flint, both from the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and Private Robert Murray Hetherington form 7th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Little we can say in this House can heal the hurt that their families feel, but they should at least know that they remain in our thoughts and prayers. Members on both sides of the House will always remember the remarkable individual acts of heroism and the collective acts of courage that define our armed forces. It is their sacrifice and bravery that is helping to make Afghanistan more stable and the UK safer.
It is essential that the progress our armed forces are making in Afghanistan becomes permanent and that full transition to an Afghan lead on security is successful. This remains a mission that is not just in our national interest, but in the interests of international stability.
The Opposition consistently commit to bipartisanship on Afghanistan and our support is, of course, complemented by scrutiny. Today is no different: we see the logic in the Government’s move, but many will be concerned about the impact on the individuals affected.
The enormous operation mounted over the past 12 years will require extensive and expensive effort as it is brought to a close. Recouping and reintegrating equipment, training the Afghan forces, facilitating inward investment and seeking a political solution are all essential elements of the international community’s task. As part of this, we see the merit in ensuring that there is not a destabilising changeover during the Afghan presidential election next year and that personnel are present to ensure that equipment is repatriated efficiently.
Could the Secretary of State say which regiments and units will be affected, how many of those expected to stay for longer he anticipates will be reservists, and why the Herrick draw-down allowance does not start from the beginning of the extended tour?
I say gently to the Secretary of State that there appeared to be a slight contradiction in his statement. He said that he was not aware of the exact number that will be expected to stay beyond six months, but towards the end of his statement he said that everyone who will be expected to stay for longer than six months has been informed by their commanding officer. There therefore seems to be a glitch, if not a contradiction, in the logic of his argument.
Many people will worry that a smaller force operating in Afghanistan after the withdrawal deadline may be subject to higher risk. Will the Secretary of State say whether all those who are planned to be in-country in 2015 will be combat troops with NATO-provided force protection?
Extended exposure to conflict increases the risk of physical and mental health problems. Research for King’s College London has shown the importance of adherence to the Harmony guidelines. Will the Secretary of State say how the Harmony guidelines will be altered for those affected by today’s announcement? Research for King’s College London also shows that if tours are longer than anticipated, servicemen and women are much more likely to report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
This is a one-off measure which, as I have said, has merit. However, many will note that the 2010 strategic defence and security review stated categorically:
“We need to challenge some of the fundamental assumptions which drive force generation, such as tour lengths and intervals”.
It stated that the single service chiefs would carry out the review,
“completing their work by the spring of 2011.”
Last year, that work was still ongoing. Will the Secretary of State say what work has been done internally on the wider application of longer tours of duty? If there is to be a shift to longer tours on a more regular basis in any future conflict, the military community will want a better understanding of the recommendations of the service chiefs.
Today’s announcement also raises the issue of the UK’s long-term commitment to Afghanistan. As part of an alliance presence, training and support for Afghan forces post-2014 will be essential. There is no word yet on the size and scope of such a force or the UK’s role within it. Who will be responsible for the protection of UK service personnel? Will any commitments that are made before 2015 be open-ended or time-limited? When does the Secretary of State expect more detail to be forthcoming?
Today we are focusing on the temporary extension of two tours. I want to turn, finally, to how we will mark permanently the contribution of all those who have toured and, in particular, those who have not returned. The Opposition believe that there should be a national memorial for all who have served in Afghanistan. We have also proposed that streets be named after fallen personnel, should their families and communities request it, and that veterans champions should be working hard in every local authority to help service leavers with the transition to civilian life. I hope that the Government will take this opportunity to support those and other measures.
As the operation in Afghanistan draws to a close, our nation is rightly showing huge support for those who have served. That public sentiment will prevail beyond any withdrawal timetable and so should the commitment of the Government, no matter who is in power. It is in that spirit that we want today’s announcement to be successful. We offer to work with the Government to achieve a fitting legacy in Afghanistan and to support our troops.
Mr Hammond
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for reasserting the bipartisan approach that has prevailed on matters relating to Afghanistan. I welcome his pragmatic engagement with this announcement and his perfectly legitimate questions.
I should say at the outset that when I said that the people who were eligible and likely to be affected by the announcement had been informed, I should have used the military term warned off. Those in the pool from which the people will be drawn have been warned off that they may be affected. It will be some time before we can be clearer about who precisely will be affected. Although the next Herrick rotation is in preparation, we have not yet announced the precise composition of the next brigade. That will be determined by the practical evolution of things on the ground. I am afraid I cannot therefore give the right hon. Gentleman more detail today.
The right hon. Gentleman asked me why the Herrick draw-down allowance is not payable from day one of the tour. It is intended to compensate for the longer period of duty, the uncertainty and the austerity that may exist in the final part of the Herrick campaign. Normal allowances will be payable throughout the deployment. The Herrick draw-down allowance is an additional allowance payable from the seven-and-a-half-month point. That ties in with the current campaign continuity allowance and makes it fair and equitable among those who have served longer than six and a half months historically and those who will do so in the future.
Of course, the right hon. Gentleman’s points about additional risk and the additional potential for physical or mental health issues arising from longer tours are legitimate, and we have considered them carefully. It is worth pointing out to the House that as we draw down, a higher and higher percentage of the troops deployed will be deployed to main operating bases, where they will be relatively much safer than they have been in the forward operating bases, patrol bases and checkpoints that they have occupied in the past. Conditions will generally be significantly better.
The Harmony guidelines will not routinely be breached. Harmony is measured by the number of nights of separated service over a three-year cycle, and nothing that I have announced today is expected to have an impact on the armed forces’ ability to maintain Harmony. I should also say that this is emphatically not a systematic shift in policy with regard to tour lengths. It is a bespoke solution to deal with the final few months of the Herrick campaign and will not affect our standard deployment policy for the future.
On the two generic points that the right hon. Gentleman raised about the timing of our announcements on post-2014 deployment, he will know that discussions are going on with NATO literally right now, as we sit here, on the post-2014 configuration. We will continue to discuss the options with allies, and as soon as we have come to a conclusion we will of course inform the House.
Finally, I am pleased to say that we are in complete agreement on the question of a national memorial. My expectation is that the memorial wall in Bastion will be dismantled and recovered to the UK, probably for re-erection at the national arboretum in Staffordshire. My personal view is that we should also look at having a fitting memorial in central London to those who have given their lives both on Op Herrick and, before, on Op Telic. I would be happy to enter into a discussion with the right hon. Gentleman about that to see whether we can make it a bipartisan initiative.
Sir Menzies Campbell (North East Fife) (LD)
May I begin by associating myself with the remarks of condolence in relation to the three individuals who have recently lost their lives in Afghanistan? The Royal Highland Fusiliers is a regiment to which my family has a particular attachment.
It was never the understanding that bringing an end to combat operations would consist of turning the key in the lock and putting the lights out. Obviously, we need to employ rather more sophisticated means. In that respect, what the Secretary of State has said is entitled to receive the endorsement of the House, since it proceeds upon the military advice and has as its primary consideration force protection at a time when our forces might be particularly vulnerable.
Mr Hammond
I am grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend and should emphasise that our intention and objective is still to compete the draw-down by the end of 2014 if we can. We will certainly make every effort to do so that is consistent with proper force protection and the good order of our forces. However, today’s announcement gives us the flexibility to keep small numbers, primarily of logisticians, in Camp Bastion beyond the end of 2014 if they are needed to complete that draw-down.
Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)
There is obviously a difference between those who serve in the rear echelon at Camp Bastion and so on, who are important to the whole operation, and those who go outside the operating bases on to the front line. Does the Secretary of State envisage that personnel will be continually asked to do that throughout the whole of their deployment? In particular, what will happen to the medical teams that are sent out to Camp Bastion?
Mr Hammond
It is not our expectation that we will continue routinely to patrol outside the main operating bases beyond the end of this year. By then, we expect to be operating from only four main operating bases, and troops will routinely be operating within those bases. Of course, they will have to retain the ability to go out in support of the Afghans if that is necessary. We intend to maintain the role 3 hospital at Camp Bastion right through to the end of the operation.
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)
What the Secretary of State has announced this morning makes perfectly good sense from a straightforward operational standpoint, but does he not agree that if one is deployed for up to nine months, with a six-month pre-deployment training period prior to that—a total of up to 15 months away from the family—particular strains may come to bear on friends and family at home? What extra care will he take to ensure that those who are deployed for lengthy times are looked after from a compassionate standpoint? In particular, will he pay great attention to reservists, for whom those stresses and strains may be even greater?
Mr Hammond
First, I do not think my hon. Friend is absolutely correct to say that the six months’ training, together with a maximum theoretical deployment of nine months, would amount to 15 months away from home—certainly not all the training period will involve being away from home. However, I am quite certain that the chain of command will be sensitive to individuals’ circumstances in planning the next deployment.
My hon. Friend makes a valid point about reservists. A period of service that might be extended may clearly be more problematic for reservists than for regulars. Again, we will take that fully into account when planning for individuals to be selected for deployment.
Mr Elfyn Llwyd (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)
May I associate myself with the earlier expressions of condolence?
As one who voted against the incursion into Afghanistan, I am obviously pleased that the deployment is drawing to a close. As the Secretary of State knows, history shows that periods of draw-down are especially dangerous. There will be an increased risk of people suffering from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and associated problems, as well as the possibility of increased periods in the field leading to fatigue and potential loss of life. I am sure he is aware of that and will do everything in his power to ensure that it does not happen.
Mr Hammond
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman and can tell him that not only those who voted against the operation but those who fully supported it are pleased that we are now drawing down and bringing our combat commitment to an end. He is absolutely right that the draw-down period is a critical phase of the operation with its own risks. One reason for the decision to change the rotation pattern is the importance of maintaining relationships with key Afghans as we have fewer of those relationships. Historically, we have been mentoring and partnering at battalion and company level, but we will not be doing that any more, so we will have fewer relationships with the Afghans. It is important for our own force protection and situational awareness that we maintain and build those relationships.
Sir Nick Harvey (North Devon) (LD)
May I thank the Secretary of State for his statement, the logic of which is straightforward? Having spoken socially to some of those who will deploy this October, I think it was widely anticipated that they would serve longer. Perhaps they were warned off, to use the Secretary of State’s expression.
Getting out of Afghanistan safely and steadily requires a great deal of meticulous planning. Does the Secretary of State agree that those who are prone to saying occasionally in the media that we should pack up and get out now are rather missing the point? In the months it would take to rip up the existing plan and devise another one properly, we would probably have got back on to the timeline for the existing plan.
Mr Hammond
My hon. Friend is of course right. We are packing up and getting out—we are actively in the process of recouping our equipment. Hundreds of containers, hundreds of vehicles and pieces of major equipment have already returned, and it is an ongoing process. To try to do it any more quickly, particularly at a time of significant transition in Afghanistan and through the period of the presidential elections, which can be anticipated to be a difficult period for internal security, would be reckless with Afghanistan’s security but also reckless with the protection of our own forces.
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab)
Will the Secretary of State explain why we are planning to keep more troops in Afghanistan after 2014, and say what purpose they will serve while in a place of enormous danger and huge political uncertainty? Would it not be better to say that the whole escapade has not been a great success and that we are bringing everybody out, according to a rapid timetable?
Mr Hammond
The hon. Gentleman’s views on this subject are well known. As I have announced, a small number of people—mainly logisticians—will possibly remain after 31 December 2014 to complete our redeployment from Bastion. In addition, we have committed to providing trainers and life support personnel for the Afghan national army officer training academy outside Kabul, which is a military training academy modelled on Sandhurst. Those are the only commitments we have made at the moment, amounting to a couple of hundred personnel on an ongoing basis. We judge that to be an effective and appropriate way for us to continue supporting Afghan national security forces, together with the £70 million a year cash support that we have pledged as part of the international community’s commitment.
Dr Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)
Even before British troops have left, our brave Afghan interpreters have been threatened with assassination. How many of them must be killed before we do what we ought to do and offer those who wish to come to this country the opportunity to do so, as the previous Government rightly did for Iraqi interpreters?
Mr Hammond
The situation in Afghanistan is not the same as that in Iraq. Lessons were learned from the Afghan campaign, and the way that interpreters and other civilian employees have been recruited in Afghanistan has been modified accordingly to take those lessons on board. I assure my hon. Friend, however, that we will not turn our back on those who have served us in Afghanistan as locally employed civilians. We believe that Afghanistan has a future that will require skilled, capable people who are committed to building it post-2014. We want to explore all options for encouraging people, wherever they can, to be part of that future and help to build their country in which we have invested so heavily. We have and will continue to have mechanisms that deal with cases of intimidation or threat, including those that could, in extremis, allow for resettlement in this country.
Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)
Employers of reservists who may be deployed in the next two brigades might feel great anxiety about losing staff from their day jobs for considerable periods of time. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with employers? If employers feel unable to release an employee for that period of time, what impact will that have on the reservist’s employment record in the military?
Mr Hammond
The hon. Lady raises a fair point, and through the employers advisory committee we are constantly in touch with the views of employers. As we come to the end of the Herrick campaign, we are likely to use fewer reservists in the last couple of rotations of that campaign, and we will be sensitive to the views of reservists and their employers if they do not wish to serve. It is unlikely that many reservists will be required to serve because of their particular skill sets if they express a clear wish not to do so.
Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that these changes are based purely on military advice from service chiefs, and are not about cutting costs?
Mr Hammond
Yes, I am happy to do that, and it is not yet clear whether there will be any significant financial savings from the measures announced today. Clearly, we will not have to train a final, much smaller brigade for deployment to Afghanistan. That does not mean that the training will not be conducted;, it means that those troops will be training for contingent operations post-Afghanistan. That will present itself as a dividend to the military in terms of an increased readiness for return to contingent operations.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
Will the Secretary of State tell the House who will be responsible for UK forces force protection post-2014? Will it be the Afghan national army, and does the Secretary of State have total confidence in that?
Mr Hammond
So far, as I made clear to the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), we have committed only to providing trainers and life support personnel in the Afghan national army officer training academy outside Kabul. We are, of course, dependent on Afghan national security forces for overall security in Afghanistan after 2014, but we will be collocated at Qargha, at the Afghan national army officer academy, with US forces who will be running a similar academy on the adjoining site. Detailed force protection arrangements have not yet been agreed, but they are likely to include elements of UK and US forces, providing protection to the combined facility.
Dan Byles (North Warwickshire) (Con)
Having served a nine-month operational tour of duty in Bosnia, I can attest to how long that is to be away from one’s family. Will the Secretary of State confirm that this is a one-off change to the way we do business, and that it will not represent a slippery slope and a longer-term change in doctrine?
Mr Hammond
It will not represent a slippery slope and it is not a change in doctrine. I am hesitant to call it a one-off since my hon. Friend has just given an example of another occasion on which nine-month tours were served. There are already people in theatre who are serving tours of nine months or longer in specific posts, so it is not unknown, but there is no intention to make a general change to the operational deployment of six-month tours.
Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op)
I endorse tributes already paid across the House to the soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland who were so sadly killed in Afghanistan recently. The Secretary of State spoke about packing up and getting out, but will he indicate the value of the equipment that will have to be left in Afghanistan and gifted to the Afghan forces?
Mr Hammond
The policy on gifting to the Afghan forces is NATO-wide and it is important that we adhere to it. Equipment should be gifted only if it is genuinely valuable to the recipients and within their capability and financial capacity to maintain and operate—in other words, it is a “no dumping” policy, and we will not just leave equipment behind because it is not convenient to take it with us. We have not finally decided what, if any, equipment will be gifted to the Afghans, but we will gift it only in accordance with that ISAF policy.
Mr Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) (Con)
May I express a little disappointment that after a decade of involvement in Afghanistan, we never completed the railway line from Kandahar to Spin Boldak, linking to the Pakistani railway and the port of Karachi? It would have been a game changer for the city of Kandahar, and a more efficient and simpler way of getting our kit out. Perhaps it is not too late.
Will the Secretary of State confirm that today’s announcement about lengthening tours will mean that one fewer brigade needs to go to Helmand, which could lead to taxpayers’ money being saved?
Mr Hammond
I am sorry about the railway. If my history serves, we never completed the Cape Town to Cairo railway either, but such are plans. I prefer to focus now on High Speed 2—we should look to the future.
My hon. Friend is right. Today’s announcement will mean that it is not necessary to prepare and train a further brigade to deploy. It is not yet clear whether that will make any significant saving for the taxpayer because most of that deployment, had it taken place, would have been in the back of transport aircraft that would have been going out empty in order to come back with repatriated equipment.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
I associate my party with tributes to the soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan, and I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. He will be aware of the experience and training gained from Operation Banner in Northern Ireland. Will he confirm that the valuable skills developed through that operation will be made available to the Afghan army to the end of 2014, and indeed beyond?
Mr Hammond
I can confirm to the hon. Gentleman that we are training Afghan troops in various specialist techniques that will be of value to the Afghan security forces in maintaining security in future. Of course, that draws on all the experiences that British troops have gained over the years, including many valuable experiences in Northern Ireland.
Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the introduction of the Operation Herrick draw-down allowance. Last year, following a spate of so-called green-on-blue friendly fire attacks that resulted in casualties from, among others, the Yorkshire Regiment—my local regiment—a number of measures were introduced to remove the threat. Will he confirm that, as the draw-down gathers pace, that the threat from green-on-blue attacks will be minimised as much as possible?
Mr Hammond
As I have sought to emphasise throughout the statement, maintaining force protection during the draw-down period is our primary consideration; thereafter, it is maintaining effective support to the Afghans. The green-on-blue threat has not gone away. As we draw down into fewer and fewer bases and have less and less contact with the Afghans, the nature of the threat changes. In some ways it is diminished, because we have less contact; in other ways it is increased, because we have less awareness. However, I can assure my hon. Friend that the military commanders are extremely focused on how best to manage the situation to optimise force protection during that period.
Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)
The Secretary of State says that between 2,200 and 3,700 military personnel could deploy for more than six and a half months, and for up to nine months in some cases. In addition to the Herrick draw-down allowance, will personnel have additional home leave entitlement during that extra deployment period?
Mr Hammond
It is not intended that an additional R and R period will be incorporated. As with current practice, there will be a single 14-day period of R and R during a tour.
Sir Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) (Con)
May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on a sensible move to ensure that the transition is orderly? Does ISAF have any intention of retaining a continuing capability beyond the extra three months of 2015? Will the UK be prepared, beyond the support to the officer training academy, to contribute troops to ensure that the transition period to full ANSF control is achieved?
Mr Hammond
I am sure my hon. Friend is aware that a NATO chiefs of defence staff meeting at which that question will be discussed is taking place today in Brussels. No concrete proposal has yet been accepted, and the UK has made no commitments beyond the Afghan national army officer academy. However, we will consider what ISAF and our NATO allies propose to do in future. We will look at the requirements that any NATO plan involves, make a decision on what, if any, participation the UK should have post-2014, and notify the House as soon as any such decision is made.
Debate on the Address
Cost of Living
18:59 - The House having divided: - Ayes: 254 / Noes: 316 - Question accordingly negatived.
Mr Speaker
I inform the House that I have selected the amendment in the name of Edward Miliband.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)
I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the measures the Government are taking to help people and families who are struggling to make ends meet. No party in the House has a monopoly on compassion. We know that there are problems, and that families and people are struggling, not least because of increases in prices, including global energy prices. The issue is that the Government must tackle those problems with no money, as we were reminded by the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne), the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury. We must create a better fiscal position while tackling that difficult problem to ensure that we help people. And we are doing just that. We are cushioning people from the impact of rising prices and protecting the most vulnerable. We are trying to make these big, difficult decisions in as fair a way as possible, to be fair to those who work hard while helping those who fall on hard times.
Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)
On that very point, does the Secretary of State agree that food and energy comprise the highest proportion of expenditure for the very poorest—they are escalating out of all proportion—and that he is cutting money for those very people, namely those on benefits? Is not the harsh reality of this Government that they are hurting the poor most because of the bankers’ recklessness?
Mr Davey
The picture is rather more complicated than the hon. Gentleman says. We have a range of measures to help the most vulnerable with their energy bills, which I will come to during my speech.
One way to help people is to ensure that work pays. We must ensure that we are creating jobs in the economy and that there are links from benefits into employment. That is rightly one of the Government’s obsessions. We are introducing a range of policies to help people. Interest rates are at record lows. Income tax cuts are making a big difference: this year, 24 million employees will have an income tax cut of £600; next year, the cut will be £700. Some 2.5 million of the lowest paid will be taken out of income tax altogether. The income tax bill for people on the national minimum wage will be cut in half. That is a good record.
Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP)
The Secretary of State mentions Government obsessions. Does he believe that the lofty ambitions he describes will be better achieved in or out of Europe?
Mr Davey
It did not take long for someone to mention Europe. The hon. Gentleman will be shocked to hear that, as a Liberal Democrat, I strongly support Britain’s membership of the EU.
The Government are taking other measures. We are cutting fuel duty, we have capped rail fares, and we are helping the most vulnerable with their energy bills. We are extending free nursery provision and helping working parents with child care costs. The Opposition do not like to talk about the Government’s record on jobs. We have helped to create 1 million private sector jobs since we came to power. We have 1 million apprenticeships. That is a record we should be proud of, and one the Labour party was not capable of delivering.
Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)
The Secretary of State says he is helping the poorest with their energy bills, yet this is the first time for 30 years that there is no taxpayer-funded energy efficiency scheme. The energy company obligation does not have enough money in it. It is also funded by a levy on everybody’s fuel bills, which is regressive—it pushes more people into fuel poverty than it draws out. When will he put in place measures that will protect the poorest?
Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)
My right hon. Friend mentions the creation of 1.2 million private sector jobs. Does he agree that that is probably why, it has now been revealed, that the country avoided a double-dip recession?
Mr Davey
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is worth reflecting on the Government’s record on jobs. The Opposition do not like to talk about it, but the truth is that, despite the difficult circumstances—despite the Government having no money because we must pay down the deficit, and despite not having the growth that we would like in the world, European or UK economies—we have created jobs. That is a very good record.
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)
Against the glowing backdrop that the Secretary of State paints, why do I now have a food bank in every single village in my constituency when there was only one three years ago? Why has there been a quadrupling of food banks under this Government? His record cannot be that good, given the backdrop of the inexorable rise of food poverty.
Mr Davey
People who run food banks are doing an extremely good job and deserve credit for their work. However, it is completely wrong to suggest that there is a statistical link between the Government’s benefit reforms and the provision of food banks. It is good that people are helping others. I hope the hon. Gentleman supports that.
I wish to make progress and to talk about energy and climate change policy. My Department has three major objectives. The Department wants to ensure that energy is as affordable as possible for consumers and business; that we keep the lights on with energy security; and that we decarbonise the power sector. With the Energy Bill, the green deal and many other policies, we have the most coherent energy and climate change policy of any Government in Europe—and indeed of any Government in this country for many, many years. Our approach also tries to maximise the jobs and growth potential from our energy and climate change policies. We also try to ensure that the impact on the bills of consumers and businesses is as low as possible, and we have policies to try to meet the climate change challenge.
David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)
The total increase in average global temperatures since we started industrialising is approximately 0.7° Celsius. How much of that is due to carbon emissions and how much is due to the natural warming that was going to take place anyway as the earth came out of a cool period?
Mr Davey
I am disappointed that my hon. Friend seeks to deny the science of climate change. He may have heard Sir John Beddington, the Government’s recently retired chief scientist and a very distinguished scientist, say that the science showing climate change was human-made was “unequivocal”. When it comes to science, I like to listen to the experts.
It is important that we gain jobs, especially green jobs, through our investment in low carbon. We also need to ensure that these are profitable enterprises in which people can invest. We need £110 billion of investment in our energy infrastructure over the rest of this decade. That will be in low carbon, in gas and in other energy security measures.
On prices, we have to drive a wedge between the rising global prices and the bills that people have to pay. We also have to rise to the climate change challenge. We need to recognise that the challenge is serious and that—contrary to what my hon. Friend suggests—the science tells us that we have to act.
Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
The Secretary of State talked about investments in our infrastructure. The green investment bank could be fuelling jobs in the green sector if it were also investing in SMEs that are developing and bringing to market technology in this area. Why are the Government failing to deliver on that?
Mr Davey
The Government have delivered on the green investment bank. The hon. Lady should know that investment banks are not controlled by Government. They are given a remit to make investments, and the green investment bank is doing so and is extremely effective. Indeed, it is world leading. I am sorry that the hon. Lady is criticising it and I hope that she will look at what it is doing and realise that it is making a big difference. Our performance on green growth and green jobs shows that we are delivering on the coalition agreement promise to build a new economy from the rubble of the old.
We have this massive infrastructure opportunity because nearly a quarter of our capacity will close over the next decade. We have to replace that to keep the lights on, but at the same time we can begin, and really go for, the transition to a low-carbon energy economy. We need to do that by investing especially in energy efficiency. I have stressed that from day one as Secretary of State. We have several policies already, such as the green deal and the energy company obligation, but in the last year we have developed some very interesting proposals on electricity demand reduction. We will publish the response to our consultation on that shortly.
Around 1 million people work in the green economy, and the support that we are giving to clean energy will fuel the rise in the area. Between now and 2020, the support we give to renewables will increase year on year to £7.6 billion—a tripling of the support for renewable energy and a record the Government can be proud of. We already have 110,00 jobs in the renewable energy sector directly, and 160,000 jobs in the supply chain. By 2020, we believe the sector will have more than 400,000 jobs.
We also have the prospect of a new generation of nuclear power stations. I am engaged in discussions with EDF for a proposed nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point C. If we reach agreement, it will result in more than 5,500 jobs during construction, more than 1,000 ongoing jobs at Hinkley Point C and more in the supply chain. Our proposals on carbon capture and storage—we have two preferred bidders, Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and White Rose in Yorkshire—will also result in lots of jobs and deliver a pathway to commercial CCS in the next decade, which will be very important in meeting our climate change targets.
We sometimes forget the oil and gas sector, perhaps because it is not as green as renewables, nuclear and CCS, but it will be essential as we make the transition from a fossil-fuel economy to a low-carbon economy. We will still need an awful lot of gas and oil during that process and in the next few decades. I am delighted to report to the House that investment in the North sea is booming. We are seeing record levels of investment in the North sea, which is good for our energy security as we do not have to import so much gas from other parts of the world. I hope that right hon. and hon. Members will welcome that.
I have made it clear that we will also support the development of shale gas. If it has potential—and we do not know that yet—it could be beneficial, especially to our energy security. We are going to need gas for many decades. It replaces coal, so it can help us to meet our climate change targets. At the moment, we have to import increasing amounts as the amount coming from the North sea is declining. If we can exploit shale gas commercially, that will make sense, and I hope that we can reach agreement on that. We are going about this in a way that is designed to keep the public with us. In other countries that have rushed headlong into it, the public have reacted very badly, leading to moratoriums and bans. We want to ensure that we think things through carefully, which will help us do it properly.
Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)
The oil and gas industry is well represented in the Heath business and science park in my constituency, which is one of the most important employment sites. If the Secretary of State is keen to promote jobs, why does his Department still have a planning recommendation before it that it has had since Easter? It is very simple, involving just the removal of an electricity line, but the delay is holding up investment, jobs and housing. Why has he not made a decision on that, given that he has had the papers since Easter?
Mr Davey
The House will not be surprised to learn that I am not aware of that particular planning application. Of course I will go away, look at it and write to the hon. Gentleman.
All our policies, whether on energy efficiency, renewables, new nuclear, CCS or oil and gas, add up to the proposition that my Department is about growth. We are seeing a lot of jobs created and we will see more in the future. However, I am also concerned about the bills and the cost of energy, and how those affect our constituents and industry. We have seen global gas prices increase dramatically. UK wholesale gas prices were 50% higher in the five years to 2011 than in the previous five, and they have continued to rise since then. That is the global context. People talk about the reduced price of gas in north America, but they forget to look at the price of gas in other markets, which has gone up significantly.
We need to provide a cushion or wedge between the prices going up in global markets and the bills that our constituents have to pay, and we have several policies to help. We have direct payments, including the winter fuel payment, the cold weather payment and the warm home discount. This last goes to 2 million of the lowest income households in the UK, taking £130 directly off their bills and helping 1 million of the poorest pensioners. We are trying to promote greater competition in the retail markets through our proposals on tariff reform and the work we are doing on collective switching. We are driving competition in the retail market, which is already having an effect for those who have benefited from the collective switching.
Through the Energy Bill, we are trying to ensure that we achieve wholesale market reform, and this will no doubt be debated on Report and in the other place. We welcome the fact that Ofgem is consulting on proposals to improve liquidity in the wholesale market. We look forward to its conclusions, and they will play a part in ensuring that competition can drive lower prices. When we talk about the cushion and the wedge between the global prices and the bills that people actually pay, energy efficiency is at the heart of the solution, whether in product standards, the green deal or energy company obligation. I am pleased that we are already seeing real interest in the green deal, and a huge number of assessments have already taken place.
John Penrose (Weston-super-Mare) (Con)
I am pleased to hear that my right hon. Friend is interested in promoting competition, particularly in the retail and wholesale markets. Does he agree that there may also be significant opportunities, not just in the energy sector, but more broadly across the other utility sectors too, in reducing the infrastructure costs of the transmission network—be they wires or pipes for water, energy or whatever—using investment more effectively and efficiently and trying to regulate down those costs in a much more determined fashion?
Mr Davey
I am sure my hon. Friend is right. In a previous incarnation, I was Minister with responsibility for competition and was extremely keen to make sure that the UK had the most robust and rigorous competition regime in the world. The changes going through this House have delivered on that. I am not an expert on every single utility sector, so I will be careful about making any particular points about the water industry, or any other industry, but I am sure he is right that competition has an important role to play.
The impact of our climate change and energy policies has been to reduce household bills by 5%. By 2020, bills will be 11% less than they otherwise would have been. We know, of course, that energy prices are going up globally, but we have the policies to try to cushion people. As a result, people will pay lower bills than they otherwise would have done.
Huw Irranca-Davies
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way, and I will not abuse his graciousness any more. Against that backdrop, why is it that independent analysis from the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group shows that an additional 300,000 people went into fuel poverty last year, and the Hills review suggests that 200,000 will be driven further into fuel poverty in the next four years? Against the glowing backdrop he has set out, why is that happening?
Mr Davey
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that fuel poverty is a real problem. [Interruption.] Opposition Members, from a sedentary position, say that the number of those facing fuel poverty is going up. Indeed, with global gas prices going up we have a challenge to keep bearing down on fuel poverty, but we are completely committed to doing that. Later this year we will produce a fuel poverty strategy, the first to be produced for more than a dozen years. One reason why he can quote the Hills review is that the Government commissioned that review to look into the exact nature of fuel poverty to ensure that it is being measured correctly. It shows that the previous Government could not even measure fuel poverty correctly. We will ensure that we measure it correctly, so that our policies can be targeted far more effectively to help the fuel poor. Opposition Members are not the only people in this House who are compassionate about the fuel poor.
It is important that we are concerned about the high cost of energy for all businesses, and energy-intensive industries in particular. That has to come through greater energy efficiency and we have a number of programmes to deliver that. There also has to be compensation and extra help for energy-intensive industries. I am grateful for the work and co-operation of the Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to ensure that we have a package to address the problem, particularly for energy-intensive industries. We have not had one before.
Mr Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich) (Lab)
The right hon. Gentleman was critical of the previous Government’s definition of fuel poverty and praised Professor Hills’ proposals. The problem is that no one can understand them. Will he please explain to the House the Hills’ definition of fuel poverty?
Mr Davey
The interesting thing is that that definition has two parts: it tries to measure overall fuel poverty in terms of energy efficiency; and, most importantly—it has not been done before—it looks at the depth of fuel poverty. If we consider not just fuel poverty statistics, but income poverty statistics too, we should be most concerned about those in poverty year in, year out—the grinding fuel and income poverty. Unless we have measures that show what is happening to deep fuel poverty and allow us to attack it, we will not be able to deal with fuel poverty. Our measures are more effective and more sophisticated than anything produced by the Labour party.
We must ensure that business energy costs are, through climate change policies, similar across the EU and the globe. One measure that the UK and the EU have pushed is the European carbon market, which is often known as the EU ETS. It is important that the EU ETS carbon price provides incentives and signals to the markets for investment in low carbon, and that it creates a level playing field for industries across the EU. I regret that the vote in the European Parliament on the back-loading proposals was lost by 19 votes. The proposals were part of the reform of the EU ETS. We need to do a lot better. I hope that the ENVI Committee in the European Parliament can come forward with another package so that we can reform the carbon market. That is in everyone’s interest, not just on climate change, but to ensure that we have competitive industries on a level playing field across the European Union.
I want to end by talking briefly about climate change. Some will say that we should put off action on climate change until we get to better financial times, and some will say that we should not be looking at this issue at the moment given our financial and economic problems. I reject those arguments completely. The science of climate change is unequivocal: we have to act now and we should have acted before. That is why we need to reform the EU ETS. It is about not just the back-loading proposals, but structural reform. I am working with fellow EU Ministers and have set up a like-minded group—the Green Growth group—to try to build a coalition at the European Council, so that we can achieve these vital reforms on climate change.
There has been a big debate during the passage of the Energy Bill—a carry-over Bill in the Queen’s Speech—on the proposal for a decarbonisation target, which has a role to play in tackling climate change. Of the general election manifestos from the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, the Labour party and even the Green party, guess how many mentioned a decarbonisation target for the power sector? Not a single one. When we published the draft Energy Bill in May 2012, it did not contain a decarbonisation target, and there was no decarbonisation target promised in the coalition agreement. Now we have one in the Bill. The Government have looked at the issue and put the target in the Bill. We are the first Government ever to do that, and it is a very strong move. We are an early mover. The Opposition want to carp at one or two details, but I am afraid that they fail to acknowledge what we have done and what we have delivered.
Alec Shelbrooke
Does my right hon. Friend agree that, whether or not people are sceptical about climate change, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and carbon is equally as important to energy security as it is to climate change? This policy is very important in making sure that we have energy security in this country.
Mr Davey
My hon. Friend is absolutely spot on. I believe that the climate change science is unambiguous and that we have to act on that basis, but he is absolutely right: there are other reasons to invest in low carbon and energy efficiency. It is important that this country takes a lead on climate change by working with EU colleagues to reform the EU ETS and the European carbon market, by including the decarbonisation target in the Energy Bill, which we have done, and by taking various other measures. Other countries are looking at our measures on electricity market reform and our green deal because they believe that we are leading the way.
All those measures are critical in the run-up to 2015, which is when the climate change talks will take place in France, probably in Paris. During the climate change talks in Durban in 2011 the world agreed to sign a legally binding global treaty at the climate change talks in 2015. This will be a critical moment in the global battle against climate change. We need to ensure that our international legal obligations apply to everyone in the world, not just to Europe or the Kyoto protocol nations. Having agreed in Durban to do that in 2015, we now have to prepare the way to make it a success. Our work here and with the EU is critical because it will enable us to sign a treaty in 2015.
Whether we are trying to keep down costs for people or creating jobs, the package of measures introduced by the Government—not just my Department or the Department for Communities and Local Government, overseen by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State—are focused on helping people in our country. On the longer-term challenges, we have rejected short-term fixes and the siren calls of vested interests. If we are interested in building a new and sustainable economy, we must make it a low-carbon economy and consider the long-term challenges.
I am grateful to the Opposition for how they have debated energy policy over recent months, particularly on the Energy Bill. I have seen a desire to build a consensus, which is really important, because investment to tackle our energy challenges and climate change are, by their very nature, long term, and the investment framework that one builds needs to span not just one Parliament or one Government, but several Parliaments and Governments into the foreseeable future. Building a consensus is critical for successful policies that are as cheap and effective as possible. I look forward to hearing what the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) has to say. I am sure that she wants to add to that consensus.
Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab)
I beg to move an amendment. At the end of the motion add:
‘but believe that the Gracious Speech offers no answers for squeezed households facing a cost of living crisis; regret that the economy is flatlining, unemployment is rising, borrowing is set to be £245 billion more than planned and the Office of Budget Responsibility has confirmed that by 2015 people will be worse off than they were in 2010; and call on your Government to take real action to get people back into employment, build more affordable homes, tackle rising energy and water bills, tackle the growing cost of getting to work and instability in private sector housing rents and tenancies and end extortionate letting agents’ fees and charges.’.
We debate the Queen’s Speech at a time of crisis for millions of people in our country. This was a golden opportunity for the Government to show that they were in touch with the nation’s concerns and that they would help with the rising cost of living and offer hope to families who are seeing their dreams evaporating with every year that passes. But this Queen’s Speech will not take the pressure off the squeezed middle, lessen the anger of commuters powerless to halt the relentless rise of rail fares or address the choice between heating and eating for our most vulnerable senior citizens. For the shop worker whose hours have been cut, putting them with the 1.5 million people who are part-time through no choice of their own, for the middle manager workless for the first time at 50, for the design graduate offered only unpaid internships and for the parents whose child is still living with them at an age when they should have a home of their own, this Queen’s Speech has only confirmed what they dreaded: jobs and growth will have to wait and living standards will continue to fall.
While the wealthiest 1% will see their earnings rise with the Chancellor’s spring bonus, everyone else will have to settle for less. They will be expected to make ends meet, cut corners, postpone the holiday and perhaps join the 5 million families who, according to Which?, use credit or savings to pay for food. The Queen’s Speech is not just a missed opportunity, but a denial of the power of Government to change lives for the better. I believe that Government can stimulate jobs, foster growth, encourage investment and skill a work force for today’s jobs and those of tomorrow, but not if the golden rule, at every turn, is to cut the deficit first, whatever the impact, cost and evidence.
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
Of course, the right hon. Lady is right that the employment market is tough for many people, but in these difficult times, will she welcome the fact that there are now 750,000 more people in work than when her Government left office and that the UK’s overall employment rate is growing at twice the rate of the United States’ and is the fastest growing of any G7 country? That is not a bad record in tough times.
Caroline Flint
The Prime Minister promised change, but things have got worse, not better. He inherited an economy in which growth had returned, inflation was low, unemployment was falling and borrowing was lower than forecast. Today the economy is still flatlining, with more people out of work than when he became Prime Minister, the slowest economic recovery for more than 100 years, prices rising faster than earnings and real wages down £1,700 since 2010, while energy bills, train fares and the cost of a weekly shop have spiralled out of control.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
My right hon. Friend is right to mention train fares. The Government talk a lot about reducing the cap to 1%, but is not the truth that they have removed the ban on so-called flexibility, meaning that train companies can now increase their ticket prices by as much as 5% above the retail prices index, which was something the Labour Government removed?
Caroline Flint
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, which is why our amendment puts forward an alternative to the Government’s proposal that would help commuters.
Meg Hillier
Will my right hon. Friend add to her list the trap that many of my constituents find themselves in, not earning an £81,000 salary and unable to afford the £17,000 deposit on an average-priced property—generation rent trapped in an unregulated private rented sector? What comfort are the Government giving them?
Caroline Flint
They are offering them no comfort, and I will address that issue later, as too will my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn).
Even by the Government’s own tests, they have failed to face up to the stark reality that whatever the intention, after all the cuts, pain and hardship, the plan is not working. The credit rating test was to ensure our triple A status, but that has been downgraded by not one, but two agencies. The borrowing test was to eliminate the deficit by the election, but that is £245 billion off course. Struggling families, pensioners and businesses cannot afford another two years of stagnation, so the challenge for the Government in this Queen’s Speech was to get our economy back on track, get people back to work and stop the slide in people’s living standards.
Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)
Will the right hon. Lady tell us something that the Labour Front-Bench team have been reluctant to tell us, which is how much higher borrowing would be if Labour was in charge and what effect that might have on interest rates?
Caroline Flint
I am afraid to say that the Chancellor’s spending cuts and tax rises, which went too deep, too fast, have left our economy flatlining. As I said, the Government are borrowing £245 billion more than they planned. [Hon. Members: “Answer the question!”] I am going to. That is why we have called for infrastructure investment to be brought forward and for a temporary cut in VAT as part of Labour’s five-point plan for jobs and growth. These measures would lead to a short-term rise in borrowing, but getting growth and confidence back into the economy from a boost such as the VAT cut and investment such as in the building of affordable homes would increase our tax revenues, help reduce the welfare bill and see borrowing fall in the medium term.
Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that that much-needed boost to the economy is precisely the message of encouragement that young people in this country need? It is a damning indictment of the Government’s policies that more than 1 million young people are unemployed.
Caroline Flint
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, but we are not just about providing answers on jobs—we would expect something back too—which is why, under our jobs guarantee, if someone did not take a job, they would lose benefits.
Caroline Flint
I want to make some progress, because there are only six minutes per speech, and I am sure that many right hon. and hon. Members want to get in.
Let us take a closer look at the real lives of hard-working Britain. On energy bills, the facts speak for themselves. In just three years, bills have risen by more than £300, and, despite falling between 1997 and 2010, fuel poverty is now increasing sharply. There has been a doubling in the number of pensioners dying from hypothermia compared with five years ago. What have the Government done about it? The Secretary of State mentioned the energy company obligation, the ECO. But less than half the budget of that will go to people in fuel poverty. He has tried to claim credit for the warm home discount, but he will not want to talk about the hundreds of thousands of low-income families with children that are missing out on help. He mentions the green deal, which is going so well that the Government still will not tell us how many people have taken out a package.
But one thing I am sure he does want to talk about is the Prime Minister’s now infamous pledge to force the energy companies by law to put everybody on the cheapest tariff. I will not forget Wednesday 17 October 2012 when the Prime Minister said:
“I can announce…that we will be legislating so that energy companies have to give the lowest tariff to their customers.” —[Official Report, 17 October 2012; Vol. 551, c. 316.]
It sounded great; it is a shame his own Ministers did not know about this announcement until it happened. When the Government finally published their proposals in February, it confirmed what we knew all along; that this was an impossible promise from an out-of-touch Prime Minister making it up as he went along.
You do not have to take my word for it, Mr. Speaker. We can look at the Government’s Energy Bill, which categorically does not require the energy companies to put everybody on the cheapest tariff. All it says in clauses 121 to 124 is that the number of tariffs the energy companies are allowed to offer will be limited and that those tariffs may have to be standardised, and that customers will have to be provided with more information about cheaper deals. If the Secretary of State disagrees, I am more than happy to let him intervene to tell us that all energy companies will be required by law—as the Prime Minister promised—to put everyone on the cheapest tariff, the date on which the switchover will happen, how many of 22 million households will be affected and how much money on average they will save.
Caroline Flint
There we have it, Mr Speaker. They cannot explain it because it was a false promise. The Prime Minister told this House 12 times that his Government would legislate to put everyone on the cheapest tariff; that is just not going to happen.
Jim Dowd (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)
My right hon. Friend will be aware of the great potential of smart metering to reduce people’s bills. Is she as disappointed as I am, and the rest of the country, that the Government have now delayed the roll out of smart metering by 12 months?
Caroline Flint
Yes, further delays to that programme were announced last week. Whether it is smart metering, the green deal or changes to the feed-in tariffs, we have seen one mistake after another and bad handling of what should be very good policies not just for consumers, but for creating jobs and growth in this country.
Curbing the costs of energy for Britain’s households is very important, but the Government have introduced an energy market reform Bill that does nothing to reform the energy market. They have cut winter fuel payments for pensioners, despite promising not to. They have halved the fuel poverty budget while claiming it is bigger and better than ever. They have closed Warm Front, which helped well over 2 million households to insulate their homes. They stand proudly as the first Administration since the 1970s not to have a Government-funded energy efficiency scheme.
If this was our Queen’s Speech, we would be providing real help now for people and reform of the energy market for the long term. Here are three Labour policies that we would have included. [Interruption.] Well, we have been mentioning all these policies for the past year and this is another opportunity to confirm them again. First, elderly customers, who are most vulnerable to the cold weather and most at risk of fuel poverty, are among the least likely to be able to access the cheapest online deals or to switch supplier. We would put that right and put all those over 75 on the cheapest tariff for their gas and electricity. If we did that, as many as 4 million pensioners—including nearly 8,000 in the Secretary of State’s own constituency—could save as much as £200 a year off their bills. [Interruption.] The Minister of State, the right hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker), might like to listen, as I am offering him this policy to put in the Energy Bill. The energy companies know that that is our policy and they know that it can be done. The Government can have that policy for free; take it, put it in the Energy Bill and get help to those who need it most.
We also want everyone to benefit from a competitive and more responsible energy market. That means wholesale reform of the way in which energy is bought and sold. At the moment, no one really knows what the true cost of energy is. If energy companies were forced to sell the power they generate into an open and transparent pool, anyone could bid to retail energy.
But it does not stop with energy prices. Let us look at another basic need on which every household relies; water. Ofwat estimates that some 2.2 million households—one in 10—spend more than 5 per cent of their income on water and sewerage. As my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh) has pointed out, despite Labour’s legislation, which allowed for new social tariffs to help people squeezed by rising water bills, the Government have washed their hands of any responsibility and are leaving it to water companies to decide whether to introduce social tariffs. We think that that is a responsibility that the Government should take on and deal with.
Mrs Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con)
The right hon. Lady is coming forward with all these ideas now, but why did her Government spend 13 years neglecting the country’s energy needs? Why did they not bring those matters to the House during that time?
Caroline Flint
I refute that accusation; investment in energy was up, there were more starts in terms of renewables, some of which will be completed under this Government—that is our legacy—and by tackling fuel poverty, the insulation programme through Warm Front and the decent homes programme we helped millions of households.
To answer honestly, I have witnessed things over the past three years that have made me challenge what we need to do for the future in terms of how the energy market works. It is up to all of us to reflect on where we are today and on what has happened in the past three years and try to put it right. That is why we believe that we need to encourage new entrants, increase competition and ease the upward pressure on prices.
One of our other proposals is to deal with Ofgem. Ofgem removed price controls a decade ago, so in the belief that competition had developed sufficiently and that privatisation had delivered a functioning competitive market. I believe it is clear now that that was a mistake. We need to create a tough new regulator that people can trust and ensure that the regulator has the power it needs to protect consumers. That is why we would abolish Ofgem and create a tough new regulator with a statutory duty to monitor the relationship between the prices that energy companies pay for their energy and the bills the public pay and the power to force them to cut prices when wholesale costs fall. We believe that that is very important.
Mr Davey
The right hon. Lady has explained to the House the Opposition’s policy to get rid of a regulator and to replace it with another regulator. Given that we need to attract £110 billion of investment in energy to this country, is she aware that one of the things that investors prize about the UK is regulatory stability and certainty? Will her proposal improve that or make it worse?
Caroline Flint
Investment in the renewables sector in this country has gone down; we are a less attractive place to invest. The Secretary of State makes much of the so-called “decarbonisation target” in the Bill. The truth is that there is no such target. Investors say to me that they need certainty, which is why we need to have strength behind a decarbonisation target to make sure that that investment comes forward.
I also believe that we cannot have a regulator that people do not trust. It has not been doing the job it was asked to do; it is not fit for purpose. To get our energy market and sector into a better place, we need consumers to have confidence in the regulator, which is why it needs to change. There is no point in trying to hold up a regulator that does not command confidence. We need a regulator that does just that and can move us to a better place, where energy has the certainty it needs for investment but also has the confidence of consumers.
Mr Anderson
That was very good decision by my colleague. Is not the truth that investors see this country as having stable regulation, but that they see it as wide open? That was the way privatisation was set up in the 1980s, so that companies can rip off the public and put bills up on a whim and do not care how they do that as long as they can get away with it. Ofgem has failed continually and it needs to be reformed; my right hon. Friend is absolutely right in what she says.
Caroline Flint
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. The truth is that we do not have a competitive market: six large companies dominate 99% of it, so we have to open it up. We need to make it more dynamic and more transparent, so that the public feel they are paying a fair price for the energy they buy.
Caroline Flint
No. I will make some progress; I have taken a number of interventions.
I have discussed energy and water, but what about those families who get up to do the right thing and head off to work each day? Among them are hard-working commuters forced to travel at peak time. Often, they have moved a long distance away from their workplace to stand a chance of buying their own home. Their reward for doing the right thing, day in and day out, is season ticket price hikes of up to 9.2%. What understanding have the Government shown them? How about squeezing them further by allowing new “super peak” fares? As my hon. Friend the Member for Garston and Halewood (Maria Eagle) has made clear, if we were in government and if this was our Queen’s Speech, we would put passengers first, not siding with the powerful private train operators. Our consumers Bill would cap fares at no more than 1% above inflation in each year of this Parliament and ban train companies from introducing even higher “super peak” fares.
Caroline Lucas
Would the Queen’s Speech of the right hon. Lady’s party include a Bill to bring the railways back into public ownership? Reports suggest that doing so would save around £1 billion a year in administration costs.
Caroline Flint
What we are clear about is that the rail companies must prove themselves when it comes to their franchises being renewed. On my local line—the east coast line—the operator has done a remarkable job. Unlike some of the other operators, it has paid premium payments back into the Government’s coffers to spend on other things. However, we must ensure that each rail company is fit for purpose, and where a company is not doing the job and we need to take action, we can make a decision on a case-by-case basis at the time.
On housing, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central will set out in his speech later today, the Government are not just failing to tackle the housing crisis; their policies are making it worse. House building is at its lowest level since the 1920s, annual housing starts are down and housing completions were lower in both years of this Government than in Labour’s last year in power. As a result, more and more people are locked out of home ownership, stuck on local authority waiting lists or forced to live in the private rented sector. Whereas this Government sit back and do nothing, Labour would act now to change the private rented sector so that it works for all—landlords and tenants.
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)
In my constituency, both house prices and private rents went up last year by 8%, which is eight times the rate at which wages rose. It costs £650,000 to buy the average property in my constituency and £800 a week to rent a three-bedroom house, yet the Tory response is to sell off council homes when they become vacant and to put families into bed-and-breakfast accommodation, at a cost of £1 million a year.
Caroline Flint
My hon. Friend makes some important points. I seem to recall that we were told that the Government’s housing policies would not lead to an increase in private rents, but the opposite has happened. I, too, saw the headline—I think it was in the Evening Standard a few weeks ago—about private rents in London rising eight times more than wages.
If this was our Queen’s Speech, we would have had a housing Bill in it and we would be taking action to encourage landlords to offer families longer tenancies, so that they have security and stability. We would introduce a register of landlords and empower local authorities to strike off rogue elements, and we would end the rip-off fees and charges imposed by letting agents. However, this Queen’s Speech offers nothing to address those concerns. It is a no-answers Queen’s Speech from a tired, failing and increasingly fractious Government.
This Government promised change, but nothing is changing for hard-working Britons. Our country faces big challenges, but this Government and this Queen’s Speech are not equal to the task. The Queen’s Speech fails to provide a reboot for flatline Britain; it fails to address the rising cost of living; and it fails to listen to hard-working people. The big question that those people are asking of Government is: how can they afford to secure a roof over their head, heat their home, feed their family and get to work? However, this Queen’s Speech has no answers for them. The promise is that we will get there in the end, but like so much with this Government, it is wearing thin. Even the Government’s own independent Office for Budget Responsibility is saying that British people will be worse off in 2015 than in 2010.
I do not relish the rising levels of young people out of work, or the months turning into years among the adult jobless. I regret that our economy remains in the doldrums. None of us has all the answers, but our amendment shows that there are ways to help people through these harsh times. At no cost to the Government, we could cap train fares, put the over-75s on the cheapest energy tariff and stop private landlords ripping their tenants off. Labour’s amendment is about what is fair, what is reasonable and what is just, and I commend it to the House.
Mr Speaker
Order. Just before I call the first contributor from the Back Benches, I remind the House that in light of the number of right hon. and hon. Members seeking to contribute, I have had to impose a six-minute limit on each Back-Bench contribution.
Mrs Caroline Spelman (Meriden) (Con)
I support the Gracious Speech and commend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on the important measures that he has outlined, which will help the hard-working families in my west midlands constituency with the cost of living.
It is the rising cost of global energy that has had such a huge knock-on effect on household bills, not least the cost of travel to work. I therefore wish to speak about the proposed investment in high-speed rail, which will run through my constituency. We will get both the pain and the gain, as the first stop outside London will be Birmingham International, just 38 minutes from Euston. High Speed 2 throws a lifeline to the west midlands, which has been held back by a lack of transport investment down the years.
The principle behind high-speed rail is the lack of capacity on the existing railways. There is already a lack of capacity, which is why freight has had to be moved off the west coast main line, on to the Chiltern line or the congested west midlands road network. That lack of capacity means that I frequently have to stand when travelling at peak times to and from my constituency. Indeed, the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) teased me as I read the contents of my red box standing up when I was a Minister, but I reminded him about his note to the effect that there was “no money left” for us when we took power.
The Opposition claim that the Queen’s Speech does nothing to tackle rail fares, but we are about to make a huge investment in rail infrastructure that will create jobs and growth. Without that extra capacity, the fundamental tool to meet rising demand will not exist. With a renaissance in west midlands manufacturing and the success of companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, demand for rail will only increase, so we must have a transport network to match the needs of the 21st century as we compete in the global race for jobs.
Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Government’s commitment to rail travel is shown not only in HS2, but in the investment being made in Birmingham New Street station at the moment?
Mrs Spelman
I absolutely agree. That is an example to west midlands constituents of the Government’s commitment to growth, jobs and infrastructure, which is essential.
When I drive home up the M40, I frequently see transporter loads of newly made cars from Solihull, representing our export-led recovery, but would it not be so much better if there was capacity on our railways to take that freight straight to Southampton for export? Frequently, the motorway link between the M42, the M40 and the M6 is heavily congested, even with the innovative active traffic management system. There are strategic assets along the length of the M42—the Blythe and Birmingham business parks, Birmingham airport and the national exhibition centre—but what we need is connectivity. The evidence from France is that the towns that really benefited from high-speed rail were those that managed to put such connectivity in place, and we have a Government who are committed to rail infrastructure.
HS2 would also optimise the under-utilised runway capacity at Birmingham airport, which would make the travel time competitive with London’s airports. The runway at Birmingham is being extended to accommodate long-haul traffic, which reflects the preferred destinations in the Indian subcontinent of west midlands manufacturers and exporters and, of course, those of the region’s residents, many of whom have their origins there.
I cannot outline the potential gains of HS2 without touching on the real pain suffered by my constituents whose homes will be blighted by the route. Properties have lost approximately 20% of their value. I say “approximately” because it is actually hard to sell a property at all, given the level of uncertainty. There is a hardship fund, and I have helped many constituents to apply to it, but very few have received help. The blight compensation is to be calculated on a set distance from the rails, which can be harsh on those who are just beyond the eligible distance. This is why I introduced a ten-minute rule Bill calling for the use of noise contours, which might more accurately reflect noise nuisance. I hope that the paving Bill proposed in the Queen’s Speech will contain significant improvements to the compensation package.
I urge the Government to look again at a property bond scheme of the type proposed by Birmingham airport when a second runway was on the cards. A property bond would enable people blighted by HS2 to move on with their lives. The evidence from HS1 is that, if the Government were to buy up their property today, most of it would not lose value once construction was completed and the perceived blight had lifted. There might even be an uplift in value from the proximity to an improved transport network. I urge the Government to continue their efforts to improve and mitigate the impact of HS2. Just today, I have heard that a new tunnel will be constructed under Castle Bromwich in my constituency, but as yet I have had no response to my request for a deep-bore tunnel that would protect the Greenway and villages such as Berkswell and Hampton-in-Arden, as well as keeping the surface around the interchange station free of rigid structures.
The House would expect me, as a former Environment Secretary, to give consideration to the environmental impact of HS2, and of course there will be a loss of green space, but it is also possible to do something really beneficial to the environment through biodiversity offsetting. During my time at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, we introduced a tool that allowed us to calculate what had to be done to compensate for the loss of nature where development occurred. With such credits, a big scheme for the restoration of the environment can be achieved either near to or where the loss occurs. For example, the university of Birmingham, in conjunction with the engineers Arup, has come up with a proposal to restore the Tame river valley, which was badly polluted by the industrial heritage of the west midlands. Biodiversity offsetting was one of the key tools in the natural environment White Paper, and the HS2 project provides a good opportunity to put it into practice.
I hope that Ministers will accept some of these suggestions for how to build on and improve the legislation for a high-speed railway, which will need to demonstrate clearly the gains to the community it serves economically, socially and environmentally in order to be sustainable and to expand public transport capacity to help with the cost of living.
Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
I often wonder on these occasions how Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot would have got on, having only six minutes to make a speech, but I will do my best.
Last week, my right hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Dame Tessa Jowell) reflected on the current political dialogue, saying that
“our political narrative has been characterised by a view of the worst of national human nature rather than the best.”—[Official Report, 8 May 2013; Vol. 563, c. 28.]
I regret to say that she is right. She is right because history teaches us that when politicians—particularly those of governing parties—are prepared to stoop to the politics of blame and resentment, and when the fulcrum of politics shifts to looking to our communities, rather than to the international financial and banking fraternity, to see who can be blamed for our problems, that is when we see people turning on each other. That is what we are seeing now. People are looking at those on welfare as though they are living high on the hog, and looking at migrants as though they are responsible for what has happened to their living standards, even though they are not.
There is a danger that the current ridiculous debate on Europe could put our prosperity at risk. Today’s debate is about the cost of living. If the debate on Europe continues as it is doing at the moment, the ratio of the pound to other currencies internationally will worsen to the point at which our imports will be more expensive and our cost of living will rise. The uncertainty will reduce inward investment into our country and, as we have seen from the Prime Minister’s somewhat ill-timed visit to the United States this week, negotiations over international trade with China, India, the US and the Russian Federation which require a Europe-wide approach to achieve a scale that allows us to negotiate sensibly, will be put at risk.
I simply ask Members on both sides of the House to be big enough to address the real challenges that we face as a nation, rather than turning individuals against individuals and fostering the politics of grievance. Historically, we seem continually to rewrite the issue of migration to this country. There is nothing new about using the politics of insecurity and uncertainty and the fear of change and difference to turn one set of people against another—usually the poor against the very poor—and we are seeing it again today.
Let us compare properly organised, legal inward migration with the illegal migration that pushes people into the sub-economy, which would have happened had we not reached the agreement to allow people to work legally here and pay tax and national insurance from 2004. This is fact, not fiction: 40% of those people from eastern Europe who registered to work here in 2004 were already in this country. They were working in the sub-economy. Nobody wants that; we want secure boundaries and legal, open migration that is properly organised.
Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)
I could not help but note, when the right hon. Gentleman said it was ridiculous to blame migrants for our economic woes—I agree with him on that—that it might also be ridiculous to assume that they had nothing to do with our economic woes. At the weekend, Lord Mandelson said:
“In 2004 when as a Labour government, we were not only welcoming people to come into this country to work, we were sending out search parties for people and encouraging them, in some cases, to take up work in this country.”
Would the right hon. Gentleman care to comment on that?
Mr Blunkett
This talk of search parties is, frankly, risible. The fact was that we had a booming economy with enormous growth and we needed people to fill those jobs. We needed them to do so legally, rather than illegally. At the moment, however, illegal migration is growing and the message we are sending out, particularly to graduate and postgraduate students, is entirely wrong. Of course there is an issue about integration and about protecting people, but we need a sensible, rational dialogue, rather than one that fosters and engenders fear.
What about the welfare state? In 2005, we set out our principles for welfare reform. Of course, earned entitlement is crucial. We all accept that work is the best form of welfare, but turning those who are struggling on welfare into victims and suggesting that they are responsible for the dilemmas that we face in these times of austerity is frankly unacceptable. My right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) mentioned the £1,700 cut in average earnings, but this Government have also frozen child benefit and cut tax credits. In-work benefits have also been cut, creating a disincentive rather than an incentive to work. Goodness knows what is going to happen when universal credit comes in later this year.
Above all, the Government are punishing people who are already struggling. The bedroom tax is the most iniquitous of the changes that the Government have brought in—[Hon. Members: “It’s not a tax.”] Does someone want me to give way?
Mr Speaker
Order. The hon. Member for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke) cannot opportunistically spring up in that way. He is showing a considerable discourtesy to the House. The right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) should proceed unhindered with his speech.
Mr Blunkett
I am grateful to you, Mr Speaker.
I am talking about children under 10 who suddenly discover that their parents have to move and that they can no longer have their own bedroom, and about those with shared care not being able to look after their children at weekends. We could have provided incentives for people to move, but I am not sure whether the Government want them to move or whether they want to punish them for having a house with two bedrooms.
Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)
My right hon. Friend’s brilliant contribution is reminding us all of why he is such a towering force in politics. Does he agree that the bedroom tax—it matters little what we call it; it is what it is—is a precise example of the politics of division that he has been talking so eloquently about?
Mr Blunkett
I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for her kind words. I want to make the point that there were alternatives, including introducing incentives for people, including older people, to move. It is often older people who require smaller premises and who have larger premises that they can no longer manage. But we will not move them, will we? We will not tax winter fuel or assumed benefits for older people because older people vote in very much greater numbers than younger people. My message today is that politics—democratic politics—can be our solution and that people should engage with it as citizens in their community. They should engage with it through voting, but they should not be misled by organisations and parties such as UKIP that seek to obtain their vote by building on resentment and hatred, which history shows us has brought countries to their knees.
Yes, we need strong borders; we need welfare reform; we need a review of the European Union—but we need fairness at home, too. Today, Sheffield city council’s fairness commission, of all parties and no parties, has presented to Downing street thousands of names on a petition. I mean fairness, not just in respect of dealing with the recession and austerity, but fairness in the sense of what Barbara Castle used to call the social wage—the investment in our decent public services. That is the message we should be putting out today.
Sir Menzies Campbell (North East Fife) (LD)
It is a privilege to take part in this debate on the Gracious Speech, and it is a particular pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett).
In view of recent events relating to the Government side of the House, I think I should make it abundantly clear that I intend to vote for the Queen’s Speech, that I will support the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, and that I will vote against any amendment, tabled or selected. The face that I should feel the need to make such an assertion at the outset will underpin some of the observations I shall make.
I continue to support the restoration of economic stability. That was the raison d’être of the coalition and it remains its overarching objective. To fulfil that commitment, I, like others, have had to subordinate my views on other subjects to that objective. I felt it necessary to do so because of the economic circumstances we have inherited and because of the very obvious difficulties that exist in resolving them. Some of the decisions that have been made have been very painful—to me and to others—but I believe them to have been necessary.
We continue to make progress towards the objective. We have reduced the deficit; we have maintained low interest rates; there has been no run on the pound—and although it is a volatile measurement, it is worth observing that the stock market, often seen as a barometer of confidence, has in recent days returned to its levels of five years ago. Between now and 2015, nothing should be allowed to distract the Government from that objective. It is impossible in the present context to ignore possible distractions.
Thankfully, the internal management of the Conservative party is nothing to do with me, but speaking as someone who was a not entirely dispassionate observer of the Major Government between 1992 and 1997, I say that there are surprising echoes of that period in the current turmoil of the Conservative party. It is worth remembering that that Government had very substantial economic achievements—to such an extent that the incoming Labour Government, with the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown) as Chancellor of the Exchequer, accepted the public spending proposals of the outgoing Government.
If we undermine the authority of our Prime Minister, we will undermine the credibility of our Government. If we undermine the credibility of our Government, we will undermine the economic objectives of that Government. This is all the more the case when the coalition agreement contains a perfectly rational mechanism for a referendum if constitutional change is made. Is it rational to spend the next two years on a fractious and divisive debate over Europe when so much remains to be done? I simply cite the example of Scotland, in respect of which every decision, every policy and every political statement has for some time—and it will continue for some time—had to be seen through the prism of the referendum fixed for September next year.
If these events are a reaction to UKIP, let me offer a sporting metaphor. Teams that chase the game are rarely successful. That applied, of course, to the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath when he sought to outbid the current Chancellor on the question of inheritance tax, and as it did when he declined to call a further general election. Concessions rarely satisfy dissidents, who have the ghost of Oliver Twist among them.
Another issue—that of Syria—should not allow us to be distracted from these economic goals. I retain my previously expressed reservations about the proposals to arm the rebels. President Obama’s resistance to that is sometimes related to an inactivity—whether or not that is right is neither here nor there, but in my view his resistance is well founded. The objections are many, including the emergence of Islamist Jabhat al-Nusra as an increasingly influential part of the rebel forces, which raises the question of who would inherit any arms that we might deliver. The risk of a proxy war between the United States and Russia is another example, with each matching each other in armaments supply. Once we depart from non-lethal supplies, where would we stop?
Sir Menzies Campbell
I am about to finish.
Some have suggested a no-fly zone, but if we have one, we must be ready to shoot down the aircraft that intrude into it and accept the risk of the aircraft enforcing it being shot down. We must also be ready to suppress the air defences, many of which have in an entirely deliberate but cowardly way been situated among the civilian population.
I finish by noting that as Russia and the United States tentatively explore the possibility of a joint approach on Syria, this is no time to encourage the rebels to believe that they need not subscribe to any political settlement in the hope of outright victory.
Jim Dowd (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)
I am delighted to have the opportunity to make a few comments on the Queen’s Speech. This is the third anniversary of the formation of this particular coalition, and this Queen’s Speech is the penultimate one, with only one more to go—Hallelujah! What is most remarkable about this Queen’s Speech is how thin it is, and how it is dominated by two particular elements. The first is just how little the coalition parties can agree on—they seem to have spent most of their time deciding not what should go into this Queen’s Speech, but what to keep out of it. That explains its paucity to some degree.
The other element is the fear of the saloon-bar stage that is Nigel Farage and UKIP. It was said at the end of the 19th century that the spectre of communism was haunting Europe, but the spectre of UKIP now haunts the Conservative party to such a degree that it really does not know how to deal with it. There is widespread sympathy on the Conservative Benches for UKIP’s aims and objectives, and there is a degree of incomprehension, as I observe it, of the fact that the natural home for right-wing fruitcakes is within the Conservative party. The acts of UKIP have clearly led to some confusion.
The amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) and predominantly, although not exclusively, supported by Conservative Members is no amendment at all. I think the technical expression for it is “pious”—it just expresses a view and will have no impact whatever either for good or ill. If these Members were serious about voting against the Queen’s Speech, they could, of course, vote against the main motion, but they will not—
Mr Speaker
Order. I want to help the hon. Gentleman by gently saying that he would not think it right to start to debate an amendment that has not been selected. He is an experienced and wily old hand, and I feel sure that he will be able to frame his remarks in an appropriate way.
Jim Dowd
I am grateful for your guidance, Mr. Speaker, as, indeed, I always am.
I think that this also reflects the enduring resentment among Conservative Members, and their failure to appreciate that they did not win the last election. They try to behave as if they did, and they try to believe that they can simply have their way in this matter, but that is not the situation that the electorate gave them. I understand their resentment, because if there was one election that the Conservative party really ought to have won it was probably the one that took place in 2010, but they failed to do so.
The Prime Minister, of course, is away. He will not even be voting for the Queen’s Speech himself when it is put to the vote tomorrow. He has thrown just a few titbits to the fruitcakes by saying that while Ministers must not vote for the amendment, others can abstain. He is trying to draw up a strange pact, the “pax Cameron”.
Meg Hillier
Does my hon. Friend have the impression that the Prime Minister may be in power but not in control?
Jim Dowd
I see quite easily how a logical person could reach that conclusion.
I myself am in favour of a referendum on the question of Britain’s continuing relationship with the European Union, but I believe that it is a matter for the next Parliament. I hope that we can prevail on the Opposition Front Bench to include a manifesto commitment, but of course the manifesto for the next election is still two years away.
David T. C. Davies
Am I to understand that the hon. Gentleman is perfectly happy to support a referendum in the next Parliament, but believes that anyone who wants to give the people a chance to have a say in their future in Europe in this Parliament is a fruitcake?
Mr Speaker
Order. We must not pursue this exchange, whether in relation to fruitcakes or in relation to a prospective amendment which has not been selected. The hon. Member for Monmouth (David T. C. Davies) should not seek to divert the hon. Member for Lewisham West and Penge (Jim Dowd) from the path of virtue to which I think he had just about returned.
Jim Dowd
But I entirely understand that there may be those who would.
The argument needs to be heard. The other day I received a message from a constituent who was an avowed Tory voter at the last election—in the Bromley part of my constituency; there are not many Tory voters left in the Lewisham part—
Jim Dowd
A few.
My constituent resented the suggestions that were being made about the referendum, because no one had put the idea to the electorate at the last election. I expect the issue to be a key part of the next general election campaign, and I think that we should offer people a referendum on it.
Labour is the only party that has ever given people in this country a referendum. Back in 1975, under the Wilson Government, the referendum was on whether we accepted the revised terms under which we would remain in what was then the European Economic Community. Scottish and Welsh devolution, the forming of the Greater London Authority, the direct election of a Mayor of London and elected mayors in cities across the country have all spawned referendums, and all of them were instituted by a Labour Government. The closest that a Conservative Government have ever got was being forced into a referendum on electoral reform and the alternative vote by the terms of the coalition agreement.
Jim Dowd
No, I will not, tempted though I am. I have taken two interventions, and if I took another it would come out of my speaking time.
The deal over boundary reform, and not Lords reform, was another part of the coalition agreement, but the Liberal Democrats appear to have ignored that. Mind you, I am not complaining: both the boundary gerrymander and the equally ridiculous AV system were well worth kicking into touch.
Others speak of a “mandate referendum”, whatever such a thing is. A Government have a mandate; and what would be the question in this “mandate referendum”? “Should the Government seek every opportunity to protect and promote the best interests of the British people”? I believe that all Governments do that, although I do not agree with the way in which this Government do it. I believe that the mandate stems from the general election. Who on earth is going to vote “No”? It is ludicrous. This is merely a distraction, an attempt to confuse activity with action.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) referred to the way in which we are isolating certain people. While we must provide fair access to public services, the Government must be careful not to fuel the flames of xenophobia. We should understand in this country that while there must be a genuine entitlement, and while a contribution must be made—according to people’s ability—the overwhelming majority of immigrants and their descendants have contributed mightily to what the country is today. We should not allow that to be put at risk by any obsession at the margins, or try to reduce what is a great record.
As I said at the outset, the Queen’s Speech is thin. It is clearly not up to the task of meeting the challenges that face Britain today. The sooner this Government go, the better.
Dr Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)
It was kind of you, Mr. Speaker, to allow a segment of today’s debate to those of us who were concerned about the Opposition’s decision not to choose foreign affairs, defence or, indeed, Europe as the subject of one of the themed days of debate on the Queen’s Speech, so that we could refer to some of those matters. I suppose that I ought to get the words “cost of living” into my speech from time to time, and I shall endeavour to do so, but I hope that if I fail, they will be taken as read.
Although the right hon. and learned Member for North East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell) and I serve closely together on the Intelligence and Security Committee, we are not best known for agreeing on issues such as the future of the European Union or that of the Trident nuclear deterrent. On one issue, however, we find ourselves in close agreement, and that is the question of whether or not we should arm the rebels in Syria, or become militarily involved in the civil war in other ways.
Dr Lewis
I think I am right in saying that my hon. Friend’s view is quite widely shared on the Back Benches, at least on this side of the House, and, I suspect, on the other side as well.
It is not a matter of wanting to do something less than we might in terms of humanitarian intervention. I certainly supported humanitarian military intervention in Sierra Leone, and I was one of the first to call for military intervention to topple Miloševic. I have supported military action in other theatres, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, and I even supported such action—albeit with considerable reluctance—in the case of Libya, given Gaddafi’s explicit threat to the citizens of Benghazi. We must, however, consider two aspects when thinking about undertaking military intervention. One is the humanitarian consideration, but the other is the question of who will take over if that military intervention is successful. What concerns me is the possibility that the people who take over will become dominated by a group allied to al-Qaeda who are even worse than the Assad regime—and that is saying something.
My mind goes back to the speech made by Tony Blair as Prime Minister in the run-up to the Iraq war. What did he say that so swayed the House in favour of intervention? He said that his nightmare was the prospect of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of al-Qaeda. We now know that either there were no weapons of mass destruction, or, if there were chemical or biological weapons, they were not there by the time the allied forces went in.
In this case, however, we know that there are weapons of mass destruction—chemical weapons; a big stockpile of nerve gas—in Syria. What the Foreign Secretary has admitted at the Dispatch Box, repeatedly, is that there are, to use his own estimate, several thousand al-Qaeda-linked militants fighting alongside the Syrian opposition. I have raised the question at least five times since last September, and I have had five answers, none of which has satisfied me on the point. The point is this: how do we prevent that stock of deadly chemical weapons, which in the hands of Assad and his regime poses no threat to the west, from falling into the hands of al-Qaeda-linked militants, who would undoubtedly use them against the west, with terribly adverse effects on our cost of living and on our being able to stay alive?
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that Carla del Ponte may be right, because it certainly does not make sense for the Assad regime to use chemical weapons—the one thing that would cause the west to intervene and overthrow him. If he did use them, why use them in such small quantities that they could not have a decisive effect? If the intent was to intimidate the opposition, why deny vehemently, as the Assad regime does, that it has used them? It does not make sense.
Alec Shelbrooke
What would be the direct effect on the cost of living in this country if an al-Qaeda-led Government in Syria got together with the Shi’a-led Government in Iran and took a direct look at the democracy in Iraq, which is diametrically opposed to their beliefs?
Dr Lewis
I am sure that my hon. Friend is right in his implication that there would have to be a huge uplift in public expenditure on all forms of counter-terrorist techniques, and there would undoubtedly be a deleterious effect on the freedoms of peoples in this country, which would have to be restricted considerably if we found ourselves under attack from deadly chemical weapons in the hands of an extremist group allied to our enemies.
The hon. Member for Lewisham West and Penge (Jim Dowd) quoted Marx, without attributing the words to him, when he said that the spectre of communism is haunting Europe. I am put in mind of a quotation attributed to Lenin:
“The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”
We would have to be out of our minds to assist in the overthrow of one shocking regime and the coming into place instead of a regime that was equally shocking and atrocious but hostile to us and armed with chemical weapons.
Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)
I am sympathetic to much of the hon. Gentleman’s argument, but a humanitarian crisis in Syria has to be addressed. Given the difficulties between the Russians, ourselves and the Americans in relation to an international conference, how do we move a political settlement forward?
Dr Lewis
I am extremely grateful for that intervention, as it leads me to my final point. Whenever we talk to our Government spokesmen about this, they say that the answer is a peaceful transition. It is abundantly clear that either there will be something peaceful and no transition, or if there is a transition, it will not be peaceful. If our concern is, above all, to stop the killing, we ought to be working with the Russians not for a transition but for a cease fire. We ought to aim to freeze the situation, the effect of which would be to stop the killing but not to result in the transfer of the chemical weapons stocks to the hands of an opponent of western civilisation that is even more deadly than the people who currently hold them.
Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)
I am honoured to speak in this year’s debate on the Loyal Address and to make some comments on Her Majesty’s Gracious Speech.
I join the sentiments expressed by other Opposition Members that Britain could and would have hoped for so much more from this Queen’s Speech. After three years of low growth, rising unemployment, increased borrowing and a rising cost of living, including fuel and food bills and transport fares, Britain deserved much more. We got no answers on tackling the rising cost of living, at a time when real wages have fallen by £1,700 since the election, and there was nothing to help the increasing number of Londoners struggling to afford food. It is clear that, after three years of failure and U-turns, this Government are out of touch, out of ideas and unable to bring the change this country needs.
Last year, I spoke in my first Queen’s Speech debate as the Member of Parliament for Feltham and Heston. I spoke of local unemployment and how Her Majesty’s Gracious Speech last year offered no hope to these local families and young people, but 12 months later the situation is worse. More than 550 local people in my constituency who were unemployed 12 months ago are still unable to find a job. More people are out of work now than there were when this Prime Minister took office, and a growing number of food banks are now opening across the country—these are the most visible manifestation of the growing crisis of food poverty in Britain. Food is the most basic of human requirements, yet in one of the richest cities in the world, local families and children cannot afford to eat and are going hungry. The Trussell Trust, which runs the largest chain of food banks in the country, fed more than 34,000 people in London in the past year. In my borough of Hounslow two food banks have opened in the past two months alone, with the local council, local charities, places of worship and volunteers doing all they can to help local families and a growing number of children in poverty.
Andrew Selous
Perhaps the hon. Lady would like to put on the record the fact that food banks increased tenfold under her Government. Will she condemn the fact that her Government refused to let Jobcentre Plus signpost people to food banks because they were worried about the political damage? That was a callous way of treating people in need.
Seema Malhotra
Yet again, we see how the Conservative Government are so out of touch and so complacent, not acknowledging any of the challenges—rising unemployment and a rising cost of living—that people in Britain are facing today; they are not taking any responsibility.
A recent report by the London assembly found that more than 95% of teachers asked in London said that children in their schools regularly went without breakfast—more than half of such instances were because families could not afford food. That is completely unacceptable in modern Britain. The health, educational attainment and life chances of these children are threatened by hunger, and the Government continue to do nothing to help with the cost of living.
Meg Hillier
Teachers and head teachers in my constituency have given me similar messages. One school has what it calls a “tack room”, where it takes in young people’s mobile phones or a deposit—little bits of money—towards a blazer or school equipment, because the children cannot afford that or their school lunches.
Seema Malhotra
My hon. Friend makes a moving contribution. We have seen how schools are increasingly picking up the pieces so that children can have something to eat and at least then be able to study.
The Government are even making things worse. A recent Institute for Fiscal Studies report into child poverty found that between 2010 and 2020 absolute child poverty will increase by 55%, with the IFS saying that the projected surge is a result of the fiscal and social security policies of this Tory-led Government. A great sign of weakness is not admitting when you have got it wrong, and it is a shame that the Government did not take the opportunity of this Queen’s Speech to put forward real solutions to meet the challenges our businesses and families are facing. As Labour’s alternative Queen’s Speech argued, the focus should have been on those matters that will make a real change: jobs; growth; tackling rising consumer prices; and banking reform to back our British businesses. Last month, the International Monetary Fund published figures showing that in 2012 the UK economy grew by just 0.2%. That was 0.7% less than Germany, 2% less than the United States, and 3.8% less than India. We are, of course, in a global race, in which Britain can lead, although not under this Government if the last three years are anything to go by.
The Queen’s Speech has been a missed opportunity—another chance missed to improve the prospects of Britain’s families. It is a no-answers Queen’s Speech from a tired and failing Government. They are out of touch, out of ideas and losing the global race for Britain. My constituents in Feltham and Heston deserved better. It is not too late for the Government to change course, and I look forward to the Minister’s response.
Mrs Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con)
It is a privilege to support the Gracious Speech. Although I appreciate that it is unfashionable to talk about conviction politics, I suggest to the House that there is nothing wrong with having principles, talking about principles and sticking to principles. The principles underlying the Queen’s Speech are those of freedom, choice and individual responsibility as well as rights. Through those principles, Conservative Governments throughout the ages have brought prosperity to Britain and improved the lives of British people.
The Labour party does not work on principle. It works—[Interruption.] Labour Members are shouting; if they have a principle to tell me about, let them get up and tell me the principle on which they oppose the Queen’s Speech. They work not on principle, but on short-term party political popularity.
Debbie Abrahams
On principle, could the hon. Lady say how the Government’s statement on and commitment to fairness in the Queen’s Speech relates to child poverty, which my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) has just been talking about?
Mrs Laing
The hon. Lady makes my point for me. The Queen’s Speech is all about fairness, to which I am coming in a moment. Child poverty has arisen not because of the content of the Queen’s Speech but because of 13 years of economic mismanagement by the last Labour Government.
Mary Macleod (Brentford and Isleworth) (Con)
Does my hon. Friend agree that the Queen’s Speech is fair to women, through its raising of the personal tax allowance and doing so much for child care?
Mrs Laing
Indeed it is. I thank my hon. Friend for that point. It is important that we treat women fairly, and much in the Queen’s Speech will make it easier for women to go to work and look after their families and do the two important jobs of being a mother and being active in the economy and the workplace. It is through measures such as reforming how we organise child care that that will be done. That is fairness and how we eradicate child poverty and improve the position of all families throughout the country.
Andrew Selous
On child poverty, did my hon. Friend note, as I did yesterday, that the Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-wing think-tank, has now disowned Labour’s approach to priority and is backing ours in dealing with the causes of child poverty? That is good news, as I am sure my hon. Friend will agree.
Mrs Laing
I did indeed, and my hon. Friend makes the point extremely well.
There is something that has not surprised me, but let me draw it to the House’s attention. The hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) and many of her colleagues get excited about food banks because they believe that it is in the power of the state to do everything to help people. We believe, as a matter of principle, that power is with the people and it is up to individuals to help each other, voluntarily, if they so wish, in times of need. Food banks are not about entitlement. Entitlement and benefits are one issue, but food banks are about relieving short-term need. It is important that we should be able to do that voluntarily.
It is not nasty to make difficult economic decisions, but necessary. It is not nasty to tell the truth about having to cut public spending, but necessary. It is not nasty to reduce the nation’s debt to secure the future for our children, but necessary. It is right to construct a taxation and public spending regime that makes work pay. That is what fairness is all about—taking people on lower incomes out of taxation and not requiring them to pay benefits for those who can work but find that there is no point because they are better off not working. That is what Labour brought about, and it was wrong.
By reforming benefits and immigration laws, we are putting Labour’s mistakes right. It is wrong that people who have worked and saved all their lives have to sell their homes to pay for care in later life, and we are putting that right. It is wrong that enterprising people should be held back by the dead hand of an overbearing state. That is what Labour believes it in and it is one of the reasons made such a mess for 13 years. It was wrong and, again, we are putting it right.
Something else is wrong. Most of us appreciate the benefits of the European single market. However, it is wrong that unnecessary rules and regulations from expensive institutions are hindering our businesses and restricting our freedom. We must, as a nation, renegotiate the terms of our membership of the European Union. I am not going to mention any hypothetical amendments, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Mrs Laing
Indeed. We are today debating the cost of living, an issue fundamental to the lives of everyone in Britain today. On these Benches, we care about the prosperity of our country and the well-being of our people, so we want the freedom to run our economy and the institutions of our country in a way that benefits the people of Britain.
I hope that the Queen’s Speech will be augmented by a Bill that might come through the private Member’s Bill route and that such a Bill will pave the way for a referendum on our relationship with the European Union. I fully understand, although some appear not to, why such a Bill cannot be a Government Bill. We have to appreciate that we are in the most unfortunate situation of being in a coalition, and one part of that coalition does not want a referendum on or a renegotiation of the terms of our membership. However, many of us do want those things. We need a renegotiation and then a referendum for the simple reason that there is a silent majority of people out there who get on with their everyday lives, work hard, look after their families, contribute to their communities and look to this Parliament to hear their voice and give them the freedom to do the best for their country.
Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)
I want to speak about the three Fs—fags, farmers and fairness. From time to time, fruitcakes may also creep into this speech; perhaps some will want to intervene, although I hope they will not.
I turn first to fairness and the cost of living. Today is the start of carers week, so it is an appropriate time for us to think about fairness for the most important people in our society—people who give back, who care for others and who are in need. It is important that we make sure that the measures that will be presented to the House during this term of Parliament do most to deliver for those most in need, particularly carers or those in receipt of benefit.
There are 214,000 carers in Ulster, and they desperately need assistance. I look forward to the measures that will be introduced to assist them.
David Simpson (Upper Bann) (DUP)
Child poverty has been mentioned in this debate. We all understand that finances are very tight, but does my hon. Friend agree that it is vital that the cuts that the Government have imposed do not penalise children? The Children’s Society estimates that 200,000 more children could go into poverty, and that should not be allowed to happen.
Ian Paisley
My hon. Friend hits the nail on the head.
The people who most require fairness are the most vulnerable in our society, such as families in the low-income bracket. One of the ways we can help to address that is through the cost of fuel. Sixty per cent. of fuel costs are duty or VAT. The Government could do something to deal with that, and I look forward to them taking measures to do so over the course of the year. I welcome the increase in the personal allowance for income tax, because that is focused on the low paid.
Job creation is really where the Government’s attention should be directed. Over the past few days, many people have expressed concern about things not being in the Gracious Address, and one such thing is a change to corporation tax levels in Northern Ireland. I am disappointed about that, because such a change would have allowed us to create additional employment and stimulate the economy in the way it needs to be stimulated.
However, I pay tribute to the Government for listening to us on some of the welfare reform issues. They have allowed Northern Ireland to develop its own flexibilities, such as direct payment to landlords, twice-monthly payments to claimants, and the splitting of the single household universal credit payment between two people. That is very welcome because it helps families in Northern Ireland, especially those on low incomes, to manage their money better.
Mr Anderson
The hon. Gentleman is making a very detailed speech. I agree that those are good concessions for his part of the world, but is there any reason why they could not apply in the rest of the country, because people in the north of England have similar circumstances to those in the north of Ireland?
Ian Paisley
Like the hon. Gentleman, who is also a great Unionist committed to the Union, I believe that the same benefits should flow whether in the north of England or the northern part of Ulster. [Interruption.] That includes Donegal; we will get it back into the Union at some point soon.
Families with a person who suffers from cancer may face difficulties. Macmillan Cancer Support recently produced an interesting report showing the significant impact on the cost of living of cancer sufferers, which could amount to as much as a year’s mortgage payments. The Government should focus their attention on what additional support they can introduce to assist those people.
Ian Paisley
Not at the moment, but I will shortly.
A disaster is coming to our farming community that will dramatically affect the cost of living through the rising cost of food. We have had one of the harshest winters ever. That is affecting, and will affect, the price of foodstuffs to feed our cattle and our sheep in the countryside. If next winter is equally harsh, I predict that this time next year the cost of food could be as much as double what it is this year. A bale of hay to feed cattle can cost as much as £60 in Northern Ireland—almost triple last year’s price. That will have a knock-on effect on the cost of living of ordinary households up and down the United Kingdom because it will affect how much a person can purchase to feed their family. The Government had better be warned about this now so that they can try to address the needs of the farming community across this country.
The impact of the cost of living in our rural communities is leading to an increase in suicide. For example, there was a very saddening episode last week in the Republic of Ireland, in County Monaghan, where a farmer shot 40 of his livestock because he could no longer afford to feed them, and then turned the gun on himself. This is a diabolical situation that is starting to affect our economy and will see the price of food increase.
I want to deal briefly with fags. Over the past few days people have talked about the impact of not having something in the Queen’s Speech. I want to commend the Government for taking a stand by not including measures on plain packaging, because that would have driven people out of employment, and not only in Northern Ireland; it would have affected shopkeepers up and down the United Kingdom and destroyed people’s opportunity to make a living.
In addition, it is a giant con trick. I am a non-smoker and I have four children who I never want to see smoking. If I thought for one moment that plain packaging would stop them smoking, I would have been in favour of it years ago. Indeed, the Labour party had the chance to introduce this measure in 2008 and did not do so. I am glad that 18 members of the Labour party signed my open letter to Her Majesty’s Government to support my campaign to stop plain packaging because of the impact it would have on smuggling, on counterfeit trade, and on all sorts of other aspects that would not affect the health of the nation in any way.
Alec Shelbrooke
As a reformed smoker, perhaps it would be helpful if I told the hon. Gentleman that the branding of cigarettes did not make me start smoking. Smoking became an addiction and unfortunately I got hooked, but what was on the packet had nothing to do with it whatsoever.
Ian Paisley
Let me say on this very important issue that I was delighted that 18 members of the Labour party signed my open letter to the Government, as did a former Labour Cabinet Minister, the current Chairman of a Select Committee, and three other former Ministers of the Crown. They did so because they were concerned about the impact that the introduction of plain packaging would have on crime, including smuggling and counterfeiting. It would drive young people—over 18-year-olds—to smoke the illicit cigarettes that are smuggled over a country’s borders. I welcome the fact that the Government have taken a stand on this. Very few people have been prepared to stand up to encourage and defend them, but I certainly will.
Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)
It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley).
Our membership of the European Union affects, one way or another, the living standards of our constituents and the prosperity of our people. Membership of the European Union has primarily been founded on an economic case that membership is in our economic interests. In 1973, the argument was principally that we wanted to join a common market because it would raise living standards in this country. More recently, proponents of our membership of the EU say that one fifth of all EU direct inward investment comes to the United Kingdom, representing a source of jobs.
What our membership of the EU has never been, in the eyes of the British people, is, to use the treaty language, a project for
“ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe”
Since 2010, this Government and their Ministers have been engaged in pushing back against the onward march of greater economic integration and the attendant political integration that follows from that. We saw that when our Ministers ensured that we did not contribute to the bail-out mechanism for sovereign states in difficulty. In the banking union proposals, where the rules of the European Central Bank could have seen banks dancing to the tune of a European regulator, they ensured a double majority system to protect UK financial services.
We have also had to push back on greater justice and home affairs integration. The Home Secretary has sensibly entered a reservation on 130-odd justice and home affairs measures, including the European arrest warrant and DNA fingerprinting.
Mr Ruffley
I will not at the moment because time is short.
It is also the case that, historically, we have been against greater integration. Why else did we secure an opt-out from the euro—that disastrous project that we did not want anything to do with at the outset and that we will not, I trust, wish to join in the future? We were also, of course, one of the few EU countries to say that we would have nothing to do with the Schengen arrangements, whereby many of the other EU members decided to throw their borders wide open.
The question of whether UK membership of the EU is in the national economic interest is being asked with increasing urgency. Telling interventions have been made in recent days by Lords Lamont and Lawson and Michael Portillo, who have asked a question that has for too long been ignored: what are the costs and what are the benefits? They have come to the preliminary conclusion that the costs probably outweigh the benefits, but it is not just the words of Conservative politicians of the past that we should take into consideration.
Some important work has been done by Goldman Sachs. Jim O’Neill, who to my knowledge is not a card-carrying member of the Conservative party, has calculated that trade patterns are very much in flux. He says that if we look at German trade patterns from 2000 to 2012 and extrapolate to 2020, we will find, interestingly, that Germany will export 25% of its exports to the BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—and a falling proportion of only 30% to the EU, and that 15% of them will be to China alone and just over 8% to France. The world economy and its trade patterns are in flux, and the idea that we have to be wedded, as an article of faith, to the single market deserves serious scrutiny and examination.
I regret the absence of a referendum Bill in the Gracious Speech. In the case of any hypothetical amendment so regretting that omission, I will gleefully and proudly support it for this reason and this reason alone: we have to have a rigorous and well-informed national debate about the costs and the benefits to our people of membership of the European Union.
Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
The cost of living in my constituency, as in others up and down the country, is a real concern. Wages have been depressed, unemployment is still too high, and many of the new private sector jobs that the Government like to trumpet are zero-hours contracts or part time, with no opportunity for increased hours. I will not repeat the comprehensive list that my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) gave from the Front Bench about the challenges that face our nation.
I want to focus on housing, particularly private rented housing in my constituency, where the social rented sector accounts for 44% of households. Around 26% of my constituents are owner-occupiers and 29% are in the private rented sector, which has increased exponentially. The number of people in the private rented sector is projected to be double the number of people who own and occupy their own home in the next 15 years or so. Rents are high and growing.
On Saturday I hosted the Hackney housing summit, bringing together a range of people who are experts in their field and on living in Hackney. We said that enough is enough. We in Hackney think that the Government should listen to some of our solutions, but sadly the Queen’s Speech did not include any of them.
My constituency epitomises the challenge facing private sector renters—generation rent—who have no opportunity to get on the housing ladder, if that is what they want, and are trapped in an endless cycle of poor housing and high increases in rent, evictions or the like through extortionate rent increases. As a percentage of London rent, my constituency, across nearly all the quartiles, has more than 100% the average rent for properties of every size in London, except for the highest priced four-bed properties. All my constituents pay more than the average and the cost is going up. Costs are high, rents are increasing without limit and housing supply is woefully low.
This Government have a poor record: house building is down, homelessness and rough sleeping are up, people are struggling to get mortgages and to get on the housing ladder, and the rapidly growing private rented sector has so little security, with people having to pay increasing rents at a record high—not just in my constituency, although it epitomises the worst of it—and suffer poor quality accommodation.
On Saturday we heard very moving testimony from Rosie about Digs, a private rented sector body in Hackney that has been set up to campaign against the challenges. In nine years living in Hackney, she has had to move nine times and only one of those moves was voluntary. She also spent £50,000 on rent during those nine years. In order to buy an average sized home we would need an income of £81,000 and a deposit of £17,000. There are, however, many Rosies out there; she is not alone.
The Government must look again at the issue. I urge them to look at Treasury borrowing rules. A strong message from Saturday’s summit was that they should give local authorities the freedom to invest in new homes. It would provide construction jobs and homes in the private rented sector. Why not allow a good local authority to be a private rented landlord? The assets could ultimately be cashed in to pay off the initial investments, or they could be sold to the individuals, thus increasing home ownership, or, in boroughs such as mine, I would like to think that they could be turned into socially rented properties at affordable rents for local people so that those on the lowest incomes are not driven out of my borough.
In addition to those housing costs there is the huge challenge of paying for child care. This Government have reduced tax credit and child benefit for those on higher incomes, as well as other work-related benefits. No wonder there is a high turnover of population in my constituency, and no wonder young families are priced out of the area. We have to take a serious look at what sort of balance we want in our inner cities. People must not be driven out. We need an increase in housing supply, on which the Government have a woeful record. Their record on new starts over the past two years is the worst of any peacetime Government since the 1920s. In the past year alone there has been an 11% decrease in housing starts.
The proposed consumer rights Bill, which has not yet been mentioned, is a real opportunity to improve the rights and the lot of private tenants. Their rights should increase, including a right to repair and protections against landlords who evict or who increase rents exponentially after reasonable requests for basic repairs. We should also tackle the practices of unfair letting agents, particularly with regard to fees taken at source, not just after the event, which has been addressed by a welcome amendment that was agreed to the other week. The decent homes standard should be applied to the private rented sector. We also need to see the licensing of landlords and to look again at section 21 notices, which are not fit for purpose, because they frequently are misused by landlords to evict people on spurious grounds.
I also call on the Government to look at rents. We need to grapple, on a cross-party basis, with the issue of spiralling rents in the private sector without any notice of the impact on tenants and their homes.
Jim Dowd
Does my hon. Friend accept that another facet of the spiralling cost of rent, particularly across London, is the increased pressure it is putting on social housing and local authorities? I am sure that she, like me and many other MPs for London and for other parts of the country, is visited by more and more people asking for assistance with regard to social housing on the grounds of cost.
Meg Hillier
Absolutely. Without the supply, none of those issues will be solved. One man who came to see me was a kitchen porter struggling to support his family—he had two children. The jobcentre asked him to go for jobs further afield, but the combined cost of extra travel and child care meant that he could not afford to travel a couple of boroughs away. That is the reality of the cost of living and life in constituencies such as mine. This Government’s Queen’s Speech was detached from the lives of people who want to work hard but who often cannot get the extra hours and of private renters who cannot ever hope to earn in the required bracket.
Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)
I would add to the hon. Lady’s list of housing costs the practices of some leasehold management companies, which trap tenants with ever increasing service charges while not allowing them the access they should to the right to manage.
Meg Hillier
Absolutely. Although there has been good cross-party work in the House to reform leasehold management, there is much more to be done. It is no wonder that there is a demand for home ownership in this country, because it gives people greater control. However, that is now out of the reach of so many people that reforming the rights of tenants is long overdue across all sectors, but particularly in the private rented sector, including leaseholders.
I call on the Government to look seriously at rents and at the growing housing benefit bill. The £45 billion a year that is spent on housing benefit could, if capitalised, provide a huge opportunity for bodies such as local authorities, housing associations and perhaps others to invest in building new homes at affordable and intermediate rents, which would provide homes for the very people in my constituency who are being driven out by high costs.
Finally, I want to touch on the Government’s policy of providing new social housing at 80% of local private rents. I will give the private rents in my constituency to give the House a flavour. A two-bedroom flat in my constituency in the lower quartile costs £300 a week. One in the upper quartile costs £400 a week. For a three-bedroom, family-sized property, the average rent in the lowest quartile is £388. Even if only 80% of those rents is paid, how affordable are they?
We need to tackle what affordability means if we are serious about helping people into work and getting the economy moving. If people are in work and have disposable income, they will spend. At the moment, they are struggling to survive and the Queen’s Speech does nothing to help them.
Mike Crockart (Edinburgh West) (LD)
It is a great pleasure to speak in support of the Queen’s Speech.
The Government recognise that household budgets are under extreme pressure. I am happy that we are taking action to support households with the cost of living. In the little time available to me, I will concentrate on one aspect of those costs: the cost of energy. The consumer group Which? recently found that 82% of consumers list the cost of energy and fuel as a top financial concern. It matters not just to fuel-poor households, but is a key issue for millions throughout the UK, including many small businesses. That is why I am glad that the Energy Bill will introduce radical new measures to make energy tariffs fairer and to make energy suppliers more accountable to consumers by strengthening Ofgem’s role.
By giving statutory backing to Ofgem’s retail market review proposals, we will ensure that customers receive the best deal on their energy tariffs, which will mean a radical reduction in the number of energy tariffs that are offered to consumers. That will be a huge improvement on the old regime, in which the hundreds of complex tariffs have led to confusion and a complete lack of transparency. Under the reforms, energy companies will be legally obligated to place households on the cheapest tariff for their individual payment and tariff preferences, and to provide households with relevant personal information.
Jim Shannon
Does the hon. Gentleman feel that competition provides the motivation to reduce prices? In Northern Ireland, where there is not the same competition, energy costs for industries and businesses are 30% or 40% higher. That is an example of where competition could bring prices down.
Mike Crockart
I agree entirely. I would add that unfair competitive practices are being used, especially where businesses are concerned. Small businesses are being locked into long-term deals and are missing windows to change to different suppliers. They are penalised by higher charges—sometimes 60% or 80% higher. Energy for small businesses is a serious concern that needs consideration in the Energy Bill.
Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) (Con)
There is another side to the energy market, which is the supply side. Does my hon. Friend agree that after the rapid closure of our coal-fired power stations because of EU regulation, the new supply is not coming down the track fast enough, which will add to higher fuel costs?
Mike Crockart
I agree with the hon. Lady to a point. I believe that the Energy Bill will help to ensure that extra power generation of a cleaner and greener nature will come further down the track. I will say a little about that later, if I have time.
The Energy Bill will ensure that the changes for energy companies become legally enforceable from summer 2014. We are working with the companies and urging them to implement the changes voluntarily ahead of that date, but the signs of such voluntary change are patchy. When I met one of the big six energy companies recently, it spoke animatedly of its plans for the future, but the talk was not of simplification. Instead, it talked about personalising the tariff to my individual circumstances and tailoring the charges to mirror my lifestyle and work pattern. To put it another way, it made it so complex and confusing that the chances of me understanding it and switching my energy supplier were minuscule. That is not the way forward. We want to empower energy customers by untangling the maze of tariffs. The Bill will do just that and make energy suppliers more accountable and more focused on the needs of their consumers.
We are raising awareness of and supporting collective switching schemes. That is one way in which customers can save money on their energy bills. DECC allocated £5 million to 31 successful projects in the Cheaper Energy Together competition, which spans 94 local councils and eight third sector organisations in Great Britain. One of the successful bids came from South East Scotland Together, which is delivered through Changeworks. It received more than £400,000 to help people in my constituency to save money. Such measures to ensure that consumers get the best deals on their energy prices reflect our determination to tackle rising energy bills.
Energy education for consumers is also key. I have spoken in previous debates about the necessity of reducing energy use. Reduction is the one step that will not only help households to reduce their bills, but help us to achieve a greener future. To quote from the report by the Energy and Climate Change Committee,
“Demand-side measures…are potentially the cheapest methods of decarbonising our electricity system…reducing overall demand”.
Knowing how we use energy in our homes and workplaces is key to reduction. That is why the single largest infrastructure project on which the Government are embarking in this Parliament is to roll out smart meters by 2019.
As was acknowledged in a written ministerial statement on 19 December last year, smart meters are the best tool that we have in energy reduction. They have the potential to give customers accurate, real-time information about how much energy they are using and how much it costs. In my constituency, British Gas has installed 837 smart meters. With the average home saving 5% through the use of a smart meter, that is a potential saving of £54,405 in my constituency alone. More importantly, that is 5% of their energy use that we no longer have to generate. It is essential that smart meters have the capacity for real-time management, as well as the ability to record the energy that is fed back into the distribution network from co-generation sources, such as wind turbines and solar panels.
Unfortunately, the pressures on wholesale energy prices mean that household energy bills will probably go up in the medium to longer term. We must be clear that wholesale energy prices are a reason to increase our investment in renewables, which will increase our energy security and help to insulate this country from the unpredictable wholesale market, rather than a reason to run headlong towards the mirage of cheap shale gas. Our commitment to a diverse, low-carbon energy mix is radical and positive. Our reforms will ultimately ensure that people get the best value for money by shielding them from the volatility of global fossil fuel prices.
While we have been building a stronger, greener economy and a fairer society, our support for the people who need those things has not wavered. In government, the Liberal Democrats are helping millions of low-income and vulnerable households with the cost of living through the warm home discount, which is available to about 2 million households. That includes 1 million of the poorest pensioners, who are eligible to receive a rebate of up to £130 on their electricity bill during the winter. There is the winter fuel payment for more than 12.6 million pensioners in 9 million households, and additional cold weather payments, which during this year’s cold snap helped the most vulnerable people in my constituency to keep their homes warm. Last winter, 5.2 million individual payments were made in the UK, worth a total of £129.2 million. That level of support for our most vulnerable is available only because, in 2010, the coalition Government reversed Labour’s plans to reduce the payment to £8.50 and instead made it £25 permanently.
I do not have time to talk in detail about the green deal, our Government’s flagship—[Interruption.] I am astounded that Members seem to find something funny about the possibility of saving hundreds of pounds every year on their constituents’ bills.
Mike Crockart
No, I will not, because I have only one minute left.
Nor do I have time to talk about the UK Green Investment Bank, the excellent Edinburgh institution that has already invested £635 billion in green projects, leveraging the overall figure up to £2.3 billion. That investment will ensure that there is enough secure, indigenous, low-carbon energy to provide for more than 2 million homes in the United Kingdom.
The Government have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to decarbonise and ensure that there is a more competitive energy sector in the future. I am proud that we are seizing that opportunity while delivering policies to help families with the cost of living and investing in the future of our economy.
Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)
This Queen’s Speech has generated more debate about what is not in it than about what is, and it has highlighted the Government’s dysfunctionality. As we heard from my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint), the Prime Minister made a big announcement about putting people on the lowest energy tariff, a promise that has proved completely worthless. There is nothing effective in the Queen’s Speech to protect consumers from the cost of energy bills.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies published a report just before the Queen’s Speech showing that all the advances that had been made in tackling child poverty would be wiped out by the benefit changes that the Government are introducing. There was nothing to deal with that in the Queen’s Speech. Yet at the same time, there is a millionaires’ tax increase. Those millionaires share £27.4 billion of income, but they apparently deserve a tax cut while child poverty increases.
There are no coherent proposals for growth or job creation.
Jim Shannon
Is the hon. Gentleman alarmed by figures that seem to indicate that because of the changes to benefits, some 200,000 children will be added to the list of those in child poverty?
Clive Efford
I think the IFS puts the increase at 1 million children, but I take the hon. Gentleman’s point.
There are no proposals in the Queen’s Speech to stimulate the construction industry and build social housing. It is worth remembering that the Government inherited the biggest council house building programme for more than two decades, and then scrapped it as part of their austerity measures. In London, there were 11,328 social rented housing starts in 2010-11. That figure plummeted to 1,672 in 2012-13. That is a time bomb hitting young people in London, and the problem goes right up the social scale. It does not just affect people on low incomes who are in desperate housing need. People on above-average incomes who have children cannot afford to rent or buy in the private sector in London. That time bomb will not go away, and the Queen’s Speech does nothing to address it.
David T. C. Davies
I cannot comment on the London statistics, but I know that social house building has fallen off a cliff over the past two years in Wales, an area that is run by a devolved Labour Government. What does the hon. Gentleman say to that?
Clive Efford
I say that we need to build more houses. I said that when we were in government, I am saying it now and I will continue to say it consistently.
There is nothing in the Queen’s Speech on sport. We have just had the greatest year for sport that this country has ever known, but the Government have not come up with a coherent strategy across the whole of Government that will deliver sport in our communities and use the armies of volunteers up and down the country who are working hard in sport. We need a coherent strategy that will allow them to plan ahead for the long term and deliver the elusive sporting legacy, but there was nothing of that in the Queen’s Speech.
All that we have had is the Government parties falling into warring factions over different parts of their own Queen’s Speech. It started with the Deputy Prime Minister saying within 24 hours of the Queen’s Speech that he was not happy about the changes to child care ratios in nurseries. We have heard from several people who have been advising the Government on the matter, such as Professor Cathy Nutbrown, whom they commissioned to conduct an independent review of child care qualifications, and Dr Eva Lloyd and Professor Helen Penn, two more experts whom they commissioned. Professor Cathy Nutbrown said:
“Watering down ratios will threaten quality. Childcare may be cheaper, but children will be footing the bill.”,
and Dr Eva Lloyd and Professor Helen Penn said:
“Deregulation in the UK would lead to a reduction in quality.”
Clive Efford
I hope my hon. Friend will forgive me, but I do not have time to give way.
These things were known before the Queen’s Speech was written, so it is incredible that the Deputy Prime Minister then discovered that he did not support the measure included in it. He said:
“When we as a government consulted on changing the number of little toddlers that each adult can look after, the response from experts, from parents, from nurseries was overwhelmingly negative…They felt that the risks outweighed the benefits and it wouldn’t necessarily reduce costs. So that’s what I still have reservations about, about this change.”
That is the Deputy Prime Minister within 48 hours of the Queen’s Speech to which he put his name.
We are told that there is no reference to a referendum on Europe in the Queen’s Speech because the bullying Liberal Democrats stopped the Conservative party including it. That may be so, but what about the little toddlers to whom the Deputy Prime Minister referred? If he has a veto on a referendum on Europe, why did he not veto the measure on little toddlers and staff ratios in our nurseries? It seems to me that more than one party on the Government Benches is obsessing about Europe, and that is the Liberal Democrats. They have clearly got their values wrong on this issue.
All Governments face rebellions—I have even rebelled myself in the past—but I have never heard members of the Cabinet say that not only will they abstain on something, they will abstain on their own Queen’s Speech right at the start of the parliamentary Session. Can that be right? Is that the way we expect our Governments to behave, by falling apart almost immediately? The Secretary of State for Defence has effectively issued a warning to his leader that unless a change in the deal with Europe is achieved, he will vote against us remaining in the European Union. The Secretary of State for Education has said that he intends to abstain if a motion is put before the House on the matter of regretting the absence of a referendum on membership of the European Union in the Queen’s Speech.
While that is going on—this, in my opinion, is where the public start to fall out of love with politicians—the Prime Minister is in the USA promoting on behalf of the UK a trade agreement that will be negotiated directly between the USA and Europe. He is enthusiastically supporting that agreement over there, while at the same time his party over here is falling asunder on whether to vote against its own Queen’s Speech because there is no reference to a referendum on membership of the European Union. No wonder the public are wondering what we as politicians are about.
The word “omnishambles” has often been mentioned in relation to this Government, and I think it will enter the vocabulary of the UK, just as “Fergie time” will. I say to the coalition that it is playing in Fergie time, and people out there are blowing their whistles and calling time on this Government.
Mary Macleod (Brentford and Isleworth) (Con)
The Gracious Speech by Her Majesty the Queen gives us a programme for the year ahead in Parliament, and today’s motion on the cost of living is immensely important and integral to the world we live in today—especially, I would argue, in the wonderful, creative capital city of London. The UK is ranked 18th in the world for the cost of living. Norway tops the ranking followed by Switzerland and Australia, and Japan and France are also above the UK. Real household income has almost doubled in the past 55 years, and living standards have been transformed. In 1970, fewer than one in three houses had central heating, but that is now 96%; just one third of people had a telephone, but that is now 87%; and 65% of people had a washing machine, which is now 96%.
Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)
The hon. Lady cites interesting statistics, but is she aware that figures came out today showing that Britain has dropped seven places down the world family income table to 12th, which shows the squeeze that the Government are putting on hard-working families?
Mary Macleod
If the hon. Gentleman bears with me, I will come shortly to what the Government are doing to help hard-working families.
The consumer prices index is steady at 2.8%, which is less than half its peak rate of 5.8% in September 2008. However, it is true that, in recent years, consumers are paying a higher percentage of their household income for essentials such as energy, fuel, child care and housing.
The right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) could not answer the question about borrowing, and nor did she apologise for leaving the country in the state she left it when the current Government took over in 2010. What are this Government doing? First, they are dealing with the budget deficit to ensure low interest rates and stability. Interest rates are at an historic low, benefiting all those who pay a mortgage. Mortgage rates are about 3.5%; in 2000, I was paying 7%.
Secondly, the Government are putting money back into people’s pockets by lowering tax. As I have said, they are raising the personal allowance to £10,000 in April 2014, and taking 2 million people out of tax altogether. That will mean that 4,900 Brentford and Isleworth residents in west London have been lifted out of tax by the Conservative-led Government since 2010, and that 49,000 people in my constituency will be more than £700 better off each year.
Mary Macleod
I completely agree with my hon. Friend. In addition, more women are in work than ever before.
Thirdly, the Government are taking action on the things that impact most on the cost of living. On energy bills, they are ensuring that providers let consumers know the best tariff by simplifying bills to make them easier for people to understand. The Government have cut fuel duty. Fuel is 13p cheaper than it would have been under the Opposition. It will cost the average family in my constituency £159 less to fill up the car.
I mentioned child care, which has been one of the main barriers to women in the workplace and in creating new businesses. The changes will make an impact on helping women to set up new businesses and to create growth and jobs in the years ahead. The Government are extending free child care to women who work fewer than 16 hours a week, and increasing entitlement to free education and care for three and four-year-olds to 15 hours a week. We have also increased the free entitlement to early education to two-year-olds from lower-income households, which is helping the poorest in society. From 2015, the Government will meet 20% of the first £6,000 in child care costs per child for working families with children under 12.
On housing, I welcome the Help to Buy package—a £5.4 billion package to tackle long-term housing market problems. I also welcome the mortgage guarantee scheme to help first-time buyers and the funding for lending scheme. Genworth Financial in my constituency proposes private sector involvement in the scheme. I look forward to working with it and the Treasury to see whether we can make the scheme a success.
Fourthly and importantly, the Government are boosting business and encouraging aspiration. Ultimately, building growth in the economy by encouraging aspiration and supporting business to grow is how to address the cost of living. What have we done? We have lowered corporation tax so that it is the lowest in the G20. We have national insurance breaks for businesses. We have deregulation of businesses and less red tape. We have scrapped the beer duty escalator. Fuller, Smith and Turner, which is based in my constituency in Chiswick, says that scrapping the escalator is excellent for British brewing, British farming, British pubs and British jobs.
Nearly 600 new businesses were founded in Brentford and Isleworth in 2012, putting us in the top 10 of the entire country. We have worked with women in my constituency to help and encourage them to set up their own businesses. The hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra) gave unemployment statistics from her constituency. I am not sure which statistics she was looking at. Her constituency is next door to mine and has the same London borough of Hounslow. Jobseeker’s allowance claimants fell by 4.4% and youth claimants fell by 10% in the past year. Youth unemployment in my constituency is down by nearly 15% since last year and unemployment by 5.5%. We have done more to help by having events such as the west London jobs and apprenticeships fair, which I led in my constituency.
West London is a hub for great business, and I am glad that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is in his place, because I want to appeal to him on permitted development rights and change of use from offices to homes. We really wanted the Great West road in west London, which is right next to Heathrow, to be exempt and protected, because we want to build businesses there. I invite him to come to the Brentford golden mile and see what we can do for businesses and job creation for the future.
Britain is a great country for so many reasons. We have won 76 Nobel prizes for science and technology. We are the No. 1 location for European headquarters. We have the largest creative sector per head in the world. We are home to four of the world’s top 10 universities and the world leader in offshore wind energy production and research. The Government are standing up for business, for people who want to own their own homes and for people who work hard and aspire to get on in this great country. The Government are standing up for Great Britain, and the Gracious Speech will help us to deliver in that task.
Mr Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich) (Lab)
I intend to focus, as many other hon. Members have done, not on what is in the Queen’s Speech, which is one of the thinnest in recent memory, but on one of the most serious omissions. I refer not to Europe, but to the absence of adequate measures to stimulate growth and improve housing output, and by doing so improve people’s living standards.
As I propose to speak about the vital importance of increased housing investment, I should at the outset draw attention to my interests as recorded in the register.
The figures speak for themselves. Housing starts last year totalled just 98,000, 11% down on the already hopelessly inadequate level of 111,000 the year before. Those two years, 2011 and 2012, represent the worst output figures from any Government since the 1920s. Why has this happened? Clearly, the financial crisis which erupted in 2008 had a huge impact. Before that, housing starts totalled 183,000 in 2007—a level that was not sufficient, because a larger output was necessary to meet the forecasts, but it was massively ahead of anything we have seen since.
With the impact of the global meltdown, starts fell to just 85,000 in 2009, the nadir, and then recovered to some 110,000 in 2010. Since then, housing starts, like the economy, have been flatlining. We have seen no growth and no further recovery. The telling figure is that new starts in the second quarter of 2010—the quarter in which the Government changed hands—were the highest that have recently been achieved. No quarter since then has matched the level of output in that second quarter of 2010. That reinforces the point about the housing market flatlining, like the economy.
The case for doing something about the level of new starts is not just about meeting housing needs—although that is a powerful case. It is also about the economy, because the housing sector has a huge economic benefit. Not only is it labour intensive, but there is a considerable multiplier effect. It has a long supply chain, with all the manufacturers and material suppliers who contribute to house building, and all the firms involved in manufacturing the white goods, furnishings and fittings that go into finished homes. Stimulating house building has real scope to create new jobs and create growth in the economy. So why are we not doing it?
To be fair to the Government, they have been almost obsessive about trying to find ways in the past year to get the house building market going again. We have had endless announcements and proposals, some of which have been reasonably, if modestly, effective. Schemes such as NewBuy and First Buy, which were of course modifications of the previous Government’s homebuy schemes—I may have got the names wrong, because they change all the time, but the Minister knows what I am talking about—have made a modest but useful contribution. Others, however, have not. I am afraid that the new homes bonus has proved to be an extraordinarily expensive and ineffective measure, as the National Audit Office report devastatingly reveals. There has been no measurable sign of real advances in stimulating local authorities to grant planning consents.
Similarly, the Government seem to be tinkering obsessively and endlessly with the planning system to no demonstrable benefit whatsoever. The level of planning consents for new housing in the past two years has been the lowest on record for a very long time. That has not been successful, and nor is it likely that the mortgage support scheme announced in the Budget will be of great benefit. Acting to help to support demand when supply is absolutely inadequate is, as the Treasury Committee has highlighted, likely to stimulate house price inflation. We need to act on supply.
The Government need to focus on two areas, the first of which is the private house building sector. The big house builders are doing pretty well at the moment, but are doing so on the back of very low volume. They are seeing their balance sheets recover and their stock market valuations rise, but they are not building many new houses. Their model is very much geared towards high-value, low-volume development. The small and medium-sized house builders are suffering desperately, yet they are the people capable of providing greater volume and meeting the middle market.
The affordable and social housing sector is an even greater priority. The Government were responsible, with their ill-judged 60% cut in investment at the very start of their time in office, for undermining disastrously the affordable and social housing programme. Reversing that and investing in building new homes is a key priority. I regret that that is not in the Queen’s Speech, but I hope the Government change their mind and recognise its importance.
David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)
May I turn to the comments made earlier about our energy policy by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey)? That policy will have an impact on the cost of living for all householders and anyone who buys manufactured goods. I do not accept his premise that the science on climate change, on which our energy policies are based, is settled.
The theory is pretty simple: ever since we started industrialising at the end of the 1700s, we started pouring CO2 into the atmosphere. As a result, the temperature across the world has warmed up and we must do something about it—that is the basic theory our energy policy follows. There are various flaws in that argument. The earth has always gone through cycles of warming and cooling. Coincidentally, at a time when we started to industrialise, we were coming out of a very cool period—a time referred to as a little ice age—when even the Thames used to freeze over. What is the total increase in temperature on which we are basing our policies and fears about climate change? According to all the statistics, it is just 0.7° C, yet some of that is clearly due to the fact that the earth was coming out of that cool period. Nobody can answer this simple question: how much of that 0.7° C is not down to CO2, but down to the natural warming that would have taken place anyway?
Then there is a problem with correlating CO2 levels with temperature increases in the past 300 years or so, because there is no straight line between the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and temperatures going up. Between 1940 and 1970, temperatures were going down, and that was at a time when we were putting enormous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Nobody can explain why that is. Since 1998, there has been no increase in average global temperatures—it has completely tailed off. Again, nobody can come up with a convincing explanation for that. Yet despite all that, and many other queries too, we are embarking on policies that will put up costs for householders, through the use of subsidies for solar and wind-powered energy, and put up costs for manufacturers, through the various taxes on carbon that we are levying.
The most serious point is that we are doing so unilaterally: Britain is taking steps that nobody else in the world is taking. Our carbon emissions are actually not that great compared with the rest of the world, yet we are unilaterally punishing manufacturers, forcing them to take their factories elsewhere, where they will continue to emit exactly the same amount of CO2, taking their jobs and forcing us into foreign exchange deficits as we buy goods that were originally made here.
Alec Shelbrooke
My hon. Friend is eloquently putting the case for those who doubt that global warming is down to climate change, and I am sure that many support his views, but does he agree that moving to a more renewable energy environment is important for energy security as much as anything else?
David T. C. Davies
My hon. Friend makes a good point, because there is a lot that we can do to generate electricity without CO2 and one would think that the Greens would be the first to support it. We had a proposal recently for a Severn barrage that could generate 20% of Britain’s electricity. It was an interesting proposal and one for which I would want to see more costings, but it was totally opposed by the environmentalists. We know that we can generate large amounts of electricity on demand and relatively cheaply from nuclear power without emitting CO2, but where do the environmentalists stand on it? They are totally against it.
In the United States of America, by exploiting shale gas, I understand that they have halved electricity prices and created a wonderful environment for manufacturers—so much so that they are returning to the States. More importantly for the environmentalists, however, that has also reduced American CO2 emissions. One would think that the Greens would be jumping for joy, but instead they are doing everything they can to prevent the Government from encouraging those companies to get in there, drill and exploit the cheap shale gas that we know we have and which could do so much. I question what their beliefs really are.
I hear the environmentalists saying to me, “The most important thing to do is reduce our CO2 emissions”, but whenever anyone puts solutions in front of them that would reduce CO2 emissions and deliver the cheap electricity that we all need, they do not want to know. They are the same people who march against globalisation and capitalism, who totally opposed any form of nuclear deterrent in the 1980s and who a few hundred years ago would have been the Luddites smashing up the spinning wheels. These people live in a fantasy world, believing that if we could just get rid of technology, we could go back to living in wonderful grass huts and things in some Tolkienesque world, like the hobbits before the evil one started attacking them. They are totally opposed to the high standards of living that globalisation and capitalism have delivered in the west and are delivering across the whole world.
It is high time that the Government realised that these people will never support anyone in government. Only recently, Friends of the Earth ran a big campaign against increased energy costs, but one reason energy costs have increased is that the Government have been trying to follow policies recommended by that same organisation—policies of supporting wind farms and solar panels that are bound to increase energy costs. It is ludicrous for the people who have been advocating policies that will increase energy costs to demand that we bring them down.
Caroline Lucas
I really did not want to intervene, because I did not want to encourage the hon. Gentleman and give him an extra minute in which to continue coming out with this rubbish. I thought that the discussion on Europe was where we found the fruitcakes, but I am finding them this afternoon as well. Is he really suggesting that it is not rising gas prices that are increasing people’s fuel bills right now? It is not renewable energy, but the gas imports that are the problem.
David T. C. Davies
It is not rising temperatures that the hon. Lady ought to be concerned about, but rising tempers among the vast majority of the public, who are fed up with paying higher fuel bills and bills for manufactured goods for a problem that simply does not seem to exist.
I say to the Government that we need a proper cost-benefit analysis of our climate change policies before we embark on measures that will drive manufacturing elsewhere in an effort to solve a problem that quite possibly does not exist, and I say to the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) and to the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley), who is no longer in his place but who also referred to me as a fruitcake, that it was the fruitcakes who warned against the euro 10 years ago. We were accused of being fruitcakes then, but the fruitcakes were right. Fruitcake is a cheap and reliable source of energy. I am for the fruitcakes. I am proud to be a fruitcake. Long may fruitcakes continue.
Mr David Anderson (Blaydon) (Lab)
Follow that!
Eleven hundred days into the fruitcake Parliament, we have the mid-term report. How did we get here? Everybody knows that the cost of living is going through the roof, while the standard of living is going backwards. The Government obviously have a narrative; they say it is all the Labour party’s fault. I agree with them to some extent. I agree that my party, when in power, was far too lax with the banks. Its light-touch regulation was far too light. The Conservative party then said that we were too severe, so how can they now say we got it wrong?
The truth is that it was working. In 2007, the net debt in the UK was only 38% of GDP—the second lowest in the G7 and almost the lowest in our history. Obviously the whirlwind that hit the world when Lehman’s collapsed affected everybody, but the Labour Government at the time did not become paralysed in the way that the current Government have. We went for growth. We cut VAT to 15%. We introduced the car scrappage scheme. We brought forward capital schemes, some of which were still going after the election only to be stopped by the Government, including £80 million-worth of new school building in my constituency which could have put people into work and given kids better schools.
We have gone from growth at 1.8% when we left power, to the Government breathing a huge sigh of relief over the past three years just because we have not gone into a triple-dip recession; they were even happier with only a double-dip recession. The best that we have had is stagnation. It is clear that the programme put forward by the Government has not helped this country and we need to see changes. Why do we need change? Who is paying? It is the same people who always pay: the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.
Let us look at what has happened in the past three years to affect the poor, the weak and the vulnerable. VAT has gone up. The child trust fund has been taken away. The education maintenance allowance has been taken away. Working tax credits have been frozen or cut. Pensions and benefits have been changed from RPI to CPI. Child tax credit has been cut and child benefit frozen. The sure start maternity grant has gone. The health in pregnancy grant has gone. Child benefit has been cut for better-off earners. We now have the bedroom tax and cuts in council tax benefit. There is lots and lots more. This is not about scroungers; it is about working people who are trying to get on in the world and who are struggling.
On top of that, almost 750,000 public sector workers have been sacked. They have been taken out of income tax all right: they have been sacked and are not paying it. They have been taken out of good, strong and stable jobs. People have been put into 1.25 million poor-quality jobs where they are underemployed and underpaid. Pensions have been cut, wages frozen and increments stopped. Why is it right to incentivise the rich but not the workers?
The worst thing is that the strategy has failed; it has flatlined. Even worse, the Government knew that it would fail, because it has always failed. It has been tried before and has always failed. Martin Wolf said last year:
“What is clear from UK history is that growth is a necessary condition for successful management of public debt. The...cuts of the early 1920s failed to lower the debt…the economy then collapsed.”
Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman said that the infuriating thing was that, half a century ago, any economist could have told policy makers
“that austerity in the face of depression was a very bad idea”,
and millions of workers are paying the price for that mistake.
Barack Obama, the absentee Prime Minister’s new friend, said that some people would say that
“The market will take care of everything…if we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes…our economy will grow stronger…And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: it doesn’t work. It has never worked.”
Another Nobel prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz, said that
“austerity as the solution is just wrong. There won’t be a return to confidence—quite the contrary. So the direction Europe is going is…I think the wrong direction.”
There we have it: three Nobel prize winners—but they are wrong, aren’t they, because our Chancellor thinks that he is right? He ignores what happened in this country the last time we had a major recession. Keynes proved that you could not win with austerity and Roosevelt proved it in the United States. But we have a Government whose arrogance is matched only by their ignorance and now, as a result of his posturing, the Chancellor—even if he thought he was wrong—cannot back off. He has painted himself into a corner and he knows that if he puts in place plan B, he will be skewered by the shadow Chancellor. Pig-headed obstinacy, pride and ideology have combined to the detriment of this country. The job is far too big for the Chancellor. Now the Government are paralysed not only by their ideology and obstinacy, but by their internal fighting yet again about Europe.
We are seeing the people of this country struggling to get by, with tax cuts for the wealthy and tax hits for the poor. The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. It is, sadly, the same old Tories.
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
I think that all of us on the Government Benches absolutely recognise the increase in people’s bills, whether it is their gas bill, their electricity bill, the bill to fill up their car with petrol or diesel when they go to a garage, or their weekly food bill. We absolutely recognise the squeeze that our constituents are experiencing and the fact that wages have not gone up to compensate, and in many cases we have been extremely clear about that.
Nevertheless, because of the decisions that the Government have taken, it now costs people £7 less to fill up their cars than it would if we had gone ahead with all the price increases that Labour legislated to introduce before they left office. Also, we heard from the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change that our energy bills are 5% lower than they would have been, again because of the decisions we have taken. We know that Labour would have added £193 a year to our energy bills, because they would have funded the renewable heat incentive and carbon capture and storage through levies on people’s energy bills, whereas we are funding those things from general taxation.
Council tax is another area where the Government have done fantastic work to reduce the impact of the cost of living. Under the previous Government, council tax more than doubled—it went up by 109%. Thanks to the excellent stewardship of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, we have managed to freeze council tax—certainly for principal authorities—for three years in a row. I remember that pensioners regularly came to see me in my surgeries, and some would complain that they were spending up to a third of their income on their council tax. I have not had pensioners coming to see me about that in the last three years, because in real terms we have cut council tax by 10%. In fact, my own council tax bill has gone down in cash terms in the last two years, thanks to the excellent stewardship of Central Bedfordshire council and Studham parish council. We are talking about a council that has taken £52 million out of its budget and improved services. We now have a better leisure centre in Houghton Regis, the gutters are sprayed three times a year rather than twice a year and more potholes are being filled, despite £52 million being taken out of the budget, which shows that it can be done.
We have an immigration Bill in the Queen’s Speech, which is absolutely necessary. I am sorry that the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) is no longer in his place, because I would have liked to remind him that the Migration Advisory Committee—an independent body from the UK Border Agency that advises the Government—has pointed out that the 2 million extra net migrants who came to this country under the previous Government decreased wages for working people and meant that fewer UK citizens went into jobs. That is something that we need to be mindful of when many of our constituents are looking for work. Only two days ago, one of my constituents wrote to tell me that on the construction site he was on in London he was virtually the only British worker; all the others were Albanian. I am not sure why they were there, given that Albania is not a member of the European Union. These are genuine issues for our constituents. The people of this country are speaking to us loud and clear, and we would do well to heed what they are saying.
I hugely welcome the national insurance contributions Bill. We are talking about a tax off jobs. Up to 2.5 million employers will benefit and 450,000 of our smallest businesses will no longer pay national insurance contributions. That means that every business could take on one extra employee on a salary of up to £22,400 or four more on the minimum wage without paying any more national insurance contributions. That is just the thing that we should be doing.
Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)
How many businesses benefited from the Government’s previous attempt to use national insurance to stimulate the economy? My understanding is that very few did so. Why does the hon. Gentleman think that the current proposal will be any more successful? He is talking about the future, but what about the past three years?
Andrew Selous
All I know is that employers and employers’ organisations up and down the country have strongly welcomed the employment allowance. It is a tax off jobs. I remind the hon. Lady that the Labour Government were going to increase national insurance, had they got back into power. We believe in trying to get more people into work by taking costs off employers.
The Pensions Bill will help savers by ensuring that they get the benefit from everything that they save for their pension. That has not been the case in the past. The Care Bill will also help people by ensuring that they do not have to sell their homes to fund their care in old age.
The Opposition have said that this is a thin Queen’s Speech, but it is not; it contains 19 Bills. Labour Members need to be careful not to confuse legislative activity with the real business of government. A by-pass in my constituency was announced by the right hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling) when he was Transport Secretary in 2003. In the following seven years of the Labour Government, however, not a shovel hit the ground. Nothing was done. All Governments like to announce things, but the delivery mechanisms and speeding up the ability to get things done are what matter. The planning system takes far too long to achieve finality and get results in this country. We also need to look into the matter of judicial reviews. In 1998, there were 4,500 judicial reviews, but the number trebled over the following decade. It is absolutely right that the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State are looking at those issues to ensure that we can get things done more quickly.
What we are doing on training and apprenticeships is absolutely right: 520,000 apprenticeships have been brought into being by this Government. I am particularly pleased by what is happening on the higher apprenticeship route and by the technical baccalaureate announced by the Secretary of State for Education, which will be a type of vocational A-level. Those are very welcome indeed, as are the university technical colleges. It is also vital that we export more. We have increased our exports outside the European Union by 33% since the 2007 peak. We have done well in that regard, but there is clearly much more for us to do in those growing world markets.
Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)
Without doubt, the rising cost of living, combined with stagnating—or worse, falling—income, has to be one of the biggest worries for many people up and down the country. There is little sign of light at the end of the tunnel. People rightly feel that they are working hard and putting in the hours, but they are at best standing still and some are going backwards. Others have found themselves out of work, and the little support that they get when that happens is dwindling every day.
I find my constituency surgeries ever more heart-wrenching, given the number of people coming to see me not only because they have become unemployed, which is clearly a tragedy for those affected, but because they need help with the situation that they find themselves in after that. Some might be looking for help to start up on their own but are unable to get past first base. Others might be hoping for a more reasonable approach by the jobcentre that insists they pay the £3.60 return fare to travel to town rather than go to the centre that they could walk to in an hour. They would rather do that than spend £3.60 of their dwindling weekly budget. Others may fear that they are being discriminated against because they are over 50 and, having worked all their life, now find themselves unemployed and having to compete with graduates for jobs. Others might fear bankruptcy because of the loss of their home; they have been out of work for a year and the support they have received is now drying up. Those people are the victims of this Government’s economic mismanagement.
That is why it is even more galling that the only people who seem to have been given a break by this Government are those fortunate enough to earn more than £150,000 a year. They will benefit from the 50p tax cut. They are the very last people who should be getting such a break right now.
Andrew Selous
Does the hon. Lady not recognise that the rich are going to pay more in tax in every single year of this Government than they did in any year under the last Labour Government?
Catherine McKinnell
That is a spurious statistic. We know that the deficit needs to be paid down, but this Government have made a choice to give a tax cut to those on the highest incomes while leaving other people to pay. It is not just me who thinks that. Conservative voters and, indeed, Conservative party members up and down the country are frustrated by the choices this Government have made.
Debbie Abrahams
Does my hon. Friend agree that it is an absolute disgrace that while there are commitments to fairness in the Queen’s Speech, the 40% lowest-income households will be worse off, with an average of £891 lost by each household?
Catherine McKinnell
My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. Another point to remember is the disproportionate impact that this Government’s tax and benefit changes have had on the lowest earners—and on the middle earners, too.
Let me get back to members of the Conservative party. Linda Pailing, for example, the deputy chair of Harlow Conservative party—I see the hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) in his place—put it very starkly, targeting her criticism squarely at the Prime Minister. She said:
“The national swing took us down and that is purely to do with what Cameron and his cronies are doing with the national party. The voters are disillusioned with Cameron himself. They don’t like the fact that he didn’t keep the 50p tax. This has really grated and people feel here that he is not working for them, he is working for his friends.”
I could not have put it better myself.
There could have been some acceptance of the Government’s approach—at least among their own supporters—if the 50p tax cut policy had boosted confidence and stimulated economic growth, which is the only thing that could turn the situation round for those feeling the squeeze, yet it has done precisely the opposite. The approach has not only failed to address the lack of confidence in the economy but compounded the lack of confidence in this Government. What kind of right-minded Chancellor or Prime Minister would turn a blind eye to the suffering of the vulnerable and those struggling to make ends meet, slap on a VAT hike and impose a bedroom tax, cuts to tax credits and in-work support while dishing out tax cuts to those who need them least.
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
Will the hon. Lady acknowledge that this Government have taken 3,000 low- income people in Harlow out of tax altogether and cut taxes for 40,000 low-income Harlow residents? Why did she and her party vote against those tax cuts for lower earners?
Catherine McKinnell
I anticipated Members raising the issue of personal allowances, but the fact is that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has clearly shown that the overall impact of the Government’s changes to tax, credits and benefits has left the very people for whom the change to personal allowances was supposed to help worse off. People will be worse off under this Government in 2015, too.
Then comes the ultimate betrayer of the Government’s true intentions. First, someone claims Britons have never had it so good, completely downplaying the impact of the recession on those hard hit. Then, after resigning on the back of it, this person is reinstated and can now be heard extolling the virtues of starting a business in a recession on the basis that
“labour can be cheaper and higher quality, meaning that return on investment can be greater”.
I was both alarmed and enlightened to read the report in The Daily Telegraph of a leaked discussion between pollsters and the Government’s key advisers. When asked what kept them awake at night, those advisers replied “Nothing” at first, and then admitted that it was their kids’ school fees that bothered them most. If that is the main issue affecting the lives of the Government’s key advisers, that is quite indicative. Lord Young’s comments, cited above, are quite startling, showing him to be revelling in the strain that the jobs and wages squeeze is putting on people’s finances. There are 2.5 million people out of work at the moment, and nearly 1 million young people out of work, with 500,000 out of work for two years or more. That is the highest number since the end of the last Tory Government in May 1997. Since 2010, the number of unemployed people has risen. Lord Young should reflect more on that.
Catherine McKinnell
I am afraid that I cannot. If I do, I will run out of time.
Living standards have come under increasing pressure. Average earnings are rising at the lowest rate since the end of 2009. More worryingly, according to recent analysis of figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility by the Resolution Foundation, that squeeze on average incomes is set to continue for many years. The foundation estimates that, given the OBR’s projections, the gap between what people earn and what they would have been earning had their wages risen in line with inflation will have risen to £3,200 by 2017.
The squeeze on living standards has had a disproportionate impact in my region in the north-east. Analysis carried out recently by the northern branch of the TUC drew attention to the pay gap in the north-east in particular. It showed that since 2010, real wages had fallen by £23 per week and £1,196 per year in 10 out of 12 north-east local authority areas, and that the north-east is the poorest region in the United Kingdom. Some households have been squeezed by £4,000 more than was the case a year ago, given wage freezes, below-inflation pay rises and public sector job losses throughout the region.
What hope did the Queen’s Speech offer to the millions of people across the country who have been affected by the Government’s policies? We needed a Queen’s Speech that would create jobs and growth and give people enough confidence in the economy to invest, but the Government offered nothing. The British people deserve more.
Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)
This aspect of the Queen’s Speech—the issue of the cost of living—is essential to the Government’s fortunes, and, in my view, goes to the heart of what they are trying to do. I am in a good deal of agreement with what was said earlier by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell). It is what brought the coalition together in the first place.
The essence of dealing with the cost of living is, first of all, getting fiscal and monetary policy right, and I have every confidence that we are doing that. Bearing down on the deficit is the key to ensuring that we have low interest rates, and it is low interest rates that allow people to pay their mortgages, remain in their homes, and cope with the financial difficulties that they face. Many hon. Members have raised housing issues, but the key to affordable housing is for people to be able to afford their mortgages, and that is dependent on interest rates. The singular success of this Government lies in ensuring that there is confidence in the fiscal plan laid out by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, which has ensured that interest rates have remained low and stable.
The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) attacked the change in the highest tax rate payable, but that was, without question, the right thing for the Government to do. It is not a question of tokenism. It is not a question of saying “We will have high rates in order to punish the rich, because we disapprove of their lifestyle.” It is a question of deciding what rate of tax will raise the most revenue for the Exchequer.
Let us look back at the history from 1979 onwards. When the highest rate of income tax was 83% and the highest marginal rate on unearned income was 98%, we saw that the top 1% of taxpayers contributed only 11% of the total income tax revenue. When the rate was cut, the income generated for the Government increased. Exactly the same happened following the further cut introduced by Lord Lawson in 1988.
Debbie Abrahams
Is it not also the case that families with low incomes are more likely to spend their money in the local economy and thus to stimulate it? There is strong evidence to that effect.
Jacob Rees-Mogg
I entirely accept the evidence that people with low incomes are more likely to spend the money that they receive. However, money flows within the economy are not limited to expenditure. The saving of money increases deposits at banks and eases their loan-to-deposit ratios. It therefore ensures that the banks can lend more money both to prospective home owners and to businesses.
There is a view among Labour Members, which was also expressed during the Budget debates, of a very closed financial system, but that is quite wrong. There are flows within the financial system. There is a rule of money, that money must find a home. [Interruption.] It is very welcome to come to my home. If hon. Members would like to send it in that direction, I shall not say no. That is the sort of tax I could do with. However, money does find a home, and that is in generating economic activity.
Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab)
Does the hon. Gentleman believe it is right that the rich are getting richer while the living standards of the vast majority of the people in this country are going down?
Jacob Rees-Mogg
The important thing for the Government to do is to lift the living standards of everybody, but we do not improve the standard of living of the poor by impoverishing the rich. That is what Labour tried when in government before and it singularly failed. If everybody gets richer, the whole standard of living of this country improves, and Government revenues increase when rates of taxation are reduced. It is thought that the ideal rate to maximise the amount of revenue for the Treasury would be 37%, so I would be keen for the Government to do this. It is a great error, for those on all sides, to put short-term political advantage or debating points above the economic benefit of this country. Therefore, we should be bold about rates to make sure that we get the revenue we need for the Government to be able to afford to do what they want to do, to keep taxation overall as low as possible, to pay down the deficit and, ultimately, to reduce the national debt. So on the fiscal side, the Government have got it right.
The other aspect of prices is the monetary side, primarily handed over to the Bank of England, but none the less with a Government target set in relation to inflation. If the monetary side were to get out of control, as we have seen historically that it can, the cost of living increases because of the monetary effect on prices. So there is a careful balance for the Government to have. This Government, unlike our continental partners, have got it right by having a tight fiscal policy and a loose monetary policy, so that liquidity is available within the economic system, but the Government part of it is bearing down on the Government’s deficit and, ultimately, on the debt. That is the right balance, and it will encourage price stability. If we did things the other way around—with tight fiscal and monetary policies—we would have a degree of austerity that is unsustainable, as our continental friends have. If we have both loose money and loose fiscal policy, we will end up with inflation that has pretty much disastrous consequences for the cost of living.
Jacob Rees-Mogg
I will not give way any more because I do not get any more bonus points, so I must plough on, with apologies to the two hon. Ladies.
That deals with the fiscal and monetary side. The other part of keeping prices down is regulation, and we have heard a good deal about energy price regulation and how it affects households across the country today. My view is that the priority for my constituents is that they should have cheap energy, not that we should insist on large subsidies for theories that some people find attractive and others do not. I am more with my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (David T. C. Davies) than I am with the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas), even before I have heard her speak, although I look forward to that. So the issue of regulation is key and, of course, that ultimately comes down to Europe.
On Europe, I will make one aside, which is that we are negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU and the United States of America. Singapore, not the largest country in the world, managed a free trade agreement with the United States in 2004. The United Kingdom would have managed to do it a good deal quicker had we not been tied in to the negotiating sloth of the European Union. Had we been doing it for ourselves, that would also have helped to bring down the cost of living, because free trade ensures that there is more competition in this nation.
Finally, on the constitutional issue of some amendments that have been proposed, I am fascinated by the idea that there is to be a free vote on the Queen’s Speech. Previously, a Queen’s Speech not being carried has effectively been a confidence vote in the Government. These constitutional innovations are extremely dubious—it would have been better if they had not happened—but as that free vote has been made available, I shall of course vote a Eurosceptic ticket.
Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)
I should like to concentrate on the final two words of the Gracious Speech, which, unfortunately, give the impression of having been tagged on the end, almost as an afterthought. Those words are “climate change”; I am sure that I will not disappoint the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg) in what I am about to say.
The forthcoming legislative programme shows that the Government are failing in their first duty—to protect citizens—precisely by failing to address the causes of the worsening climate crisis. They are ignoring warnings, even from conservative bodies such as the World Bank, that without far more urgent and radical cuts in emissions, global temperatures will rise by an average 4° or more by the end of the century, with devastating impacts as a result.
If the throwaway line at the end of the Gracious Speech really does mean that progress on climate change will genuinely be part of the UK’s G8 presidency, then of course I welcome it, not least following reports that the Government have been blocking the attempts of the French and German Governments to give the issue a high priority.
However, for the Prime Minister to suggest that the Government are successfully taking sufficient action to deal with climate change is simply dishonest. I do not use that word lightly, but if we are to have a chance of avoiding the worst of climate change, politicians of all parties and countries will have to get a lot more honest—honest about the scale of the threat that we face and the scope of the changes that we need to make.
Just last week, for the first time in human history, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed the milestone level of 400 parts per million. The last time so much greenhouse gas was in the air was several million years ago, when the Arctic was ice-free, savannahs spread across the Sahara desert and the sea level was up to 40 metres higher.
The difference between 399 and 400 parts per million may be small in its impact on the world’s living system, but it is overwhelming in its symbolism of our collective failure to put the future of the natural world and its people above immediate self-interest and to tell the truth and admit that reliance on fossil fuels is not compatible with the urgent action needed on climate change. Given the role that fossil fuel lobbyists play in influencing policy, including being seconded into Departments to draft it in the first place, I am also deeply disappointed that the Bill to introduce a register of lobbyists has been dropped from the Government’s plans.
If coalition Ministers are comfortable in their state of denial about the climate crisis and their cosy relationships with the fossil fuel industry, whose core business models are incompatible with keeping global warming below 2°, let it be on the record that young people in particular certainly are not. We can see that in the reaction to the Education Secretary’s attempts to remove climate change from the curriculum for the under-14s and we saw it last week when the fossil fuel divestment movement came in the shape of huge opposition to a new partnership between Oxford university and Shell—a partnership that would have been about getting yet more fossil fuels out of the ground. We see it, too, in the concern that I am sure is manifest in many hon. Members’ inboxes from people still lobbying for there to be a clear decarbonisation target in the Energy Bill, not just promises that that might be looked at in 2016.
If I am disappointed that we heard only one mention of climate change in the Gracious Speech, I am even more disappointed by the lack of meaningful action on fossil fuels. Ministers must be honest with themselves and the public and admit that, if we are serious about avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves must be left in the ground.
David T. C. Davies
Is the hon. Lady going to address the issue of why environmental groups will not support methods of generating electricity that do not produce carbon dioxide emissions, such as nuclear power?
Caroline Lucas
If the options were either nuclear or more and more fossil fuels, obviously nuclear would be the least worst option. But that is a false choice that we are not facing. There are plenty of technologies out there that need further support—solar, wind, geothermal and many others that are now coming to be equal in terms of price parity. We do not need to go down the nuclear route, which is hugely expensive as well as dangerous. We do not need to go there, so why would we? Why not use the technologies that we know will get our emissions down and keep the lights on much more cheaply, effectively and safely?
I turn to a report published last month by Carbon Tracker. It makes the point that we cannot go on using more and more fossil fuels. As Lord Stern explains in the foreword,
“most fossil fuel reserves are essentially unburnable because of the need to reduce emissions in line with the global agreement”
to keep temperatures below 2° warming. That 2° warming is the first critical number in the Carbon Tracker report. Governments around the world have agreed that we should not exceed that level of warming. There is already an increase of 0.8° in the atmosphere, so we are getting close to 2°, and 0.6° is locked into the atmosphere. If we are not careful, we will get to 2° very fast, and many people believe that 0.5° would be a safer threshold.
The second number is the 2,795 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide that industry figures indicate are locked up in the known, proven coal, oil and gas reserves around the world. Finally, the figure of 565 gigatonnes is the amount of CO2 that research by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research identifies as remaining in our carbon budget for the period 2011 to 2015. In other words, we can safely burn only one fifth of known fossil fuel reserves and still keep within the global carbon budget, as the International Energy Agency confirmed in its recent report.
Many people will suggest that carbon capture and storage is the way out of this problem. However, even if CCS were deployed in line with an idealised scenario by 2050, that would extend fossil fuel carbon budgets by only about 125 gigatonnes, which is equivalent to only 4% of the total global budget. CCS is not likely to come online in any serious way until at least 2030, by which point the carbon budget may well have been used up.
The implications of all this are clear. First, the decarbonisation target needs to be in place. We need to make sure that we do not have a second dash for gas. Most crucially, Ministers must require extractive companies to include the greenhouse gas emissions potential of fossil fuel reserves as part of an update on company reporting regulations. If they do not, there is a real risk that our financial markets will have a carbon bubble worth an estimated $16 trillion globally. Because we are so over-exposed in the UK given the global role played by London, our financial centre, in raising capital, there is great concern that companies are inflating their worth because of these reserves.
Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)
I rise to support the Gracious Speech.
Without any shadow of a doubt, we live in a global economy. We have heard many speeches about the cost of living based on the domestic policies that are set nationally, and there is indeed an important debate to be had about that. However, like my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis), I regret the fact that we will not discuss international affairs during the debate on the Gracious Speech.
An escalation of issues in the middle east would have a very detrimental effect on the cost of living in this country. Many hon. Members have talked about the cost of energy—oil and gas—in this country and the increase in fuel poverty. The stark truth is that that could increase only if we were to move towards a more militarised conflict across the middle east. There are serious concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but that does not mean that we should take a unilateral decision, or a decision with any other nation, to take military action against that country. The mere suggestion of moving forward there could result in oil price rises across the world that would have a deep impact on the people of this nation, without a single bullet being fired.
We do not get any oil from Iran; we got only 2% before the EU embargo came in. However, a vast majority of the oil coming into this country comes through the Straits of Hormuz, and if the oil traders believe that there is a threat to those shipping lanes, oil prices will inexorably rise. We must remember that oil is bought three months in advance of when it is sold. If the oil traders believe that there may be difficulty in getting that oil out of the Gulf and into our country, oil prices will increase, and that will affect every aspect of the cost of living in this country. It is not just about the straightforward issue of fuel prices. If we are on a bus we have to get a bus ticket, or if we are on a train the electricity has to be generated to run it. The price of oil affects the price of food in our shops, which has to be transported there using fossil fuels. That shows why we should have discussed the effects of international affairs on this nation during our debates on the Gracious Speech.
I do not think I am the only Government Member who seriously questions the wisdom of relaxing the EU arms agreement on Syria. If history has taught us anything over the past 10 years, it is that picking a side and arming it will rarely lead to a useful outcome for world stability. If we side with the opposition in Syria, who are we actually siding with? Many companies in this country that employ many people are now banking with Israeli banks, and that has a direct influence on their strategic fiscal capability. Do we seriously want to empower an opposition that has some, let us say, interesting people on the Islamic fundamentalist side who are right next door to a country that the vast majority of Arab countries would like to see removed from the face of the map? That instability, linked with Iran talking to Hezbollah and a change in the dynamic in Syria, could have a direct consequence on the ability of companies to operate in this country.
Dr Julian Lewis
Would my hon. Friend also like to make an observation on whether the task of humanitarian intervention has been made that much more difficult by the way we went about it in Libya? We said that it would be a very limited, no-fly-zone-type intervention, but we ended up intervening much more directly on one side, and in a strictly military way, in a civil war?
Alec Shelbrooke
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point. That is a recent example of a country that we helped to liberate, but it led to issues for our embassy and that of the US. That paints a picture. However good the intentions to solve a crisis may be, the question is: what comes next?
That is not to say that we should shirk our responsibilities towards humanitarian aid. More than 1 million refugees are flooding out of Syria into Jordan alone, a country that is ill-equipped to deal with that number. We will eventually be called upon to help with that humanitarian crisis and it is important that we will, again, be there for our fellow man. I come back to the point that, when we debate the cost of living in this country and the Government’s programme over the next year, we should also discuss international issues, because, importantly, they are interlinked with everything we do.
In 1983, when I was a child of just six or seven years of age, the film “Threads” was made. I watched it recently and am sure that a number of other Members have also seen it. It is set in Sheffield in the 1980s in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. It is a sobering film and it should be watched. What struck me about it is that those who made the decisions that caused the wars to take place did not feature in the film. Indeed, given that it was set in Sheffield, the decisions were being made 190 miles away in London and elsewhere in the world. That is the point I am trying to make: we have to take notice of the innocent people on the ground and of the impact of our decisions.
We live in a highly volatile world and have to be very careful about how we move forward, and it is regrettable that the debate on the Gracious Speech has not given us the opportunity to address these issues, which could have such a fundamental impact on our cost of living.
Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke), although I do not think that the spot price of oil should be the determining factor in whether we intervene in a country where 70,000 people have been slaughtered and 1 million more have been made into refugees. That should not have been a consideration in Libya either.
The centrepiece of the Queen’s Speech, with respect to the cost of living, should have been a strategy for growth. That was sadly missing from the rag-bag of old ideas that we have seen before. Contrary to what was said by the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg), who is no longer in his seat, under this Government, the debt to GDP ratio will have gone up from 55% in 2010 to 85% in 2015, debt is rising by £245 billion and we have lost our triple A rating. The idea that all is rosy in the garden is farcical.
What we need is growth. To his credit, the Prime Minister is in Washington trying to negotiate an EU free trade deal with the United States. At the very same moment, the Eurosceptics—or should I say Euroseptics—are busy undermining that prospective agreement with a great trading partner. That is very sad.
Catherine McKinnell
My hon. Friend is making a powerful point about our international position. Does he share my concern over the figures from the Office for National Statistics that came out today, which show that the UK has plummeted to 12th in the league table of household incomes? That shows that not only are people suffering, but we are falling behind our international neighbours and competitors.
Geraint Davies
That is a key point.
We are always hearing that everything is all right in the UK and the problems are someone else’s fault. The EU does have problems, but there are emerging opportunities in China, India, Brazil and elsewhere. The Queen’s Speech should have provided a strategic platform for international trade to help us access the newly emergent and massive middle classes who want to take our consumer goods and who form the basis of inward capital investment. But no, we are busy being the one nation, fish and chip shop, Eurosceptic Britain—the nation of shopkeepers that Napoleon described us as. It is frankly pathetic. The Conservatives are not fit to be in government.
Between 1997 and 2008, we saw growth of 40%. Not enough Labour Members stand up and defend that. If our debt to GDP ratio is going from 55% to 85%, how can we sort it out? One way is to cut debt and to stamp on the poor for the recklessness of the bankers, which is what the Tories are doing. The other is to increase GDP so that the ratio goes down. Under Labour, GDP went up by 40% up to 2008. In 2008, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown) and President Obama put together the fiscal stimulus. The EU’s fiscal stimulus was 2% of GDP. In the United States, it was 5% of GDP. Indeed, the United States put in $2 trillion of quantitative easing, whereas the EU put in nothing. Britain did put in something, but we still have the economics of austerity here and in Europe. In the United States, where the economy was stimulated, growth is projected to be 3% in the next year. In the EU, it is projected to be 1%. Why was nothing done about that in the Queen’s Speech?
We have seen the emergence of massive youth unemployment. In Greece, the rate is more than 60% and in Italy it is 38%. In Greece, people are moving towards the Nazis and extreme communists. In Italy, 25% of people voted for a comedian. I notice that that is the same percentage of people who are voting for UKIP here. The British National party’s support has gone up fourfold from 1% to 4%. The response of the Tories is to run for the hills and emulate UKIP.
Why has support for UKIP gone up? The first reason is that the Prime Minister has given it credibility by saying that he will hold a referendum. People who used to say to me when I knocked on their doors, “You must be joking. We’ve got millions of jobs involved in trade with Europe. It’s the platform into China, India and the United States”, are now thinking, “Hold on. Cameron’s offering us this option, so it must be a credible choice.” That gives oxygen to UKIP.
Alec Shelbrooke
What is the hon. Gentleman’s reaction to the hon. Member for Lewisham West and Penge (Jim Dowd), who said that their party should support a referendum on Europe?
Geraint Davies
Obviously, I disagree with that. I do not agree with a referendum, but if the overwhelming majority of people in Britain want one, I accept that we should have one. I am simply saying that the case for a referendum has been whipped up because of the Conservatives’ fear of UKIP. They have fed it red meat, and it is coming back for more.
It is the same with immigration. Everyone is going, “Oh no, there’s too much immigration. It’s terrible, isn’t it?” However, immigration was part of the reason for our economic growth. We prematurely let in some of the people from Poland who would have been able to come here anyway, and meanwhile Germany is saying that it needs more immigrants to pay for the generation that is growing old. We obviously need to manage immigration properly and carefully, but we should consider that 6% of immigrants are on benefits compared with 16% of indigenous people.
We are providing ammunition for people to blame immigrants, and what was in the Queen’s Speech? Private landlords and health providers will have to find out whether someone is an immigrant and whether they are legal. What will be the easiest test of that? “Are you white or are you black?” It is institutional racism. We are feeding the UKIP voters by saying, “The austerity problems aren’t Tory austerity problems, they’re because of all the immigrants.” Is that helping anyone and creating a united and strong Britain with a one nation future? No, it is creating a weak, divided nation of people who are being crushed by the Tories, and the poorest are blaming the immigrants. It stinks.
Geraint Davies
I had better give way to the hon. Member for Monmouth (David T. C. Davies), because he is likely to say something more ridiculous, as a fruitcake.
David T. C. Davies
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, not least because I am married to an immigrant and fully support the Government’s policies.
The hon. Gentleman mentioned a statistic, but 100% of indigenous people in Britain are entitled to receive benefits. What percentages of those who have emigrated here are entitled to receive them? I do not know, but it is much lower than 100%, so the statistic that he gave is inaccurate.
Geraint Davies
I certainly do not accept that. My basic point about the cost of living, which is what we are talking about, is that the bottom 10% of people in Britain spend 37% of their money on food, energy and housing costs, whereas for the top 10% it is less than half that proportion at 17%. As basic costs escalate, benefits are squeezed and the overall amount of money that people have is crushed, including their working tax credit and the like, and the people right at the bottom can barely survive while the people at the top are laughing. It is all very well saying that the rich are paying more, but the wages of the top 10% have gone up by 11% in the past two years.
I am not even talking about the 5% tax giveaway, but what a laugh that is, with the Government saying, “Oh, we’ll raise more from a 45p rate than a 50p rate.” People on the top incomes can move their income between tax years, so that is why there will be a lower take. There will be a behavioural change. If the 50p rate was ongoing, we would raise more. Indeed, some people already pay 50%, because those who pay 40% also pay 12% in national insurance, so their marginal rate is already 52%. The only difference is that they do not have accountants. It stinks. The reckless bankers, who were two-thirds responsible for the deficit in 2010, are being rewarded in their pay packets while the poorest are being squeezed and we are giving a bit to the squeezed middle.
James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)
As I have knocked on doors around Halesowen and Rowley Regis over the past five years, a common theme has come up time and again. My constituents, and I suspect those around the country, have been looking for reassurance that the Government are on their side as they go out to work and try to do the right thing and take responsibility for themselves and their families.
Many families in my constituency are starting to see things get better. There are now 3,000 more of my constituents in work than there were before the general election. For many, however, things are still a struggle. They want to see evidence that the Government understand that things are tough for them and their families. They want action to make things a little easier, and they want to have confidence that, at the very least, their Government will not make things unnecessarily difficult.
I am pleased that the Energy Bill has been carried over. It will give legislative force to the requirement on energy companies to put customers on the cheapest tariff to meet their needs. When the Prime Minister announced that the Government would ensure that energy consumers were put on the cheapest available tariff, the Opposition’s reaction was that it could not be done, presumably because they knew that when they were in government they had lacked the political will to make it possible. They then changed to arguing that it would not be done—presumably because they knew they would not have done it—and they now seem to argue that it is not worth doing. The truth is that it could be done, it is being done, and it will benefit many of our constituents, particularly the most vulnerable.
As a humble Back Bencher, I hesitate to pick faults in the way Ministers choose to communicate the Government’s achievements, but the message that a series of freezes in fuel duty represents help for drivers tells only half the story. Motorists will, of course, be the most obvious direct beneficiaries of getting fuel costs under control, and drivers in my constituency will, on average, be £170 better off than they would have been had the Government gone ahead with the increase in fuel duty planned by the Labour party. However, I cannot help but think that that message sells the Government short. Transport costs are a significant part of the cost that families pay in shops, particularly for food, and they have a real impact on the cost of living for motorists and non-motorists alike. Poor grain and fruit harvests last autumn have created significant pressures on food prices globally, and the Government’s action to prevent fuel costs from needlessly rising and adding to those pressures will help to stop spiralling food prices that could hit hard-working families hard.
Huw Irranca-Davies
What does the hon. Gentleman make of the National Farmers Union’s repeated call over the past few months for an extension to allow seasonal agricultural workers from beyond EU borders—places such as Moldova and Bulgaria—to come to the UK and pick the crops in the fields because of that issue of affordable food? How does that tie in with the Government’s thinking on immigration?
James Morris
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention but my constituency contains, I think, half a farm, so I am not qualified to speak on the matter he raises. Like the measures contained in the Budget, the action the Government are taking will provide significant help for families in my constituency, and I shall be proud to support them.
I understand that it is this year’s fashion to talk about matters that we wish had been included in the legislative programme, and if I may make one plea to Ministers, it would be to add my voice to those of right hon. and hon. Members—led by my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon)—who are calling for measures to stabilise fuel prices to be taken further. With wholesale prices having fallen from their peak, it would be a good time to revisit the idea of a fuel duty stabiliser to protect families and businesses from some of the damaging effects of volatile fuel prices. Should the Government return with such plans, I am sure they would enjoy not only the support of the House but—more importantly—they would make a real difference to our constituents.
The positive action that the Government are taking to address the cost of living stands in stark contrast to the record of the previous Government, although that is hardly surprising. Why would a party that had convinced itself that it had abolished boom and bust worry about rising prices? A Government who believed that the benefits of boom would not be followed by the crisis of bust were happy to assume that they could go on handing out enough in benefits and tax credits, and that a policy of uncontrolled immigration would provide enough cheap labour to keep service costs low. The Leader of the Opposition may have started to talk about energy costs, but he cannot hide from the fact that when he was the Cabinet Minister responsible for such matters, he stood by while the margins of energy suppliers soared.
I am pleased to support the Government’s legislative programme, and in particular actions to keep the cost of living under control. People in Halesowen and Rowley Regis who work hard and want to get on but who have been finding things tough can see that these measures will help to make things a little easier. They can see that this Government are on their side.
Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)
I should like to address housing, which hon. Members on both sides of the House must start to take seriously. In 2012, the Institute for Public Policy Research showed that, in the current spending review, nearly £95 billion will be spent on housing benefit compared with just £4.5 billion on building affordable housing. That means that for every £1 spent on affordable housing, £19 will be spent on housing benefit. We should therefore not be surprised that the housing benefit bill has been rising. We accept that, but the problem is that the Government have not analysed the reasons for it, and have decided to address housing benefit spending by trimming bits of money off recipients of housing benefit here and there. For those individuals, those bits of money are not insubstantial. For somebody on £71.70 a week, losing £12 a week because they have to pay it towards their rent is extremely significant in their cost of living. The policy does not make sense for the country or for those individuals.
In the 1970s, 80% of housing expenditure was for building houses—very little was spent on rent subsidy. As a result, many working people, including people in relatively low-waged jobs, had affordable housing in which to live. They therefore did not need to claim benefits. No wonder people say, “Too much goes on benefits.” The money is going in at the wrong end.
The previous Labour Government did not address the problem in the way that I, as a councillor active in housing, would have liked. Many Labour Members have said that for some time. I was pleased that the shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said recently in an article in the Evening Standard that one principle of the next Labour Government would be to redress that.
Geraint Davies
My hon. Friend will know that the cost of housing benefit has doubled in the past 10 years to about £20 billion, but is she aware that 70% of the increase is because of private sector rent increases? Does that not make her case for building more affordable housing, not just crushing the poor?
Sheila Gilmore
As recently as February 2009, about 1 million private rented tenants claimed housing benefit. By October 2012, that number had risen to 1.7 million. Far more people in the sector need to claim housing benefit, largely because they are on lower wages or have lost working hours because they are on poor contracts.
Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con)
Does the hon. Lady believe that mass immigration has contributed to the massive increase in demand for social rents and housing benefit?
Sheila Gilmore
No, I do not believe that. In fact, the number of recent immigrants who are housed by councils and housing associations is very small. The problem is the lack of building of affordable housing.
Government policy is about to stoke that problem further. They have decided to say that affordable housing is housing built at 80% of market value. They can therefore say, “We have replaced housing. We have built affordable housing.” However, that will stoke the problem further, because more people in that form of housing will have to claim benefit to afford it. The policy does not make sense. In 10 years’ time or even five years’ time, if that continues—hopefully it will not continue, because there will be a change of Government—people will turn around and say, “Why did the Government do that? Why did they yet again put all the onus on revenue and give us an even bigger benefit bill?”
As it turns out, the problem is happening not just in England. There is also a cut in the amount going for affordable housing in Scotland. We are building far more mid-rent housing, as it is called in Scotland. It is about 80% of market value. That is the only way in which housing is being built. I do not see any reason for not having some mid-market rented housing as a supplement to what is there already, but when it becomes a substitute for truly affordable housing, we are storing up problems with the balance of what we are spending.
Much has been made by this Government and the previous Government about the importance of making work pay. The cost of housing is one of the essential determinants of whether work pays or not. People get trapped by the lack of cheap, affordable housing. As my city is so short of housing, we introduced a scheme which solved the crisis for some people. I recently met a constituent who had separated from her husband two years ago. She had two children and no home to go to, so she applied to the council as homeless. She was in a crisis—the relationship had been violent—so she accepted a property under a private sector leasing scheme, in which the council leases properties from the private sector. It was a relief to her at the time, because she had a safe home for herself and her daughters. She was not working at the time; her life was in such a crisis that she had had to give up her job as well as her home, so she was receiving housing benefit to pay the very high rent.
Two years on, my constituent is ready and anxious to get on with her life. She wants to get a job, but she is stuck with a rent that is more than double the rent of a council or housing association house. She has been advised that if she got a job she would still get some housing benefit to help pay the rent, but she would still have to pay as much rent—from a fairly average wage—as she would have to pay on a council property. Everybody would lose out. My constituent would lose out, because it might not be worth her while to get a job, and taxpayers would lose out because they would still have to pay half the rent for her to live in a property that she does not now particularly need or want to live in.
We have to solve this problem and we have to do so quickly. The best way is to start investing directly in the building of affordable housing. If we do not do that, we will never be able to tackle the housing benefit bill. If that had been in the Queen’s Speech, we could have made some real progress for many people. My constituent is not alone, she is just a recent example of how people can get stuck. In fact, that is her word—she is stuck and she would have welcomed some progress from the Government in the Queen’s Speech.
Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con)
Several hon. Members have touched on the initiatives that the Government have put in place to try to address the cost of living. I am pleased that my local authority, Shepway district council, has frozen council tax for three years in a row—as Kent county council did this year too. Measures to stop increases in fuel duty have had a direct impact on the lives on millions of people in this country, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) on his campaign on that issue. The Government have also taken the first steps any Government have taken to bring in measures to guarantee that consumers receive the lowest energy prices. I welcome all those measures.
One issue that has not been addressed in this debate is the Labour party’s commitment to increase borrowing—it says in the short term—as part of its programme for government. It is very reluctant to be drawn on this, but it should be drawn on it, especially in a debate on the cost of living, because of the consequences it would have. The country direly needs to live within its means and reduce its debts and deficit. If it deviates from that track because of the Labour party’s desire to spend more money—money that it does not have—we have to wonder how the money will be raised. Will it be raised in taxation—by asking people to pay higher taxes—or by higher borrowing, which will be passed on to consumers in higher mortgage rates? We have been down this track before and we have seen the consequences, which is why the Opposition are so reluctant to be drawn on the consequences of their policies and what they will mean for people’s lives.
Huw Irranca-Davies
This morning I was at a breakfast meeting with a contingent from the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, which has published a report that advocates increasing expenditure on infrastructure, not necessarily through the public sector but through imaginative use of private sector investment, including being underwritten by the Government at a time when interest rates are at a record low. Does the hon. Gentleman approve of that?
Damian Collins
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point, because it provides a neat segue into what I want to talk about next. Of course, the Government welcome investment in major infrastructure projects that improve the competitiveness and underlying strength of the economy, and there are numerous schemes where that is taking place. If I look at investment in jobs in my own area through the work of the regional growth funds, I see that £35 million is being spent in east Kent to create new jobs. Businesses such as Wooding in Hythe in my constituency have already received £1 million and they are hiring people on the basis of that investment. Of course we welcome that type of investment, but we are hearing from the Labour party a desire for a short-term, temporary cut in tax to act as a stimulus to the economy, with no real sense of where that money will come from or how it will be costed and paid for. My concern in this debate on the cost of living is that the people who will end up paying for those policies will be the consumers. People will pay through higher taxes, and higher interest rates on their mortgages if they are homeowners.
I will come back to the point made by the hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) on imaginative partnership with the private sector to increase investment, which also touches on the speech made by the hon. Member for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore) on the housing sector. One of the biggest elements of the cost of living is housing. Rent, servicing a mortgage or finding the money in the household budget to try to save and buy one’s first home are all significant costs. I am attracted to schemes where local authorities seek to work with institutional investors to fund the building of new homes that will be run by arm’s length management associations and councils, effectively producing a private partnership with a local authority to build new council houses and to borrow money from an institution over a 40-year to 50-year period. That is a sensible thing to do, and is what any organisation would do. If it is ultimately responsible for paying the rent through housing benefit, why would it not seek to control the end product too? That will give us more opportunities not only to provide people with lower cost homes to rent, but, in time, for even more people to benefit from the right to buy scheme, and for the money to be reinvested into providing new, high-quality homes. That would a good thing: it would reduce some of the costs of renting and be a good thing for the housing market as a whole.
Such a policy would also help to do something to address the scandal of the poor quality of many homes in the private rented sector which are offered to tenants claiming housing benefit but are not fit for habitation. Local authorities should use powers, which they already have, to take action against those landlords. I welcome, in part, the measure in the Queen’s Speech that will create an obligation for private landlords to ask whether people seeking accommodation are qualified to receive it. That will ensure that they are in the country legally and not in breach of the law. That is a good thing, because we will probably find that it is the rogue landlords who are happy to take the money and not ask any questions, and who are making money not out of people who are here illegally, but from some of the poorest people in our society. We should clamp down on that, because it is public money, paid out through housing benefit, that they are profiting from, and we should take firm action against it.
Geraint Davies
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that most landlords have a single property and rent it out themselves? They simply do not have the resources to verify whether a prospective tenant is an illegal immigrant. Making those landlords illegal is outrageous, quite apart from promoting racism.
Damian Collins
I disagree with the hon. Gentleman. I think it is very easy to ask those questions and for those checks to be made. Most landlords will probably say that they are paying very large sums to agents to act on their behalf to make these checks. Hundreds of pounds are paid on every transaction by both the tenant and the landlord in managing the private rented sector, so I do not see why those questions would not be asked. Legitimate landlords have nothing to fear. It will be the rogue landlords, who rip people off and exploit the illegal status of some of the people they give accommodation to by keeping them in cramped and unpleasant accommodation, who will have something to fear. It is good for the country that those people fear such intervention.
Many people, particularly young people saving to buy their first home, find the size of the deposit required prohibitively large, and the attempt to save that extra money undoubtedly bears on their cost of living. The Help to Buy scheme, which will support people’s deposits when they buy a new home, must be welcomed as a measure to help many people on to the housing ladder and to give them a far better standard of living and accommodation. This positive initiative will also have a beneficial legacy for the construction sector, giving people greater confidence to build on the property sites currently held in land banks that have planning permission, but which are not being built on because people are concerned that there are not enough people to buy. This scheme will give them the confidence to build, knowing that people will be able to afford the homes because their deposits will be covered.
Finally, on a subject linked to housing towards the end of people’s lives, the Care Bill will end the requirement on people to sell the property for which they have worked and saved all their life in order to meet their care costs in later life. It is unfair that people who have made sacrifices throughout their lives are asked to make the final sacrifice of selling their home to pay for some of their care costs, when others are not put in that position. It is right to cap those contributions: it will reward people’s hard work and aspiration and send out a positive message about the sort of country we are and how we want people to make those sacrifices, work hard and put something by for themselves and their family to have and use later in life. The Care Bill is a positive step in that direction.
I welcome and commend the Queen’s Speech and today’s debate.
Ms Margaret Ritchie (South Down) (SDLP)
At the heart of this debate are two fundamental questions: what is the economy delivering for people and why does it seem to be delivering more for some than for others? A functioning economy needs to work not just for those at the top but for all those who contribute to our businesses, industries and public services. We should all be concerned by the income gap and the disparity between those at the bottom and those at the top, and we have a responsibility towards those who put in so much but currently get little of the reward. Since the 1970s, wages have grown twice as fast for the top 10% as for those earning medium incomes.
Such inequality is not just an abstract economic problem; it fosters division and can be linked to several serious social problems. This should elicit not some glib response about the politics of envy, but a realisation of interdependence in our economy. The Government’s proposed consumer rights Bill is to be welcomed, and I await the details with interest, but there is little in this sparse legislative agenda to tackle the fundamental economic problems we are facing. What message is being sent out when remuneration is clearly no longer tethered to economic worth and input, and what message are the Government sending out when they cut the top rate of tax while introducing a 1% cap on benefits that will hurt children and families?
Currently people are having to work longer hours, pay more at the pump, pay more for their weekly shopping and struggle to budget for the increased cost of keeping the heating on. Every day can become a struggle. We have an economy with high inflation and record fuel, food and energy prices, combined with high unemployment and wage stagnation. That is the real pain that people are feeling in Northern Ireland. Growth has been non-existent under the coalition Government, which again is not an abstract consideration, but is being felt by people on a daily basis. A recent poll by the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland found that nearly 50% of people were extremely concerned about their ability to make ends meet and that people in their 30s and 40s were most concerned that they might lose their job, while those in their 20s were concerned that they could not find one. This paints a picture of a population that has lost faith in the economy and no longer believes that it will meet their aspirations.
Many Members have today discussed the pressing problems of rising fuel, food and heating costs, and this is especially the case in Northern Ireland where we have experienced the highest fuel prices in the UK and Ireland every month in 2013. The latest AA report for April 2013 indicates that Northern Ireland is the second most expensive place to buy diesel in the EU. The cost of filling up an average saloon car with a 50 litre engine is now £75, and 90% of customers report that they are spending more than they did two years ago, despite consciously trying to use their cars less.
It is a similar with energy costs. The cost of gas has risen by 38% and the cost of heating oil by over 68% since 2009, meaning that consumers face annual bills that are over £600 more expensive than five years ago. Many of those people are also facing deepening levels of fuel poverty. In the supermarket, consumers are faced with a £20 rise in their weekly food shop. These factors—filling a car to drive to work, paying energy bills and feeding a family for a week—are all compounded, leaving people constantly feeling under pressure.
I see very little evidence from the Queen’s Speech that the Government grasp the fundamental challenges that they face to restore growth and confidence to the economy. The Government should be creating investment, not insecurity. There needs to be an economy to which everyone feels connected, one that is grounded in a degree of fairness.
More specifically and more immediately, I support measures such as the sectorally targeted VAT reduction on tourism and hospitality products, which has been successful in other European countries. I also call on the Government to deliver on the peace dividend that was promised for Northern Ireland back in 2007 in order to pump-prime devolutionary measures, as well as to ensure that our standard of living and rising unemployment no longer create those social divisions that have been relevant for some time. In that regard, I urge Cabinet Ministers to sit down with the Northern Ireland Executive to put a proper long-term economic deal in place.
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
I welcome this debate because I believe that the Government’s record should be welcomed for a number of reasons. First, despite a number of factors outside their control, they have taken measures to help families—for example, with the cost of fuel and utilities. Secondly, the Government have recognised that tax is the biggest brake on the cost of living and have cut tax for low earners. Thirdly, the Government have realised that, besides tax, the best way to reduce the cost of living is to encourage people to move from welfare to work by increasing their skills.
Before I look at these things, however, we should look at how Labour has undermined the cost of living. As some Members have commented, the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) has said that the wages of our constituents have fallen by £1,700 a year since the election and that our constituents are getting poorer. But as the Resolution Foundation made clear, median real wages stopped rising in 2003, a full seven years before the coalition came to power. We should not forget that Labour left office with 2.5 million people unemployed.
I believe that the Government are listening and I welcome the action they have taken to ease the cost of living, particularly the cost of fuel: they have frozen fuel duty for three years and cut it by 1%. All these measures were opposed by Labour. Yet 800,000 families still lose a quarter of their income at the petrol pump, and the average cost of unleaded petrol has risen by 60% since January 2009. Fuel duty is not just a tax on fuel; it is a tax on everything. It pushes up the cost of public transport and of food. With 71% of us still driving to work, fuel is an essential.
It is also right that we should have transparency. I have argued that the Government should make it compulsory for receipts to display how much of what the customer pays for fuel is tax. That would show that, despite the fuel duty freezes and the decrease in the cost of oil internationally, oil companies continue to increase the cost of fuel. News is emerging today to suggest that major oil companies have rigged the oil market. This is being investigated by the European Commission, and if it is true, I believe—I argued this last year in a debate in this House—the Government should not only fine the oil companies but consider imposing a windfall tax on them and passing those tax receipts back to the consumer through lower fuel duty.
I am pleased that there is a water Bill in the Queen’s Speech. Water companies are making big profits. In 2011, they paid out £28 million in bonuses, yet for families feeling the squeeze, water bills have risen by 82% over the last 10 years. I asked the Government to take further action to break the monopolies and to increase competition between water companies, which would allow for reinvestment in the water system that would keep bills low in the long term. A windfall tax should also be considered so that money could be handed back to consumers.
I welcome the fact that the Government recognise that the biggest brake on the cost of living is taxation. I am pleased that they are making progress in reducing taxation, including taking 3,000 lower earners out of tax altogether in my constituency of Harlow. I have urged the Government to reintroduce the 10p tax band that Labour scrapped in 2008 for those earning up to £12,500, which is the level of the minimum wage. That would give a cash boost to minimum wage workers of £250 a year.
One of the biggest problems in meeting the cost of living is the bill for the taxpayer from the welfare state. The average taxpayer on lower earnings pays £1,220 a year on welfare from the tax they pay. The Government are right to build an economy in which those who work are rewarded. It is right that the welfare bill is reduced. The reality of Labour’s policy to increase the welfare bill is that it would increase the tax bills of millions of lower earners across the country.
The final way to address the cost of living is to deal with the skills problem. It is no accident that those with the lowest skills are those with the lowest pay. The Government are tackling that by investing in half a million apprentices—the number of apprentices in Harlow has increased by 78% in the past year alone—and the building of 24 university technical colleges. We have also talked about the technical baccalaureate and other measures that the Government are making to improve vocational training. These are all the kind of things that will help with the cost of living in the long term.
I end with a quotation from a former Labour Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, who understood that to reduce the cost of living the deficit had to be brought under control. He said:
“We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting Government spending. I tell you in all candour that option no longer exists.”
Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)
I want to raise two matters in this debate on the Queen’s Speech that are of serious concern to my constituents: food prices and the price of public transport.
However, although we are talking about the cost of living today, it is important first to recognise that people are facing a significant amount of insecurity in their working lives. The Department for Work and Pensions has recently been rapped for the way it uses statistics. Nowhere is that happening more than in its communication about what is going on in our labour market, as people face the prospect not only of employment but underemployment. To be frank, many people in my constituency face a perfect storm of not getting enough hours to get money coming in and prices increasing at the shops.
Global food price inflation is serious and significant; we have seen two large price spikes recently, in 2008 and 2011. These high, volatile prices are causing serious problems at home and around the world. As a global issue in countries without systems of social protection for the poorest people, they are a total, unmitigated disaster, but the problem of food prices is also troubling every community in Britain—not only the classic poor areas, however we might define them, but every town in our country.
I pay tribute to the people who volunteer their time and effort, and their own cash, to help the charities that are trying to put a sticking plaster on the wound. Their efforts are welcome, but the long-term solution must be to support small agricultural producers to help them to grow, and to ensure that we have a system of social protection that works well to support people’s incomes, so that they can afford the food in the shops. I would also add that, from a global perspective, we need to support measures such as fair trade. Locally in Wirral, we are not going to stand by and let people face those rising food prices on their own, even if the Government are adding insult to injury with their economic management. Wirral council is coming up with a food plan, which will help farmers and producers as well as helping people to access nutritious, affordable meals. I look forward to adopting that approach on my patch.
On transport prices, bus prices are high in Merseyside. This particularly hurts young people trying to get to college or to work. Whenever I meet groups of young people in schools, at youth clubs or at scouts or guides, I consistently hear about the difficulties they face in getting to work, to college or to after-school activities because of the price of public transport.
As we have seen in recent years, cities offer a real chance for growth. Places such as Liverpool and Manchester are progressing and their populations have risen as they have successfully built themselves up as part of our new economy. Connections within and between our cities must improve, however. We need to look not only at capital infrastructure costs but at the day-to-day costs for people who are just trying to get around. Labour’s policy, which we have put forward as an alternative to the Queen’s Speech, involves bus deregulation exclusion zones and represents the right approach to getting more accountability in the provision of public transport. Such a policy would ensure that my constituents could afford to get around.
We know that, when people are thinking about their job options, they factor in not only the length of time it will take to get to work but the cost involved. I find that people on the lowest incomes who are thinking about moving into work or changing to a better job are often rightly risk-averse on account of the transport costs involved. That is why it is incumbent on all of us here to ensure that people can get around.
The hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) has just quoted James Callaghan, in a kind of parody of what Keynesian economics is all about. I would say to the hon. Gentleman that, although it has occasionally been a challenge for me as a progressive politician to get the paradox of thrift on to leaflets, I think that everyone now understands that this Government have gone too far and too fast.
Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern). It was interesting to hear what she had to say about James Callaghan. Growing up on a south Manchester council estate during the Labour years is one reason why I am on the Government Benches and not on the Opposition Benches. Callaghan’s was a complacent Government who were totally out of touch; as we all know, he was replaced by a certain Margaret Thatcher.
I rise to support the Gracious Speech, and I am pleased to be able to make a short speech on the cost of living and people’s ability to save for their retirement. When we consider the nature of our roles in this place, it is extraordinary to look at our society now and in the future, as no real reform to pensions has been made in generations. The world around us has changed so much and our expectations of living standards and life expectancy exceed anything that could have been imagined when the first state pension of five shillings for those over 70 was introduced in 1909—in the famous “People’s Budget” introduced by the then Liberal Government. The pension age remained at 70 until 1928, when the Conservative Government under Stanley Baldwin reduced it to 65. Conservative Governments have always been reforming Governments, particularly when it comes to pensions. Back then, there were limits on what one’s private income could be and having too much furniture could prevent people from being eligible for the state pension.
This House has tried time and again to keep pace with changes to the average person’s working life, but instead of there being a clear, logical plan to make sure that every person in this country can look to a retirement where there is certainty and continuity, the issue has become complicated and confusing. As the relative worth of the basic state pension has dropped, additional payments have been tacked on, which have led to a generation heading to retirement age without knowing what to expect from their pensions, how they need to save or what the cost of living will be.
The increased dependence on means testing, with all the complications that result from it, has meant that a third of pensioners do not claim the pension credit to which they are entitled because they have not received the information they need. That is not to say that Governments have not tried to take steps to reach them, but the confusing nature of eligibility means that many people simply have no idea of what they are entitled to receive. Some of the criteria for eligibility may seem just as odd as the furniture requirement of the 1909 state pension. What is clear, however, is that when the safety net fails to support the most vulnerable, we know something must be done.
Equally, there is no such thing as a job for life. I remember growing up in a south Manchester council estate in the 1970s. My neighbourhood had three industries—the textile industry, the aerospace industry and the growing pharmaceutical industry—and most people worked within them. Forty years later, there is no textile industry, there is no aerospace industry and the pharmaceutical industry is consolidating by moving abroad. That means communities have to reinvent themselves, just as we as individuals have to reinvent ourselves and just as our country has to reinvent itself to compete in a highly competitive 21st century world.
With the rise of new technologies, we should be encouraging entrepreneurs to take their own initiative and build their own businesses. That is why I welcome the inclusion of the self-employed in these reforms, based on national insurance contributions. We can thus encourage business and growth, while guaranteeing a pension for those young entrepreneurs as well.
These reforms are not about our future, but are about our children’s future—and, indeed, our children’s children’s future. We are setting up a system whereby this country’s under-25s will have the security of knowing exactly what to expect from their state pension. They are safe in the knowledge that the new, single-tier pension will be uprated in accordance with higher earnings and will always be above the escalating cost of living. Government Members are safe in the knowledge that we acted in the national interest, took the long-term view and are making the big changes necessary to secure our children’s future. That is why I welcome the Queen’s Speech and the underpinning objective of this Government—that it always pays to work and it always pays to save.
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)
It is a delight to speak in this Queen’s Speech debate, focusing on the cost of living. It is also a delight to follow the hon. Member for Weaver Vale (Graham Evans), who referred back to sunny Jim Callaghan, who was a Cardiff MP. I would like to pick up on the hon. Gentleman’s theme of pensions. He says that what happened under sunny Jim and subsequently made him end up on the Conservative side of the House. One of the reasons for my ending up on the Labour Benches was the fact that before I came here in 1997, the state pension was £64 and there were searing, scandalous levels of pensioner poverty. I say to the hon. Gentleman, with all due respect, that it was clear that something had gone horrendously wrong when people were literally dying of hypothermia in their homes. We do not see that nowadays, and it is something to which we cannot return.
As my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition has said, the pension reforms that will introduce a more contributory basis are very welcome. It is good that it will be possible to lift everyone out of means-testing so that people can have what should be theirs as of right, including carers, and mothers can stay at home and contribute to family life. However, when Labour came to office we responded to a very real crisis in the country.
Earlier today, a Member asked my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) what Nye Bevan would say about something. Everyone goes back to Nye Bevan quotations: what would Nye Bevan be saying if he were speaking here today? There is a tremendous panoply of such quotations, but I recall that when his party was in opposition he said, facing the then Prime Minister across the Dispatch Box,
“The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.”—[Official Report, 3 November 1959; Vol. 612, c. 870.]
That is what this Queen’s Speech is. It is indeed a flamboyant label—it is the Queen’s Speech—but the Queen is travelling very light indeed in the new parliamentary Session.
Alison McGovern
While we are wondering what the great Nye Bevan might have said, may I ask my hon. Friend whether he thinks that, if Nye Bevan were around today, he might have said “Vote Labour”?
Huw Irranca-Davies
Nothing but, and never anything else!
I should have liked to see, in the rather light luggage that we are carrying, a consumers Bill to tackle rising energy costs, train fares and so forth. I should have liked to see a housing Bill that would take action against the real scandal in housing: rogue landlords and extortionate fees and charges in the private rented sector. At present, when people come to my constituency office and complain about that, I have to say that we can do little about it.
The Bill that I should really have liked to see, however, is a jobs Bill that would have given the long-term unemployed a duty to go to work, but would also have guaranteed that jobs would be there for them. That would have been a good way to tackle an unemployment rate of 2.56 million—or whatever the figure is now—and the massive youth unemployment that we see in my local communities.
Let me make a point that I suspect Nye Bevan would have made if he were here today. Let me give the House a reality check. For many people in my constituency—not all of them, because some are weathering the storm very well—the main problem is under-employment. They cannot secure the hours of work that they want so that they can put food on the table. Wage reductions are forced on them, or they have to accept them because of the economic climate.
I had thought that the scandal of zero-hour contracts had disappeared a decade ago, but they are back. People are being told “We will pay you when you are on the till; but then you must go home and sit in a corner, and we will pay you when a customer comes through the door again.” It is an utter scandal. We did not crack down sufficiently on the abuse of the national minimum wage ourselves when we were in government, but my goodness, we need to crack down on it now. Yes, we are seeing jobs being created, but my goodness, we are seeing jobs being lost.
A Government Member of the House of Lords, who claims that he was misreported, recently said, in effect—in the context of that long litany of problems, such as the driving down of pay and conditions—that this was a good time for someone to take the opportunity presented by those problems and set up a business, because it could now be done on the cheap. Let me say this to Government Members as well as those on the Opposition Benches: yes, let us encourage start-up enterprises—we rely on small and medium-sized enterprises in this country—but let us not do it on the backs of others. Let us ensure that people are properly rewarded. Let us consider those who, if they had the right jobs and the right pay in their hands, would be spending money like there was no tomorrow, because they would actually have to.
Andrew Gwynne
Is it not an absolute scandal that since the Work programme was introduced long-term youth unemployment in this country has risen by 355%? That is disgraceful, is it not?
Huw Irranca-Davies
It is an absolute scandal, and if we had a Labour Government now, that would be on the front page of the papers every single day—and it should be, because that is the real scandal. We all want to see people in jobs, so let us get them those jobs and put them into those jobs. We can attach conditionality to welfare to ensure that they take those jobs if they have been unemployed, but give them the jobs, for goodness’ sake.
A Welsh Government study published in February estimates that the benefits changes—and two thirds of the people affected are in work—will suck nearly £600 million out of the Welsh economy in 2014-15. The impact will be felt not only on wages and standards of living, but on public health, on levels of debt—thousands of people must now be flooding through MPs’ constituency offices every week—and on overcrowding and housing; there will also be an increased demand for emergency bail-outs and emergency services. It really is a tragedy.
Although we were not on track—we were slightly slipping—Labour in government lifted 1 million children out of poverty. Unsurprisingly, the Child Poverty Action Group has already forecast that 1 million children will be put back into poverty because of the benefits changes. Not only are Labour Members giving this message, but the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Rowntree Trust and others are repeating it. Everyone is saying that we are going backwards at a rate of knots.
In debates in this Chamber, Members of Parliament have a duty to stand up not only for people in their constituencies who are managing, but for those who are suffering. I will finish with a quote, because what we should be doing today is discussing the cost of living and what is missing from this very light Queen’s Speech; Nye Bevan said:
“This is my truth, tell me yours.”
This is my truth, and it is the truth for my constituents. In all of this debate, all the good things being applauded by the Government Members are not being seen by my constituents, who are struggling. They are struggling in food banks and struggling to pay the bills—it is not everyone, but it is a large and growing proportion. Can we not work together to deal with that, as well as with all the good things that the Government Members have been applauding?
Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)
It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies), who reminds us of the quality of rhetoric from Wales.
I welcome the Queen’s Speech because, above all, it focuses on the core issues that will make a real difference to the cost of living for my constituents. Let me quickly highlight four key points. First, the National Insurance Contributions Bill will, through the employment allowance, provide £2,000 and should therefore eliminate entirely national insurance bills for 450,000 small businesses throughout the country, encouraging them, and, above all, small employers in my city, to take on more employees. The hon. Members for Ogmore and for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) commented on the absence of jobs, but let us not forget that 750,000 more people are in work today than there were at the time of the last general election. Let us hope that there will be more after the National Insurance Contributions Bill takes effect.
Secondly, the Immigration Bill will ensure the deportation of dangerous foreign-national criminals, with appeals only after they have been deported, and will prevent immigrants from having access to public services to which they are not entitled. As Lord Mandelson said yesterday, Labour’s overseas search parties for immigrants meant that
“the entry to the labour market of many people of non-British origin is hard for people who are finding it very difficult to find jobs”.
The hon. Members for Ogmore and for Denton and Reddish should reflect on those comments.
Thirdly, we are all agreed that the cost of energy has risen significantly and is a hard burden for many poor and older constituents especially, and the Energy Bill will enable all our constituents to have clearer information and get on to the best energy tariff. That will be a significant and necessary achievement to help them combat the rising costs of living.
Fourthly, I turn to pensions; I declare an interest as chair of the all-party group on pensions. I absolutely support the Pensions Bill’s new flat rate from April 2016. Above all, it will reward women who took time out of the workplace to look after their children and will now, rightly, get a full state pension at a much higher rate than the basic state pension today.
Lastly, there is the Care Bill, which will guarantee that none our constituents will have to sell their homes during their lifetimes and puts a cap for the first time on the cost of care. Many of us who have had parents with dementia, for example, realise how difficult that situation can be.
I now give way to the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams).
Debbie Abrahams
I want to ask the hon. Gentleman whether he is aware that the employment rate is lower now than in 2008; that relates to a remark he made earlier.
Richard Graham
I am afraid that I do not share that view at all. The statistics are clear—there is less unemployment now than there was.
Jobs, immigration, energy, pensions and care—those are the core themes of the Queen’s Speech and they address issues that need to be addressed in tough times for all our constituents.
Let me now share with the House some of the journey that my city has gone through in the past few years. During new Labour’s time in government, 6,000 business jobs were wiped out in my city of Gloucester. The symbol of the city’s failure were the many hectares of wasteland at its entrance, known as the railway triangle. Cheltenham and Gloucester, a well known and respected former building society, was a casualty of the disastrous Lloyds-HBOS merger, which was encouraged, if not engineered, by the previous Government. One of our secondary schools, Bishops college, sunk to having the second worst GCSE results in the country. Our specialist engineering training company was on its knees, with only 25 apprentices a year. Perhaps saddest of all was the closure of the profitable Kingsholm post office, which meant that 500 pensioners had to walk one and a half miles to collect their pensions.
Today, our businesses are in much better shape. The independent Dupont survey shows that in 2012 Gloucester was having its fastest ever growth in new businesses. Our manufacturers are thriving and expanding. Gloucestershire Engineering Training is in new premises, with four times as many apprentices, and the new railway triangle light industrial park is on schedule to provide up to 1,000 new jobs, with half starting later this year.
Most important of all, perhaps, is the new Gloucester academy, a merger of two underperforming schools improving every term and later this year moving into new buildings funded by a £15 million Government grant. That demonstrates what investment in education, our young and aspiration, and giving everyone the chance to succeed, can achieve.
Let me not pretend that everything in the country or my city of Gloucester is rosy. There is much regeneration left to carry out, especially in the city centre and Blackfriars. However, we have exciting plans and ideas to take forward. I would like our social housing manager, Gloucester City Homes, to play a role in housing regeneration and to fund new social housing. The help of the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Treasury in debt write-off is critical. We have traffic issues at the C and G roundabout off Barnett way and our application to the Department for Transport for pinch-point funding is vital. Above all, we have to continue to help people get into jobs. That is the crucial task that we are focused on. As I mentioned earlier, I will host my seventh jobs fair this Thursday.
It is true that some good things happened under new Labour. But one that was disastrous for many of my constituents was the doubling of council tax. They are now paying more than £700 more than in 1997. We have frozen council tax for three years, yet at the end of the process the Leader of the Opposition has said simply that freezing council tax involves a small amount of money that will not make a huge amount of difference. A £700 increase represents a huge amount of money to my constituents.
The right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) said that we needed welfare reform, but what welfare reform do the Opposition believe in? They have opposed every welfare reform that the Government have proposed. By contrast, the Government are focused on rebuilding the economy, stimulating businesses to create jobs, cutting back Labour’s fuel duty by £5 a tank, lowering income tax for 44,000 of my constituents and taking almost 4,000 out of tax altogether. They are introducing free care for 1,200 two-year-olds in my city later this year.
We are tackling living costs in difficult times, rebuilding public finances, mending the economy, raising skill levels and encouraging more apprenticeships. That is the right way forward. We must keep the focus on helping our constituents and strengthening our country. I welcome the measures in the Queen’s Speech.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. I inform the House that eight Members still wish to speak in this debate and we have to start the wind-ups at 20 minutes to 7. That means that people should speak for six minutes or less, which includes any interventions they take. Otherwise some Members will be unable to speak despite the fact that they have sat in the Chamber all afternoon.
Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)
It is a real pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham), whose optimism I greatly admire. I respect him for recognising that not everything in the garden is as rosy as he sometimes sees it.
Many people in my area are struggling to make ends meet as the economy continues to flatline. Having inherited an economy with slow but steady growth, the Government immediately took action to depress demand and deepen the recession by hiking VAT, cutting services and taking spend out of the economy. Sadly, I see nothing in this Queen’s Speech to put more demand back into the economy. MPs in all parts of the House are saying, like my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham West and Penge (Jim Dowd), that it is a thin Queen’s Speech, the thinnest they can remember—light luggage, as my hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) put it. It certainly looks pretty anorexic to me. There is nothing on tackling the crisis in youth unemployment, nothing on housing when new home completions are now at their lowest level since the 1920s, nothing to stop the undercutting of wages by tackling the exploitation of immigrant labour, nothing to back small businesses struggling to get credit, and nothing on living standards while families see the costs of energy bills and train fares rise out of their reach.
The Children’s Society draws attention to the Government’s own impact assessment estimating that as a result of not uprating benefits in line with inflation, 200,000 more children will be pushed into poverty, including 100,000 in working families. This should not be happening in one of the richest countries in the world in the 21st century.
Lindsay Roy (Glenrothes) (Lab)
Would my hon. Friend like to add that there is nothing to tackle the mushrooming of food banks, which is calamitous in a society such as ours?
Nic Dakin
I was about to come to food banks. My hon. Friend is exactly right. There were no food banks in the Scunthorpe area when I was elected, and now three have opened up across north Lincolnshire. That illustrates the needs of people locally, and it is matched across the country. Although we recognise the excellent work that volunteers and trusts do, it is a shame on us that it is necessary in the 21st century in one of the richest countries in the world.
Some 1.2 million young people living in poverty do not receive free school meals because their parents are in work. The Queen’s Speech should have taken the opportunity to ensure that everybody who needs a free school meal can have one, including 16 to 18-year-olds who attend colleges and are not eligible for free school meals even though they would otherwise meet the criteria. That is a huge shame, especially when the scrapping of education maintenance allowance has made life so much more difficult for those 16 to 18-year-olds in continuing their education.
This year, according to the debt charity StepChange, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of families seeking help with their utility bills, council tax and rent arrears. Over a third of those seeking help from the charity are in arrears on at least one household bill. That is staggering. At the same time, the charity has seen the number of people seeking help with payday loans double. In 2012, it helped 36,413 people with payday loan debts, almost 20,000 more than in 2011. The payday loan debts of those seeking help from StepChange were, on average, £1,657, up from £1,267 the previous year. One hopes that the consumer rights Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech will take action to tackle the outrage caused by the payday loan industry. It should also provide an opportunity to tackle energy prices, rail fares and unsolicited phone calls and text messages from companies up and down the land. All those measures should be included in the Bill, and I hope they will be.
In the meantime, the capacity of trading standards bodies throughout the country to tackle such things locally has been decimated, which is a cause of real concern. There is also chaos as a result of how the Government have dealt with Consumer Focus: they scrapped it three times before appearing to rebadge it recently as Consumer Future. I hope that the consumer rights Bill will tackle the issues raised by Which? and other organisations that know what they are talking about, such as competition abuses and damages.
I will finish now because, despite what Madam Deputy Speaker said, I appear to have been given an extra minute after taking an intervention. All in all, the consumer rights Bill gives us an opportunity to make much needed changes as soon as possible.
Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)
I have sat through the entire debate and have been increasingly frustrated by the contrast between the contributions made by Members from opposing sides of the House. I am genuinely delighted at what the hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) had to say about how well things are going in his constituency, but that contrasts starkly with what is happening in constituencies such as mine. Surely a Government should govern for all the people, not just some, and improvements in one area should not be made at the expense of others.
I want to discuss the impact of the Government’s failure to get growth moving and to create jobs. In particular, I want to discuss the impact of the rising cost of energy on people’s lives. My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) referred to a report in last week’s Observer which said that Lord Young, a former Cabinet Minister and now the Prime Minister’s adviser on enterprise, has told the Cabinet that the current economic downturn, which is causing so much pain and damage to people in this country, is an excellent time for businesses to boost profits, because labour is cheap and can be driven down further.
Pat Glass
No, I am not going to take interventions.
Those comments came from a man who has already been forced to resign once for downplaying the impact of the recession on people and who, it appears, only opens his mouth to change feet. I want to tell Lord Young and his ilk about the reality of a recession and the effect that it and the policy of driving down wages has on the lives of real people.
The gap in wages in the north-east is growing. Weekly wages have fallen on average by £23 a week and by almost £2,000 a year at a time when all other costs are increasing. I have spoken many times in this Chamber about energy prices and their impact on people’s lives and about how the Government are systematically failing to put in place safeguards to prevent the big six energy companies from manipulating the market to achieve massive profits at the expense of the consumer and at virtually no risk to themselves.
Last October, the Prime Minister, under pressure, promised that the Energy Bill would force energy companies to offer the lowest tariff to all their customers, but I have looked carefully at the Bill and cannot see that it delivers anything like that. I was amazed to hear the hon. Member for Halesowen and Rowley Regis (James Morris) speak positively about it. We have clearly not been reading the same Bill.
The Energy Bill was hailed by the Government as a new way forward that would reform the market, deliver a better deal for customers and curb energy company profits, but my reading of it is that it fails on all those objectives. It fails to put in place safeguards to prevent energy companies from manipulating the market to achieve massive profits at the expense of consumers. In fact, the Bill’s proposed energy auction gives yet more opportunities for energy companies to manipulate the market by decommissioning and mothballing stock, holding it back to create shortages and then demanding greater prices at future auctions. That is happening now; we just have to look at Scottish and Southern Energy to see it mothballing stock for those purposes. It is wrong, it is blackmail and it will hit consumers desperately hard. The Government know that it is happening and are doing nothing to prevent it.
The Bill will fail to prevent situations such as the one that occurred last year, when the big six companies followed one another in announcing huge increases in energy prices. British Gas went first, increasing its gas prices by 18% and its electricity prices by 16%. It was quickly followed by Scottish and Southern and the other four. British Gas attempted to defend its massive price increases by saying that the bills were driven up because 50% of its energy is bought on the international wholesale market and it had been selling it at a loss to consumers in this country. That is simply not true. We all accept that capital has to make a fair return on its investment, but this is not a fair return; it is daylight robbery of the British consumer while the Government stand back and do less than nothing. Some even argue that the Energy Bill will make it easier for energy companies to rip off customers.
I will finish because others want to speak. I simply want to say that the Government’s record on energy is not good and the Energy Bill will make the situation worse. It will make energy companies richer and consumers poorer. I ask the Government to look at it again while they have the opportunity. Energy companies are using blackmail and the Government have the ability to stop it.
Mr Iain McKenzie (Inverclyde) (Lab)
As we have heard throughout this debate, times are hard and the cost of living across the country seems to keep rising. The Queen’s Speech is further evidence, as if we needed it, that the Government are increasingly incapable of making positive changes to the cost of living for hard-pressed families.
Prices are still going up faster than wages for those who are fortunate enough to be employed and we are all aware of the unacceptable levels of unemployment across the UK. Yet we continue to witness banks paying out bonuses while families struggle. It is therefore not surprising that most people feel that nothing is changing for them, and the Government seem intent on following a failing economic plan—a plan that, bizarrely, asks millions of families and pensioners to pay more, while 14,000 millionaires are given a tax cut of more than £40,000 each. Many of my constituents find that quite unbelievable in the face of plummeting living standards for most people in the country.
Across my constituency, families, pensioners and businesses are struggling. They have told me so time and again. People tell me of their shock during their weekly visit to the supermarket, when they find less in their basket and more money going into the till. I witness more and more families having to go to greater lengths to keep within their budget for food, desperately shopping around to track down bargains on the most basic of food items. Those who cannot make it from week to week have the food banks. Frighteningly, the number of people going to food banks continues to rise.
Families are losing their tax credits. Some 84,000 families in Scotland are set to lose an average of £511 a year. That is money that they would have spent in the local economy on essentials such as food and clothing. Families across Scotland will lose £43 million a year from cuts to tax credits. That is an enormous amount to take out of the Scottish economy. Fuel bills are horrendous. An increasing number of people are having to choose between food and fuel because they cannot afford both. Families in this country are facing an unprecedented assault on their living standards.
The granny tax will hit hundreds of thousands of pensioners in the UK and 400,000 pensioners in Scotland. Pensioners will face an average income tax hike of £83 a year by 2015-16. We all know the impact that will have.
To date, there is little in the Government’s programme that will help those who need it most. It has been pain all the way, hurting working people, families, pensioners and even the disabled. They are all finding it difficult to make ends meet. Since the last election, average energy bills have gone up by £300 a year, and the Government need to address the soaring cost of living, particularly rising electricity prices. Families are under severe pressure to afford the basics in life, such as heating their home. During the past year most bills have ballooned, such as gas, which is up by 17%, electricity, which is up by 10%, and food, which is up by 3%, and it is still too expensive to fill up a car with fuel.
If the Government do not take action, what is the alternative? It is debt. Debt experts warn that many families are facing extreme difficulty in managing their finances, and that they have seen an increase in the number of people coming to citizens advice bureau on the subject of debt. As I have said before, the Government should help families immediately by taking measures that would address the cost of living crisis and stop rip-off prices for power and fuel.
Labour supports measures that would help families and offer practical, affordable ways to help people right now and get our economy moving again. The country needs a Government who are in touch with families during the recession, and the Government clearly need to make different choices and set different priorities. A start would be to stop handing over £40,000 tax cuts to millionaires and to stop the raid on families’ tax credits by reversing the pension tax break for those earning more than £150,000. They should help pensioners by forcing energy firms to cut gas and electricity bills for the 4 million over-75s, and they should use the money raised by a tax on bank bonuses to create real jobs with a living wage, which would provide young people with a decent standard of living.
This country needs a change in economic direction now if it is to raise the living standards of hard-working families. For many people in the UK, things have got worse, not better in the past three years. Last Wednesday, the Government set out their programme for the coming year and told us what we already knew: that they are a tired Government who have run out of ideas for working people, young people, families, pensioners and even the disabled—in fact, it would seem, for everyone except millionaires.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
Last week’s Queen’s Speech was delivered at a time when most people’s wages are being frozen or cut and both measures of inflation—the consumer prices index and the retail prices index—are above the Bank of England’s target of 2%. The sad fact is that many people, in work as well as out of work, are struggling. We have heard examples from my colleagues, and I have regularly had people in my surgeries in tears at their plight. Last week, I had somebody who had just had a heart bypass operation and had been made homeless. She had been living on her in-laws’ couch for the past three months. Such is the plight of many people across the country.
With energy prices increasing by 20% since 2010, nearly 8,000 households in my constituency—nearly one in four—live in fuel poverty. Given that there was no change in economic and social policy in the Queen’s Speech, the situation is set to get worse. Nationally, it is estimated that by 2016, 9 million households will be living in fuel poverty. The knock-on effects will be felt particularly by our health service and social carers.
My local Oldham council is doing all that it can to address the problem, through the fair energy campaign. It is getting households to sign up to a collective energy deal, using people power to negotiate with energy companies for the cheapest energy tariff for consumers. That contrasts starkly with what the Government are doing. We know that the Warm Front initiative, which we introduced many years ago, closed in January, and the new scheme that the Government have introduced provides less than half the support that Labour provided. On top of that, the Government have cut the winter fuel payment for older people by £50 for the over-60s and £100 for the over-80s, in the full knowledge that every winter tens of thousands of older people become seriously ill or die as a result of the cold. In 2010-11, there were 25,000 excess winter deaths just as a result of cold, and there are fears that the number will be larger as energy prices rise.
The warm home discount scheme, which is meant to help households at risk of fuel poverty, has been shown to help only a fraction of those intended—25,000 families, instead of the 800,000 it was supposed to help. As some of my constituents have already discovered, the Government’s green deal is another white elephant because the interest payments alone are set to exceed the cost of the energy efficiency measures they are meant to support.
I wish to raise a couple of other points in the few minutes remaining, the first of which is food banks. A number of colleagues have already mentioned increased demand for food banks, and the Trussell Trust recently reported that demand has exceeded its estimations by 170% since last year. My constituency of Oldham has had a food bank for the first time in its history. In the past three months, demand exceeded that of all the previous year, and it is set to get worse. Figures I have just received indicate that the number of people accessing food banks has increased by nearly 100 times in the past two years. When I visited my food bank recently, I was told that it is desperately in need of people to contribute, and that is the sort of thing we have to contend with in different ways.
Debbie Abrahams
I am sorry but I cannot.
A week or so ago I took up Oxfam’s Live Below the Line challenge, living on £1 of food a day. From my experience, that makes it incredibly tough not only to get the necessary nutrition, but to get food that will sustain someone for the day—I certainly will not be eating baked beans for a while.
With the benefit changes introduced last month the situation is expected to get much worse. In addition to the bedroom tax, the abolition of crisis loans for living expenses and other so-called reforms of social security are driven by the Government’s ideologically led cuts. Ministers are fond of making unsubstantiated and misleading claims about the effects of their so-called welfare reforms or the level of health spending, but they are far more reticent about data that reveal the cumulative effect of their changes to tax, tax credits and benefits, and which mean—as I mentioned earlier—that the 40% lowest-income households are worse off. The average household is estimated to lose £891 per year, with millionaires gaining an average of £100,000. There is nothing fair about that.
The Queen’s Speech mentions the need to ensure that every child has the best start in life, but how can increasing absolute child poverty by 55% between 2010 and 2020, and relative child poverty by 34%, be said in any way to give children the best start in life? More than 1.1 million children are set to be living in poverty by 2020, which is completely unfair—
Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)
As a new Member in my first Queen’s Speech debate, I was naively looking forward to having a busy and meaty legislative programme to discuss. How wrong I was. Instead, we have a Queen’s Speech that clearly demonstrates the disagreement, division, lack of vision and lack of ambition of this sorry Government. Not only are they running out of business, they are running out of reasons to exist.
Many of my constituents will be looking at the chaos over Europe this week and asking why the Government are having to spend so much time fixing divisions on their own Benches, instead of fixing the stagnating economy and taking action on jobs, prices, and the concerns of small businesses. They will be asking why the Government are not taking action over the increasing squeeze, not only on the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, but on hard-working families across my constituency and the country, who are increasingly struggling to get by.
Figures from the House of Commons Library show that wages in Wales have fallen by £1,700 since 2010—the biggest fall among the UK nations and equivalent to an 8% cut. Real wages are forecast to decline even further due to rising inflation over the coming months. The consequence, as Office for National Statistics figures show, is that Wales has the lowest household disposable income of any UK nation.
That is why my constituents will be amazed to have heard Lord Freud’s evidence to the Select Committee on Welsh Affairs this morning. When asked how my constituents and people throughout Wales should pay the bedroom tax, he said they should go out and make some money. How out of touch can he be? People in my constituency work hard, but many find well-paid work or any work at all difficult to find, thanks to the Government’s stagnating economy and the slowest recovery for 100 years.
People are not only struggling with low wages; many find it extremely difficult to cope with rising transport, food, fuel and energy bills. Some 420,000 families are in fuel poverty in Wales—I am sorry to say that the proportion is higher than in any English region—and yet the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told a Committee a few months ago that food poverty was not a useful concept, which was extraordinary.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change was unwilling to make a causal link between Government policies and food banks, but I will make that case and underpin it with evidence. Food banks in Wales trebled in the past year, and their use has increased by 118%. A survey by the Trussell Trust, which asked people why they accessed food banks, revealed that 45% did so because of benefit changes and delays; nearly 20% did so because they were on a low income; and one in 10 did so because they were in debt. My hon. Friend the Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies) spoke earlier of the terrible increase in the use of payday loans. In Wales, from 2007 to 2012, payday loans rose from 17,000 to 30,000. What a sorry indictment.
Those statistics are reflected in the stories of constituents who come to see me in my surgeries and whom I meet on the streets of Cardiff and Penarth every week. One constituent was subjected to a break-in the other night. I asked her about security lighting and putting on lights to deter would-be burglars. She told me that she often had to sit in the dark to save on her electricity bills. A middle-aged man hit by the bedroom tax told me he would consider stealing food from the shops. Another constituent was looking hard for work, but had to cut back on their travel, fuel and internet usage at exactly the wrong moment in their job search.
The tragedy is that we could have had an alternative Queen’s Speech—one with a jobs Bill featuring a jobs guarantee; tough measures on energy prices; and measures properly to enforce the minimum wage and stop the undercutting of wages. The Government could have focused on the concerns of people throughout the country, and not on divisions on the Government Benches.
I shall conclude on one other disappointment with the Queen’s Speech. In 2010, the Prime Minister promised that he would not balance the books on the backs of the poor. Thousands of campaigners up and down the country are looking to him to hold to that promise. Rob Green, from my constituency, works with Results. He makes the case forcefully for the Government continuing their investment in tackling hunger and under-nutrition in the poorest countries of our world. Where is the 0.7% Bill in the Queen’s Speech? Why has the Department for International Development underspent by 8% this year? Why is No. 10 briefing sweet words to disgruntled Back Benchers via the Daily Mail that the aid promise will be met, but only through a cash-grab by other Departments? What do the Liberal Democrats have to say for themselves? They back the Government, but that was a key promise of theirs. Hollow promises, smoke and illusions are just not good enough. Like the rest of the Queen’s Speech, that failure is symptomatic of a weak Prime Minister, a weak Deputy Prime Minister and a weak and discredited Government.
Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty). Oppositions often say that the Queen’s Speech is a missed opportunity. As has been said many times in the debate, there is not a huge amount, or a huge amount of legislation, in the Queen’s Speech. My view is that there is a huge need for Government action, whether by legislation or other means.
Many Government Members are resistant to the state having a role in solving the challenges we face. They often say that they wish to roll back the state, but the challenges that we face are so massive that only state intervention can get us out of our economic predicament. Anyone listening to speeches by Government Members would think that we do not have many problems, but the Office for Budget Responsibility has downgraded the growth figures in every Budget that the Chancellor has given, and we have appalling growth figures—if we have any growth at all. We are seeing real cuts in living standards, with real wages down £1,700 since the election. We are living through the longest lasting slump since the 19th century. The economy is flatlining and we have a real problem, particularly in constituencies such as the one I represent, with youth unemployment and long-term unemployment.
In the past year, pay has gone up by 1.2% while prices have increased by 2.8%. I am pleased that so many speeches by my hon. Friends have focused on the real challenges that ordinary people face. For example, over the past five years the cost of food has increased by 30%. Energy bills have increased by more than £300 since the Government came to power—and I use the words “came to power” rather than elected, because neither coalition party was elected with a mandate to do what the coalition Government have been doing over the past three years. Bus fares have gone up by 32% in the past five years, while the operating profits of bus companies have increased by more than 7% each year. I wish the Queen’s Speech had contained legislation to address some of those issues. We should regulate bus services and bring them back under public ownership, because the current model simply is not working. Train fares have also risen nearly three times faster than wages since the recession. All those factors are having a major effect on the economy.
Britain has the second largest share of low-paid workers in the developed world. Only the United States is ahead of us. The Resolution Foundation estimates that if employers paid their work force the living wage, the Government would save £3.6 billion a year. The number of people sleeping rough has gone up by more than 30% in the past two years and 75,000 children were homeless last Christmas. The Queen’s Speech addresses none of those issues.
I am on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, and there is a cross-party consensus that we want to see our banks lending to business, but we all know that local businesses in our communities cannot get loans. Lending to business is still falling, when we all know that unless we invest, we will not get growth. The Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill will do nothing to address those issues. Companies in Ayrshire, of all places, are now going abroad to bank, because our banks will not respond to the need.
The Queen’s Speech should have been about jobs and growth. Instead, the political debate is dominated by an internal political squabble in the Tory party about a referendum on Europe, and no doubt we will hear more about that tomorrow. Many of us will remember stock markets tumbling and the near collapse of the banking system in 2008. Few in this country would have thought at that time that the response to that challenge, and the real predicament we face now, would be to make the rich richer and to attack the living standards of the poorest in the country. These policies of austerity are not restricted to the UK, but wherever they are being implemented they are not working. We are seeing real cuts in the living standards of ordinary people in this country.
There has been much discussion in this Chamber about public sector cuts and the Government’s so-called welfare reforms. There is no doubt that those policies are having a big effect on the unemployed and those who stay at home, but they are also having a massive effect on those who work, and living standards are plummeting. Government Members say that they want to see people stand on their own two feet, but to do that people have to have jobs to go to, with pay that they can live on. If we pursue the policies outlined in the Queen’s Speech, that will not happen; the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will get poorer.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
I now have to bring in a five-minute limit so that I am able to call those on the Front Bench at 6.40 pm.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Katy Clark) in this important debate on the Gracious Speech. You will of course keep me in order, Mr Deputy Speaker, if it is not appropriate to call it the Government’s Queen’s Speech, given that so many Government Members seem already to be regretting it. They say that success has many parents, but failure is an orphan. Given the number of Government Members who are distancing themselves from it, it seems that the continued failure of the Government to deliver on living standards is absolutely certain, and it is about living standards that I wish to speak.
It was reported this week that when policy advisers in No. 10 were asked what was keeping them awake at night they said, “School fees.” Now, I know what keeps far too many people in Newcastle awake at night: the cost of living. The TUC recently compared actual wages in 2012 with what they would have been had they increased in line with inflation, to discover a localised pay gap. In the north-east, it is more than £1,100 a year, or £23 a week. In Newcastle, it is £7 a week. Not much, some might think—a couple of café lattes, and nothing in comparison with the private school fees keeping the Ministers’ advisers awake. However, for those getting by it makes all the difference between security and despair. That is something the Government do not understand. Indeed, the Prime Minister’s adviser on enterprise thinks that this is an excellent time for businesses to boost their profits on the back of falling wages. Such crass comments highlight the fact that the Government are a narrow clique with no idea of the real issues facing real people.
The hon. Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman) said recently that the Prime Minister’s chumocracy should be made up of old Etonians, because they have a unique “commitment to public service” that is not found in other schools. It is the voices of those experiencing this unprecedented squeeze on living standards that should now be heard. Instead of blaming those struggling to get by for not having jobs that are not there, the Prime Minister should listen to what they have to say.
The Government argue that by attacking the public sector, giving tax breaks to millionaires and reducing tax credits for working people, we will liberate individual entrepreneurship. I can testify to the entrepreneurship of many Geordies. As the birthplace of the steam engine in the 19th century and ScreachTV in the 21st century, we have a long history of innovation. However, crushing poverty crushes creativity, as I know both from my own childhood and from my surgeries. When every waking moment is spent worrying about making it to the end of the week; when the electricity bill means borrowing to buy food—as one in 10 people in Newcastle have had to do; when 50p on a pound of margarine means not being able to afford the bus to the library to e-mail CVs to prospective employers; when the bedroom tax means that the kids are not able to stay and there is a worry about how they are growing up, then unleashing one’s own inner market forces is next to impossible.
If the Government had advisers with that kind of experience, they would not have produced a Queen’s Speech so devoid of help or hope for those working hard just to get by, and who need only a helping hand to succeed and thrive. The Prime Minister should overlook the accents of his old school tie and invite the hard working and struggling to write a new Queen’s Speech.
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)
Given the time, I shall confine my comments to the biggest cost-of-living issue facing my constituents, which is the cost of housing, an issue that illustrates just how out of touch this Government of millionaires are from the lives of ordinary people.
I said earlier in an intervention on my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) that the average price of a house in my constituency was £650,000 and that renting a three-bedroom house would cost £800 a week. Well, it might as well be 10 times those figures—£6.5 million—because no one, not just people on benefits or low or average incomes, can afford them. No one can afford market housing in west London, unless they are a City or foreign investor, and yet Government policies are actually increasing prices, with an 8% rise in the last year. An independent study last week showed that the Help to Buy scheme could push up house prices by another 30% by the end of 2015.
At the same time, Shelter says that two thirds of Londoners are either falling behind or struggling to pay their rent. The estate agents, who love all this of course, say that prices are
“going like a steam train”,
while the National Housing Federation says:
“Rents will continue to rise in London until we start building enough affordable homes. That won’t happen while this Government spends over £100bn on housing benefit in five years but only £4.5bn on building new homes.”
I know which of those versions I prefer. We thus have policies actually fuelling the rise in house prices, the lowest number of housing starts since the 1920s, and a 68% cut in the number of affordable homes being built. This is not just neglect; these are active steps. In my constituency, 10% of affordable homes that become vacant are immediately sold off at market prices, while whole blocks of council flats are kept empty until private developers can take them over and develop them and whole estates are knocked down. Some 20,000 new homes will be built in Hammersmith and Fulham over the next 10 years, but not one will be affordable to local people.
I briefly left the debate earlier to talk to Jobcentre Plus, which is busy tracking down the 800 households in Hammersmith and Fulham whose incomes will be reduced by £100 or £150 a week, in many cases, because of the benefit cap being introduced. We have families being forced out of their homes, therefore, and hundreds of flats standing empty. At the same time, according to the results of a freedom of information inquiry I received today, 365 families are in bed-and-breakfast accommodation, costing local taxpayers £860,000 last year. The Government are not just out of touch; they are following quite extreme policies. How can they leave hundreds of good quality affordable homes standing empty, while, at huge cost to the taxpayer, putting families in bed-and-breakfast accommodation and forcing others out of their homes and out of London entirely?
My right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) made an excellent speech about the demonisation of migrant communities, which is another feature of the Queen’s Speech. Yesterday, the former Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), said this about the Conservative party:
“A party which was once pro-Europe is now anti-Europe, a party which was once anti-Powellite on immigration is now becoming very close to being Powellite on that issue. The party once for the welfare state now appears to be against it in so many aspects of the welfare state.”
That is how the Conservative party has changed within my lifetime, and there is no better illustration of that change from a mainstream to an extremist party—long before the rise of UKIP and completely unrestrained by the Liberal Democrats—and nothing bites deeper than the fact that the Government are no longer prepared to provide or invest in decent affordable homes for thousands of my constituents and millions of our fellow citizens across the country.
Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)
I draw the House’s attention to my indirect interest, previously declared and recorded in Hansard.
We have had a good debate in which my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) made a powerful and forensic opening speech, in sharp contrast to the contribution of the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. By my reckoning, 40 Members have contributed to the debate. I suppose that traditionally one would say it has been a wide-ranging debate, but certainly that term has been given new meaning by some of the contributions we have heard today. The right hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs Spelman) referred to High Speed 2, and we heard about UKIP from my hon. Friends the Members for Lewisham West and Penge (Jim Dowd) and for Swansea West (Geraint Davies). We heard two very contrasting speeches on climate change from the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas)—who is, I think, right; 400 parts per million is a significant moment—and from the hon. Member for Monmouth (David T. C. Davies), who railed against environmentalists in general.
The hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg) was, I think, at one point inviting us to send our tax contributions to him at home, but I do not think he will be very successful because he forgot to give us his address. We heard serious contributions on Syria from the hon. Members for New Forest East (Dr Lewis) and for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke), as well as from the right hon. and learned Member for North East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell), who also touched on Europe and said, rather plaintively, that if we undermined the credibility of our Prime Minister, we undermined the Government. I would simply observe that it seems to me that the Prime Minister is doing a pretty good job of that himself.
We have also heard powerful testimony about to the impact on living standards of what is happening at the moment, most notably from my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) who represents many people who are affected in that way and warned us of the dangers, especially in tough times, of those who would point the finger at others and try to blame them for their troubles.
We also heard strong speeches from my hon. Friends the Members for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra), for Eltham (Clive Efford), for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah), for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell), for Blaydon (Mr Anderson), for South Down (Ms Ritchie), for Wirral South (Alison McGovern), for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies), for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin), for North West Durham (Pat Glass), for Inverclyde (Mr McKenzie), for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams), for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) and for North Ayrshire and Arran (Katy Clark), all of whom spoke with feeling about the experience of their constituents, as did Conservative Members, particularly the hon. Members for Harlow (Robert Halfon) and for Halesowen and Rowley Regis (James Morris).
Given what we have heard, it is perhaps not surprising that there is a crisis of confidence in politics in this country. People are wondering if, as politicians, we have the answer. Are we on their side? Are we doing things to help make a difference? That is why there is a particular responsibility on Government to do the right things, to show that they are helping people in very difficult times. People want to see an effort being made and some action, even if all the problems cannot be solved immediately. It is precisely because of the absence from the Gracious Speech of any practical help with living standards—the “empty luggage” that my hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore described in quoting Nye Bevan—that we have tabled our amendment.
A number of Members referred to the housing crisis. We have had plenty of housing announcements over the last three years: 300 of them, and by my count four classed as major housing launches. If we look at the record, whether of starts or completions, we see that the story is the same: both are down. The rate of homeownership is falling and, as we have heard—particularly from my hon. Friends the Members for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier) and for Hammersmith (Mr Slaughter)—private rents have continued their relentless rise, made worse by some letting agents charging very high fees. On lettings agents, a redress scheme is welcome. I suppose that in the end the Minister for Housing realised that he could not argue with himself and against the points that he had made previously when calling for regulation. But redress helps only after one has been ripped off—we should be stopping it happening in the first place.
On housing supply, my right hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr Raynsford) and my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore) made a powerful case, not least because of the economic benefit that would be felt, for house building. We have called for the proceeds of the 4G auction to be used to build 100,000 affordable homes. What has been the Government’s contribution? They have cut the affordable housing budget by 60 per cent. No wonder starts and completions are down.
There have been lots of promises, but precious few delivered. On the Help to Buy scheme, I said at the time that we welcomed steps that would make a difference, but the Treasury Select Committee was not terribly impressed by it, was it? It found the Chancellor’s argument—that it would lead to an improvement in supply—unconvincing. The Secretary of State was asked in the Budget debate who would be eligible and particularly whether foreign buyers would be able to benefit from the Help to Buy scheme. He could not have been clearer in his reply. He said:
“This scheme will not be available for foreign buyers; this is a scheme to help people from this country.”—[Official Report, 25 March 2013; Vol. 560, c. 1311.]
When my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Ann McKechin) and I both tabled a written question to the Secretary of State on this matter—in particular, asking whether foreign nationals from the EU would be eligible for assistance from the Help to Buy scheme—we did not get that straight answer. Instead, we got a reply that frankly could have been drafted by Sir Humphrey:
“In our approach to revising the rules on access to such schemes, we are carefully taking into account the restrictions and obligations that stem from EU directives. We will be making a further statement in due course on the steps we will be taking.”—[Official Report, 25 April 2013; Vol. 561, c. 1126W.]
That reply is eloquent, but as clear as mud.
I have a very simple question to put to the Secretary of State, and I will happily give way to enable him to answer it. Will EU nationals who have come to the UK to exercise their treaty rights be eligible for assistance from the Help to Buy scheme—yes or no? I will happily give way to him. [Interruption.] The reason I keep doing it is that the Secretary of State shows a remarkable propensity to be unable to answer the simplest of questions. If he cannot answer my question, I wonder whether the Minister for Housing can. [Interruption.] Perhaps even the planning Minister, who is so voluble, could come to the Dispatch Box and aid the House by giving a reply. Those watching will notice that there is no reply.
That brings me to the big question in this debate: are those with the broadest shoulders bearing the cost of dealing with the global crash, or is it those in society who have the least? A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with the hard-working staff at the local advice centre in Burmantofts in east Leeds to hear about the impact of the council tax benefit cuts and the bedroom tax. We talked about the estimated 41,000 people in Leeds who will be affected. There are eight constituencies in Leeds, but 30% of those 41,000 people live in one constituency, Leeds Central—12,600 of the least well-off families struggling to get by. What are the Government doing to help them? They are sending them letters telling them that they have to pay more council tax and letters telling them they have to pay higher rent, and that they must hand over £2.8 million from their pockets and purses to pay for those council tax bills and those rents. [Interruption.] The planning Minister finds that funny, but it is not very funny for my constituents who are in that situation.
What will be the consequences for those people? They will have less money to spend on food and heating and they will be at greater risk of ending up in debt to payday lenders or, even worse, loan sharks. There will also be rising council tax and rent arrears because, as the workers in the advice centre know better than almost anybody else, a lot of these people are desperate because they do not have the money. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said in his opening remarks that the Government were about protecting the vulnerable, but those are words that will ring very hollow with my constituents.
What the Government are doing to my constituents fails the basic test of fairness. It will not help their living standards. When someone says to them, “These are tough times; we have to make tough decisions,” I point out that the number of poor people being hit is 12,600, which is almost exactly the same as the number of millionaires—13,000—who will benefit from the cut in the top rate of tax. That choice, which is the wrong choice, has defined the values that lie behind what the Government are doing, and it fails—
Hilary Benn
No, I cannot give way; I would love to, but time is short.
What the Government are doing fails the fundamental test of what a Government should be doing in hard times, which is to help those who have least. We see that in the biggest cuts falling on the most deprived local authorities, in the lack of action in this Gracious Speech to help the rising number of long-term unemployed young people, in the lack of action to cap rail fares and in the Government’s failure to deal with the energy market, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley said. That is the judgment that will be made of the Gracious Speech. It does not rise to the challenges that we face, it will not restore confidence in the Government, it will not help those who need help most, and it reminds us why this coalition, as it ekes out its remaining two years in increasing disharmony, was not the answer to the crisis of confidence in the first place. I urge the House to support the amendment.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
As the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn) has said, this has been a full and wide-ranging debate, covering energy prices, climate change, housing policy, heavily fruited confectionery and a brief excursion into the world of J. R. R. Tolkien. The debate was opened by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey) who, among other things, gave the House a masterclass on Professor Hills’ theory of fuel poverty. That clearly demonstrated that my right hon. Friend is completely on top of the job.
The right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) announced three Labour policies. Just like buses—you wait around for ever, then three come along in quick succession. She rather dampened the House’s excitement, however, when it was discovered that she was merely reheating some old policies.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Meriden (Mrs Spelman) spoke knowledgeably about the need for biodiversity offsetting. My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell) reminded the House why the coalition was formed: it was to deal with Labour’s poor record in Government. He went on to speak with great knowledge about the current situation in Syria, as did my hon. Friends the Members for New Forest East (Dr Lewis) and for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke).
My hon. Friend and neighbour, the Member for Epping Forest (Mrs Laing), spoke about conviction politics. My hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds (Mr Ruffley) warned about an ever-closer union. My hon. Friends the Members for Brentford and Isleworth (Mary Macleod) and for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg) spoke of the effect of interest rates on the cost of living. My hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (David T. C. Davies) spoke about climate change and the lack of sustainable development in Middle Earth. My hon. Friend the Member for Halesowen and Rowley Regis (James Morris) made some telling points about the impact of fuel duty on the cost of living, and my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins) talked about the need for co-operation between the private sector and local authorities.
We must congratulate my hon. Friend and neighbour, the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), on being perhaps one of the most influential Back Benchers and on the marvellous work he has done on fuel duty. He spoke about the effects of taxation. My hon. Friend the Member for Weaver Vale (Graham Evans) said that he had grown up on a council estate under the James Callaghan Government, and that that was why he was a Conservative. I am slightly older than him, and I grew up on a council estate under the Harold Wilson Government. That is why I am a Conservative.
As my hon. Friends the Members for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) and for Gloucester (Richard Graham) said, council taxes more than doubled under Labour, taking bills up to £120 a month for a band D home. The coalition Government have worked with councils to freeze the council tax, and bills have fallen by 10% in real terms. The freeze was opposed by Labour, however. The leader of the Labour group in the Local Government Association, Councillor David Sparks, said that councillors were wrong not to increase their taxes. Labour’s local government spokesman in the Commons, the hon. Member for Derby North (Chris Williamson) said that the freeze was
“nothing more than a gimmick”.—[Official Report, 17 January 2011; Vol. 521, c. 531.]
The Leader of the Opposition dismissed it as involving a “small amount of money”. Actually, the freeze has resulted in a cumulative saving of up to £425 on average band D bills over the last three years. For most people, £425 is a lot of money, but I recognise that, for Labour members, it is nothing. For the right hon. Member for Leeds Central, it is probably just an average morning’s takings in the tea room at Stansgate Abbey.
We have reformed council tax support as well. Spending on council tax benefit doubled under Labour, but we are getting it under control. Such benefits cost taxpayers £4 billion a year, which is equivalent to roughly £180 a year per household.
Mr Pickles
I wish I had time, but I cannot give way.
Welfare reform is vital to tackle Labour’s budget deficit. Under the last Administration, more taxpayers’ money was being spent on benefits than on defence, education and health combined.
Mr Pickles
I am sorry, but I do not have time. I always give way, but not when I do not have time.
Labour is not short of ideas on new taxes. Labour councillors such as Barnsley’s leader Steve Houghton or the Local Government Association’s Labour leader Councillor David Sparks have lobbied the Government to abolish the single person’s discount on council tax. This would increase tax bills on 8 million people—from elderly widows to young professionals. A Bridget Jones tax is not what I call one-nation government; it is the politics of division.
Mr Pickles
No.
The Local Audit and Accountability Bill, as part of this Queen’s Speech, will further help deliver value for money. The abolition of the Audit Commission regime will save taxpayers up to £1.2 billion over the next 10 years. The Bill will help defend an independent free press from corrosive town hall pravdas that harm local democracy and waste taxpayers’ money.
Mr Pickles
No.
These measures will save taxpayers’ money, cut waste and help keep council tax down.
Mr Pickles
The Deregulation Bill will promote the right to buy by further extending eligibility and undoing John Prescott’s cuts. This complements our £20 billion affordable housing programme, our £10 billion programme for rented sector guarantees and our new help-to-buy scheme to help people up the housing ladder. By contrast, Labour’s alternative Queen’s Speech called for more red tape and would add costs to housing. The party that gave us home information packs now wants a £300 million a year tenants’ tax in the form of compulsory registration of all landlords. Those costs will be passed on to tenants in the form of higher rents.
This is the party whose Labour councils for years turned a blind eye to exploitation by rogue landlords building “beds in sheds”. It is a party that intentionally let immigration rip. Those buildings have been propped up overnight, with Labour councils such as Ealing and Newham doing nothing until it was too late to solve the problem. This Government have given councils clear guidance on the use of their already extensive legal powers to clamp down on rogue landlords, and have provided extra funding to target the problem areas.
What do we think of the alternate Queen’s Speech?
Mr Pickles
Perhaps the hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies) would like to think about this. We do not need an alternative speech; we need to look only at Labour in government in Wales. Let us look at Labour’s record on housing there. Labour has failed to boost house-building starts by a mere 1% as compared to 19% in England.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. As the Secretary of State has pointed out, he does not have time to give way. Voices can be saved for tomorrow.
Mr Pickles
I am most grateful, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Labour in Wales hit the housing market with extra red tape, adding £13,000 to the cost of building a new home in comparison with England. Labour has cut the right to buy, abolishing it completely in parts of Wales. Labour has failed to introduce support for new home buyers. Their new-buy scheme will not start until next year.
Whether it be in England or Wales, Labour’s economic policy could be summed up, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, as “If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; if it stops moving, subsidise it”. Labour wants to tax enterprise and hard-working people to pay for the same old borrow-and-spend policies. It wants to regulate small business, high streets and landlords—
Mr Alan Campbell (Tynemouth) (Lab)
claimed to move the closure (Standing Order No. 36).
Question put forthwith, That the Question be now put.
Question agreed to.
Question put, That the amendment be made.
The House proceeded to a Division.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
I ask the Serjeant at Arms to investigate the delay in the No Lobby. There seems to be some type of blockage that he needs to remove.
PetitionS
Sir Nick Harvey (North Devon) (LD)
I rise to present a petition on behalf of the sufferers of atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome, known as aHUS, a rare disease that causes irreversible kidney failure. Until recently there was no effective treatment for this condition, which has 139 known patients in England, of whom 20 live in Devon. I am presenting the petition to press for aHUS sufferers’ access to Eculizumab, a new drug that has been proven to cause a dramatic improvement in kidney function and, indeed, in the quality of life of patients diagnosed with aHUS. The petition has received almost 30,000 signatures nationally and is presented on behalf of the national group, aHUS Action. It was brought to me by one of my constituents, Elena Lilley, who suffers from aHUS. She received Eculizumab as part of a clinical trial three years ago and it has transformed her life, avoiding the need for her to be put back on dialysis and enabling her to resume a full-time job.
The Advisory Group for National Specialised Services has recommended that Eculizumab should be nationally commissioned by the NHS, emphasising its life-saving potential and ability to improve the quality of life of all aHUS patients. However, earlier this year health Ministers decided to refer Eculizumab to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence for a further review of its affordability. Some patients have already been waiting over 18 months for a decision, and an announcement is not expected until December. The petition urges that action should be taken to ensure that all aHUS patients, including those already on the drug, should be given access to Eculizumab without delay pending the outcome of NICE’s review.
Following is the full text of the petition:
[The Petition of Miss K Bazzichi and Miss E Woodward Trustee Officers of aHUSUK,
Declares that aHUS patients should be given access to Eculizumab when they need it, without delay, and not be disadvantaged by the Ministers' decision not to implement the AGNSS recommendation ahead of a review by NICE.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons issues instructions to the NHS CB to take such action, whilst waiting for NICE's decision.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.]
[P001176]
Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North Devon (Sir Nick Harvey). The 500 signatures on my petition should be added to the 30,000 signatures on his. I was approached by my constituent, Trevor Murby, of Abbots Road, Leicester, because his grandson, Finley Murby, was having great difficulty in accessing this drug. As a result of the work of Trevor Murby and so many other people involved in the campaign, he was able to get the drugs that he needed. I concur with the hon. Gentleman that it is really important that everyone who needs this drug has access to it and that action is taken immediately to help those who are disadvantaged.
Following is the full text of the petition:
[The Petition of Mr T Murby and Mr Finley Murby Trustee Officers of aHUSUK,
Declares that aHUS patients should be given access to Eculizumab when they need it, without delay, and not be disadvantaged by the Ministers’ decision not to implement the AGNSS recommendation ahead of a review by NICE.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons issues instructions to the NHS CB to take such action, whilst waiting for NICE's decision.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.]
[P001177]
Council Sport Provision
Charlotte Leslie (Bristol North West) (Con)
I want to raise the issue of councils inflicting an enforced monopoly, run by a private sector provider, on the community, often crushing successful and voluntary provision. The specific case that I will discuss relates to sport—specifically swimming—which is relevant to my constituency and others, including that of the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband). I would be interested to hear of any other such cases. The Minister responded to yesterday’s Adjournment debate, so I am particularly grateful to him for his presence for the second day running. I reassure him that this debate is not about sport as such—although the subject has a powerful impact on sport—but is far more about procurement and tendering practice.
I declare an informal interest in this subject, which centres on the crushing of swimming club provision, in that I used to be a swimmer, but sadly I am not as fit any more. As a youngster I ploughed up and down swimming pools at silly o’clock in the morning for four hours a day—and sometimes 10 times a week— in my unfortunately thwarted hope of becoming an Olympian. My skin would smell of chlorine when it rained and I had perpetual goggle marks. For many years I swam under the excellent supervision of one of Bristol’s finest coaches, Eric Henderson.
Being part of a club was part of my identity when I was growing up. It was a proper community and I am still proud of and treasure my first swimming club tracksuit from Thornbury swimming club. It was very much part of what has made me who I am, and it all started when my mum took me to a club to learn to swim.
Learning to swim and making progress with clubs is not for everyone, but it is a vital part of a choice of provision. It is particularly vital for producing our next generation of competitive swimmers, and it is also important—as illustrated by the Portway swimming club in my constituency, which will feature heavily in my speech—for non-competitive swimmers who want to swim slightly more than is possible under council or private provider provision.
The good news is that clubs are generally thriving and many have waiting lists for their Learn to Swim programmes, particularly those for beginners. That is why the phenomenon of some councils acting to stifle successful club provision is so perverse, as the situation in Bristol illustrates.
In 2007, Bristol city council secured a contract with Sports and Leisure Management to run eight leisure centres in the city for 10 years. So far, so good. That was supposed to be done in partnership with the city council, which, despite the fact that it had outsourced provision to a private provider, still took it upon itself to prescribe in some detail how the provision was to be made.
Swimming in Bristol has not had a particularly happy history, as a Google search or a trawl through newspapers from the mid-’90s will reveal. A recent attempt to reshape the city’s swimming came in the form of the now slightly notorious—in Bristol swimming circles—Rick Bailey report. One recommendation was that the council provider’s chief responsibility should be to provide levels 1 to 7 of the Amateur Swimming Association’s Learn to Swim pathway. Again, so far so good.
However, Bristol city council interpreted that recommendation—I believe perversely—as meaning that only the private provider should provide levels 1 to 7 of Learn to Swim. That recommendation did not have the support of the local swimming clubs, but they were pushed into accepting it largely because they did not have any choice or voice to change the decision, despite rather cosy talk in all the documents of “partnership working”.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the hon. Lady for bringing this matter to the House. In my constituency, Ards borough council has a very good relationship with the local swimming club. They work together to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to swim. The council owns the premises and Ards amateur swimming club does the renting. Does she agree that that is a prime example of what can happen if a council and a club work together for the benefit of all, so that some young people can become champions, whether provincial, Commonwealth or Olympic?
Charlotte Leslie
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. What is so sad about this case is that, as he said, when clubs, councils and private providers work together, they can become more than the sum of their parts and there can be huge success stories. All parties should have the interests of children and swimming, or whatever sport it is, at their centre. What is so tragic about this case is that for some reason that I am yet to fathom, Bristol city council has been stubbornly determined to stifle good provision and not to work in partnership with clubs. When any objection is raised, it says that the clubs should know better and that it does work in partnership. However, as we know, partnership is not just a word in a report, but involves communication, liaising and understanding from both sides. This situation does not need to exist and we should all be thinking about the good of the swimmers.
The council and SLM set about ensuring that even clubs that had been providing a successful and valued Learn to Swim programme, with high demand and waiting lists, no longer did so in council-run pools. That has led to an extraordinary situation at swimming clubs such as Portway in my constituency that hire an agreed amount of pool time from SLM in which intermediate and Learn to Swim swimmers both train. Following the ruling that came into force on 1 April, the club is forced to vacate the area of the pool that is used for Learn to Swim. The children, many of whom have older siblings in the more advanced swimming lessons, are forced to sit on the side and not enter the water because they cannot be taught to swim, even though the qualified volunteer teachers are present and the pool space is not being used by anyone else. If the young children were doing another activity, such as attending a children’s party, and were not being taught to swim, it would be okay for them to use the pool. That does not seem very sensible.
The club has been forced to take its Learn to Swim programme to a pool in a neighbouring local authority, South Gloucestershire, which has a slightly less perverse and draconian attitude towards Learn to Swim. That means an extra journey for parents to a pool that is much further away, which is very difficult for single parents. That may also clash with the commitments of other siblings, swimming or otherwise, and many parents are forced to choose which of their children’s commitments to honour.
The key thing to note is that the small number of children who are being taught to swim in a club environment, which cannot be replicated by a private provider in terms of the continuity and focus that are provided by the teachers, does not impact on SLM’s market share of Learn to Swim children. The number of children in Bristol is increasing and there are certainly more than enough children who need to be taught to swim to go around.
Nobody is suggesting that clubs should have a monopoly on provision or even preferential treatment, only that they should be allowed to meet the significant demand for their services, which they have hitherto met very successfully. The result is that children are denied the choice of the benefits that club swimming at an early level provides, such as community and continuity of teaching. One club coach put it well in saying that the two lessons a week at the club not only give children the ability to swim, but inspire them to become a swimmer.
Of course, the impact on competitive swimming will be significant, too. To put it in perspective, in a recent Bristol schools competition, it was estimated that despite there being about 3,000 children who were taught by SLM compared with only 200 who were taught in clubs, club swimmers made up about 50% of the finalists. In other words, if my maths is correct, club swimmers were about seven times more likely to be finalists than non-club swimmers, which is significant.
There are other impacts. Many coaches come through a club system and then go on to coach either in their parent club or in other clubs, or with private providers such as SLM. Clubs are also vital social and community hubs, raising money for charity and, as I have said, providing youngsters with a sense of special identity and pride, as Thornbury, Southwold and City of Bristol swimming clubs did for me.
However, the Minister will be pleased to hear that this debate is not specifically about sport. It serves to demonstrate to him the possible perversity of a council monopoly that is imposed with such odd determination. Indeed, the clubs, the provider, a representative of Gloucester ASA and the councillor with the relevant cabinet brief had a meeting about the matter, at which the councillor, Simon Cook, was extremely good. He brokered a proper, common-sense solution to allow one of the clubs to keep offering Learn to Swim in a council pool until some kind of common-sense compromise had been reached. I was alarmed that his decision was completely ignored, which shows us something about the accountability there. It was ridden roughshod over, particularly by one council officer, Colleen Bevan, who I understand has now gone off to work for a private leisure provider. The private providers told the club that contrary to what had been agreed in the meeting, it could not continue with its pool time. I should mention that we have set up a petition at www.keepclubswimming. bristolpetitions.com, in case anyone wants to sign it.
I finish by saying to the Minister that we all believe in localism, but this case demonstrates some of the perverse behaviour of councils that, instead of facilitating the big society, are crushing it. I am pleased that our new elected mayor, George Ferguson, who inherited the difficult situation, is sympathetic to the clubs’ plight and fully understands the perversity of such a council-enforced monopoly, whether in sport or any other service. I look forward to working with him on this extraordinary situation.
I ask that the Department examines such instances in which smaller providers of any sort, not necessarily in sport, are literally bullied out of existence by local councils that act in every way contrary to any conception of the big society.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie) for securing the debate, and I congratulate her on putting her case so clearly and succinctly. She not only outlined the specific issue of the club in Bristol but gave us a chance to highlight a wider potential problem with how local authorities deal with procurement, which is important for us to note. I will try to touch on both issues.
My hon. Friend set out the case involving the Portway swimming club, which feels that it has been frozen out of opportunities to teach beginners’ swimming lessons at Bristol’s public pools due to the contract that she mentioned. I know that she is an accomplished swimmer herself and feels passionate about sports provision, and I know that her community will appreciate all that she is doing to support the local swimming clubs.
I understand that guidance on who should teach Learn to Swim lessons has been issued by the ASA, and that it is recommended that clubs seek support from their county and regional ASA boards on how the scheme operates locally. The boards will be keen to support the sustainability of their clubs and offer support for the relationships between clubs and operators. In time, that can serve to protect their future membership income.
I understand that my hon. Friend also has more general concerns about how local authorities use their procurement practices to create monopolies of service provision with private providers. My Department holds policy responsibility for local government, including promoting best practice on commissioning and procurement processes and strategies. I would expect any procurement exercise to engage effectively with and examine the impact on community groups and the voluntary sector. Indeed, the best value guidance published in September 2011 set out clearly how councils should work with the voluntary sector when facing difficult funding decisions.
Statutory guidance states that local authorities should actively engage with organisations in the community on the future of a service and any knock-on effect on assets, and allow them to put forward options on how to reshape the service. Good local authorities will therefore work with their local voluntary sector at all stages of service design and delivery, to make best use of their local knowledge and influence.
Overall, local authorities are having to reduce costs and we encourage them to follow the example of leading councils that are taking the opportunity to think creatively, re-design their services, and commission intelligently and co-operatively with all sectors of their local community, not just large private providers. Local areas need the freedom and flexibility to innovate and commission services that best fit the needs of their communities. We cannot, and will not, prescribe from Whitehall how individual local authorities should conduct each procurement exercise, because it is not a one-size-fits-all situation. Neither will we intervene in local issues or specific contracts, which, as I am sure hon. Members will appreciate, is simply not appropriate.
We believe that local authorities can and should use their procurement processes to improve efficiency while also achieving better outcomes for service users. We know that poor practices and long-held myths can slow down the procurement process and lead to bad decisions, costing taxpayers money and affecting the standard of service. Councils such as Bristol must be sure that they are doing everything they can to remove those barriers, in consultation with local providers. I am pleased to hear that the new mayor is going down the road of working with the community, as my hon. Friend outlined. In my meetings with him he has been keen to do that, which is a good sign for Bristol in the future, and probably a real endorsement of how the local accountability of a directly elected mayor can work for a city.
Opening up procurement practices to all local providers can make a massive difference, and councils have a duty to their residents to act now. Councils should publish their tenders and contracts online, which would allow everyone to see clearly the procurement opportunities available and helps councils to get better deals with taxpayers’ money. Contracts Finder is one way of doing that, and as a secure, central and well-recognised website it is already accessed by hundreds of thousands of businesses and organisations. Bristol city council uses an e-procurement portal, Twitter, and a blog to advertise contracts and engagement opportunities. That is a positive step and I encourage more councils to be as open and transparent as possible with all data and procurement decisions.
Myths often surround European Union procurement rules, but those rules apply only once a contracting authority has made a decision to procure goods or services. Such rules are often used or misunderstood to prevent any form of communication, but they do not and should not. Council officers can still work with all sectors and providers prior to the bidding process, and support diversity in the supply chain by skilling-up and improving potential tenders. The Government would always encourage local authorities to procure wherever they can and wherever is appropriate locally. That can create new jobs and sustain existing ones, support the creation of new businesses and clubs, help to tackle worklessness and low skills by supporting apprenticeships, and boost spending locally, as well as help develop and build a community through its clubs and organisations.
Contrary to popular myth, councils can support local growth at the same time as delivering efficiency savings and improving services—those things are not mutually exclusive. Council officers should embrace transparency on spending, tenders, contracts and property assets. That can help clubs and businesses better understand the services being tendered, thereby allowing them an opportunity to submit better proposals.
I would always encourage local authorities to hire the best—not necessarily the biggest—firms, and they should assess organisations on their ability to get the job done for the benefit of the community, rather than on their turnover. Markets can be narrowed, as my hon. Friend outlined, by contracting only with big organisations, because that puts those organisations in control, rather than the council. A diverse supply side promotes competition between suppliers and gives the council and—importantly—its residents, more choice. Breaking up contracts into smaller bite-sized chunks, or sub-contracting, can open up procurement by introducing more competition on price and attracting smaller firms. That can lead to even more local job creation, specialisation and innovation in service delivery.
I appreciate my hon. Friend giving me the chance to outline general aspects of procurement and what councils can do to involve local community organisations and small businesses. However, I want to be clear that localism means doing everything at the most direct possible level, with residents fully involved in making decisions about their areas. Central Government should be involved only when absolutely necessary. The Government’s approach to localism is to pass power down to citizens—greater power to hold local authorities to account and to help them to make a difference in and for their communities. As we have seen recently, local communities hold their councils to account ultimately through their voting power in local elections. In voting for a directly elected mayor, the community in Bristol has hopefully made a decision that will mean Bristol has a better future, with direct, clear local accountability.
The Localism Act 2011 introduced the community right to challenge, which enables communities and the voluntary sector to question how services are provided, to have the ambition to challenge that, and to make plans to take services over. As my hon. Friend will realise, I am unable to comment on the specifics of a contract—as she has said, I have not seen the specific details. Hopefully, I have taken this chance to set out the Government’s approach. I hope I have outlined how local authorities can act to ensure that such situations do not happen. I support her concern. Local authorities should embrace local community groups and the voluntary sector during any procurement process, and in their policy on sports provision and access. I congratulate her on raising the issue in this debate.
Question put and agreed to.
Written Ministerial Statements
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Government Chemist
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)
The 16th annual review of the Government Chemist has been received. The review will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses plus those of the devolved Administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland. The review will also be laid before the Scottish Parliament.
Child Trust Funds
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)
The Government have today launched a consultation on whether they should permit the transfer of savings held in child trust funds to junior ISAs, and, if so, on what basis. The Government propose that voluntary transfers from child trust funds to junior ISAs should be allowed if requested by the registered contact for an account, usually the parent or guardian.
The purpose of the consultation, which runs until 6 August, is to obtain further evidence on potential costs, benefits and other impacts of the Government’s proposal, as well as asking for opinions on any alternative proposals, before deciding whether to proceed with any changes.
I will deposit copies of the consultation document in the Libraries of both Houses.
ECOFIN
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)
A meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council will be held in Brussels on 14 May 2013. The following items are on the agenda to be discussed.
Banking Recovery and Resolution
There will be a state of play discussion on the banking recovery and resolution directive.
Current legislative proposals
The presidency intends to give a state of play update on the revision of the anti-money laundering (AML) directive and the revised rules for markets in financial instruments directive/regulation (MiFID/MiFIR).
Draft Amending Budget No 2 to the General Budget 2013
ECOFIN will seek to reach a political agreement on this. The Government have been clear that they want to see real budgetary restraint in the EU. They will not support a request for additional payments from the EU budget for 2013. The Government are committed to continue to work hard to limit EU spending, reduce waste and inefficiency, and deliver the best possible deal for taxpayers.
Savings taxation and mandate for negotiations of amendments to the Savings Taxation agreements with third countries
ECOFIN will seek to reach a political agreement on a proposal for a Council directive amending the EU savings directive, and to adopt the mandate for negotiations of amendments to the savings taxation agreements with third countries. The Government support an agreement of the amending proposal to the EU savings directive and an adoption of the mandate as soon as possible.
Draft Council conclusions on tax evasion and fraud
ECOFIN will seek to adopt Council conclusions on tax evasion and fraud. The Government believe tackling tax evasion and fraud is as an important issue for protecting revenues and for ensuring public confidence in the fairness and effectiveness of our tax systems, which needs a combination of action at both domestic and international level.
Macro-economic Imbalances Procedure: In-depth reviews
Council will seek to endorse Council conclusions on the macro-economic imbalances procedure: In-depth reviews.
Towards a deep and genuine Economic and Monetary Union: Commission communications
The Commission will present the two communications on a deep and genuine economic and monetary union which were published on 20 March. These cover the introduction of a convergence and competitiveness instrument and ex ante co-ordination of plans for major economic policy reforms.
Follow-up to the G20 Finance Ministers and Governors (18-19 April) and IMF/World Bank (19-21 April) 2013 Spring meetings in Washington. USA
The presidency and Commission will debrief Ministers on the main outcomes of the G20 Finance Ministers and Governors and IMF/World Bank spring meetings.
Pilot Initiative on automatic exchange of information
There will be a presentation to Council by the G5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) on their pilot project on automatic exchange of information in the area of taxation. The UK is committed to tackling tax evasion through exchanging tax information between countries and, with France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the UK is aiming to embed multilateral automatic exchange of information based on Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) agreements with the US as the new single global standard.
Disclosure and Barring Scheme
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
The Government are introducing legislation to exempt from income tax any benefit arising where an employer pays or reimburses fees for the disclosure and barring service (DBS) online update service and, in some circumstances, fees for Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks.
The update service is a new subscription service being introduced in June 2013. It lets individuals keep their DBS certificates up to date and allows employers or prospective employers to carry out free, online, instant checks to see if any new information has come to light since the certificate was issued.
There is a fee to join the update service. Where employers pay for or reimburse the cost of the fee, there would normally be a taxable benefit in kind for the employee concerned—this legislation will remove that liability.
In addition, the Government are also exempting fees paid or reimbursed by employers for CRB checks when the employee has applied for or holds an active subscription to the update service.
This supports the Government’s commitment to overhaul the criminal records regime to give individuals greater control of their own information, allow DBS certificates to be reused when applying for similar jobs, and reduce the red tape burden on employers.
Falkland Islands Veterans' Mortality Data
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr Mark Francois)
In 2010 Defence Statistics (previously known as Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA)) was asked to undertake a study to determine the number of suicides among the cohort of service personnel who deployed to the Falkland Islands during the 1982 campaign. The intention of the study was to examine claims by some ex-service organisations that there have been more lives lost to suicide among this cohort than the 2371 service personnel lost during the 1982 conflict itself.
The study has been extended to investigate the total number of deaths for this Falklands cohort, grouped by cause. The figures are published today as an official statistic notice on the defence statistics website (http://www.dasa.mod.uk) and a copy will be placed in the Library of the House.
Key points to note in the data are:
These statistics confirm that the number of suicides among UK veterans of the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict (over the period 14 June 1982 to 31 December 2012) does not exceed the number of service personnel who lost their lives during the 1982 conflict itself, as previously claimed by some groups.
All causes of death are lower than the equivalent general population; in particular the 95 deaths due to suicide among this cohort (including in-service suicides and open verdict deaths) indicate a 35% decreased risk compared with the UK general population.
Moreover, there were significantly fewer deaths in the Falkland Islands veterans’ cohort compared to an equivalent group of the general population (1,335 actual veterans’ deaths compared to an estimated 2,079 for an equivalent general population, which equates to a 36% decreased risk).
Any suicide is a tragedy for the individual and the family involved, but we believe these statistics will enable ongoing well-informed debate to ensure that the nation continues to invest in the right mental health support for service personnel and veterans.
While veterans’ health is the responsibility of the Department of Health and the devolved Administrations, the Ministry of Defence complements the national health services’ delivery through the veterans and reserves mental health programme, which includes provision of mental health assessments for veterans. We also support the Big White Wall, a web-based peer support platform, and the Combat Stress 24-hour mental health helpline.
1 In addition to the 237 UK armed forces deaths during the campaign, four personnel from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, six from the Merchant Navy and eight Hong Kong sailors also died (as well as three Falkland islanders). This study does not include any follow up for these populations.
Balance of Competences Review
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)
I wish to update the House on the progress of the balance of competences review. My written statement last year, 23 October 2012, Official Report, column 46WS, set out the time lines for the review. I am pleased to report that the review is progressing and on track. The six first semester reports covering a synopsis of the internal market, taxation, foreign policy, development co-operation and humanitarian aid, health, and animal health and welfare and food safety are currently being drafted and will be published in early summer. We will launch calls for evidence for the nine reports in semester two this week.
Calls for evidence for the first semester reports were published in November and were open for three months. The evidence received has been high quality, and has provided a firm foundation to analyse the impact of EU competence in these areas. While responses were mainly from interested parties in the UK reflecting the focus on the national interest, we also received some evidence from foreign partners and international organisations. We intend to publish information on who submitted evidence alongside the final reports, subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act.
Reports will undergo rigorous internal scrutiny to ensure they are comprehensive, robust and evidence-based. They will then be presented to the European Affairs Committee for approval prior to being published.
Calls for evidence for the nine reports in semester two will be launched this week. Lead Ministers for each report will inform the House separately when their call for evidence is published. As with the first semester, Government Departments will consult widely, including Parliament and its committees, business, the devolved Administrations, and civil society in order to obtain evidence to contribute to their analysis of the issues. Our EU partners and the EU institutions will also be invited to contribute evidence to the review.
Expo 2020
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)
Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates have all officially bid to host Expo 2020. A decision on which country will host this event will be made by the BIE general assembly in November this year. This is an extremely strong field of contenders.
I am pleased to announce that the UK has decided to support UAE’s bid for Dubai to host Expo 2020.
If successful in this bid, Dubai would bring Expo to the middle east for the first time in history.
We assess that the Dubai bid is exceptionally strong: focused on global connectivity and accessibility, underpinned by its geographical location and its position as a global logistics and transport hub. All these would allow exhibitors to reach a large and varied international audience.
We are also convinced that holding Expo 2020 at a time of great change in the region would send a positive signal to the world that this is a region of dynamism, innovation and vast human potential.
Over 100,000 British citizens live and work in the UAE and co-operation between our nations now ranges from our thriving educational and tourism links, joint defence projects, security and foreign policy issues, to our increasing investment in each other’s economies. Expo 2020 and its prelude will provide great opportunities to further strengthen the relationship between our two countries.
General Affairs Council
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington)
I will attend the General Affairs Council (GAC) on 21 May in Brussels. The GAC will be chaired by the Irish presidency and will focus on the multiannual financial framework (MFF), the preparation for the 22 May European Council and the preparation of the 27-28 June European Council as well as follow-up to previous European Councils.
Multiannual financial framework (MFF) draft amending budgets
We expect the Irish presidency to give a presentation on the progress made in the “trilogue negotiations” following an informal trilogue meeting which took place on Monday 13 May. The Irish presidency represents the European Council in these negotiations, which are between the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has made clear that they see the MFF as linked to discussion of the large, €11.2 billion draft amending budget for 2013. I will emphasise that we see the two as distinct issues and progress on the MFF should not be hindered by the separate discussions on the draft amending budgets. There is no evidence at this early stage in the annual budget cycle that extra funding is needed or justified. I will continue to argue, along with our like-minded allies, that this is far too large and there is insufficient evidence to justify these requests. On the MFF we will continue to encourage the European Parliament to consent to the deal as soon as possible, and that the ceilings from the February European Council agreement must be respected.
22 May European Council preparation
The 22 May European Council will focus on tax evasion and avoidance and energy. There will be an update on the latest developments on economic and monetary union (EMU), and there may also be discussion on foreign policy priorities.
We welcome discussion of action to be taken on tax. The Prime Minister has been driving work on this area through the UK presidency of the G8 and will take a leading role in pursuing global action to tackle tax evasion and avoidance, including through the EU. Our principal objective at the May European Council is to ensure that EU action on tax complements action being carried out through the G8, G20 and OECD and contributes to a global tax agenda which clamps down on tax evasion and avoidance.
On energy, the European Council will discuss the energy challenges confronting the EU in the context of the EU’s competitiveness agenda. President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, and President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, have both sought to focus work on completing the internal energy market, boosting investment in modern energy infrastructure and the challenge of high energy prices.
The UK energy market has historically been one of the most open and transparent in Europe and we have consistently supported and called for the completion of the internal energy market. We remain committed to ambitious action on climate change but want to ensure that energy supply is maintained during the low-carbon transition. We will support revisions to the EU’s state aid rules to facilitate investments in low-carbon power generation and we will be seeking to avoid unnecessary EU restrictions on member states, who should be free to decide on their own energy mix.
27-28 June European Council preparation
We expect discussion of the agenda for the June European Council agenda at the GAC. The June European Council will focus on economic policy. This includes the European semester, which is the annual cycle of economic policy co-ordination in the EU, the growth compact which will look at further economic and monetary union within the eurozone, following the last discussion on this in the March European Council, and industrial competitiveness.
The agenda for the June European Council may also discuss foreign policy priorities, which will evolve closer to the Council itself.
Report on the European Council follow-up
Finally the Irish presidency is expected to present a report on the follow-up and implementation of European Council conclusions. We do not expect much discussion on this point. If a discussion does develop, however, I will emphasise the need to maintain momentum on progress towards fulfilling the objectives outlined in the Prime Minister’s EU growth agenda, which focuses on trade, reducing the burdens of regulation and deepening and strengthening the single market, including through the creation of a digital single market.
Deaths of Service Personnel Overseas
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mrs Helen Grant)
My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces and I wish to make the latest of our quarterly statements to the House to report progress with inquests into the deaths of service personnel on active service overseas. Once again we want to record our deep gratitude to and admiration for all our service personnel who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations. Their determination, their professionalism and their courage on behalf of us all have been totally dependable. We remember those service personnel who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and their families left behind. We particularly remember the families of the four service personnel who have given their lives since our last statement in January.
In this statement we give details of inquests conducted by the Oxfordshire coroner, the Wiltshire and Swindon coroner and other coroners in England and Wales. This statement gives the position at 6 May 2013.
We have placed tables in the Libraries of both Houses providing additional information to supplement this statement. The tables show the status of all current cases and include information about cases where a board of inquiry or a service inquiry has been held or has been directed to be held.
Our Departments continue to work together to improve our processes and ensure that they are as effective and timely as possible. As we have previously informed the House, the Chief Coroner for England and Wales is in post and will have a number of specific powers and duties in relation to service personnel inquests. Section 12 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 came into force last year and enables deaths of service personnel killed abroad on active duty to be investigated in Scotland, where this is appropriate. The remainder of the chief coroner’s powers are due to come into force this summer.
We will continue to support the coroners who are conducting inquests into the deaths of service personnel. We are sincerely grateful to coroners, their staff and all who help and support bereaved families throughout the inquest process.
Since October 2007 both Departments have made funding available for additional resources for the coroners for Wiltshire and Swindon and for Oxfordshire. This is to help the coroners conduct the inquests of service personnel who have been repatriated to airbases in their districts. These are RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, the airbase for repatriations from 1 April 2007 to 31 August 2011, and RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where repatriations have taken place since 1 September 2011. The funding prevents any backlog of inquests and helps the coroners to balance the service personnel inquests within their community workload.
Current status of inquests
Since we made our last statement there have been 11 inquests into the deaths of service personnel on operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. A total of 569 inquests have been held into the deaths of service personnel who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan or have died in the UK from injuries they sustained in those operations. There are three cases where no formal inquest has been held. In one case, a serviceman died from his injuries in Scotland, and it was decided that a fatal accident inquiry would not be held. In the other two cases, the death was taken into consideration at inquests into the deaths of other service personnel who died in the same incidents.
Open inquests
Deaths in Afghanistan
As at 6 May 2013, there are 44 open inquests into the deaths of service personnel in Afghanistan. Three of these inquests relate to deaths in the last six months.
The Wiltshire and Swindon coroner has retained nine of the open inquests and the Oxfordshire coroner has retained 19. Coroners closer to the next of kin are conducting the remaining 16 inquests. Two hearing dates have been set.
Deaths of service personnel who returned home injured
There are five open inquests into the deaths of service personnel who returned home injured but died of their injuries. Two hearing dates have been set. When investigations into the remaining three deaths are completed, they will be listed for hearing.
We will continue to inform the House of progress.
Balance of Competences Review
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mr Simon Burns)
Further to the written ministerial statement by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs launching the second semester of the review of the balance of competences today, we are publishing a call for evidence for the transport report.
The transport report will be completed by winter 2013 and will cover the overall application of EU competence in transport. Responsibility for transport policy is shared between the EU and individual member states. The EU has an important role in ensuring a seamless, sustainable and efficient transport network across the EU as part of its internal market objectives. The transport report is an opportunity to look at this role and to examine the evidence concerning the impact of EU competence in transport on the UK’s national interest.
The report will focus on the development of the common transport policy and the main cross-cutting themes where the EU’s exercise of competence in transport has had an impact; economic, social, environmental, infrastructure and external relations.
The call for evidence period will last for 12 weeks. The Department will draw together the evidence into a first draft, which will subsequently go through a process of internal scrutiny before publication in winter 2013.
We will take a rigorous approach to the collection and analysis of evidence. The call for evidence sets out the scope of the report and includes a series of broad questions on which contributors are invited to focus. The evidence received (subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act) will be published alongside the final report in winter 2013.
The Department will pursue an active engagement process, consulting widely across Parliament and its committees, the transport sector and the devolved Administrations in order to obtain evidence to contribute to our analysis of the issues. Our EU partners and the EU institutions will also be invited to contribute evidence to the review.
The result of the report will be a comprehensive analysis of EU competence in transport and what this means for the United Kingdom. It will aid our understanding of the nature of our EU membership; and it will provide a constructive and serious contribution to the wider European debate about modernising, reforming and improving the EU. The report will not produce specific policy recommendations.
“Call for evidence on the Government’s review of the balance of competences between the United Kingdom and the European Union: Transport” has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. It is also available online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/eu-balance-of-competences-review-transport-call-for-evidence
House of Lords
Bailiffs
Lord Lucas
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of arrangements whereby local authorities require bailiffs to pay them part of the fees that bailiffs have charged to debtors.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham)
My Lords, under the provisions of the council tax regulations, local authorities are entitled to make charges to cover the costs of actions that bailiffs are taking. Those charges belong to the local authority. How those are then divided between the local authority and the bailiffs is a matter for them. Following the Transforming Bailiff Action consultation, the Government are currently implementing proposals to introduce a new, clear fee structure for bailiff action, which will be applicable across all debt areas.
Lord Lucas
My Lords, I very much look forward to the introduction of the new system but, even in these hard times, should we not discourage local authorities from adding to the costs borne by the poorest members of society? If local authorities need to raise money, should it not rather be from the richer?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, the noble Lord knows very well, because he takes a deep interest in these matters, that there has been great concern about the fees charged by and the arrangements made with bailiffs. The consultation, which has now finished, will result in a clear description of what the fee structure should be, how local authorities are to charge for it and what will be the open and clear arrangements between local authorities, bailiffs and the debtors in question.
Lord Elystan-Morgan
My Lords, may I make a wider point? Can the noble Baroness assure the House that when court bailiffs are appointed they are appointed by circuit judges and are enjoined to discharge their duties with humanity and courtesy? Should not the same precept apply exactly to bailiffs acting for local authorities?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, it is extremely important that bailiffs are under no illusion about how they should behave when they have to take on a debt. As the noble Lord says, they should be courteous and caring, and that will be in the guidelines, which are being produced as we speak and are almost ready. They will give clear guidance as to how bailiffs should behave and operate.
Lord Shipley
My Lords, will those guidelines explain why some local authorities are considering implementing a charging regime and taking part of the bailiff’s gross fees? Is there not a clear conflict of interest when a local authority appoints a bailiff, supervises a bailiff and then shares in the gross fees of that bailiff?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, as I said initially, the local authority is entitled to come to arrangements with bailiffs on fees and whatever charges are made. The guidance will make clear what local authorities can do, but I agree with the noble Lord that anything that looks like a cosy arrangement between the bailiffs employed and local authorities is thoroughly undesirable.
Lord Campbell-Savours
Can we be assured that the fee structure would preclude the local authority making any profit?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, the local authority’s responsibility is to retrieve the debt in any way it can. I think the noble Lord is referring back to the Question about what arrangements are made with the debtors who are going to collect those debts, financially. I have said pretty clearly that there will be very clear guidance on what they can and cannot do, and that cosy business arrangements are thoroughly unsatisfactory.
Lord McKenzie of Luton
My Lords, what assessment have the Government made of the consequences, including the use of bailiffs, of increased indebtedness to local authorities arising from the localisation of council tax benefit with the 10% funding cut?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, the burden on local authorities for collecting any debt is something that they will have to work out for themselves. I do not think any assessment has been made of any additional burdens from the council tax support system, which is what the noble Lord is asking about. Again, it will be up to local authorities to make their own arrangements.
Lord Cormack
My Lords, my noble friend will know that when the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, moved an amendment earlier this year the House voted decisively on this issue of bailiffs. Can my noble friend assure me that the noble Baroness, and others who led this campaign, are being consulted on these guidelines?
Baroness Hanham
Absolutely, my Lords. The noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, came to see me a little while ago with the chief executive of an organisation called Zacchaeus, which is deeply involved in this. We have made sure that it has been consulted and have kept closely in touch with it over the guidelines. Therefore, I can be sure that when the guidelines are produced, it will be done with the support of those who were concerned about what was happening.
Lord Laming
My Lords, can the Minister assure the House, following the question of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, that the part of the fee that goes to the local authority will in no case exceed the cost to the local authority of calling in bailiffs?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, the guidance on the fees will make that pretty clear.
Lord Christopher
My Lords, the first Question from the Minister’s own Benches was very apt. The Financial Times reported a couple of days ago that there had already been a significant rise in the scale of unpaid rent to local authorities because of the changes in housing benefit. What advice will the Government give to local authorities, since if bailiffs turn up people will not only have no home but no furniture either?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, the changes to housing benefit are relatively new so I am not sure what the article was about. I can say no more, other than that local authorities will be expected to work closely and sensibly with bailiffs in a proper way.
Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames
My Lords, if local authorities are to pay commission to bailiffs, is there not a very real concern that those same local authorities will act more aggressively in enforcement than they might otherwise do?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, local authorities enable bailiffs to charge fees; that is the financial arrangement between them. On the question of the debt that is owed to the local authority, it will collect that in whatever way it can, but the fees charged are the bailiff’s concern.
Environment: Plastic Bags
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Parminter
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are considering a levy on single-use plastic bags in England.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord De Mauley)
My Lords, we are monitoring the charging scheme in Wales, data from the first year of which will not be available until the summer. The Northern Ireland scheme began last month. The Scottish consultation response on the charge is expected in due course. We are considering these schemes and the available evidence carefully so that we can make a fully informed decision on a possible charge for England.
Baroness Parminter
I thank my noble friend for that response. Are the Government aware of the substantial hidden costs that English consumers bear from retailers buying and storing and local authorities disposing of plastic bags? Will the Government therefore introduce a small levy to cut those costs and, crucially, to protect our environment and wildlife?
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, my noble friend works tirelessly on this subject. I acknowledge the thrust of her question, although I am not aware of any evidence from Wales that any such savings are being passed on to consumers through lower prices, but we will continue to monitor the situation there. Retailers operate in a competitive environment, and consumers can choose to shop around. Indeed, evidence shows this is a growing trend.
Lord Anderson of Swansea
My Lords, the pilot scheme in Wales has lasted for several years. Will the Minister spell out very clearly the objections to the implementation of the scheme in England?
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, as I just said, we are monitoring the charging scheme in Wales and data from the first year will not be available until the summer. I understand that unintended consequences in the Republic of Ireland included an increase in sales of bin liners because consumers no longer used free carrier bags to line their bins. The production of bin liners has a bigger environmental impact than single-use carrier bags. In addition, following the introduction of the charge in Wales there was an increase in sales of bags for life. As the aim of a charge is to reduce use, it could result in a worse environmental outcome if they are used only once or twice, because they need to be used at least four times to have a lower carbon footprint than single-use carrier bags. We need to consider all the impacts in the round, and we will consider very carefully instituting a charge.
Lord Wigley
My Lords, does the Minister accept that the evidence from Wales suggests an indicative reduction in the use of bags of up to 90%, that there is a benefit for good causes from the 5p charge, which provides worthwhile sums, and that there has been a noticeable reduction in the number of bags lodged in hedgerows around Wales? Does this not add up to a very convincing case?
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, I acknowledge what the noble Lord says. As I have said, we are watching closely. There is a lot of evidence coming in, and we will make a decision in due course.
Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, may I put in a good word for single-use plastic bags? How else am I going to get the loose grapes I have bought home without ruining my clothes and a few other things? Equally, how would I get rid of all the weeds that I pick up as I go around my garden with a little plastic bag that I can then transfer to a big bag? Will the Minister support me in my hour of need?
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, I will always do my best to support my noble friend. There is no question of a ban. What I think noble Lords on all sides are suggesting is a charge, so my noble friend will be able to pay a modest sum for her bag if a charge does eventuate.
Baroness Butler-Sloss
My Lords, I recycle food waste in a recyclable bag which East Devon provides. Why can we not move into recyclable bags in the supermarkets?
Lord De Mauley
The noble and learned Baroness raises an important question. It is one that we are considering. At the moment, we have not been able to find a bag that is of sufficient strength to do the job, but it is a very important subject and we are looking at it closely.
Lord Knight of Weymouth
My Lords, the noble Lord said that it will take until the middle of this year before he gets the data for the first year’s operation of the scheme in Wales. Will he give us a timeline for how long it will take him to assess that data so we know when he will make a decision? Will it take him a year?
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, we will get on with this expeditiously. There is a lot of action already. I understand that retailers including Marks & Spencer, WHSmith and Lidl have instituted voluntary charges. Sainsbury, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and Co-operative Food have put carrier bag recycling facilities at the front of their stores. We are providing funding for various projects in the marine environment, where the problem is often at its starkest. Keep Britain Tidy operates the Love Where You Live education and information programme. As I said, we are actively considering a charge on carrier bags based on the experience in the devolved Administrations.
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, will the Minister tell the House what is happening on the other side of the channel in Europe? I know that a number of countries have banned single-use plastic bags, but I wonder whether any other country is using a form of levy.
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, I am aware that there is action in countries on the other side of the channel such as France, Spain and Italy. It is worth saying that in 2011 the Commission consulted on a number of possible options for reducing the use of plastic carrier bags. We responded to the consultation and encouraged the Commission to undertake a full cost-benefit analysis as part of the development of options. It has published a response to the consultation and is currently considering its options.
Baroness Golding
Is the Minister aware that in some parts of Wales the charge for a plastic bag is 10p, in other parts 5p and in other parts 3p—and that if you know the shopkeeper, it is nothing? Is he also aware that the charge is supposed to be for charity, but I often see the money going into the shop’s till? Is he aware that this is happening in Wales?
Lord De Mauley
The noble Baroness points out an extremely good reason why we should look very carefully at what is happening in Wales before we act. I thank her for that.
Lord Kilclooney
Will the Minister confirm that paper bags will not be included?
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, as I said, we are considering options. As yet there is no proposal on the table. Paper as a material does not lend itself readily to reuse unless combined with other materials, which makes its recycling very difficult. All bags have an environmental impact. While paper bags are derived from a renewable resource, they are heavier than plastic bags and it can take more energy to produce and transport them.
Child Poverty
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud)
My Lords, the IFS report is an interesting addition to the work on tackling child poverty in the UK, but the Government do not believe that it is possible to predict poverty levels with any certainty so far away. Poverty figures rely on the performance of the economy, on people’s behaviours and on government policy. As the report acknowledges, these cannot be predicted effectively over this timescale.
Lord Dubs
My Lords, it is disappointing that the Minister chose to brush aside a very sound piece of work, which I am sure he has read and looked at in great detail—or his officials have. Is it not alarming that a reputable organisation with sound analytical methods has predicted that child poverty is likely to increase by 1 million by 2020? Even if the figures are a bit out, the fact is that they are going up alarmingly, and child poverty is such a damaging blight on our society.
Lord Freud
My Lords, I have read the report with great interest and not relied on my officials. There are a lot of very valuable things in it. One of the most interesting things, as the noble Lord will be aware, is the uncertainty caused by the way in which absolute poverty is measured. The report says that because the rather unreliable RPI measure is used, the figure is 10 percentage points higher, whereas if the CPI measure were used it would be only 1.5 percentage points higher. The report states that we should look at that very closely, which we are doing.
The Lord Bishop of Birmingham
My Lords, notwithstanding the Minister’s scepticism about the report, would he be kind enough to tell us about some of the ways in which he and the Government are considering substantive measures to close the gap and reduce child poverty if the report’s predictions are proved right?
Lord Freud
My Lords, we are currently consulting on child poverty and we are committed to the Child Poverty Act and the targets in it, but we are looking at better measures for tackling it. The academic research tells us that the best predictors of poverty are worklessness in parents and low educational attainment, and that one of the most effective ways of getting out of poverty for those children is for them to achieve a better educational outcome.
Lord Kinnock
After the last two answers, is not the Minister going to conclude that he has been taking refuge in statistics and semantics rather than addressing the fundamental question raised by my noble friend, which relates to the level of child poverty in this relatively affluent country? Is it not clear that, even if the institute’s calculations were significantly wrong, we would still be talking about a rise of more than 500,000 in the number of children in poor families in the foreseeable future in the 21st century? Can the Minister give us his own objective view of whether that is morally, socially and economically acceptable, or whether it is appalling?
Lord Freud
What is vital with child poverty is that we decide on how to tackle it. Under the last Government, we found that enormous amounts of money were spent on tackling it without hardly moving a figure. In the last few years of that Government, it hardly shifted. The noble Lord can look at the figures himself. We spend 3.6% of GDP on children and families; we are the second highest in the UNICEF measures, and we get precious little bang for our buck. We end up well down the table in performance for how children do. We need to work out how to solve child poverty and not worry about income transfers, which do not achieve the outcome.
Lord Hill of Oareford
We have just had a Labour question, so it is this side.
Lord Roberts of Llandudno
Is the Minister aware that child poverty and poverty generally are not evenly spread across the United Kingdom? We have areas that are totally desperate. For instance, the south Wales valleys have twice the level of poverty than other places in the UK. What are the Minister and the Government doing to bridge that gap and somehow even out the issue of child poverty and other poverty in the United Kingdom?
Lord Freud
Yes, my Lords, there is a lot of variation around the country on child poverty. Again, I go back to the UNICEF report, which came out recently and which I found fascinating. Finland, which spends only 2.5% of its GNP on children and families, comes out very near the top. One thing that is so special about Finland is the emphasis that it puts on early years education, which seems to have a big impact there. We have to get to the causes of poverty and not just look at the pure measure.
Baroness Massey of Darwen
My Lords, is the Minister aware, having quoted the recent UNICEF report, that other recent reports, including from UNICEF, concluded that under the last Government child well-being increased substantially? It is very worrying that more recent reports and evidence now suggest that, under this Government, child deprivation is increasing dramatically. Is it not a concern to him that jeopardising the chances of children is a serious matter?
Lord Freud
My Lords, I could not agree more. One of the most dismaying things that I have ever read is the 2007 UNICEF report that put us right at the bottom in terms of child well-being. The latest report from 2011 shows us crawling up four places, but we have a long way to go and we need to find the right ways in which to help children genuinely to get out of poverty.
Lord Flight
My Lords, is not the related problem of feral children who engage in gang warfare and drug dealing and whose parents are not parenting properly even more serious? The solution to that is shown to be provided increasingly by the new technical colleges which motivate such children and teach them a skill. They then start to want to learn generally. That is the sort of measure that really addresses our problems rather than just giving out money.
Lord Freud
My Lords, we are in the middle of a genuine consultation on how to tackle child poverty. Maintaining the income measure so that we know what is happening but getting at the measures that will make a real underlying difference to entrenched poverty is absolutely vital in that exercise.
Security: Fake Bomb Detectors
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will initiate an inquiry into the military and security implications of the failure of statutory safeguards concerning the sale and exports of false bomb detectors in the case of James McCormick.
Lord Popat
My Lords, there was no failure of statutory controls as these objects were not subject to export control because they did not contain controlled materials and/or technology. The previous Government introduced a control on the export of these devices to Iraq and Afghanistan in January 2010 in response to concerns about the risk to the security of UK personnel through the use of these devices in Iraq. This is essentially a case of fraud and is subject to legal proceedings.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass
I am grateful, if somewhat surprised, by the Minister’s Answer. This was a fraud that went on over four years at a cost of about £60 million. To the mind of many of us, it was not fraud: rather, it was treachery, treason and potential manslaughter. Does the Minister agree that there is a stench of conspiracy or corruption, or is it merely incompetence? If so, what had military intelligence, MI5, MI6, export control and all the other agencies to do with that? This con trick could have cost the lives of our soldiers. Does that concern the Government? If the Minister does not feel that he can give me a full answer now, will he perhaps write to me and place a copy of that fuller response in the Library?
Lord Popat
My Lords, the noble Lord asked a number of questions. I will try to answer as many as I can. Failing that, I would be very happy to write to the noble Lord. The UK defence industry contributes £35 billion to our wider economy, provides more than 300,000 jobs and makes a contribution of about £2 billion to our Exchequer. It is a crucial industry. With regard to the defence industry being corrupt, the defence industry, like many other industries, makes a very valuable contribution to the British economy, particularly through its export of defence equipment. This issue cropped up in mid-2009—that is when the department became aware of it—and hence we brought in the control in January 2010.
Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope
My Lords, is not the most worrying thing about this the fact that these “magic wands” are still in use today? I was in Baghdad in a vehicle approaching the Iraqi Parliament a week ago today and was screened by one of these fraudulent devices. It is a serious matter and we should say to our Iraqi friends that it is not only a question of protecting life but, if these devices are not withdrawn, it will reflect so poorly on the professionalism of the Iraqi security forces that it will deter people from visiting Iraq in future.
Lord Popat
My Lords, the noble Lord raises a very important issue. Yes, this equipment was fraudulent and was sold to Iraq. We have notified not just Iraq but all the respective Governments through our Foreign and Commonwealth Office and embassies that this equipment is not effective and will not serve the purpose for which it was bought.
Lord Clark of Windermere
Will the Minister clarify a very simple and specific point: were these fraudulent bomb detectors given approval by any British government agency such as DSO?
Lord Popat
My Lords, to the best of my knowledge no such approval was given. Most of our export is done through UKTI, which normally does not endorse the sale from this country of items of that nature. However, we have now brought in a policy within BIS to make sure that UKTI gets disclaimers signed by people who sell such equipment.
Lord West of Spithead
My Lords, I had not intended to speak but that answer rather worried me. If UKTI were happy to give authority for these completely ludicrous bits of kit that do nothing whatever, it does not reflect well on our nation. As noble Lords have said, it was dangerous for people in-country. Is it not extremely worrying if UKTI gave some sort of approval, even just by saying, “Yes, we’re happy for this to happen”?
Lord Popat
The noble Lord raises a very important issue but I think he misunderstood my answer. UKTI plays an important role within our department to promote exports world wide. It has exhibitions and trade shows. It does not endorse the sale of such items.
Lord Mitchell
My Lords, is it just me, or is there a sense of complacency in the replies that we are getting? This is a very serious issue. With the benefit of hindsight, I accept that it would have been difficult to prevent such a despicable act. However, now that this has happened, what steps are being taken by the Government to ensure that safety equipment that is not classified as military equipment or subject to the same export restrictions has adequate checks?
Lord Popat
My Lords, in February 2010 when this matter came to our attention, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office informed all diplomatic posts of the UK Government of the concern about the effectiveness of certain hand-held bomb detectors and asked posts to share this concern with host Governments. This happened during the time of the noble Lord’s Government. Therefore, everything was done from the time it came to our attention to the time we put the controls in place.
Health and Social Care (Amendment) (Food Standards Bill) [HL]
Age of Criminal Responsibility Bill [HL]
Unsolicited Telephone Communications Bill [HL]
Online Safety Bill [HL]
Arbitration and Mediation (Equality) Services Bill [HL]
Prisoner Voting Committee
The Chairman of Committees
That the Commons message of 22 April be considered and that a Committee of six Lords be appointed to join with the Committee appointed by the Commons to consider and report on the draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill presented to both Houses on 22 November 2012 (Cm 8499) and that the committee should report on the draft Bill by 31 October 2013;
That, as proposed by the Committee of Selection, the following members be appointed to the Committee:
L Dholakia , B Gibson of Market Rasen, B Noakes, L Norton of Louth, L Peston, L Phillips of Worth Matravers.
That the Committee have power to agree with the Committee appointed by the Commons in the appointment of a Chairman;
That the Committee have power to send for persons, papers and records;
That the Committee have power to appoint specialist advisers;
That the Committee have power to adjourn from place to place within the United Kingdom;
That the report of the Committee shall be printed, regardless of any adjournment of the House; and
That the evidence taken by the Committee shall, if the Committee so wishes, be published.
Soft Power Committee
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to examine the use of soft power in furthering the United Kingdom’s global influence and interests, and to make recommendations, and that the Committee do report by 14 March 2014.
Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Committee
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider the strategic issues for regeneration and sporting legacy from the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and to make recommendations, and that the Committee do report by 15 November 2013.
Mental Capacity Act 2005 Committee
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider and report on the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and that the Committee do report by 28 February 2014.
Inquiries Act 2005 Committee
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Hill of Oareford
That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider and report on the law and practice relating to inquiries into matters of public concern, in particular the Inquiries Act 2005, and that the Committee do report by 28 February 2014.
Queen’s Speech
(11 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Lang of Monkton
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty as follows:
“Most Gracious Sovereign—We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to thank Your Majesty for the most gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament”.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud)
My Lords, it is a privilege to open this debate today, the fourth day of the debate on the gracious Speech.
I am delighted to welcome the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, the noble Viscount, Lord Ridley, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester to this debate. I am sure that the whole House looks forward to their maiden speeches today.
I am also pleased to welcome my noble friend Lord Howe, who will be responding to the many views, proposals and reflections that we will hear today.
The gracious Speech sets out the Government’s dedication to delivering positive change to the United Kingdom. We set out our commitment to landmark reform on social care and pensions, which will reward those who work hard. We look to improve services for vulnerable children and support strong families. The gracious Speech also covered the topics of culture, agriculture, and energy: we put the consumer first while taking decisive action to deliver economic growth.
This Government are committed to reforming the welfare system so that it is fair and affordable while ensuring that the most vulnerable get the support they need. With major reforms such as universal credit, the Work Programme and the personal independence payment already under way, we are helping people to find work, making sure that work pays and focusing support on those with the greatest need.
We now look to the Pensions Bill to apply the principles of modernisation to state pensions, providing a system fit for the 21st century. The Bill, introduced last week, contains provisions to set up the single-tier state pension—a simple flat-rate state pension for future pensioners that is set above the basic level of means-tested support. This will provide the clarity that is needed to help people to plan and save for their retirement. We will create a state pension system that reflects the lives and contributions of today’s working-age people.
Indeed, those who have historically done poorly in the current system—for example, people with caring responsibilities or those with broken work histories—will benefit. In the first 10 years, more than 700,000 women should receive, on average, £9 a week more in state pension through the single-tier valuation.
As life expectancy continues to increase, we are taking action to ensure that the state pension system remains sustainable over the long term. The Pensions Bill will bring forward the increase in state pension age to 67 by eight years, so that it gradually increases from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028. The Bill contains provision for a regular review of the state pension age, so that this issue is considered every Parliament. This will ensure that the state pension age remains sustainable and fair between the generations.
The Pensions Bill also contains a number of measures to strengthen private pensions. We estimate that the introduction of automatic enrolment into workplace pension schemes will result in between 6 million and 9 million people either saving for the first time or saving more into workplace pensions. However, without further reform, automatic enrolment will create more dormant pension pots as people move jobs. Therefore, we are legislating to introduce a system of automatic transfers of small pension pots. This will help consolidate pension savings into an individual’s current employer’s scheme, making it easier for people to keep track of their pensions saving, plan for retirement and secure a better retirement income. Finally, the Pensions Bill will make provision for the introduction of the bereavement support payment. This will simplify the current system by moving to a single benefit, with support focused on the period immediately following bereavement.
Continuing on the theme of support, the Government recognise that today’s care and support system often fails to live up to the expectations of those who rely on it. Many have good experiences, but the system can often be confusing, disempowering and not flexible enough to fit around individuals’ lives. The Care Bill takes forward our commitments to reform social care. This will make a reality of our vision for a modern system which promotes people’s well-being. Critically, the Bill will reform care and support funding by creating a cap on care costs, giving people peace of mind by protecting them from catastrophic costs. In providing a new right to deferred payment of care costs, it will also ensure that people do not have to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for residential care
We will refocus the law around the person, not the service, empowering people to take control over their care and support, and to understand their entitlements. We will strengthen the rights of carers to access support and we will introduce a new adult safeguarding framework. We will deliver a number of crucial elements in our response to the findings of the Francis inquiry, which identified failures across the health and care system that must never happen again. We will introduce a ratings system for hospitals and care homes, and a single failure regime, and we will make it a criminal offence for providers to provide false or misleading information.
Therefore, this Bill is vital in delivering our commitment to ensure that patients are,
“the first and foremost consideration of the system and everyone who works in it”.
I am pleased that public consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny has demonstrated widespread support for the principles and approach to law reform in adult care and support. Indeed, my noble friend Lord Howe and I are very grateful to those present who have already provided helpful and detailed scrutiny in draft through a Joint Committee of both Houses.
I turn to legislation with which I am personally involved. I am delighted that the Mesothelioma Bill was introduced in this House last week. Diffuse mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen caused by exposure to asbestos. The Government will act in the interest of people with diffuse mesothelioma and will set up a payment scheme for eligible people who can show that they were negligently exposed to asbestos by their employer and cannot trace an employer and insurer. It will be funded via a levy imposed on insurers currently selling employers’ liability insurance.
I shall now refer to the remaining subjects to be covered in today’s debate on culture, agriculture, energy and education. The gracious Speech outlined measures that will contribute to the economic growth of the nation while also putting the consumer at the heart of what we do. I shall therefore begin with the water Bill. I am pleased that my noble friend Lord De Mauley will be taking this important matter through the House. The water Bill will help us to achieve a future where water is always available to supply households and businesses without damaging the environment. We seek reform that will offer choice and flexibility to customers and help to keep bills affordable. That is essential for our economy.
The water Bill will also contribute to economic growth by encouraging the water sector to become more efficient, creating employment for new entrants to the industry and driving innovation. All business customers will be able to switch their water supplier so that they can achieve the best service and tariff. We will make it easier for water companies to buy and sell water from and to each other. New businesses will find it easier to enter the water market to provide new sources of water or sewerage treatment services, known as “upstream” services. Developers will also find it easier to connect new developments to the water mains and sewerage systems. We believe that this Bill is also the best vehicle for taking measures to address the availability and affordability of flood insurance.
The Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill will enhance protection for consumers. An estimated 80% of remote gambling activity by British consumers takes place with operators that the Gambling Commission does not regulate. The Bill will change this. All operators selling or advertising into the British market, whether from here or abroad, will be required to hold a UK Gambling Commission licence. Under the new regime, all remote gambling operators will be subject to the robust and consistent regulation required to support action against illegal activity and corruption in sport. They will be required to contribute to research, education and treatment in relation to British problem gambling and to comply with licence conditions that protect children and vulnerable adults.
I turn now to children and education. The Children and Families Bill will continue its journey through Parliament, taking forward the Government’s commitments to improve services for vulnerable children and support strong families. It takes forward critical reforms to our adoption, family justice and special educational needs systems. It will support improved educational attainment for looked-after children and strengthen the role of the Children’s Commissioner so that children have a strong and independent advocate for their rights. It introduces a new system of shared leave for new mothers and fathers and contains measures to encourage growth in the childcare sector. I am grateful to noble Lords on the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Select Committee on Adoption Legislation for the important contribution they have already made during pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. It is currently receiving thorough scrutiny in the House of Commons and we look forward to many expert contributions from across this House when it reaches us.
In addition, I am pleased that paving legislation will be introduced through this Bill to enable HMRC to develop the new tax-free childcare scheme that was announced by the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in March. This will provide up to £1,200 per child. A further £200 million will be made available for those receiving universal credit, which is equivalent to covering 85% of childcare costs for households qualifying for the universal credit childcare element where the lone parent or both earners in a couple pay income tax.
Lastly, the Energy Bill will also be carried into the 2013-14 Session. This Bill will generate the biggest change to the electricity market since privatisation. It will deliver secure, clean and affordable electricity and ensure that prices are fair. It will attract the £110 billion investment that we need in this decade alone to replace our ageing energy infrastructure with a more diverse and low-carbon energy mix and respond to an increased risk to security of electricity supplies as a large proportion of our existing capacity comes offline.
Investment in new low-carbon generation and reliable capacity will significantly boost economic growth, generating skills and expertise and supporting up to 250,000 jobs across the energy sector, while also helping us to meet our ambitious climate and renewable targets to build a cleaner energy future for Britain and the world. These reforms will work with the market and encourage competition to minimise costs to consumers and deliver the investment the UK needs. We are also using the Energy Bill to ensure that all households get the best deal for their gas and electricity, putting consumers in the driving seat, giving them clear choices, and incentivising companies to compete hard for their custom.
I believe that the measures I have discussed today make a real contribution to delivering positive change and boosting economic growth. I look forward to the balanced and informed debates that will take place over the coming months on this legislative programme, alongside the wisdom and experience that will be shared today. I welcome the contributions of all who are to take part in this debate.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his introduction to our debate and, like him, I welcome our maiden speakers, who we all look forward to listening to later. I also refer noble Lords to my health interests as set out in the register.
With the country facing so many formidable challenges, last Wednesday’s Queen’s Speech was an opportunity for the Government to outline a positive agenda for jobs and growth, and to help hard-pressed families cope with the drastic fall in living standards, but positive change it was not. Instead, we were treated to a desperately disappointing and dispiriting programme from a Government who are out of touch, out of ideas, and out of support from a significant number of their own MPs. Nowhere is that more evident than in the subjects we are covering today: in welfare, where the welfare bill continues to rise, the universal benefits scheme is in trouble, and the Work Programme simply is not getting the long-term unemployed into work; in energy, where the dithering and discord between the Treasury and the Department for Energy and Climate Change is putting our energy supply at risk and investment in renewable and nuclear energy in jeopardy; in the environment, where the Prime Minister’s claim to lead the greenest Government ever lies in tatters; in agriculture, where the water Bill is effectively only half a Bill that fails to deal with public affordability; in culture, media and sport, where we have no communications Bill and our wonderful Olympic legacy has been squandered as schools sport provision has been woefully undermined by Mr Gove; and in education, with no plans for vocational education and the Government’s lamentable plan to weaken early years childcare ratios in total chaos.
However, nowhere is the Government’s stewardship so much in evidence in terms of failure than in the field of health and social care. The Government’s backtracking on public health is but one example. The noble Earl who is to wind up our debate later will know that the scale of health inequalities in the UK is formidable. He also knows that smoking is one of the most important contributors to ill health and early death. That is why there was such a warm welcome when reports emanated from Whitehall in the spring promising legislation to enforce plain packaging for cigarettes. Why was there no mention of the Bill in the Queen’s Speech, and why no Bill to set a minimum price for alcohol? Does the noble Earl agree with his colleague, Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, who has said that a U-turn on plain packaging would send a message that public health has been completely abandoned by the coalition?
I would also like to ask the noble Earl about the establishment of Health Education England, which is set out in the Care Bill. I note Schedule 5 to the Bill regarding the make-up of its board and would ask him whether he will ensure that there is a balance of non-executives in terms of gender and diversity. I ask him that because I was astounded to learn that all of the non-executives on the advisory board of Public Health England are men, including the chairman. I am equally astounded that my noble friend Lady Massey of Darwen, having gone through all due process, was vetoed by Ministers from joining the board. Why was that so?
We then come to the health implications of the Government’s immigration measures. They have made much of their proposals to ensure that only NHS patients who properly qualify for the NHS should get free treatment. No one would quarrel with that as a proposition, but it is clear that the Government do not have a clue how to implement their proposals, apart from forcing GPs into the role of immigration officers. The existing guidance produced by the Government on the charging of overseas patients is 90 pages long. It is one of the most incomprehensible pieces of draftsmanship that I have ever seen.
The highly respected Nuffield Trust showed in 2011 that immigrants are far less likely to use hospital services than the general population. On the Francis report and the legislation contained in the Care Bill, I certainly look forward to debating Ofsted-style ratings for NHS hospitals and I support the intention to make it a criminal offence for NHS and social care organisations to provide false or misleading information about their performance. But why is the duty of candour restricted to hospitals and other service providers? Why should commissioning bodies such as clinical commissioning groups and NHS England not have a similar duty apply to them? Mr Robert Francis called today for more honesty from the NHS. However, that means all of the NHS. I also echo some questions asked by Mr Francis. Why are the Government not providing for the ability to prosecute individual staff in the case of serious patient neglect? Why are the Government refusing to merge CQC and Monitor into a single organisation? What response does the noble Earl have to Mr Francis, who warns of the potential of a communications failure between the two organisations?
The Government claim that the Care Bill, which is probably one of the most important Bills that this House will debate in the next few weeks, will reform the way long-term care is paid for to ensure that the elderly do not have to sell their homes to meet their care bills. The Bill builds on many of the recommendations of the Law Commission’s review of adult social care legislation initiated by the previous Government and on the proposals in Labour’s White Paper before the last election. The Bill may well be a step towards a better system but the key question I put to the noble Earl is this: where is the funding to implement it? On its own, the Bill will not go anywhere near far enough in tackling the crisis that is now engulfing health and social care, openly acknowledged by the Secretary of State. We have hospitals full to bursting, discharge is becoming ever more difficult, and handovers to social services are slower and subject to more disputes. Social care and the voluntary sector are struggling to fulfil demands placed on them. On the front line, thousands of nursing posts have been lost and many services are under pressure. In social care, the recent report of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services laid bare the scale and severity of the financial squeeze on councils: £2.7 billion stripped from adult social care services since 2010, equivalent to 20% of their care budgets, even as demand for those services continues to rise.
Ministers have today been forced to announce new measures to get the NHS and social care working together in integrated teams. However, the whole reform programme of enforced marketisation has actually encouraged the opposite—the fragmentation of services. At national level there is utter confusion as to who is in charge. We have even had NHS England arguing with the Secretary of State over the release of money to help hard-pressed accident and emergency services. The Secretary of State has finally grasped that the A&E crisis is a crisis of the whole system but NHS England persists in its foolish approach of blaming everyone but itself. How else to explain the bullying of clinical commissioning groups to fine those very same hard-pressed A&E and ambulance services? The Secretary of State itches to intervene, but his powers are limited because his predecessor and the noble Earl were adamant that they wanted to hand powers over to a quango, NHS England. No wonder Chris Hopson, chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network, described the Government’s response to the A&E problems as an “omnishambles”.
The Care Bill may well be a step towards a better system but new rights to services and support risk being meaningless as council budgets are cut to the bone and people are faced with spiralling charges. Many searching questions remain to be asked about the Government’s proposals. Can the noble Earl confirm that Andrew Dilnot warned that anything above a £50,000 cap on care costs would not provide enough protection to people with low incomes and wealth? Can he explain the rationale of persisting with a £72,000 cap? Has the noble Earl seen a paper published today by the LSE and the University of East Anglia which points out that the government proposals will provide greater benefit to relatively better off older people? What will the Government do to provide help for those of relatively low to modest means?
Dilnot hoped that the capping of care costs would lead to appropriate private insurance packages coming on to the market. Can the noble Earl tell us what discussions he has had with the ABI to stimulate such a market? Will he confirm that the cap on care payments does not include the hotel costs that a care home will charge, and that people in residential care will still need to pay up to £12,000 a year to fund their accommodation and living expenses?
Does the noble Earl accept that the national eligibility scheme will not work if it acts to restrict services for many people? Can he respond to the comments made by Age UK, which said that in the majority of councils only those assessed as having “substantial” care needs are now able to access the current system? It says that unless the Government set the proposed national eligibility criteria at the equivalent of “moderate”, hundreds of thousands of people who cannot carry out tasks such as washing, getting dressed and preparing food and laundry will be left without any help.
The contribution of carers to our society can never be overestimated. Why are there no provisions in the Bill for adults caring for children, and young carers? As Barnardo’s says, young carers represent a uniquely valuable group of people whom the Government should be ensuring receive help to address the very serious effects that caring has on their lives.
I would also welcome the noble Earl’s response to the point made by the Joint Committee in its scrutiny of the draft Bill, when it said:
“The introduction of a capped cost scheme, which will result in many more people”—
including self-funders—
“being assessed and entitled to a personal budget is likely to lead to an increase in disputes and legal challenges”.
The committee was,
“not confident that Ministers have yet fully thought through the implications for local authorities of these changes”.
Can the Minister comment?
Of course, we will explore these issues in greater detail in Committee, but however much we scrutinise the Bill it looks set to do little to help those who currently face a daily struggle to get the support they need. This is echoed by the Joint Committee, which said that,
“care and support have increasingly been rationed and restricted to those with the highest levels of need. This is ultimately self-defeating—shunting costs and reinforcing the dominance of crisis and acute care over approaches that prevent and postpone the need for formal care and support”.
The Government say they are acting to help people with care costs but the reality behind the spin is that under this Government people’s savings are being washed away. Ministers are promising to give a little in the future with one hand, while social care provision is collapsing in the other.
Above all, we need a genuinely integrated NHS and social care system, which helps older people stay healthy and live independently in their own homes for as long as possible. That is why Labour’s proposals for whole-person care are so important. This is surely one of society’s greatest challenges, which we need to tackle with urgency. In the absence of any such vision in the Queen’s Speech, it will be Labour’s mission to achieve this after the next election.
Baroness Jolly
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Freud, for introducing this debate and giving the House a concise breakdown of the legislation. I also note with interest the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, and I am sure we shall return them in due course.
I will talk briefly about public health and then spend time on parts of the Care Bill, but not in any great detail, because that is for Second Reading next week. The coalition Government’s mid-term review commits to “reducing preventable early death” as a key priority. Nothing would do more to reduce the number of preventable early deaths than dissuading children from drinking or smoking.
Aside from the cost to our economy of policing drunken young people, and later the NHS looking after their liver diseases or offering a diagnosis of cancer to those who are too young to hear it, we owe it to society to do whatever it takes to stop young people killing themselves early with too much alcohol or too much tobacco.
Her Majesty said in her speech:
“Other measures will be laid before you”.
I sincerely hope that as soon as the Government have finished their consultation they heed the advice of the Minister for Public Health and that of the chief executive of Public Health England and bring before Parliament measures to standardises cigarette and tobacco packaging and introduce minimum alcohol pricing.
Those of us who have sat through debates in the past couple of years know that the legal provisions relating to adult social care in England have been scattered over many Acts during the post-war period. Those of us who have caring responsibilities know what a quagmire the current system is. It lacks cohesion and a common purpose; there is no recognition of the role of carers or provision for them; it is a postcode lottery.
There have been plenty of well argued reports during the past 20 years, but it has to be said that successive Governments have put all this in the too-hard-to-deal-with box. The issue of funding catastrophic care costs was parked and the care of the most vulnerable was ducked for decades. However, a Liberal Democrat Minister of State was intent on rectifying that. I am proud that my honourable friend Paul Burstow, as Care Minister, persuaded his colleagues in the Department of Health to consult on these issues, resulting in the White Paper Caring for our Future. Furthermore, in line with the coalition agreement, the Department of Health asked Andrew Dilnot to chair a commission, with commissioners the noble Lord, Lord Warner, and Dame Jo Williams, to examine the funding of adult social care.
The Dilnot-led commission—we have already heard of it today—developed an elegant model leading to a solution for the affordability of catastrophic care costs. Implementation of the report was made tougher by the emerging reality of the recession. It was welcomed by the sector but it was several months before it gained Cabinet approval. I commend those from all Benches in your Lordships’ House who used all avenues of communication to influence that decision.
Based on the White Paper and the Law Commission report on social care, last summer my honourable friend Paul Burstow published the draft Care Bill. Health Bills seem to come along quite often, but social care Bills are few and far between, so the outcome had to be right. The decision was taken to put it before a joint scrutiny committee. I had the privilege to sit on this along with some of Parliament’s acknowledged experts in the field. We took some considerable time taking evidence from those in the sector, supplemented by a public consultation, and a report was produced with nearly 100 recommendations.
A Bill was published last week to reform the law relating to care and support for adults and the law relating to support for carers. It puts the individual’s well-being at the heart of decision-making and gives carers new legal rights to services. It places duties on councils and the NHS to work together, defines a single, streamlined assessment and eligibility framework, and, for the first time, gives adult safeguarding boards a statutory footing. All the legislation of past decades has been updated and put into a single Bill.
When we visualise a carer, what do we see our mind’s eye? Do we see one in the mirror every morning? Do we think of someone our own age, a neighbour or relative? I expect that very few think of a child, yet a BBC survey in 2010 showed that there are 700,000 young carers in the UK, many of whom care for more than 50 hours a week, and they go to school, too. They care for parents, siblings and sometimes grandparents.
In this legislation, I fear a lacuna. In general, issues surrounding children are dealt with by the Department for Education. It is imperative that children have the same rights as an adult carer or an adult carer caring for a child, so there must be adequate cross-referencing of the Care Bill and the Children and Families Bill to make sure that that is the case. My noble friend Lady Tyler of Enfield is not in her place today, but I am sure that many others will join her in making sure that this is achieved.
It is worth remembering that this Bill is for adult social care. Many assume that it is solely to address the care of those who are old, but we have to remember that the Bill applies equally to adults of working age and those who have care needs as a result of disability, long-term mental health problems or enduring illnesses.
This Bill championed by one Lib Dem Care Minister is being delivered by another. They share a Liberal perspective of fairness, guided by principles for social care set out in a 2010 Lib Dem policy paper: partnership, personalisation, prevention, protection, performance and productivity—I apologise for the alliteration. Some may say, “Bring it on”.
Lord Jenkin of Roding
My Lords, my noble friend Lord Freud indicated that one of the subjects for debate this afternoon is energy. Her Majesty’s Speech said that the Government will continue with legislation to update energy infrastructure. That is a short description of what will be a pretty long Bill when we receive it from the other place. I will come to that in a moment.
Before I refer to the Energy Bill, I want to say how much I admired the speech made on Thursday by my noble friend Lord Fowler. It was superb and I agreed with every word of it. It was of course about the implementation of the Leveson report. Like my noble friend, I hope that the Government will stand firm with their royal charter on press regulation, which was agreed at the end of the previous Session by the leaders of the three main parties represented in Parliament. At the moment we are witnessing some newspaper groups seeking to substitute their own, much weaker charter. That is no less than a very blatant attempt by those newspapers and their proprietors to keep their status in society as over-mighty subjects. Previous Governments have had to deal with over-mighty subjects. They had to face the Whig aristocracy in the 18th century, the Tory mill and factory owners in the 19th century and the trade unions in the 20th century. The Leveson report exposed the press as the over-mighty subjects of the 21st century, believing, like their predecessors, that they were above the law and outwith the surveillance of Parliament. That can be acceptable to no democratic Government. Some newspapers may dislike intensely the prospect of tougher regulation but the way that they are fighting their case is not a pretty sight. I condemn them and hope that the Government will stand firm on that.
Turning to energy, I want to raise three issues. First, I express dismay at the long delay in the negotiations between EDF and the Government on the terms of the proposed contract for difference and strike price. This was supposed to have been announced before Christmas and here we are, half way through May, and as yet nothing. This is the first test of the Government’s proposals for electricity market reform. It is being watched very carefully by not only the participants in the industry but by a number of other countries that are interested in the model that the Government put forward. A failure to agree would be a severe blow to investor confidence and create a real risk of undermining the central objectives of the Energy Bill. It would also strike a serious blow to the Government’s desire to stimulate growth in the economy and create more jobs through a major infrastructure project. I cannot stress too highly the need for an agreement to be reached and announced very soon, the consequences of which would be wholly beneficial.
Secondly, I was dismayed, as many noble Lords were, when in January Cumbria County Council refused to allow the negotiations with local authorities to host a geological disposal facility for nuclear waste to proceed to the next stage. The two district councils, Copeland and Allerdale, agreed to do that but the county council—far away in Carlisle—refused and the Secretary of State, my right honourable friend Ed Davey, said that that ended the negotiations.
Yesterday, DECC announced a new open consultation and has called for evidence on the whole siting process. I welcome that, because what it was doing before has clearly gone seriously wrong. In my view, the main reason for the failure of the negotiations in Cumbria was that nobody—not DECC, not Defra, not the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, not the Sellafield authorities—seemed to have any duty to counteract the wave of malicious anti-nuclear propaganda that swamped the county in the three months before the decision to withdraw was made. I cannot believe that that is the right way to approach such major infrastructure problems. There needs to be a system of instant rebuttal for every erroneous statement made. Otherwise, the people who come to make the decisions are left with only half the information that they need. It is very sad that it was no one’s job to do that.
My third point is that on 18 February, the regulator, Ofgem, sent a very long letter to all the parties interested in the electricity market—the system operators, the transmission system owners, the generators, the suppliers, the traders and representatives of customers—proposing a new process to review what it described as future trading arrangements, or FTAs. At the end of the letter, it posed three questions: do you agree that Ofgem should launch a project to create a high-level design for the future electricity trading arrangements; what key issues should be examined as part of the work stream in that arrangement; and what form should the process take?
I see that opening up the prospect of a much more effective competition regime in an industry that has become a bit sclerotic and, in some respects, monopolistic in its habits. I am told that the indications are that the big six generators and distributors, who totally dominate the market, oppose that proposal. They fear that it will lead to tougher competition for generating capacity and access to the consumer markets. The new players, whom the Government are anxious to attract into the industry—I have met some of them—are likely to support it, as it could lead to opening up markets to them that have hitherto been the almost exclusive preserve of the big six.
My question to the Government is simple: they have a stated aim of increasing competition in the electricity generation and distribution market. If the big six are opposing a new structure and the new players are supporting it, where do the Government stand? What is the DECC attitude to that? I have heard nothing about that. I cannot reasonably expect answers from my noble friend Lord Howe at the end of the debate, but I hope that what I have said might be studied. I am grateful to see my noble friend Lady Verma on the Front Bench. I hope that it may be drawn to the attention of those concerned with those issues.
Lord Berkeley of Knighton
My Lords, my introduction to this place was prefaced with the most pleasant prophecies: that I would be given a very warm welcome; that the staff would go to great pains to help with everything from map reading, with which I still struggle, to paper procurement. So it has been. In addition to being both humbled and honoured to be here, I feel hugely grateful for all the kindness and help that I have experienced.
It is for me also rather extraordinary as a composer to be following in the footsteps of musicians such as Lord Menuhin of Stoke D’Abernon and my godfather, Lord Britten of Aldeburgh, whose centenary the world of music is currently celebrating. As a young chorister at Westminster Cathedral, I sang in the first performance of the Britten “Missa Brevis” and accompanied my father, Lennox, to rehearsals of his violin concerto with Menuhin. I know that both Benjamin Britten and Yehudi Menuhin would passionately endorse the sentiments I am about to embrace. The gracious Speech touched on culture, education and aspiration; speaking about music and the arts is indeed a theme I would like to explore.
First, let me take your Lordships to the Welsh Marches, that beautiful, wild but lyrical countryside so loved by Kilvert and Housman that forms the border between England and Wales and where, for the past 35 years, I have naturally and gradually build up a small farm near the town of Knighton. I have seen this community severely challenged in recent years by job losses and the difficulties that farmers have faced, not least in the recent snow. Yet despite these tribulations, there is always a smile on local faces. There certainly was a smile when, many years ago, we bought our first sheep at auction. The late and much lamented Nora Ephron, writer of “Sleepless in Seattle” and “When Harry Met Sally”, who was staying with us at the time, got so excited by the bidding that she waved happily across the ring to my wife, who waved back. This was much to the delight of the auctioneer, who treated these exuberant celebrations as a portent of an early Christmas and as further bids. Our first sheep were therefore the most expensive we have ever bought.
More seriously, current concerns in this part of the world concentrate on maintaining the important tourism that so feeds an area rich in wonderful walking. The spine of Offa’s Dyke runs through the town. In many ways, communities like this present a microcosm of the conundrums with which your Lordships and the Government have to wrestle. For instance, because of the stunning landscape and the tourism it attracts there is considerable concern over the prospect of many marching pylons and huge wind turbines bespotting the horizon. The balance between the need for renewable energy and the preservation of a landscape of great cultural significance is as problematic as the balance between the Government’s desire to see more localism and their overruling of local opinion in matters of planning.
Just over the hill from Knighton lies the town of Presteigne, which, astonishingly, boasts a successful annual festival of largely contemporary music. This organisation operates on the breadline, and sometimes below it, yet the need—the hunger—for cultural nourishment could not be more manifest, especially at times like this. In great art, as, for many, in religion, we find comfort and solace but also the means to see ourselves and inside ourselves more clearly. On my travels around the world, I got to know this refrain well: “We envy you your National Health Service and the BBC”—for whom, by the way, I have broadcast for some 40 years. But now a third cause of envy is cited: the thrilling cultural experiences that this country offers.
Recently, the Culture Secretary told us that we must celebrate the money-spinning success of our cultural organisations. I agree with her that for too long we have failed to spell out just what a good investment the arts are. For much less than 0.1% of government expenditure the arts return 0.4% of GDP, according to recent statistics from the Centre for Economics and Business Research. That is a £7 return for every £1 invested. If the Chancellor, or indeed us lesser mortals, the ordinary savers, could reap this kind of return in all our dealings, we would be rushing to invest. The creative economy employs 2.5 million people and growth in this sector runs at four times the national average.
While this fiscal approach might be encouraging, there is another unquantifiable but even more important return on investment in the arts and arts education: the social dividend that leads to a more civilised and cohesive society. Aspiration cannot be realised without education, and education can be effective only if supported by opportunity. You cannot teach someone to play the violin without a violin. Some years ago, I helped to organise what we call an amnesty on instruments. The idea was that parents and friends would search their cupboards not for unwanted knives and weapons but for unwanted or unused musical instruments and hand them into their local school. As a result, I had a letter from a small girl aged about eight who said that now she had her violin she no longer got into a rage because she could talk through and to her violin. Her teachers confirmed that her ferocious tantrums had almost entirely disappeared.
Noble Lords may know of the work of the Koestler Trust, which provides artistic opportunities for prisoners, be it drawing, writing, painting or music. When I was a trustee of this admirable organisation, I had a letter from a man who wrote to thank us for providing a guitar. His final sentences really shook me. “The guitar, and learning to play it, has transformed my life. If I had had this instrument when I was a teenager, and the means it gives me to express myself, I very much doubt that I would now be doing life for murder”.
Your Lordships may have seen the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Ballet Hoo! project on television three or four years ago in which disadvantaged children and teenagers in Birmingham took part in a production of “Romeo and Juliet”. Having initially been somewhat contemptuous of the notion of ballet, these kids, many in minor trouble with the police, found themselves in awe of the athleticism and fitness of the dancers and responded obsessively and proudly to the rigours of a disciplined rehearsal timetable. You could see that they really meant it when they described it as a life-changing experience. I know that this is probably an impossible vision, but I dream of a world where every child has the opportunity to find self-expression through music, writing and the visual and dramatic arts.
Another problem with confining oneself to the financial rewards of cultural investment is that we tend to focus on the big players, great though they are. The National Theatre, Tate Modern, the Royal Opera House, for example, are precisely the institutions that can bolster their state support with philanthropic gifts, but the area I am worried about is the seedbed for those institutions: regional and small-scale theatre, dance and music organisations, where young talent can be fostered before it takes to the main stage, and the colleges that train the orchestras and soloists, the dancers, actors, composers and artists of tomorrow. This is also the place, as Sir Nicholas Hytner has pointed out, where experiment and risk take place. When a highly acclaimed chamber group such as the Nash Ensemble is unable to find money for commissioning new music, we must acknowledge that there is a vacuum in the system, especially for composers.
So while there is much to celebrate, there is also much to do. Indeed, speaking as a composer, I would say that one of the most important aspects of creativity is self-criticism, careful and honest analysis, so that one constantly seeks to improve. In relation to the work of Parliament, that is surely the great role of this House, a role I have been privileged and impressed to observe. Now that I have concluded my maiden speech, it is my aspiration to contribute to that role in as many ways as possible.
Lord Griffiths of Burry Port
My Lords, I suspect that we all knew that it would be an honour and a privilege to hear the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, but I would like to say that, at least in my case, it has also been a pleasure. The creative arts will indeed find a noble spokesperson for their cause and the voice of culture will be heard in a focused way because of his presence among us. His achievements in the world of music are truly prodigious: orchestral and chamber music; music for woodwind and strings; music for guitar and keyboard; and music for oratorio, ballet and film. You name it, and he seems to have done it. We salute him for his achievements, but we delight ourselves in the wisdom of those who bring him into our company so that we may benefit from them.
By happy coincidence, I am reading and reviewing at the moment a book about the poet RS Thomas. During the time he lived at Manafon, which is not far from Knighton, he wrote his first collection of poetry. The key poem in the volume is called, Out of the Hills. Since the noble Lord said that hill farming was one of his preoccupations, perhaps the same hills produced music in his case and poetry in the case of Thomas. I cannot forbear to read three lines of Out of the Hills; I know that noble Lords will tolerate this.
“Dreams clustering thick on his sallow skull”—
I had rather hoped that there would be a few more curls on the noble Lord’s head than there proved to be.
“Dreams clustering thick on his sallow skull,
Dark as curls, he comes, ambling with his cattle
From the starved pastures. He has shaken from off his shoulders
The weight of the sky, and the lash of the wind’s sharpness
Is healing already under the medicinal sun”.
I would love to quote the whole poem but I suspect that patience will run out. It is a joy, when we are preoccupied with finance, matters to do with the economy, politics and all the rest of it, that we shall have this other side of our being well represented by the presence of the noble Lord.
I suspect that his godfather would provide a mutual friend whom unwittingly we both might claim: a man called Osian Ellis, a professor of harp at the Royal Academy and a good friend of mine, now retired to the Llyn peninsula in north Wales. I remember talking to him about the art of harp playing and asking what pleasure he took from the fact that he had formed so many harpists in the course of his career and saved the art of harp playing for posterity. He said, “Ah, great pleasure. They are breathtakingly brilliant, but I have learnt to make the distinction between those who find the notes and those who find the music”. I suspect that in the case of the noble Lord we will hear both the notes played with great skill and the music beguiling us perhaps into wiser decisions than we would otherwise have made.
I can find a very easy jumping-off point from the preoccupations of the noble Lord to the subject on which I wish to entertain your Lordships for just a few minutes, which is education. I would hate to be the Cinderella in the discussions that we are going to have for the rest of the day. Education, education, education: the mantra is well known to all of us. In the gracious Speech to which we are replying, the first item states that,
“my government’s legislative programme will continue to focus on building a stronger economy so that the United Kingdom can compete and succeed in the world”.
I suggest that education, if it were properly viewed as an investment instead of a drain on our resources, would indeed be part of what builds a stronger economy. I would like to see education viewed in that way, rather than as something that costs a lot of money and has to be trimmed and cut back with greater and greater fierceness.
In the first couple of years of the present Administration a couple of Bills were railroaded through Parliament that gave impetus to the already existent and established academies. I have nothing against academies and I am strongly in favour of choice. My disaffection with the impetus to have more academies lies in the fact that it is sometimes at the expense of choice. Not all schools want to become academies. Why should they not choose not to become academies if in their view that is in their best interests? I am the chairperson of the Central Foundation schools of London. Neither of them is an academy and I promise noble Lords that both schools welcome their association with local authority wisdom. As more and more responsibility gets passed to governors, they find that they need the wisdom, experience and skill that they can call upon in the governance they are expected to provide.
The two schools in question are simply brilliant. When the national average last year for GCSE A* to C lay at 58%, these two inner-city schools provided 66% and 67% pass rates, without any of the so-called advantages of being academies. Yet they are in the poorest parts of the inner city of London. In Islington and Tower Hamlets we have two schools where over 70% of the pupils are on free school meals and where there are dozens and dozens of ethnic backgrounds—in the case of the boys’ school, not a single one constituting more than 25% of the population of the school, while in the girls’ school 80% are from Bangladeshi families and are all Muslims. We have this mixture of types, we are in the inner city, we are happy not to be academies and we are achieving extraordinarily well. Sometimes I think that we should salute those schools that do that.
Mossbourne academy is always held up as the example that we must all aim at reaching. We are told that it,
“is a model for 21st century education, pioneering opportunity, social mobility and the reinvention of the inner-city comprehensive”.
I promise your Lordships that the inner-city comprehensive is being reinvented furiously and wonderfully in the schools where I work without them having academy status at all.
So let there be choice. It is just sad that the market place is dominating the way in which schools are proliferating in the inner city. At 500 metres from the boys’ school, where we have just seen the doubling of the sixth form and with good results to match, a free school has been started where one is not needed. Islington has an over-provision of places at sixth-form level for its pupils, yet here we have a free school—to meet what demand? The school has also filched the head of the sixth-form consortium in Islington to be the head of the new free school. This is simply mad.
We must encourage the development of education without the red tape and control from the centre which, despite the rhetoric, suggesting a laying off of schools from that point of view, is actually increasing the amount of paperwork that head teachers have to cope with. We must go on asking ourselves whether we have got it right. Indeed, in the realm of education, where “further measures” are threatened in the Queen’s Speech—I dread those words, “further measures”—we simply have to recognise that sometimes we get the notes but that we do not always get the music.
Lord Storey
My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, on his witty, excellent and informative speech. I very much agree with his comments about the importance of regional arts organisations, not just as a seed bed for national organisations but for success and outstanding contributions in their own right.
Almost a century ago, Lloyd George’s coalition Government of 1918 had the foresight to legislate for the establishment of nursery schools. Fast forward to the present, and this Government are making one of the biggest measures ever introduced to help parents with childcare costs, providing almost £1 billion in extra support for families. Today, we are about to witness this coalition Government bring about significant changes in early-years education, as outlined in the consultative document, More Great Childcare. These policies will make significant improvements to enhance the quality of childcare and early-years provision. But of course, as is always the case when a report is published for consultation, we all home in on one aspect of that report—in this case, the staff-to-child ratios. In the clamour to be heard, other important proposals in the document seem to be lost. Indeed, we reached the absurd situation where it was even suggested that opposition to enlarged ratios was in fact about leadership battles and not about sound educational and early-years development. I believe that I heard the phrase “showing a bit of leg” had been used.
The childcare report has picked up on many of the recommendations in Professor Nutbrown’s excellent independent review, Foundations for Quality, published last summer. Almost a year later, the Government are responding to that report. Raising the status and quality of early-years provision is one of the most important educational developments we can undertake.
I personally have never been comfortable with the term “childminder”. Childcare is not about minding children, it is about providing qualified people to deliver opportunities for young people to explore, play and learn. In medieval times, when agricultural workers went out to work in the fields, they were provided with a basket in which to place the baby and a peg from which to hang it. Childcare is not a peg on which to mind a child: rather, it is an opportunity to provide education while parents and guardians are at work.
In this way, the question of ratios should be discussed and considered in a rational manner, with decisions being made on an educational basis. I have learnt that so far the majority of the responses to the consultation from individuals and the main professional organisations say how important it is educationally to preserve the status quo in terms of existing ratio structures. In my view, just as class sizes improve learning, child ratios in early years and childcare improve the quality of that provision. I am not interested in league tables which show what other countries do; I am more interested in what is best for our children. Improving quality education does not come from increasing ratios. In a pre-school or nursery setting, you only have to have one child with special needs or special learning difficulties for the staffing ratios to become very apparent.
The Children and Families Bill will come to your Lordships’ House in the next few weeks. Again, this is a hugely important piece of legislation. Indeed, it is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deal with a number of important issues. I congratulate the Government on bringing forward the Bill. I particularly praise the former Minister of State for Children and Families, Sarah Teather, who did much of the spadework when she was the responsible Minister. The Bill will have a huge impact on improving the lives of children and families from adoption to flexible working and special educational needs provision.
Turning to mainstream schooling, the public consultation on the draft national curriculum has been completed and we await the outcome of that process. For me, any national curriculum must ensure first and foremost that children and young people are numerate and literate. Yes, children must learn to spell correctly from an early age and, yes, grammar is important. In mathematics, children must know their number bonds and their times tables—yes, even up to the 12 times table. A love of language and literature has to be nurtured. Guess what? Surprise, surprise, a recent study on children’s reading found that early readers are always a level higher in their overall schooling.
I welcome a slimmed-down national curriculum as it means that teachers and schools can respond with their professional expertise and pupils’ interests can be nurtured. We are forever quoting international league tables for literacy and numeracy, but we ought to look also at league tables showing how our pupils develop creatively. Schools should be working to get the best from all pupils: we need to be pupil-driven, not target-driven. The issue with our national curriculum is that everyone wants it slimmed down, but, of course, every subject interest group then wants to fill it up again. We have trumpeted the fact that our academies have the freedom to diverge from the national curriculum, but it is not very “national” if increasing numbers of schools are not required to follow it by law.
My own view is that a national curriculum should be as it says on the label—truly national, and should apply to every school in the country. A slimmed-down curriculum will give schools the time and space to pursue their own priorities. On these Benches, we appreciate that every child deserves an education tailored to their abilities and interests. We need to identify barriers to learning at an early age, then intervene to put those things right.
As a House, we showed our concern for personal, social, health and economic education to be maintained as part of the national curriculum. Indeed, during a very important debate initiated by the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, Members from across the Chamber spoke of its importance for young people on a host of issues. We highlighted how important sex education is as part of PSHE. Members spoke with great knowledge and passion. I am happy that PSHE is to be retained as part of the national curriculum, yet as things stand, PSHE in general, and sex education in particular, do not have to be taught by academies.
The Government have put education at the core of their programme. The pupil premium, which currently stands at £900 per lower-income pupil, has been a game-changer for schools and pupils. As I have said on many occasions, the most important resource in education and schooling is the quality of the teacher. Maybe the time is right to look at a royal college for teachers, as the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, said when he was talking about the demise of the General Teaching Council. I would be interested to know what the Minister thinks.
Teachers should be well trained and highly motivated, regarded and respected. Every pupil has the right to be taught by a qualified teacher. I find it regrettable that, in some of our settings, we allow unqualified teachers responsibility for our children’s education. Sadly, this is an increasing reality.
Every child should receive an excellent education from an excellent teacher. We want to unlock children’s potential and ensure that they can succeed in life. I hope that we go some way in this Session to doing so.
Baroness Hollis of Heigham
My Lords, we have had an outstanding maiden speech. We have two more to come, and I am sure that they will enrich this debate and the House, for which we are grateful.
In the Queen’s Speech we were promised both a health and social care Bill and a new single state pension. Why does this new single state pension matter so much? It matters because private occupational pensions do not really work for those with few other assets, the low paid, the self-employed, part-time workers, those with caring responsibilities and, above all, women. Think about it. To get a useful occupational pension, you start contributing young. You and your employer contribute enough throughout your working life. You stay in full-time work for 40 years, you gain from tax relief, you can manage investment and disinvestment strategies and DC schemes, and you do not need to touch your pension savings because you can access other savings. Not one of those propositions fits most women or, indeed, many low-paid men. You could not devise a worse fit for women if you tried.
A woman’s earnings are interrupted by childcare from her late 20s and elder care from her 50s. Work is part-time, low-paid and unpensioned. There is little or no gain from tax relief and little or no ability to manage DC investment. There are little or no other savings, so if she faces divorce, debt or disability, she cannot access her own pension savings; she can access only the moneylender, at higher cost. None of it works for her. That is because pensions were built by men for men to smooth the income from work into retirement. Yet for most women, their working life needs more smoothing than the move into older age. Therefore, they will always need a decent state pension, which is why I welcome the new single state pension so much.
The new single state pension will do five key things. First, as it is not dependent on waged work, it can credit in women’s hugely valuable caring work, around which our society pivots and which occupational pensions can never support. It therefore strengthens the contributory principle on which a decent social security system rests.
Secondly, it will offer a more adequate platform for retirement. A couple—he on average wage, she in part-time work—might bring home, say, £30,000 a year. With a combined new state pension of £15,000, and perhaps his small pension of £5,000, so £20,000 in total, they will have an earnings replacement of two-thirds before you count in the savings from no work-related costs. That is adequate.
Thirdly, the previous Government significantly reduced pensioner poverty. However, while means-tested pension credit lifted significant numbers of elderly poor pensioners out of poverty, it had the perverse incentive of discouraging future pensioners from saving. The new state pension, because it is above the means-tested benefit level, will make it safe to save. Every penny the woman hairdresser or the shop assistant puts away in a NEST, she will gain in full.
Fourthly, people will be able to plan for their retirement, knowing what they can rely on from the state in their older age—a simple, predictable, risk-free and adequate foundation pension. It will be genuinely transforming for many women and low-paid people in the future.
Finally, there is much talk about increased life expectancy—one year more for every five—but, on a point to which I shall return, for most people those extra years will not be years of good health. However, a good state pension, money, will do much to help stave off disability. It will buy heating, better food, cleaning and taxis—all to be welcomed.
I will say a word or so about universal pensioner benefits. Do not touch bus passes, which address the issue of pensioner isolation. Do not means test because a third of pensioners do not claim means-tested benefits, and the whole point of the new single state pension is to get rid of means-testing. You could tax, but, particularly with winter fuel benefits, which are expensive, you would get in very little—I calculate that it would be about £100 million. Instead, given the new state pension in 2016, we could postpone winter fuel payments alongside TV licences for that generation and for future new pensioners until they reach 75. Age is quite a good proxy for need—older pensioners are poorer pensioners, such as elderly widows whose husbands have died and whose occupational pensions have died with them—and I calculate that within about five years we would save about £1 billion a year and upwards. It is only a thought, but it would be simple, universal, targeted, fair and affordable.
However, if you really wanted to save on the pensions bill while increasing fairness, you would seek to tackle tax relief. It costs nearly £40 billion a year, of which two-thirds goes to the wealthiest. It is a shadow welfare state costing almost as much as the basic state pension itself. Given tax relief and national insurance, which should be levied on those of us who work beyond state pension age; given that we have an upper earnings limit at all, which is not defensible at all, which makes national insurance regressive and whose abolition would bring in £11 billion; given equity release—more than £1 trillion is locked away in housing equity and only between £0.5 billion and £1 billion is released every year; we have plenty of resource both for adequate state pensions and for social care if we seek to address and distribute the resources that we already have.
I make one final point. We need to think differently about life after 65. Increased life expectancy is not, for the most part, increased healthy life expectancy. The extra years are largely years of poor health. Most of us can expect three stages of older age: a decade or so of healthy life, and the number of healthy years is not really increasing by much, except for the better off; a decade of some limiting disability, such as a lack of mobility, the inability to reach or difficulty in hearing, but with care needs sufficiently modest that, along with telecare, they can normally be met at home; and between two and five years of frail dependency, including dementia, during which substantial personal care is needed.
It is the second stage—a limiting disability—that in my view, from all the research that I have studied, is lengthening with increased longevity. Funding and supporting that stage is not actually expensive, especially given that half the growth in the number of older people is the result of increased longevity and half is from a bulge in the number of older people coming through from the baby boom. When that is played through in the next 50 years or so, we will have just about the best worker to pensioner ratio in Europe. When we hear all those siren calls to raise the state pension age in line with increased longevity, we should pause.
In Norwich, the difference in life expectancy between the poorest and richest ward in my city is 11 years. The gap in healthy life expectancy between those two wards is 15 years and widening. Eight in 10 better-off men but only three in 10 poorer-off men will survive to 80. Therefore, in all fairness, the state pension age should rise only with any rise in the years of healthy life expectancy, not with any overall increase in longevity, which is mostly disability-accompanied, otherwise the years of healthy retirement for half the population—the poorer part—as a proportion of their adult life will actually shrink: a profoundly unfair outcome for profoundly unfair lives. We can all do better than that.
Viscount Ridley
My Lords, I wish to speak on the subject of energy and, in response to the prominent references in the gracious Speech, on the importance of economic competitiveness. However, as this is my first time speaking in the House, I hope that noble Lords will indulge me in a few preliminary remarks.
It is an enormous privilege and a daunting responsibility to speak in this House for the first time. I know that it is customary on such occasions to pay thanks to the staff but I have to say that I have been genuinely overwhelmed by the generosity and thoughtfulness of all the staff since I have come here.
I have also been touched by the warmth of the welcome that I have had from noble Lords on all sides of the House. I particularly thank my noble friends Lady Seccombe and Lord Henley, who have mentored me in my early weeks.
Listening to debates over the past few weeks, it has become clear to me that this is a House that not only respects but expects knowledge and expertise. This is something that my father made clear to me when he was enjoying a long and distinguished career in this House, but he would speak only on subjects that he knew something about—in his case, particularly the Territorial Army, the north-east of England and local government. When I spoke to the hustings a few weeks ago before being elected here, I said that if elected I would speak on three main issues: the north-east of England, science and technology, and enterprise and innovation.
I am here to fill the vacancy caused by the sad death of Lord Ferrers, and I pay tribute to that giant of a parliamentarian, who was on the Front Bench under no fewer than five Prime Ministers. I may hope to match his long legs but I do not expect to match his length of service.
I am that strange chimera—an elected hereditary Peer. As a result, I am acutely aware that I am here thanks at least as much to the efforts of my ancestors as to my own. I would not be human if I did not feel a smidgen of pride in being the ninth Matthew Ridley in direct succession to sit in one of the Houses of Parliament since the son of a buccaneering Newcastle coal merchant was elected to the other place in 1747. That brings me to the subject of my speech.
In 1713, exactly 300 years ago, the Newcomen steam engine was just coming into use all over the north of England. One of the very first was commissioned at Byker on the north bank of the Tyne by my buccaneering ancestor, Richard Ridley, in 1713. Within 20 years, more than 100 of these great clanking monsters were transforming the coal industry by pumping water from deep mines and vastly increasing productivity.
The effect of that innovation was momentous and global. By lowering the cost of energy and raising the wages of labour, it set in train a whole series of events, including the mechanisation of industry and the increase in demand for the products of that industry, and so the great flywheel of the industrial revolution began to turn. For the first time, an economy grew not through an increase in land or labour but through an increase in energy, because mineral energy from beneath the ground showed an unusual property that had not been shown by wood, wind and water or by oxen or people—that is, it did not show diminishing returns; the more of it you dug up, the cheaper it got.
At this point, I should like to declare an interest because I am still in the coal-mining business, albeit indirectly. However, my aim here is not to praise any particular kind of energy but to praise the cheapness of energy.
Today, an average British family uses as much energy as if it had 1,200 people in the back room on exercise bicycles pedalling away on eight-hour shifts. It is worth remembering that when people talk about how many jobs can be created in any particular sector of energy. We could create a lot more jobs by making energy on treadmills. What counts is not the jobs we create in producing energy but the jobs we create in consuming energy if we make it affordable—or, indeed, the number that could be lost if we make it unaffordable.
One reason why we in this country are falling behind the growth of the rest of the world is that in recent years we have had a policy of deliberately driving up the price of energy. To quote a recent report from the Institute of Directors:
“The UK’s energy and climate policies are adding more to industrial electricity prices than comparable programmes in competitor countries, putting UK industry at a disadvantage and making a rebalancing of the economy more difficult”.
Household energy costs have doubled in the past 15 years. In the US, where gas prices used to be the same as they are here, they are now one-quarter or one-fifth of the level here. That is an enormous competitive advantage to the US and a disadvantage to us. The chemical industry, as a result, is very keen to move to the United States, and other industries, including the cement industry, are feeling the pinch from high energy costs. Near where I live at Lynemouth on the north-east coast, the country’s largest aluminium smelter recently closed with the loss of 515 jobs, largely due to the rising cost of energy.
A nation can compete on the basis of cheap labour or cheap energy but if it has neither then it is likely to be in trouble. Surely these are not controversial remarks. I know that I am not supposed to be controversial in a maiden speech so, lest I go too far, I will now revert to talking about the north-east of England.
It is worth noting that the north-east is the only region of England with a trade surplus with the world, something to which the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, drew attention in his recent report on the region. We are also a region with strong offshore engineering capability, and I think that the north-east could once again steal a march on the world and deliver competitive energy to the rest of the world. There are 3,000 billion tonnes of coal under the British sector of the North Sea and, thanks to pioneering work at Newcastle University and elsewhere, the technology now exists to gasify this coal, getting carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane from it and putting carbon dioxide back in. If this technology can be made to work then we can bring plenty of jobs not only to the region but, more importantly, to the whole economy by lowering the price of energy. There is enormous entrepreneurial spirit in our regions but it is held back by the high cost of energy.
So, for the sake of pensioners in fuel poverty, for the sake of small businesses struggling to meet their energy bills and for the sake of large businesses all too ready to leave these shores, let us repeat what our ancestors did in the early 18th century and drive down the costs of energy so that we can drive up living standards.
Lord Patel
My Lords, it is a pleasure and a privilege to be asked to speak after the noble Viscount, Lord Ridley. Most noble Lords may not know that this is his third attempt to make his maiden speech. It is also the third time that I have been placed to speak after him. On the previous two occasions, the debates were cancelled. Therefore, he is lucky today and we are lucky to hear him.
Today, the noble Viscount spoke about energy but he could have spoken equally well on literature, political philosophy, the economy, science and even banking. Of course, he is the latest recruit to the Eton and Oxford club, which is growing in the Houses of Parliament. However, to me he is well known for the books that he has written, including those on science, particularly genomics. He has produced well written theses on genes and chromosomes, which people can follow easily.
The noble Viscount’s books have sold millions of copies and have been translated into 30 languages. They have won many awards, including the New York Times award for the 10 best books of the year. So far his TED lecture has had more than 2 million followers. It beats the records of other lecturers such as Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall and many Nobel Prize winners. I wonder why his TED lecture has had more than 2 million followers. The subject of his lecture was “When ideas have sex”; I wonder if it is the word “sex” that is attracting them.
We look forward to many more contributions from the noble Viscount. It was a pleasure to listen to him and I congratulate him on his maiden speech.
I turn now to my meagre contribution to the debate on the gracious Speech and I will briefly speak about the Care Bill. I congratulate the Government on bringing it forward, on their ambition to create a system in which everyone can get the care they need and on including in the Bill rights for carers. It is landmark legislation on the path to a fairer system. I say “on the path to a fairer system” because the proposals alone will not solve the serious challenges of funding social care and the growing gap between funding and increased demand. Similarly, I wonder whether the Government think that the £150 million allocated to support the rights of carers is likely to meet their needs.
There is also a need to address a gap in the support that currently exists, for instance, for patients with cancers. While the Bill places a duty, and quite rightly so, on local authorities to identify the needs of carers, for cancer patients such responsibility also needs to include health bodies, both to meet the needs of carers and to achieve integrated care, which I know is the Government’s ambition. I ask the Minister whether it remains the Government’s commitment to implement free social care at the end of life, a time that a person with cancer is most aware of. While they need healthcare, they also need social care but are not themselves aware of which care they need. Healthcare is free while social care has to be paid for. Any assessment that a person is required to undergo will cause delay and therefore deny them the care. No doubt, as we enter the legislative period next week on the Care Bill, we will have an opportunity to debate and discuss these and other issues. I look forward to that.
I now turn briefly to my disappointment at what is not in the gracious Speech. As other noble Lords have mentioned, the Government have missed an opportunity to introduce legislation on public health issues, particularly in relation to the plain packaging of cigarettes and tobacco material and the minimum pricing of alcohol. I add to that any strategy for the reduction of obesity. One-third of children in our country under the age of nine are now obese, and nearly a quarter of adults are obese. We need a strategy, including for food labelling, that will reduce the consumption of sugar, fat and salt. I am disappointed that there is no strategy in any legislation referred to in the gracious Speech on public health matters. Can the Minister say whether the Government intend to bring forward legislation relating to public health issues in the future?
Baroness Wheeler
My Lords, I should like to speak on the Care Bill, which, as my noble friend Lord Hunt has stressed, is recognised as an important step towards providing a consolidated legislative framework for our social care system based on the excellent report from the Law Commission, which we established to streamline and unify social care law. The Bill implements 66 of the commission’s 77 recommendations, refocusing care and support on more patient-centred services that are better suited to people’s lives and needs, with well-being as the guiding principle. We strongly support this; it takes forward our work on patient choice and control and builds on the progress we made in key areas such as prevention, personalisation of services, carer recognition and support in our landmark National Carers Strategy. It also addresses many of the “unfinished business” issues that we proposed in our 2009 national care service White Paper.
Like other noble Lords. I commend the pre-legislative scrutiny work of the Joint Committee. The Bill, as seen in the stakeholder evidence to the committee, enjoys considerable support among patients, carer organisations, staff, service users and providers, with, of course, the key proviso that major improvements are needed to address what the committee itself identified as the “gaps” and “risks of unintended consequences”, and the wider issues relating to both the NHS and social care. For all the widespread support, however, the gentle language of a cross-party report expressing the committee’s concern that the Government,
“has not yet fully assessed the scale of change the Bill will bring about”,
speaks volumes. It is a message that we on these Benches, along with care and support organisations across the statutory, private and voluntary sectors, have been trying to hammer home since the draft Bill was introduced. It is not just about the “new costs” impacts of the Bill itself that were cited by the committee, such as those resulting from the huge increase in the number of care assessments under the new capped system; the Government also need to recognise the scale and urgency of the current care crisis and that their proposed Dilnot solutions need to extend to self-funders, the millions of people with limited means and those who are unable to pay for adequate care and support.
The Government know that the proposals will not stop people having to sell their homes to pay for care, will not cap the costs that elderly people pay for residential care, and will not mean that pensioners get their care for free if they have income or assets worth up to £123,000. From the outset, we have underlined our concerns that unless the new legal framework is introduced in the context of also addressing the current and future social care funding problems, it runs the danger of raising expectations and demand that cannot be met, and will be ineffective and inoperable. This view is underlined by leading stakeholders, including Age UK and the Care and Support Alliance. Council care budgets are being cut to the bone, with the latest figures from ADASS identifying a further £800 million squeeze on social care budgets over the next year. I know that the noble Earl insists, despite all the evidence, that local authorities have sufficient funds to meet the current demand, but this is just not so.
London Councils is a cross-party organisation representing 33 London authorities. Its recent report, A Case for Sustainable Funding for Adult Social Care, based on financial modelling by Ernst & Young, researched the scale of savings that could be achieved through greater efficiencies such as integrating services, implementing alternative delivery models and making major changes to care delivery and procurement. Even with maximum savings and before the introduction of any form of Dilnot implementation, the Government would still need to increase London’s adult social care budget by potentially £1.1 billion to meet increased demand. Labour supports the principle of capping care costs, but we stress that a bigger and bolder response is needed by the Government to meet the challenges of our ageing population. Whole-person care is our vision for a 21st century health and care system that brings together physical health, mental health and social care in a single service to meet all a person’s care needs. Our independent commission has already started its work on looking at how health and social care services’ budgets can be brought together so that integrated services do not mean just a series of area or service-specific initiatives and pilots, but a way of working for a whole service. We have a major task ahead of us to improve the Bill, and Labour pledges its commitment to work hard to make sure that older and disabled people and their families get the best possible deal.
On carers, the House should note that the need to ensure their well-being is particularly underlined in the report of the Royal College of General Practitioners, which was published this weekend. It finds that 40% of carers are at risk of depression and should be regularly screened for this to ensure that their health needs are not neglected. We see a similar picture in the recent survey by the Stroke Association, Feeling Overwhelmed, which shows the potentially huge emotional impact of stroke on both survivors and their carers. The Bill is an important step forward in the development of carers’ rights, their recognition and the support they need, which we strongly support. In the coming weeks, it will be important to keep in mind just what demands we already make on carers. Some 7 million people currently provide carer support to a disabled or sick child or adult who otherwise could not live independently in the community.
As a carer myself, I am about to go through, with my partner, the final push under Surrey Council to convert all social care clients with long-term health conditions to self-directed support. We have a 46-page assessment form to complete, a host of supporting leaflets and briefings to read and absorb and, of course, a website, which I am sure will make us even more confused. This considerable task and commitment is the same for both self-funders and people receiving local authority support. Most frequently, it will probably be the carer who has to do most of the work, bear most of the responsibility and, probably, be most aware of and concerned about the potential effects if services and care packages are changed or, worse, withdrawn. That is certainly true for carers such as me, caring for a stroke survivor whose aphasia makes it difficult for him to read and understand forms and documents, and impossible for him to complete them himself.
Having said that, and to end on a positive note, the good news is that my experience so far is overwhelmingly that self-directed, personalised support and this approach to identifying future care needs for the cared-for and the carer is the right one. We need to ensure, as we work our way through the Bill, that the focus of the assessment is on well-being and support, and not on cutting back care packages that are generally working well and have taken many months and years of persistent effort to build up.
The Lord Bishop of Winchester
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for the welcome that I have received in this House. Members, officials and staff have been most kind and I look forward to getting to know people better.
There is a delightful railway in Hampshire called the Watercress Line, which offers trips for tourists and steam enthusiasts. The line enabled watercress, freshly plucked from the beds in Alresford, to be transported to the morning markets of London. It is known for its challenging climb over the “Hampshire Alps”, which required much of the drover, stoker and engine. Sadly, the line no longer carries watercress and stops at Alton, long before London. Hampshire might now be thought of as a place for tourists to ride on steam engines that no longer connect with today’s modern world, yet the county that used to put iron in the diet and tang in the palate of Londoners still contributes to both the heritage and commercial life of the nation. Today, the equivalent of the Watercress Line is the A31-M3 corridor from Bournemouth to Basingstoke and then on into London, connecting along the way with Southampton and Winchester. From the sea to the city, the diocese of Winchester envelopes this corridor with farmland, scattered villages and small market towns. The city of Winchester claims to be the birthplace of the English nation. It is where Alfred put iron in the soul of the Anglo-Saxons, by building a new society based on Christian values and good administration. I believe that this vision of a society based on Christian values and good administration is not just heritage but has present currency. My predecessor as Bishop of Winchester, Michael Scott-Joynt, was well known for his values-based advocacy across a range of issues. He remains much the same in retirement, although his activities have been restricted by a nasty stroke, from which he is making a steady recovery. I pass on his thanks for your prayers and best wishes. I know that he counted it a great privilege to participate in the work of this House, as, indeed, do I.
Prior to my coming to the diocese, I served as the general secretary of the Church Mission Society for 12 years. CMS is one of those Anglican mission societies that not only shared the gospel and planted the church around the world, but also laid the foundations for what we now call international development. Many schools, colleges, hospitals and agricultural and industrial training centres were established over its 200-year history. As I have visited these institutions across the world, in over 25 countries, I have been amazed by the vitality of the Christian faith and its contribution to the common good. Another former general secretary of CMS, John Taylor, also became the Bishop of Winchester. Like him, I come with hope and values generated by a truly global faith. Religion is a factor that we all have to take into account, even if we do not participate in religious communities ourselves. Values and spirituality really matter.
The diocese of Winchester has more than 100 Church of England schools; the Anglican University of Winchester, originally founded by the bishop as King Alfred’s College; plus hundreds of other schools, further education institutions and four more universities. The older tradition of education associated with Bishop Wykeham, Winchester College and New College, Oxford, gives depth to this dimension of diocesan life. I will be taking a keen interest in how the Government intend to further develop their schools-based and school-led approach to education, particularly the way in which higher education institutions contribute to this development.
Within the Anglican Communion is a network of old and new colleges and universities in which I have participated for a number of years and to which I contributed when working as a college principal based in Nairobi. The indication in the gracious Speech of changes in the national curriculum is also of great interest to me. Hampshire has a unique approach to religious education, which offers an excellent introduction to this crucial domain of social and international life. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education has very recently reported that apparently unconnected changes to qualifications, assessment and teacher education have had a negative impact on religious education. I urge the Department for Education to review the arrangements for RE in a parallel process to developing the national curriculum. The direction of travel in exam reform is welcome. The Church of England Board of Education stands ready to be fully involved in the revision of the RE GCSE and any new A-level in theology.
I shall also seek to contribute to our understanding of faith communities in the local life of our nations. Faith communities are those spaces that allow us to explore what it means to take equality and difference seriously. Increasingly, it is the question of social purpose, rather than just good social process, which will build our common life. Our pluralist society needs more than public rhetoric or agreed social processes if we are, as the noble Lord, Lord Sacks, says, to “build a home together”. It is in this endeavour that our values become clear. We need to articulate those values if we are to recover from an economic crisis that has challenged the basis of our commitment to the common good—a home built together.
The thrift of austerity needs to be matched by a determined compassion. The Treloar School and College near Alton, for children and students with disabilities, is like home, where many find a new social purpose. But it is also an eye-opener to the very difficult decisions that will be made up and down the country about the cost of caring. One way to articulate this is in terms of a social covenant in which we recognise each other’s humanity and our interdependence. A social covenant suggests that co-operation as well as competition is important for economic resilience. Our educational institutions need to prepare students for both co-operation and competition if we are to build societies that have social purpose.
Lastly, I shall be taking an interest in agriculture and the environment; 70% of the diocese is rural and thousands are employed in the challenging industry of farming. The basic need for food and our dependency on the environment have been highlighted to us in new ways as we contemplate food security and the long-term challenge of global warming. Food banks are as much a necessity in Hampshire as elsewhere, and the growing need to care for the environment is a Hampshire County Council priority. We may well be turning to our agricultural colleges, such as Sparsholt near Winchester, for more than basic training. Such institutions might become places for vision-casting for the future.
We need a new generation of those who understand the global trends of agriculture in relation to ecology. For this generation, co-operation will be as important as competition, as we all seek to preserve our common global future. At a simple level, this comes down to what we eat. Today, we celebrate St Matthias, who replaced Judas Iscariot. We are told that the text on his tomb says:
“Matthias preached the Gospel to barbarians and meat-eaters”.
I cast no aspersions on noble Lords, but I am among the meat-eaters. My daughter’s vegetarian diet is a daily challenge to reflect on sustainable food production.
I have the pleasure to live in a diocese that acts as a regional barometer for national life outside London, from the international language schools in Bournemouth to the container port in Southampton, then on to the historic city of Winchester and through to the entrepreneurial centre of Basingstoke. In this vibrant region, I serve Christ by serving others. In that spirit, I offer my service to the work and life of this House.
Lord Oxburgh
My Lords, there are some cultures that believe that good things come in threes. Those who subscribe to this view need look no further than today. We have had three maiden speeches—very different but all distinguished.
It is a great pleasure to follow the right reverend Prelate, who will undoubtedly make a major contribution to our discussions here. He was born in east Africa of missionary parents and his early life was there. As he touched on briefly, he returned to east Africa and put in seven years’ service as a very distinguished principal of Carlile College, which taught not only theology but business studies as well. I think that we can expect quite a broad contribution from him.
He has pointed out those areas which he is particularly interested in contributing to in our House, but I would be surprised if his understanding of Africa and the developing world was not also an important aspect of that contribution. Certainly, Africa has played an increasing role in our discussions as a developing continent which has yet to realise its full potential. The right reverend Prelate has indicated that he will use his educational experience and his experience of his local situation in Hampshire and around Winchester to elevate our discussions of agriculture and related topics. We very much look forward to those contributions and are delighted to welcome him to this House.
I turn to the somewhat different topic of energy. An Energy Bill will be coming to us shortly and that will be the time to discuss its detail, but I wish today to discuss the background to the Bill, the serious difficulties in which we now find ourselves and how in future we might avoid them.
I declare an interest as the honorary president of the Carbon Capture & Storage Association and as a director of two small companies, Green Energy Options and 2OC, the former being concerned with better energy management and the latter with renewable energy.
How has a situation arisen in which the shortly-to-retire director of Ofgem, our energy regulator, commented that energy supplies are on a “roller-coaster” heading “downhill—fast”? With hardly any new power stations being built, he warned that there is a serious danger of electricity shortages. Our respite arising from reduced energy demand during the recession is temporary.
The first point to make is that our predicament was entirely predictable. It has long been apparent that much of our electricity-generating capacity would have to be renewed this decade. It has also been apparent that this would be constrained by international agreements on greenhouse emissions. Furthermore, it was clear that North Sea gas would peak around the turn of the century, after which we would be increasingly dependent on imports. There were no surprises. I have a pile of reports, published or commissioned by DECC and others, that must be over half a metre high. The trouble is that action arising from these reports has been half-hearted, late or non-existent. Something like the present Energy Bill should have been introduced in the previous Parliament and the negotiations that are under way at present for the replacement of nuclear power stations should have begun at least two years ago.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that successive Governments have simply not taken energy policy seriously and that many decisions have been ill-considered, or made ad hoc—in some cases as knee-jerk responses to pressure groups, and in others on the basis of prejudice for or against particular energy sources. In so far as it was policy to promote renewable energy, we had a support regime that in effect could support only wind and did nothing for waves, currents or tides—some of the UK’s most important energy assets. Another key element of successive Governments’ policy was carbon capture and storage. This was the subject of a disastrously failed competition and is years behind where it should be.
Although energy market reform has been trailed for years, there is still virtually no investment in new generating plant because investors do not know under what market arrangements they will trade. Energy markets and energy transmission, fossil fuel reserves and electricity generation technologies are extremely complex. Under-informed decisions have legacies that are generations long. In this most complex and technical area, there have been more than 20 changes of Energy Minister in the past 15 years. I estimate that only a handful of those had either the time in post or the background to make a serious contribution to policy. It seems that when some tried to, they were overruled, moved or sacked. It is physically impossible for energy infrastructure to change rapidly and decisions being made today will take years to implement and will influence our energy supply for decades. Continuity and a long view are essential.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that at Cabinet level, in so far as any thought was given to energy, there was a Micawberesque hope that somehow something would turn up—but something has not turned up. It appears that the only certain outcome is, at best, unnecessarily high energy prices. Ministers and senior officials have seriously lacked experience and in particular a realistic understanding of timescales: how long it takes to negotiate agreements, obtain planning consents, or design and build a power station. There was also a lack of understanding of markets and experience to judge how investment could be attracted on reasonable terms. It is against this background that we are embarked on a fundamental reform of our energy market and we are doing it in a rush.
The existing arrangements have demonstrably failed. The present situation might have been avoided if we had had some kind of high level, non-political, expert advisory group overseeing all aspects of energy policy with the status and authority to hold the Government to account if they failed to take timely or appropriate action. I believe that an energy strategy committee should be established by Parliament. It would comprise people with experience of different aspects of the energy industry, finance and energy policy. They would serve for relatively long terms on a board that could be chaired by a Minister. Acting within high level policy guidance from Government, the role of the committee would be to propose a long-term energy strategy and to advise the relevant departments on the timescales and practicalities of achieving it. Because of the fundamental and long-term nature of energy investment, the energy strategy committee should report to Parliament and the minutes of its meetings should be published.
Such a committee would embrace not only electricity generation but gas storage, transmission of electricity and gas, interconnectors with other countries and other related matters. At present, there seems to be no forum in which those closely related topics are considered together. If established by amendment of the current Energy Bill, it could provide considerable help with the implementation of electricity market reform, many details of which remain to be settled. It is to be hoped that the long-term national strategic importance of energy would attract cross-party support for such a committee. Its influence would stem from the standing of its members and the requirement to report annually to Parliament. Clearly, it would still be possible for Governments to ignore the advice of the committee, but it would not be easy, and they would be obliged to do so in a more public fashion.
The present arrangements for determining energy strategy have not worked. It is time to do things differently.
Lord Plumb
My Lords, I am sure that we all enjoyed listening to three such eloquent and informative maiden speeches. It was a particular pleasure for me to hear each of them declare their interest in agriculture in one form or another.
British agriculture was not mentioned in the gracious Speech as such, but it is an industry that covers culture, education, energy, health and welfare, all subjects for this debate. I declare my interest as a farmer, a former leader of the National Farmers’ Union, a member of so many other farm organisations, and for 20 years I served in the European Parliament and had the pleasure and privilege of presiding over that Parliament for two and a half years from 1987 to 1990.
Consumers are increasingly concerned about where their food comes from and how it arrives on their plates. They often feel disconnected from its origins, and scandals surrounding horsemeat, mad cow disease, bovine TB, foot and mouth disease—I could go on—and animal welfare cause a lot of concern. Demand still increases for the introduction of a new food labelling system, and some research shows clearly that the shorter the journey from production to consumption, the better the quality. Obviously, the key is better marketing.
To achieve food security, we need growth, and we only have to travel north, south, east or west across Britain to witness fallow fields, winter crop failures and hills with fewer sheep, following a year which Her Majesty might describe as an annus horribilis.
We are continually reminded that the economic crisis continues and that household debt as a percentage of disposable income increases. Less than 10% of the weekly budget for a family is spent on food. Agriculture must play a major part in economic growth, and I could give many examples of the excellence of growth in production and productivity, from food research through practice with science and a remarkable change in farm structure and technology.
So what now? Our starting point follows such a difficult year that it seems the nation will need this year to import millions of tonnes of wheat. We are also now importing £1 billion of dairy products, and three dairy farmers a week are still leaving the dairy industry. It should be other way around. Globally, it is estimated that by 2020 the world will need 70% more food to be produced, but to increase production we need investment. I welcome the Government’s Autumn Statement on the increase in the annual investment allowance. It would help if we had reinvestment in the building allowance too, which would greatly enable farmers’ further investment. Buildings for stock housing particularly depreciate, with a limited economic lifespan similar to that of plant and machinery.
However, the Government and Defra have respected the Conservative manifesto promises in respect of several issues. The pilot TB wildlife control measures are about to commence. We still slaughtered, this past year, 38,000 cattle in this country with TB. We have seen the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board and the introduction of the groceries code adjudicator to see fair play in a competitive market. The review of the Environment Agency and Natural England is taking place. The Macdonald red tape review, dealing with some of the gold-plating of European legislation, is also taking place, albeit far too slowly.
Energy infrastructure is another area where farmers are well placed to capture renewable energy flows while maintaining their traditional role as food producers. They can contribute to domestic supply, supporting rural diversification and jobs creation, and help with sound environmental management and the use of waste products. Biofuels offer huge potential for combating climate change and increasing fuel security. In growth and development, all this calls for agriculture, and the horticultural industry in particular, to employ 50,000 to 60,000 new entrants over the next decade, closing the skills gap for a modern and progressive industry that looks to the future and places an onus on the continuous acquisition and improvement of skills.
It is not often understood or appreciated that the food and farming business employs some 445,000 people. Many more than that are in the background, involved in research. As a farmer, I have received a lot of requests over many years from people saying, “My third child is not quite as bright as the first two. Can you find them a job on your farm?”. My reply has always been: “I employ only young people who have at least four A-levels”. Defra, which serves the AgriSkills Forum, has to make the forum the first point of call on all skills issues. We are fortunate to have the finest agricultural colleges and training facilities to encourage new entrants into farming. The right reverend Prelate mentioned those earlier and one in particular. They serve not just farming but rural interests generally. Many charitable trusts and foundations are now also seeking young recruits. The passion is there; the universities and colleges are full of young people who want to work in the countryside.
Looking ahead, I see other issues looming right before us. An important issue is how the Government are going to implement the proposals for CAP reform. It is of course essential to get a fair deal across borders, but because of the voluntary modulation being proposed and a poor historical allocation in the United Kingdom from the budget, English farm payments are already well below our principal competitors’, so there is a move towards more greening issues. One can understand that, from an environmental point of view, greening may be seen as a preservation tactic to justify a larger European Union CAP budget rather than helping farming to become more competitive or to respond to the growth that is needed.
For the first time, the European Parliament has joint responsibility for co-decision. When our Prime Minister has declared his determination to renegotiate on issues that are of a concern to our country, calls for bringing forward a referendum on our future in Europe are, to me and to many of us, irresponsible. We need a more market-orientated European Union, fewer regulations, less red tape and the freedom to get on with the job that we know best how to do. If the Prime Minister does not succeed in his efforts, so be it, but we should hold fast until we know. One thing he should have on the agenda for decision is the seat of the Parliament, which is something I have argued for over many years. It costs the European taxpayer £200 million to transport people and goods around three places, and it is estimated that it causes 20,000 tonnes of CO2 gas. That is food for thought and, I hope, for action.
Lord Puttnam
My Lords, I associate myself with those who have congratulated the right reverend Prelate and the noble Lords, Lord Berkeley and Lord Ridley, on their maiden speeches. I can still remember the cold sweat pouring down my neck prior to my maiden speech. It will never feel quite as bad again.
I also associate myself with what the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin of Roding, said about the speed with which the royal charter implementing some of the Leveson proposals is to be brought in. I cannot have been the only person in your Lordships’ House who was struck by the very respectful coverage given to the State Opening of Parliament last week by the same newspapers that are attempting to face down Parliament while we attempt to impose some form of order.
I am not going to talk about the creative industries because I know that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, who follows me, will do it more ably than I can, and I associate myself entirely with his concerns. I am going to stick with education simply because if one looks at the list of concerns in the Queen’s Speech it is clear that every one of them is connected in one way or another to a successful education.
I have now worked in this field for 20 years, and the one absolute truism is that no system of education can ever be better than the quality of its teachers. That is true the world over. Therefore the statement in the Queen’s Speech:
“Measures will be taken to improve the quality of education for young people”,
fills me with delight. Last Saturday, I had the honour of giving the commencement address to the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. I was struck by the fact that whereas in the UK only between 6% and 7% of teachers have a second degree, over 80% of American teachers have master’s degrees. That is quite extraordinary. It does not mean that the American education system is in any way perfect, but it shows a commitment by their learning profession to the concept of learning. We have not reached that point. At Question Time today, the noble Lord, Lord Freud, complimented Finland, quite rightly, on being best in class in early years, in reduction in child poverty and in the quality of its education system. The answer is very simple: it has the best qualified and best trained teachers and educators in the world, and it is reaping the rewards it deserves.
The Queen’s Speech also stated that the Government intend to work to promote,
“a fairer society that rewards people who work hard”.
Having visited more than 400 schools in the past 15 years, I can assure noble Lords that no one in this country works harder than the nation’s teachers, but in order to do so, they need to be encouraged. In 1997, when I went to work for the Government, I encountered a—to put it politely—demoralised workforce. I was quite shocked by the state of the staff rooms and the general attitude of teachers, in many cases to each other. I genuinely believe—this is not a party-political point—that over a period of 10 years things significantly improved. Therefore, it grieves me to have to report, as I continue to go around schools and speak at education conferences, that the situation in the past year is as bad in terms of demoralisation as the situation that I encountered in 1997, if not worse. It is very bad indeed. The idea that the Government’s aspirations for education can somehow be achieved with a demoralised workforce that does not believe it is being led at all is pure fantasy.
I was very struck yesterday by the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Lane-Fox, who is not in her place. She said something particularly important, which was:
“We must not create a two-tier society but aspire to a universality of digital skills. We must make sure that the potential of all our citizens is unlocked”.—[Official Report, 13/5/13; col. 160.]
I cannot say that the way things are going at present we are unlocking the potential or the skills of our young people, and it worries me greatly.
While I was in the United States at the weekend, I turned on the television and watched Bill Gates being interviewed on CBS’s “60 Minutes”. He was talking about the late Steve Jobs. I jotted down what he said. He said:
“When he was sick I was able to spend time with him. We talked about what we’d learned—about families, everything. He was not being melancholy, it was very forward-looking, saying that we haven't really improved education with technology”.
They were entirely right, but the important thing is that the fault lies not with technology but with the extraordinary way in which we have not taken advantage of the opportunities available to us.
I have the pleasure of chairing the Times Educational Supplement advisory board, along with the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton, and my noble friends Lord Adonis and Lord Knight. It is a marvellous board to sit on. I would like to trot out a few statistics. I have mentioned them in Committee but I am not sure that they were fully understood. It is not a lack of ambition that the nation’s teachers are suffering from; they are ambitious to do better for themselves and for their pupils. At the TES we have a social media site. It is called TES Connect and it is free. The 100 million teacher downloads last year from that site indicate that teachers want better lesson plans. On one day, 8 January this year, there were 669,000 downloads by teachers looking for better lesson plans and ideas to bring to their classrooms. This year we anticipate 130 million teacher downloads. In addition, 600,000 teaching assets have been uploaded, 71% by teachers in Britain. This is a very active community that is looking for leadership, catalysation and someone to take advantage of its ambitions to improve.
Frankly, the teachers of this country are not being led. The Secretary of State believes that he has got it right, but he has to understand that no improvements to education in Britain will occur unless the teaching profession goes with him. That takes time, affection, understanding and time spent with the profession. That simply is not happening.
A very influential report, entitled An Avalanche is Coming, came out a month ago. To my absolute delight, it quoted me on the cover. I spoke at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology exactly a year ago and said that,
“by my reading, should we fail to radically change our approach to education, the same cohort we’re attempting to ‘protect’ could find their entire future is scuttled by our timidity”—
and, I would add, by our lack of courage and our lack of imagination.
Unless we get education right, irrespective of cost, everything else we do in this Chamber will fail. That is one certainty. We have to get it right, and to get it right requires leadership. At present that leadership, for the teachers of this country, is not forthcoming.
Lord Clement-Jones
My Lords, I, too, start by congratulating our maiden speakers on three superb speeches. Today’s debate, focusing in part on health, education and welfare, is a chance to welcome warmly a number of key elements in the Queen’s Speech and the forthcoming legislative programme: the Care Bill, the Pensions Bill, the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill and the carryover of the Children and Families Bill, which, as we have been reminded, contains the biggest overhaul of the SEN system in 30 years. On the other hand, in the health context, I very much hope that legislation for plain standardised packaging for tobacco products is not being kicked into the long grass despite clear evidence that it would have the desired impact.
I heard the negative commentary of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, on the Queen’s Speech, but I do not think that Peter Oborne of the Telegraph is a notable supporter of the coalition and we should take notice when he described the Queen’s Speech as “sharp, dynamic and purposeful” and,
“a serious programme for government”.
Today, I want to speak about the issues affecting the creative and cultural industries and the tourism industry, which will need to be tackled by the DCMS, the Treasury and the Business Department if they are to fulfil their potential in growing our economy. The recent CEBR report for the Arts Council, mentioned in the lyrical maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, on the economic impact of the arts and culture, strongly emphasised the link between the two sectors, with 42% of all tourism expenditure involving cultural engagement. In the case of both sectors, it is crucial to build on the Olympic legacy. Is it not a real tribute that Channel 4 won the BAFTA television award for sport and live events for its coverage of last year’s Paralympic Games?
As another aside on the Olympic legacy, rather less positive, there is now, after a long delay, a supplier recognition scheme in place, whereby, in general, suppliers are allowed to promote their work for the Olympics. Yet there are still areas, nine months after the event, not covered by the scheme. Many companies selling products such as lighting and audio-visual equipment are not able to publicise their involvement with London 2012. The value of the Olympic legacy for these businesses is being completely lost, and this is disgraceful.
Many of us have been impressed by the post-Olympics GREAT promotional campaign overseas, which has highlighted our creative and cultural sector for visitors. We are beginning to see real strategic co-operation between UKTI, VisitBritain, the Arts Council and the British Council, which is extremely welcome, but we need to do more to co-operate in squeezing out every bit of resource. The Australian tourism marketing budget in China, for example, is £13 million, while ours is a mere £1 million. It is extraordinary to consider that the impact of these two sectors—tourism and hospitality and the creative industries—sponsored by the DCMS, taken together and calculated by Oxford Economics and Nesta, amounts to some 20% of our GDP, delivers more than 5 million jobs and offers the strongest prospects of growth in employment over the coming years.
In this context, I want to mention the recent speech by my right honourable friend the Culture Secretary at the British Museum. I did not take it as a demonstration of some kind of Gradgrind utilitarian approach to the arts and culture. She was not insisting that all arts activity needs to be monetised. I took it as an understandably plaintive cry for support in her battle with the Treasury in its demand for more cuts in the service of deficit reduction. With perfect timing, we have had the CEBR report commissioned by the Arts Council on the contribution of the arts and culture, which makes it clear that, quite apart from their intrinsic value, they are very good value for money. Public funding of the arts can, in particular, help to diminish the economic risk of developing new productions, which can then go onto global success. Take the productions of the National Theatre’s “War Horse” and “Matilda” from the RSC, for example.
The Korean fashion entrepreneur Sung-Joo Kim, in an inspirational speech to an all-party group here in the Lords a couple of weeks ago, talked vividly of Britain’s future as a creative brain centre, in terms of our creative skills, allied to our archive, museum and gallery resources—now, of course, including the BBC’s Digital Public Space. There is no doubt that our future lies with our imagination, creativity and invention. We are pre-eminent in so many creative areas; the UK has the largest cultural economy in Europe, and the creative and cultural industries represent one of our economy’s greatest success stories. It was great to hear yesterday, for example, that the new “Star Wars” film will be made in the UK.
The Olympics showcased the social and economic value of intellectual property to the UK. We need to realise that our creativity, ideas and intellectual capital will increasingly drive our future prosperity. The recent Nesta Manifesto for the Creative Economy had some good recommendations, especially on the need for better measurement of the creative economy and the need to recognise and understand the economic connections between the arts and creative industries. However, at the end of the day the same old message is being delivered, as it was in the Hargreaves report, that copyright is an impediment to innovation and growth. Indeed, the Nesta report claims that term extension to copyright has weakened the ability of UK business to innovate; it equates copyright with regulation. This kind of attitude is spilling over into dealings with the EU. During a recent trip to Brussels, members of the All-Party Parliamentary Intellectual Property Group were greatly concerned by the apparent stance of the UK Government in appearing to support those in the Commission, notably DG Connect, which wishes to weaken copyright protection by the introduction of yet further exceptions beyond those contained in the current directive on copyright in the information society, such as over user-generated content. This is extraordinary, given the importance to our economy of the creative industries. It was a delight, therefore, to see the recent piece from the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Finsbury, on Music Tank, forcefully arguing the contrary.
I know that my noble friend Lord Younger intends to be a strong advocate for the value of intellectual property, but we need clear and concrete signals that the role of intellectual property as the foundation of our creative industries is appreciated by government. A vital step would be the implementation of the Digital Economy Act. If the Government are serious about the health of our creative sector, it seems extraordinary that we are still waiting for the issue of sharing of costs relating to notifications and appeals against the initial obligations code to be resolved by the Treasury three years after the passing of the Act. Nor has the DEA been activated in respect of public lending rights to on-site loans of audio books, e-books and so on.
Another strong signal needed from government is one in support of the creation of the copyright hub, which is a major initiative designed to streamline copyright licensing across the industry. I welcome the Government’s decision to give modest funding support to the development of the copyright hub, which will ensure that it comes into operation earlier than anticipated. I am delighted that, after a terrific campaign by the PRS and the music industry with support from government, the Global Repertoire Database has recently announced that it is locating its global headquarters in London. That is a triumph.
Also on the subject of intellectual property, I want to welcome the Intellectual Property Bill, which is focused on design rights and the introduction of the Unified Patent Court, which we will debate in more detail next week. We certainly need to consider extending the ambit of that to unregistered design and consider other aspects of it, such as providing for public lending right to cover remote e-lending, as recommended by the Sieghart report. I also welcome the consumer rights Bill.
Yesterday, my noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter made powerful points in her speech on two issues that impact heavily on the creative industries: education and skills and finance. I warmly support what she said, particularly over the necessity of implementing Darren Henley’s cultural education recommendations and in taking forward the Creative Industries Council’s recommendations on financing creative industries. I am pleasantly surprised to find that Creative England is now recognised to be playing a very important role.
I have very little time left to me, but I want to mention the enormous advantages that the UK has in its attractions for visiting tourists—yet it is often seen as the Cinderella sector. I hope that the Culture Secretary will, as recommended by industry representatives, agree to form across industry a hospitality and tourism council along the lines of the Creative Industries Council, to include government and industry leaders, jointly chaired by the Culture and Business Secretaries. Those two sectors are of huge significance to our future prosperity. I hope that the Government will take the necessary action so that the opportunities presented can be seized by all concerned.
Lord Pendry
My Lords, I concur with all those who found the three maiden speakers inspiring. I also found their speeches entertaining. I am sure that we will hear much more from them in the future.
The gracious Speech contains little of any major consequence in the area of social health provision other than on the important issue of carers and the welcome introduction of a Care Bill. As one who brought into law an Act of Parliament on carers—namely the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000—I was disappointed that more progress was not promised for carers in the future. However, I hope that this Bill will be strengthened following Second Reading. My Act is one of only three Acts for carers ever to be introduced in the UK. All three were the result of the Private Member’s Bills ballot in another place, and, incidentally, the other two were also introduced by Labour MPs. As for the coming Care Bill, although I welcome any move in the direction of assisting carers, I also endorse the fears which my noble friend Lady Royall expressed about the money to give carers a better deal not being available if the Government’s record to date on giving our social services adequate provision is any guide. It will no doubt fall on local authorities, which are already facing budgetary cuts, to pick up the tab.
I turn to another area which was omitted from the gracious Speech: the very real and growing problem of obesity within our society, especially among our youngsters. I was prompted to speak on this subject today after cutting the ribbon to open a new state-of- the-art clubhouse in Bispham, near Blackpool, some three weeks ago. I was ably assisted by Paul Maynard, Conservative MP for Blackpool North. It was so heartening to see so many youngsters—some 100 or more—dressed in their football attire, wishing that the speeches would end so that they could expend their energies in a constructive and sensible way, putting aside their video and computer games and the like. The facility that was opened contained superb dressing rooms, showers and canteen facilities and was brought about by funding from the Football Foundation. It was so good to see those youngsters enjoying their sport in an environment that many of us, certainly myself, would have wished for and envied in our younger days.
The Football Foundation, of which I am president, is the UK’s largest sports charity and is a partnership composed of the Football Association, the Premier League and the Government. Since its inception 13 years ago, the Football Foundation has produced more than 1,600 grass-roots facility projects with £324 million-worth of investment generously provided by the funding partners. This initial stake from the foundation has attracted an additional £418 million of partnership funding to grass-roots sport from local businesses, housing developers, the projects’ own fundraising and other sources.
We will be losing a major weapon in the fight to tackle obesity if we do not endorse and expand those developments. It cannot be a coincidence that we are the most obese nation in western Europe and that we also have the worst public sports facilities in western Europe. The foundation is doing excellent work on producing better sports facilities but the job is so colossal that its funding can reach only a very small percentage of the tens of thousands of pitches across the country. This investment in the grass-roots sports infrastructure helps to improve not just the health of the population but the health of the economy as well. When a local football club, council or school builds a new changing pavilion or playing surface, it also provides important jobs for architects, builders, carpenters, plumbers, electricians and more. Later this month, the Football Foundation will release some striking research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research that shows the benefits to the UK economy, in terms of jobs, contribution to GDP and growth, that result from its investment. I urge noble Lords to read the report when it comes out shortly. It makes sense for the health of our sports, our people and our economy to take note of the CEBR’s recommendations.
On top of that research, I would also like to highlight the findings of Nuffield Health’s new report, 12 Minutes More, which illustrate the significant savings that accrue to the National Health Service, to the Government and to individuals when the population increases its levels of physical activity. The research highlights that the average person does well below the recommended level of exercise, exercising on only four days per month. However, if the average person did just 12 minutes more physical activity per day then they would reach the target level of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. The report goes on to spell out the health benefits for individuals of doing these exercises. Those benefits include a 6% lower risk of developing mental health problems; 6% lower cholesterol levels; a 4% lower risk of high blood pressure; a 7% lower likelihood of being obese; and cutting the risk of developing lifestyle-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes and CVD. Nuffield Health argues that if the obese were to get active, it could immediately save the National Health Service £360 million as well as avoid £6.3 billion in further NHS costs, in welfare payments and in loss of earnings.
Much more could be said about the problems of obesity. I hope that during the passage of the Care Bill, the Second Reading of which we will soon debate, there will be an opportunity to raise the compelling reasons why the Government should take positive action in this important area.
Baroness Greengross
My Lords, as a member of the scrutiny committee on the Bill, I welcome the inclusion of the Care Bill in the gracious Speech. The fact that the Bill was published so quickly afterwards gives me confidence that at last we will see some long overdue progress made in improving the well-being of some of the most vulnerable among us, particularly disabled and older people.
I also welcome yesterday’s announcement of the first ever system-wide shared commitment in which 12 national health and care leaders have indicated how they will help local areas to integrate services. I hope that will include housing and prevent the most vulnerable among us being passed around health and care systems in the future. I have also heard that the Government plan to launch a review into all aspects of later life care, which is very welcome. However, without being too cynical, we have had lots of reviews over the past 20 years or so and none of them has resolved the key problem that there is not enough money in the system to provide even a basic level of acceptable quality care, as the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has confirmed.
Regarding the Care Bill, can the noble Earl tell us when the new care funding eligibility criteria framework will be published? In the new framework it is most important that having moderate care needs is recognised as being relevant and appropriate for initiating the provision of preventive services. The care Bill mandates that a local authority has to exercise its functions with a view to ensuring the integration of care and support provision with health provision and health-related provision. Does the noble Earl agree that encouraging local authorities to lengthen their budget cycles to at least four years would encourage the necessary investment in prevention and intervention in year one? That will pay back only later, with delayed and reduced care needs and costs, and perhaps compressed morbidity.
The annual report from the Prime Minister’s “challenge on dementia” is also due soon. Then we will learn how much progress is being made on making the quality of care as important as the quality of treatment. The prevalence of dementia is growing, and there is often a need for its management to be part of public health responsibility. It should include well-being, the design of the built environment and preventive care. If we are to get dementia-friendly communities, all those aspects need to be looked at. Public health inclusion would be welcome.
I support the view of Macmillan Cancer Care that, at the end of life, social care should be free and appropriate. People dread being in an inappropriate care setting, with a loss of dignity and respect as their final days approach. I get so many heartfelt pleas from the family and friends of people in care, both young and old, about the difficulties they have in finding out who is responsible for their care and, above all, how they can make a complaint. I know that the new clinical reference groups are supposed to meet regularly with patient representative groups but it is most important that dementia and end-of-life care are not forgotten.
On the new CCGs, I am concerned that in some localities, with their smaller management teams, they will not have the resources to fulfil their twin responsibilities of transactional management—such as A&E, NHS 111, contract negotiation and so forth—and the transformational relationship management, in areas like long-term improvement in dementia and end-of-life care, that they need to take on board; and that a disconnect may develop in terms of accountability for both these important areas.
We are seeing increasing costly bed-blocking as older people wait for care home places and clog up acute hospitals. I hope this can be dealt with, but Age UK has today reported that many patients have a 30-day wait to leave hospital. This is totally unacceptable. We need to look across the board at many types of initiatives and bring them together to solve some of these problems. Perhaps, in the end, innovation will be the key. Could we not look, for example, in quality and provision of services, at something like the “patient hotel”-type concept which is de rigueur in Scandinavia? I stress that I see this as an extension of NHS-provided services, and not privatisation.
In another initiative, the think tank with which I am involved, the International Longevity Centre, is coming forward in the next few weeks with a proposal for a more affordable savings product which might appeal to people of modest means who would not normally be able to afford an insurance product, and about whom the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, has understandable concerns.
Perhaps we could think more broadly about how we organise our services. For example, perhaps it would make sense if the social care elements of the DWP were merged with the Department of Health—a bit like the old DHSS but with the pension element hived off to employment. We look across the board at all sorts of ideas. Obviously, the DCLG would have to be involved because of local authority care-funding responsibilities. I believe that the current cross-departmental arrangements for the oversight of care funding and provision are one of the main reasons for the lack of joined-up thinking that we see all the time. It seems impossible to bridge these divides, so why not move some of them together and see if that works better? It is only by people with differing skills and sectoral responsibilities coming together that we can benefit from the necessary transformational plans to meet the needs of our ageing population in the years to come.
Lord Prescott
My Lords, I offer my congratulations to the three excellent maiden speakers today, who very much reflected their personal experiences, which will clearly be to the advantage of future debates in this House.
I will also make a contribution arising from my personal experiences of press regulation, the setting-up of a royal charter and the Leveson proposals. I agree with the speech made by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, earlier and his criticism of how long the process has taken and the opposition of the press to any form of change. This was reflected in an excellent speech by the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, on the first day of the debate on the Queen’s Speech. Both noble Lords expressed the view that the media were not prepared to co-operate in the way they believed the media should. There has now been such a long debate.
As a privy counsellor, I confess that I think that the role of the royal charter and of privy counsellors is at the heart of what we have to discuss today. There seems to be a general belief that somehow the Privy Council and the royal charter should not be involved in political controversy: that whatever they recommend to the Crown, the Crown will accept. However, that will not be the proposal now as we have two royal charters. Decisions have to be taken, and they have to be taken by the Privy Council.
I am not sure how this practice will work. I do not suppose that I will be one of the selected few sent to discuss the whole business of press regulation with the Queen. I presume the Cabinet will appoint the people who will sit on the Privy Council. That happened under the previous Administration; it is the normal process. However, it raises the very interesting point about whether they have a political view in making a decision on the different royal charters before us—another issue that I shall address.
My concern has been very much increased by the virulent opposition, referred to in earlier speeches, of the press. They do not accept that others can have a different view. They use the power of the media to attack anyone who holds a different view from them. That is totally unacceptable, quite apart from the other activities for which over 100 journalists have been arrested, the top press management being accused of conspiracy and all sorts of crimes and illegal acts. Let the courts decide how they will deal with that, but this does not sound to me like a press that has been reformed by their experience. They somehow do not believe that there needs to be any change. Indeed, the press’s royal charter is exactly what they want: to remain as they are. What they object to, quite clearly, is any statutory framework.
I am a bit curious about that. Since I have been in this House—and it has only been a short time—I have seen the press coming here asking for statutory privileges to protect them from damages and against legal aid. They require the law for that, and we have gone along with them, as much as we might have disagreed. They are therefore not necessarily against statutory frameworks in principle. Indeed, it is curious to note that they co-operated in Ireland where they own papers and where there is government control in a way: a Minister who decides who is on the regulatory body for press freedom. The press have signed up for that. How can they believe that it is all right in Ireland but not over here? They are the same papers, with the editors taking the decisions. All this business about them not accepting a statutory framework is nonsense.
The Defamation Act 2013 strengthens the press’s position because they want their damages reduced. They do not like having to pay a lot of money for offences that have been committed. We have made it better for them. We have made legal aid better for them, so that people cannot easily get legal aid to seek justice in the courts. All these things we have done for our media. They are not against a statutory framework; they do not like the idea of a statutory framework which they think would disadvantage them. They want to be able to judge what is in the public interest and what is right. Indeed, they even challenge the judges when they make a judgment on human rights. They say that it is the job of the editors to make decisions about public interest. I am bound to say that the record does not show that they are very fair about that.
When we get down to it, the Defamation Act and the latest changes, brought about by actions in this House, make it clear that there will be more accountability and that the damages that we are talking about will now apply to the press, whether they welcome the regulation or not. We have actually brought in a statutory framework, so for all the talk about there not being a statutory framework, we can say that we have one which the House has passed. It will apply whether the press join the royal charter or not. It is therefore nonsense to talk about there being no statutory framework. That is just part of the smoke that is being thrown up by them.
I am no fan of royal charters. Frankly, you cannot, as a democrat—I say that sitting in this place, but let me leave that aside—believe in a royal charter because it overrules and bypasses Parliament. However, another change that we have now made, which I welcome, is that if there is to be any change to a future royal charter, the agreement of two-thirds of this House and the other place is needed. That means that more political accountability has now been put on the royal charters. It is not privy counsellors getting together, having a little chat, passing a note to the Queen and then saying, “That’s the law”. No, we are now going to have a say and we therefore have extended political accountability, which should be welcome. Again, the framework is involved.
Now that there are two different concepts, two different royal charters, someone has to make a decision. Does anyone believe that that will not be politically controversial? There is the charter produced by the press, which is clearly different, certainly as regards a statutory framework, from the other one produced by this Parliament. This Parliament has decided overwhelmingly that it wants a statutory underpinning. It does not like to say that it is statutory because that is like forcing something on the press. However, if you leave the language aside, we have indeed established a statutory framework.
Therefore, when the council meets, it will consider which charter it wants to accept. Two charters means that a decision has to be taken. I assume that whoever the privy counsellors are they will include members of the Government. Even the Secretary of State for Culture must be involved in that process. Is that Secretary of State likely to vote for the press charter? I hope not, but if that happened that would be defying what Parliament had agreed, would it not? Why would the council judge the press one first? Because the press nipped in quickly and got that position. Now the council has to make a decision. That will be political, whatever we say about it. Even if you ignore the press charter, will the press believe that you have been fair? Will Parliament’s charter be accepted? Even if the Queen had to decide on these matters, and one does not want to put her in that position, would she then say, “I do not support the parliamentary one”, given the overwhelming majority? I do not think so. It would certainly be politically controversial.
In conclusion, my concern is the actions of the press themselves. They are still showing their bitter opposition. Remember that their proposal does not come from a majority. Not all the papers have agreed to it. Only the very people who have committed all the offences have got together and do not want to be stopped. They want to keep things in their present form. What are they doing? They are already threatening that if their charter is not accepted, they will continue to oppose the other charter. That would be politically controversial. They also propose to take the matter to a judicial inquiry. They are, as I understand it, going to take on the Crown in the courts against our proposal. That is very interesting.
What really gets under my skin is that the papers and editors have campaigned, day after day, to get rid of the European Convention on Human Rights. Now they are going to go to the European Court of Human Rights citing Article 10 on the freedom of information and the protection of private rights. I do not suppose that they will use Section 2, only Section 1.
I say to the Government: have you thought of a plan B? Perhaps I should not say “plan B” because they do not like it. We have to face up to our obligation, which is to carry out what Parliament decided. That means that the only alternative is statutory legislation. We should be absolutely clear about that. Giving in again is exactly what we have always done on press regulation—give in, give in, give in. Politicians go for delay. As they get near an election, they get nervous about what papers are going to do. We should not let them do the same thing. Now is the time for change. Now is the time to pass what Parliament has decided and to say to the media, as is the case for every other organisation in this country, “You have some responsibility under a regulated framework”.
Lord Donoughue
My Lords, I agree with every rapid word from my noble friend Lord Prescott, but I wish to focus on the energy section of this debate, bearing in mind the threat of a new Energy Bill. I will concentrate on the Government’s decarbonisation agenda, pursued with little concern for the competitiveness of our economy and with its accompanying pressure to prevent the exploitation of our rich shale gas reserves, which threatens to produce a serious energy crisis in this country.
Last week, a global warming campaigner from this House denounced those who question green orthodoxy as, revealingly, the “forces of darkness”. I say revealingly because the language is religious or religiose. Much of this debate is conducted in those terms. The greens claim the high moral ground, pursuing the virtue of—ambitiously, I must say—saving the planet. “The end of the world is nigh”, they say. Those of us who question them are evil sinners.
Perhaps with the decline of Christianity and the fall of Marxism, our chattering classes need a new faith. As a Roman Catholic, I respect faith but I am aware of its scientific limitations. I have always—including when I was my party’s spokesman here on energy—supported a healthy environment, limiting pollution and using energy efficiently. At first, I accepted unquestioningly, as was wrongly claimed, that there was a unanimous consensus among scientists supporting the global warming case and that only a tiny lunatic minority questioned it. But then I found a serious number of questioners, including scientists, on the internet and in this House, although many spoke in hushed tones for fear of denunciation as deniers—like neo-Nazis who deny the Holocaust. Nasty that. Now the polls show that at least half the nation is sceptical. Even media commentators have started to question, although not of course the BBC, which is still a propaganda branch of the green faith. The Met Office also remains true to the faith that the planet will boil, forecasting mild winters and barbecue summers, which never appear.
The basic facts on global warming are that the planet has recently been in a warming phase and since 1880 has warmed 0.8% of 1 degree. However, in the past 16 years, there has been no further warming, and the Met Office forecasts that the globe will not warm further in the next five years. Beyond that, the warming trend may resume. We do not know. The strict link between carbon emissions and the degree of global warming has been questioned, given that emissions still increase while temperatures do not, and atmospheric carbon levels were much higher in the last ice age. We need better evidence.
The problem is that our Government are committed to spending scores of billions of pounds on policies that assume that the alarmist beliefs are already proven facts. Those policies involve a massive switch to uneconomic renewable energy. The costs threaten to make some of our industry uncompetitive and fall disproportionately on the poor, and the number of those in fuel poverty has reached new peaks. Nearly 20% of recent energy price increases come from green imposts.
The massive investment in wind power, despite producing barely 5% of our electricity generation, is a particular folly. Environmentally, wind turbines can have many negative effects, as set out in DECC’s 2010 appraisal. Financially, they are a disaster. The cost of subsidies and integrating them into the grid—ultimately borne by consumers—will reach £5 billion a year by 2020 and by 2030 will have doubled again, totalling well over £50 billion.
Onshore wind costs double and offshore wind costs treble the cost of a combined cycle gas plant. This huge cost is because of their inefficiency. They often do not work in very cold, windless weather. In the severe cold spells of 2010 and 2011, they at times contributed less than 0.5% of Britain’s power. They need some 80% of back-up capacity from the fossil fuels they are supposed to replace. So wind does not replace fossil fuels; it embeds the need for them and drives up the price of power generally.
A further burden imposed on our society, and especially on the poor, by the green agenda has been the obstacles put in the way of developing our rich reserves of shale gas, estimated to meet our needs for the next 150 years. This abundance, as the noble Viscount, Lord Ridley, said in his excellent maiden speech, could help to generate huge tax revenues and to rebalance the economy by boosting manufacturing, especially with jobs in the north.
We should note that in the United States shale has provided tens of thousands of new jobs and reduced gas prices by two-thirds, while the green jobs bonanza has proved a mirage. In the States it has created only 2,800 jobs at a cost of nearly $12 million a job. The prospect for green jobs may be just as thin here, with most windmills built abroad.
So why is the shale revolution not happening here? It is mainly because of ideological hostility to shale exhibited by greens in DECC and especially by Liberal Democrat Ministers. Scaremongering about shale fracking, alleged to cause so-called earthquakes and water contamination, was well publicised in the media—less so the later inquiries by the Geological Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering, which showed that fracking has never caused any human or structural harm and will not do so if conducted, as it must be, according to established safety and environmental rules. Yet the alarmists continue their opposition. They do not want safe shale; they want no shale. This is economic madness.
What should be done? My own Labour Party is rightly attached to environmental values and should continue so, but in a balanced way and not with excessive green faith and global warming ideology. It should remember our historic concern for jobs and not damage the competitiveness of the economy, and it should show concern for poor people freezing in winter with rocketing energy bills. Labour should be wary of elitist green policies which pay rich Scottish and Welsh landowners and big corporations billions, derived from green taxes on ordinary people in tower blocks in Glasgow, to rent out their estates for wind farms. This could involve the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich since the 18th century enclosures. It is not clear to me that it should be a central Labour policy.
As for the Government, the Prime Minister should remove Liberal Democrat Ministers of extreme faith from the energy department. Right now, he should ensure that the Energy Bill meets Britain’s critical energy needs and stop littering our countryside with a blight of windmills.
Finally, for the wider issues of climate change, the importance of which I do not deny but the causes of which are not scientifically clear, we should monitor climate developments in a measured and non-ideological way. We should react on proven evidence, not on hysterical alarmism and not by assuming that Britain, with barely 2% of the world’s carbon emissions, should lead some imperial moral mission to save the planet, and certainly not by damaging our economy and the living standards of our people. That is not the responsibility of any sensible and mature Government.
Lord Crickhowell
My Lords, as I develop my own arguments, the House will understand why I took so much pleasure in listening to the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Donoughue.
The gracious Speech informs us that the first priority is to strengthen Britain’s economic competitiveness and that the Government will continue to invest in infrastructure to deliver jobs and growth, with legislation to update energy infrastructure. With those central themes in the gracious Speech, it is unhelpful that we find ourselves debating energy alongside health, agriculture, culture and education. My noble friend Lord Deighton, opening yesterday’s economic debate, made no mention of energy, despite the fact that he has a key role in the nuclear negotiations with EDF and that having the right energy policy is a fundamental requirement for economic competitiveness, a fact acknowledged by my noble friend Lord Freud opening today’s debate.
One commentator recently wrote:
“British energy policy is once more on the move. In 2006, the then Labour government set up an energy review, which was a much needed, comprehensive overhaul of policy. Now, seven years later, the Energy Bill … is inching its way through the legislative process”.
If a review of an equally fundamental matter of wartime policy had been started in 1939, it would have been inching its way forward in 1946, long after the war was over.
During the debate on the previous gracious Speech, which followed on the publication of the Science and Technology Select Committee’s report in 2011 on nuclear research, I quoted our conclusion:
“A fundamental change in the Government’s approach to nuclear R&D is needed now to address the complacency which permeates their vision of how the UK’s energy needs will be met in the future”.
I acknowledged that the Government’s response, accepting almost all our recommendations, appeared to represent a fundamental change in approach. I welcomed the change but expressed serious concern about energy policy and the possibility of an acute energy security crisis.
Since then, the Government have published the Nuclear Industrial Strategy: The UK’s Nuclear Future, which attempts to offer reassurance. It states:
“New nuclear power is essential to meeting the Government’s objective of delivering a secure, sustainable and low-carbon energy future”.
Most of the initiatives that the Select Committee proposed have at least been started but the crucial decisions are still to be taken. We have to stop inching forward. Decisive moves are required urgently, as my noble friend Lord Jenkin of Roding emphasised. Before the Summer Recess we need to have an Energy Act and well before then the conclusion of the negotiations with EDF, although, because of the calamitous way that these matters have been handled by DECC, the outcome may be a 40-year burden on consumers of a high price negotiated with a company whose financial ability to deliver is in doubt. It is hard to be optimistic about other nuclear plant decisions involving Wylfa and Oldbury.
Those negotiations are being conducted in a world where energy economics have been transformed by the shale gas revolution. During the debate on the Select Committee report, I spoke about the importance of that revolution. The chairman of the Select Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, sharply observed that without carbon capture and storage there was enough shale gas to,
“fry us all many times over. So shale gas has to go with CCS, which is an unproven technology, whereas nuclear is a tried and tested technology. We must therefore not relinquish our commitment to nuclear because of the hope of shale gas with CCS, unless we are prepared to fry”.—[Official Report, 16/06/12; GC 228.]
I am as committed to the need for nuclear as is the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, but I believe that on this point his analysis was flawed. All the evidence is that the replacement of coal by shale gas, without CCS at present, is already making a very substantial contribution to reducing carbon impacts in the United States.
Furthermore, we need competitive economies if we are to finance the technological advances that are likely to make the greatest contribution to the reduction of the threat posed by global warming. It is folly to waste our limited resources on forms of renewable energy that are never going to make more than a miniscule contribution. The madness of continuing to encourage the construction of high-cost, onshore wind farms that devastate the landscape should be self evident but, sadly, the madness persists. There are plans to ignore public opinion and to do immense damage to a great area of mid-Wales and adjoining parts of Shropshire, referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, in a splendid maiden speech, while in north Norfolk a giant wind turbine has been approved by a planning inspector against the wishes of local people, their elected representatives and English Heritage. So much for localism.
In his maiden speech, my noble friend Lord Ridley made the superb contribution that those of us who have followed his career have come to expect. He spoke of the importance of making energy affordable. In a recent article, he made the point that cheap energy is the surest way to encourage economic growth and emphasised that,
“if we do not treat the shale gas revolution as a huge opportunity for Britain, then it will become a dire threat to our economy: if we do not dash for cheap gas, we will lose much of what’s left of our manufacturing to countries that do”.
He is right.
Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford and a fellow in economics at New College, suggests that the energy debate is stuck in a rut. Policy-makers are arguing about a narrow set of existing technologies while all around them the world is changing. He urges fresh thought about possible technological advances. He writes:
“Some are like fracking—already largely in place, but needing a push. This category includes battery storage and smart grids and meters. We have within our grasp the ability to store electricity and to make the demand side active rather than passive … current renewables like wind turbines, rooftop solar and biomass stand no serious chance of making much difference to decarbonisation”.
He concludes that we must reverse the dash for coal and that only gas can do this at the global level over the next couple of decades. He presses the need for a long-term stable and rising price—a carbon tax, reinforcing investment for research to develop the future renewables: next-generation solar, geothermal, gravity and nuclear. After hearing my noble friend Lord Ridley, I am sure that he would have added gasification of coal to the list.
On 22 May, the EU summit is to discuss key aspects of energy policy aimed at boosting growth, productivity and employment. Recently, the employers group, BusinessEurope, has called on the Commission radically to shift the EU’s energy policy towards cost competitiveness and security of supply. The head of one of the world’s largest chemical groups has warned that the energy costs should be ranked alongside the eurozone crisis as the most urgent problem confronting industry. As German energy policy has taken an even more disastrous turn than our own, he is surely right.
The British Government must, at the very least, ensure that the Commission does not put last minute blocks in the way of our own vital decisions on energy. Surely, as Dieter Helm’s comments imply, there is room for a switch in the EU’s energy policy that both improves competitiveness and is more sensible in terms of climate change mitigation. Here in Britain we really have to get out of the rut. It needs more than a shove. Yesterday, my noble friend Lord Deighton said that the new transport infrastructure was needed now. The need for the new energy structure is even more urgent. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has been dragging its feet. Its attitude has been negative and even obstructionist, particularly in seeking to discover the real potential of our shale resources and in combating the scaremongering tactics of opponents on so many energy initiatives, a point well made by my noble friend Lord Jenkin earlier today.
There is now the need for decisive action both by the departments directly involved—BIS and DECC—and by the Prime Minister and Chancellor who must take whatever steps are needed to ensure that we do not miss the opportunity that shale gas and nuclear provide to get the British economy moving again.
Baroness Billingham
My Lords, last year at this time we waited with great anticipation the start of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. There was so much promise and the Games exceeded the nation’s wildest dreams. They were a triumph. Now, some eight months after the Games, the gracious Speech has absolutely no mention of sport and how the pledge to create a new generation of sports men and women is to be achieved. It is a huge lost opportunity for the Government to build on past achievements and echo the nation’s call for a better sporting Britain. It demands fairer sport for everyone, irrespective of ability and of every background. And I mean everyone, not just the favoured few of the 6% who attend independent schools but the 94% of our children who are in state schools.
The discrepancy between state and independent schools in sport is absolutely disgraceful. No wonder the majority of medal winners at the Olympics were privately educated people. In all fairness, the two most distinguished Olympians on the coalition Benches in this House have been outstanding critics of the Government’s failure to put grassroots sport into primary schools. If the noble Lords, Lord Coe and Lord Moynihan, cannot persuade the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, to change course, it is clear that proper change will not happen, although he has been forced into minor U-turns as a result of national pressure.
So, what prospect is there of the promised sporting legacy? I have looked back over the past two years to see whether there are any glimpses of hope but, sadly, there are none. It has been a story of destruction and failure to build on the improvements built by the previous Government. We were genuinely making ground, as opposed to this Government which are losing ground. The facts are stark. The number of people aged 16 and over active in sport has gone down for the first time since we won the bid in 2005, if we can remember that time. Michael Gove has singlehandedly wrecked state school sport, demolishing school sport partnerships which proved so successful in bringing qualified staff into schools as well as acting as a bridge between schools and clubs and community. The Government removed the crucial protection of ring-fenced funding for physical education in state schools, only partially reinstating it following a huge public outcry. Michael Gove also removed the minimum two hours target for sport and physical education in state schools.
A new formula for school sport was announced. Competitive sport was to be the panacea. Where on earth have these people been? For some it might be good and acceptable but for others it is the ultimate turnoff: 45% of girls surveyed by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation said that sport was too competitive for them and that they preferred individual disciplines, which perhaps I may say provided vigorous exercise such as dance, gymnastics and much else.
Even the ability to play sport has been reduced. Formerly, the minimum requirement for playing-field space was set according to the number of pupils in the school. Now the requirement is for schools to provide “adequate sport space”, whatever that might be deemed to mean. Not only are the Government reneging on the pledge to create a new sporting nation, they are ignoring, as others have said today, all the health benefits that sport can provide, especially at the grassroots level. Good practice when learnt young can carry on throughout life and, as has already been said, obesity continues unchallenged in our schools. More savage cuts to sport came through the decision to end swimming for the under-16s and for the over-60s. At the same time, the Government cut crucial funding to national sporting bodies such as Sport England and UK Sport, which have had a 33% and 28% reduction respectively. These are the very people who enable grass roots and community sport to take place.
National governing bodies have also been hit. Their budget has been cut by 15%. These are the bodies responsible for introducing their sport to the widest possible audience, including cricket, rugby, gymnastics—in fact there are 46 bodies doing sterling work. However, this is clearly not appreciated by the Government.
This dismal catalogue of the Government’s failure—which will be felt for generations to come—is not the end of the story. Where are their positive ideas, the innovations that will produce better use of existing facilities, equal opportunities and willing and competent volunteers who want to help sport in so many ways? The Olympics and Paralympics showed the nation the stunning contribution made by volunteers. This is not new. Generations of parents and volunteers have been running our clubs, coaching, painting the changing rooms and a host of other activities. Without them our clubs would cease to exist. What we saw last year was a new layer of volunteers wanting to be involved, perhaps for the first time.
What incentives and new areas have the Government created? Simply none. I have spoken before in this Chamber about Tennis for Free, a charity which uses fully qualified volunteers as coaches on public courts in our parks, which exist in virtually every town and village. No charges are made for those who take part and it is incredibly successful. Youngsters who may never be able to join a club flourish in this scheme. The model is hugely successful. What happens in tennis could easily be replicated in a host of other sports. Public parks should be the centre of people’s sport and, with minimal government support, this could and should happen.
Most of our sports clubs are members clubs run by volunteers. However, despite the crucial part they play they have been badly let down by planning regulations. If clubs are to flourish they must be able to improve, for instance, floodlights, club facilities and playing surfaces. They are frequently thwarted by the objections of neighbours—we call them nimbys—and their applications, despite being recommended by planning officers, are often turned down. Minor changes to planning guidance would prevent this happening and should be a part of the Government’s plans for the future.
There is still far too little dual use for schools and colleges to open up their facilities, and yet this, too, does not appear in the Government’s programme. These are just a few of the measures that the Government could adopt to help us fulfil the legacy as promised, but all we have from them is negative and reactionary thoughts.
In conclusion, I remind noble Lords that there was, of course, one honourable mention of sport on the day of the Queen’s Speech: the announcement of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. He, I am sure, would understand and agree with all the charges that I have made against the Government today, but then he is not one of them, he is one of us.
Baroness Barker
My Lords, I declare my interests listed in the register. I, too, congratulate the noble Lords who have made such wonderful maiden speeches today.
The noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, in welcoming a maiden speech, resorted to talking about music. I will, too, because Queen’s Speeches, which are debated over several days, with different subjects weaving in and out, always bring to mind Eric Morecambe’s great sketch with André Previn and the moment where he squares up to him and says, “I am playing the right notes but not necessarily in the right order”. That is quite often how these Queen’s Speech debates appear to me.
In times of social hardship and economic uncertainty there are two common political reactions. The first is retrenchment, a harkening back to a previous golden age when things were much more certain. Quite often it involves the scapegoating of minorities and different people. It is a populist strategy but very divisive. The second reaction, which is much more difficult, is to maintain an inclusive world view and to use it to build social cohesion and find new solutions to problems. It is much more difficult but it is what responsible politicians should do.
The gracious Speech should be judged against those criteria and the extent to which they are fulfilled. In his speech last Thursday, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Exeter spoke movingly about the extent to which the Church, the Government and the voluntary sector have a duty to strengthen people’s sense of community, place and identity during times of uncertainty. He is absolutely right.
I always end up speaking on this day during the Queen’s Speech debate and I always think about it as being stuck in the big spending departments. However, today we need to take a radically different approach. I have spent some time reading a number of works by futurologists who have been looking at the future of work. The other week I came across some interesting arguments by two futurologists, Pearson and Maloney, who said:
“As computers get more intelligent, the work that will take over will require human skills like leadership, motivation and compassion”.
As machines manufacture things much more easily, the future of work will change. The important work in the future will be the work that cannot be done by computers. In their list of future jobs they have some interesting examples: vertical farmers; climate controllers, who manage and modify weather patterns; and nano-medics, who create small implants for health monitoring. Also in their list are home carers, who help care for elderly people in their homes.
The future of social care as a stimulant to employment is extremely important and is a different way of looking at the issue. We need to think radically about the future of communities. There are many communities in this country where, now and in the future, health and social care will be the main form of employment. I ask the Minister: does the commitment the Government made in July 2010 to extend social enterprise within health remain, and what progress has been made on it? In some communities, by using legislation such as the social value Act, the extent to which we can create employment around care will be important.
As to the Care Bill, I listened to the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, with some depression. We have come so far together and got so near to building a consensus around what we think should be the future architecture for social care in this country. We now have a Bill that addresses problems that have been outstanding and addressed in every debate on the Queen’s Speech in which I have taken part in this place since 1999. I agree with him that the questions of eligibility and resources are critical. We will never have enough resources to address all the needs that there are but we can, by using this Bill, move a long way towards removing a number of the structural problems that have bedevilled the integration of health and social care for all our lifetimes. It is important that we do that in future to provide services of an acceptable quality and to cut down on some of the inefficiencies, which we know are costly. We must have a social care system that can integrate more easily with health and housing. I hope that the noble Lord and the Opposition will stay with the process of seeing the Care Bill through—at least until the point when we debate eligibility, which I understand is due to be in late June. I think that a lot of people who are involved with voluntary organisations, and among the general public, would not appreciate it if the Opposition were to give up on this process now.
I want to address one more health matter and talk briefly about the immigration Bill. I do not know on what basis the Ministry of Justice put together this legislation but I hope it has looked at the evidence of Médecins sans Frontières, which runs a project in London and produced a report in 2008. The organisation sees people from all over the world and noted that their needs are broadly reflective of the conditions seen among the general public. Less than a third required prescriptions. Indeed, the majority just needed help to access primary care or, rather worryingly, antenatal care. They were not turning up in this country asking for expensive surgical procedures to be done for free on the NHS. When we look at this issue, by all means let us ensure that the NHS is not being taken for granted by people who should not be accessing it, but let us not deny healthcare to pregnant women, those who have survived torture, or those who may have communicable diseases. Frankly, that is inhumane and presents a threat to our public health system. We would not be doing our fellow citizens a favour if we were to do that.
We might also look at the work being done at West Middlesex University Hospital, which is close to Heathrow Airport. It has adopted a policy of stabilising people who turn up in A&E and then talking to them quickly about what the cost of their care is likely to be. It has managed to reduce radically the number of people who do not pay for their health services. Let us look at whether the legislation is necessary.
Unfortunately, I will not be taking part in the Children and Families Bill because I have the privilege to lead from these Benches on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, so I shall be rather busy doing that. However, if I were taking part, I would want to address a question that the noble Earl, Lord Howe, and I thought about during consideration of the Adoption and Children Bill and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill: the fact that our birth registration system is becoming increasingly out of date in a world in which families are very different and digital technology is bringing about change. It is not a subject that I can go into at any great length, but I hope to return to it at some point later in the year.
These are tough times. We need to strengthen communities, and we will do that only by looking forward in a radical way, not by looking into the past.
The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, there is much to welcome in the Queen’s Speech. I particularly look forward to the advent of the Children and Families Bill. I welcome the attention that the Government have been paying to adoption and I hope that we may be able to encourage them to offer still more support to adoptive families and provide further support for young people leaving care as the Bill makes its journey through your Lordships’ House towards the statute book. I share with the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, her concern that there is no legislation or regulation for the minimum pricing of alcohol or for blank packaging on cigarettes. I am concerned in particular that many of the children who are taken into care come from backgrounds where alcohol misuse was a contributing factor to family dysfunction. It would be helpful if alcohol was less available to young people so that they would be less likely to start the bad habits which persist when they start their families.
I do not wish to tire the patience of your Lordships so I will concentrate on one issue that is of deep concern to some in this House, and which was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, in his remarks. My time will be spent considering the Government’s proposal to introduce the opportunity for early years providers and childminders to increase the ratio of children to carers where the carers can demonstrate improved qualifications. I begin by applauding the Government’s attention to this important policy area. I am particularly pleased that they have chosen to maintain important requirements with regard to the supervision of early years staff and that they have welcomed the report of the Nutbrown review, with its call for higher qualifications for early years staff. The Government have stated that their first priority is better quality childcare; the Education Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Nash, repeated that last week in this House. The Government have also been seeking to make this better quality childcare more affordable for parents.
I hope that I may also pay tribute to the last Government’s attention to childcare. They introduced the first Childcare Act, placing a duty on local authorities to provide a sufficiency of childcare. They invested significantly in developing the workforce, introducing career development pathways and early years professional status. International assessment of the UK’s progress has been very favourable, and there is an encouraging sense of political consensus and commitment to getting this policy right. One of our main aims is to improve outcomes for children. High quality early years care has been clearly demonstrated by the EPPE research project to improve children’s outcomes. Indeed, I have heard the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, speak about this many times. I was very struck by a presentation I attended three years ago by Professor Melhuish of the University of London. The research he produced found that children with a good early years experience would tend to continue to do well in their education at the age of 11 whether they attended a good or an indifferent primary school. Good early experience is a protective factor against poor later educational experience.
The right honourable Iain Duncan Smith MP and the honourable Graham Allen MP have both highlighted that it is the early years when we can break the cycle of disadvantage and put children on a better path because, at that point, their brains are highly malleable. They and the noble Earl, Lord Howe, have referred in the past to the importance of new findings in neurobiology where brain scans can show us how the infant brain is sculpted by the loving relationships around him. At the same time, we have been warned about the impact of prolonged exposure to poor quality early years care by Professor Jay Belsky. He presents the other side of the coin: the harm caused by poor quality care, harm which increases the younger a child is exposed to it and the greater time over which the child is exposed.
I should now like to raise my concerns about the Government’s proposals, and I preface them with some comments on current practice in baby rooms. It is essential that babies feel that their carers are attuned to them, that they feel their carers are keeping them in mind, and that they know their wants will be met. Regulations recognise this and each baby is required to have one or two carers as their key person in the nursery. However, there are challenges to doing this even as things stand. Carers may be working shifts, as may the parents themselves. There may be a high staff turnover. The job is also extremely demanding and the workforce is mostly made up of very young and inexperienced women. In this context, I am very troubled by the Government’s proposal to allow early years providers the choice to increase the number of babies cared for by each carer from three to one to four to one. The Government seek to reassure us by saying that better qualifications will be a prerequisite for increased ratios. It is a matter of regret that the Government chose only to consult on what the qualifications requirement might be rather than if indeed the ratios should be changed. It seems clear to me that the important prerequisite for good-enough baby care is the number of staff. As my mother used to say to the four of us when we were children, she was not an octopus. Staff have only so many arms and eyes, and the overwhelming academic consensus is that, with babies, one needs first a sufficiency of carers. Here I shall quote a literature review from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand entitled, Quality early childhood education for under two year-olds: What should it look like?. It states that,
“the strongest and most consistent predictor of observed positive caregiving in group-based early childhood settings was the adult:child ratio ... caregivers provided more sensitive, frequent and positive care when they were responsible for fewer children ... the optimum ratio for under two year-olds in education and care settings was consistently stated as 1:3”.
The Government seek to reassure us further by looking to France, Germany and Scandinavia. I agree that we should look at best practice from our neighbours but we should, I suggest, do so critically and avoid picking up some of their worst habits. France, for instance, has ratios for babies of five to one. However, according to “The Predicament of Childcare Policy in France: What is at Stake?”, published in volume 19 of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies,
“young children are often cared for by a rotating cast of characters and institutions within the same day. This is particularly so when both parents have non-standard work schedules; when the parent is living alone; or, when there is only one child”.
There is considerable concern about this practice on the continent.
I regret that I am not comforted by the Government’s reassurances. I continue to share the concerns of five of the major childcare providers, of the Early Years Alliance, of Mumsnet and Netmums and, indeed, of the Deputy Prime Minister on this particular topic. I am also uncertain that a change in ratios will produce savings for parents. In a recent editorial, Nursery World drew attention to the many factors contributing to the UK having some of the most expensive provision in the world and suggested that hard-pressed providers may not pass any savings made to parents.
To conclude, I am grateful to the Government for giving childcare this careful attention. I also hope that the Minister might be able to answer two questions. Have the Government looked again at the assessment of the evidence and are they still confident that increasing the number of babies—children aged under two—to carers will not be harmful if it is balanced with a raising of qualifications? What is the Minister’s response to parents’ groups that are concerned about the Government’s proposal? I look forward to the Minister’s response.
Lord Redesdale
My Lords, I start by welcoming the maiden speech of my noble friend Lord Ridley. He is not in his place, but I was most impressed by the fact that his sons spent more time in the Chamber than many other Peers have managed—a number of hours. I welcome him particularly because he is a neighbour of mine in Northumberland. I miss his father, who was a great friend of the red squirrel in Northumberland, an issue we were both passionate about. I also liked his point about being an ex-hereditary, although as an ex-hereditary myself, and now a life Peer, I took a slightly different route to address the House this evening.
I wish to speak on three aspects of the Queen’s Speech, and start by focusing on energy. I have noticed, having taken part in a vast number of debates on Queen’s Speeches over the years, a depressing aspect of this one. Scientists have recently pointed out that we might well have passed 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but this seems to have been completely neglected in many of the speeches about energy. Carbon was a very important issue on all sides of the House, especially for the introduction of the Climate Change Act 2008, which I think the Labour Party has a great deal of credit for introducing. It is very unfortunate that that has been missed.
I welcome the Energy Bill to come, especially when it talks about greening up aspects of energy, but we should not misunderstand the situation that we are facing. The noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, mentioned that we face an energy gap. I declare an interest as the CEO of the Energy Managers Association and the Carbon Management Association, which represent all the energy managers in the country. They are absolutely dumbfounded that politicians fail to understand that we will not have enough power generation to meet our needs in peak demand in a couple of years’ time. At a conference recently, I put up on the board when they thought the first blackouts would be. Out of 2015, 2016 and 2017, 80% said 2015. That is not so good if you live in Reading or Oldham, as those are the places on the grid that are about to drop off first. Blackouts will not hit universally but they will be quite widespread. We have a major issue, the very simple reason being that Governments have failed to build power stations of whatever hue: coal, gas or renewable energy.
I was asked recently why we have not been building power stations. The answer is very simple: for nuclear power stations, which the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, has been pushing for, we are talking about a 50-year planning cycle. You have to get the money, plan it, build it and then decommission it after its run cycle. That could be longer than 50 years. That has to be put to a Parliament that now has a maximum period of five years. The politicians then have to explain their decision to the press, who are running on a 24-hour news cycle, and to an electorate who are worrying about last month’s bills, not where the energy bill is coming from in the next 50 years. That is why we have a massive backlog.
Privatisation has been a bit of a con. We have sweated the assets on power generation and on the distribution grid. To put it in context, a recent report talked about £100 billion being needed. The figures came out anywhere between £100 billion and £800 billion to renew the whole grid, depending on whether you take down all the power cable lines, but they are many years old and we are going to have to eventually. The average figure that the experts came to was about £360 billion. If we were to do that over the next 10 years, to get the grid up to where we believe it should be would mean £36 billion a year, which is about the equivalent of a banking crisis each year for the next 10 years. I see no pot of money put aside to pay for that.
Ofgem’s report on the fact that we have problems and that energy prices are going to go up has nothing to do with environmental costs. Indeed, one of the great myths going around at the moment is that Europe is responsible for us shutting down our power stations. Yes, the emissions objectives are going to bring that forward but the trouble is that most of the power stations are 30 to 40 years old. They are steam-driven power stations with thousands of miles of steam pipes. They have a run-time cycle: after 30 or 40 years you do not have a power station, you have what one engineer described to me as a colander. They are just not efficient enough to run and will have to be scrapped. We are looking at losing about a fifth of our power-generating capacity. This is a problem because we might then have to move. None of the generators, after the experience they have had, will actually build a coal-fired power station, so we will have to go to gas.
We should be careful about another myth, which is that we can get rid of gas from the system. Eight out of 10 homes are on gas and I cannot see many people wanting to change their boiler. The big problem is that we are now going to generate the majority of our power through gas-fired power stations. A gas-fired power station loses about 70% of the fuel up the chimney, just to get you the electricity. We talk about decarbonising the grid by going for electricity when we are actually losing most of the energy in the generation at that point. We should not go down the road of saying there is a silver bullet.
Unfortunately, there are not really many silver bullets in energy generation. We are going to have to build nuclear power stations. I know there are some in this Chamber who will be surprised to see me promoting nuclear after the many years I spent fighting it. When I was energy spokesman for the Liberal Democrats I was asked whether I would take part in some debates on nuclear because they had to have somebody who was going to be against it. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, remembers those debates. My problem with nuclear is that it is not going to provide cheap electricity and is not going to come on until the 2030s anyway—it is not a short-term solution. We have major problems with our energy infrastructure, and politicians have to realise that it is going to be a lottery. Whoever is in power when the first blackouts hit are going to take the blame, not the fact that we have not built power stations for a very long time.
The second aspect is a problem that is linked to that. We have problems with power generation, but we also have a massive problem with the water industry. The water Bill, as far as I am concerned, is a complete load of twaddle. I am sorry, but I find the idea of competition in water incredible. The noble Lord, Lord Freud, said that we are going to sell water and that you will be able to pick your water up from anywhere. Yes, I can go to Newcastle, to Kielder Water or Catcleugh reservoir—I have a private water supply as a damned great pipe runs through my land, although I cannot actually get any of the water out of it—get a bucket from there and bring it down to London, but the energy cost of shifting water is incredibly high.
Ofwat is illiterate. I went to a presentation on competition, which showed a picture of water competition. It was a fantastic map. It showed in yellow where all the bits joined up, and the biggest concentration was around Bristol, south Wales and north Somerset. I said, “Am I the only one to realise that the Bristol Channel runs through there, so you cannot actually link up because there are no pipes between?”. The whole policy is based on that.
The trouble with Ofwat is that it is all about the cost of water now. Have we learnt nothing? I plan to be alive in 20 years’ time. I plan for my children to be alive a lot longer. If we do not do something about resilience now, we are going to be the consumers who pay for this. Yet we have a regulator that fired all its sustainability officers and employed more economists to talk about the cost now. It makes no sense. In the White Paper the Government said that they were minded to consider making sustainability a primary rather than secondary objective for Ofwat. I do not think that anybody around the House thinks that sustainability should be a primary objective, and I certainly will move an amendment to that effect.
Sustainability is one of those words that actually came from international development. It has moved in the political sense and now means carbon and a number of other things. Of course, if you do not have water you die. At a Defra briefing last year, Defra said, “We are going to have hosepipe bans and even more serious issues if we do not have 200% of normal rainfall”. Last summer we had 220% of normal rainfall and everybody said that was fine. We are now seeing groundwater flooding because we have had so much rain. The climate is changing. This is not a question of whether or not you believe in climate change. The evidence over the past 10 years shows that we have a real issue.
I have gone over my time, but as the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, is in his place, I should say that I also welcome the Government’s intention to do something about dangerous dogs. I very much hope that that is an issue we can have some agreement on.
Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top
My Lords, I, too, welcome the maiden speeches. I always welcome people from the north-east, even if they are on the opposite side, and I know the noble Viscount, Lord Ridley, quite well from being a Member of Parliament in the north-east. I was also very interested to hear that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester was born in and has such a close attachment to east Africa. I have a very close attachment to east Africa, so maybe we can have the odd conversation in Kiswahili.
I have a different approach to my speech because I always view the Queen’s Speech as the signal from the Government of their vision for the future and their aspiration for the country. Perhaps it is a bit ambitious to look at this Queen’s Speech from that perspective, but I will have a go and deal with detail when we come to the individual Bills.
The debate yesterday showed that whatever the analysis of how and why the economy is in the state it is, there is a consensus that more needs to be done to get growth. There is also the realisation that for the foreseeable future the country will continue to face economic hardship. I want us to think about what that means for the areas of social policy that we are looking at today.
The post-war settlement on public services and welfare, born out of the Beveridge report, was not just based on economic arguments but sought to look after those who had fought in the Second World War. It was based on the values of decency and on conquering what were then seen, and today would still be seen, as five great evils. Those values essentially spelt out the Britain that people had sacrificed for during the war. Those values are enduring. While the circumstances and context that we are living in have changed, the values are still there.
It is clear that we really need to reform the way in which public services—health, education and welfare—are delivered so that they are relevant to the vast changes in our society. Britain has never been a place where there has been a belief that the market on its own can deliver the values that our society is based on. That is as true now as it was in the 1940s. Our circumstances are very different: women expect to work and are expected to work, and the nature of work is vastly different, with many fewer unskilled workers and many more changes in any working life.
In his speech last week, the Prime Minister said that we are now in a “global race”. Globalisation has brought incredible changes to our society, many of which my parents’ generation—let alone my grandparents’ generation—would not recognise and certainly would not have envisaged. Of course, one is the level of migration around the world, but there is also the recognition in this country that migration—not all of it, but some of it—is critical to our economy and our future, even if some aspects of it give us problems. It is our job to tackle those problems.
To handle this global race, we need not only some immigration but a well educated and trained workforce. We need a healthy workforce. We still need a system that protects people when they are most vulnerable so that they will be able to retrain and re-equip themselves quickly to get back into the workforce. They will inevitably need to do that several times over their working lives, which means that they need to have real confidence in the public services that they rely on: education, training, healthcare and income support in hard times. They need confidence that their children, and increasingly their parents—that is you and I—will have responsive and high-quality services when they need them so that as working people they can continue to play their part in the workforce, the economy and their community.
My concern with the Government’s programme is that it seems more concerned with rhetoric—whether to appease the right wing of the Tory party or UKIP, I am never too sure—than with properly addressing the challenge of reform. Far too often, rhetoric replaces real, necessary reform. We need to reform the way in which public services work in order to see that real change in the relationship between the population and the services that will enable this country to properly play its part in that global race.
I want the Government to do this in a way that upholds the values that make this country what it is, and what in my view makes it great, and to move away from the rhetoric that makes it virtually impossible to achieve that objective: that everyone on benefits is a scrounger, that every immigrant is leeching from our National Health Service or other aspects of our society, that education is not able to deliver. The Secretary of State for Education keeps saying that he is committed to reform, but we have had no plan to tackle the shortage of school places, which is so acute in some areas, and proposals for the curriculum will take us back generations rather than offer a curriculum suited to the 21st century. Reforms in welfare have been overshadowed and in many senses threatened by the rhetoric around “scroungers” and the lack of candour on the part of the Secretary of State about the impact of the changes.
I wish that the Queen’s Speech had tackled the skills and training deficit, but it did not. We have a Bill on social care, which is hugely welcome. I suspect, however, that it is insufficiently radical and does not take us far enough into the real challenges that face us, but we will deal with that when we get the Bill.
The Government have become frightened of talking about reform in health. We had two years where we were supposed to be getting into real reform and real change, but they became worried about that and did not introduce the sort of reforms that would have transformed our health service for the future. The new Secretary of State has now been told, “Do whatever you can to get to the election without mentioning reform”.
Without real and radical reform, the Government will simply end up with cut after cut, so that people will lose confidence in the contribution that public services can make to securing and empowering them for the future. That will bring huge change to this country, change that I believe nobody wants. This is all very difficult, which I suspect is why the Government have simply avoided tackling it in the Queen’s Speech. We will all suffer from that.
Lord McColl of Dulwich
My Lords, I wish to draw attention yet again to the terrible crime of human trafficking and slavery. There are more slaves today than there were 200 years ago. I am pleased that the Victims Minister said recently that the Government’s ambition is to eradicate all forms of slavery, and I would warmly welcome measures in the Session ahead.
One month ago, the deadline passed for the Government to make sure that our laws comply with the EU anti-trafficking directive. Although some very welcome changes have been introduced, I have to say with some reluctance that I am not convinced that the Government have seized this opportunity as they might have done.
One area where there is significant need for greater action is the welfare of trafficked children. The NSPCC recently published statistics demonstrating that nearly 7,900 children went missing from local authority care in 2012, almost 3,000 of whom went missing more than once. The NSPCC highlights the risks that these missing children face, none more so than those who were trafficked. We know that between 2005 and 2010, 301 of the 942 trafficked children who were rescued went missing from care. The Government have admitted to there being problems with the system of data collection, but it is astonishing that the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Nash, was unable to answer my Written Question about how many trafficked children had gone missing from care in 2012 because those data are not recorded separately from those for other missing children. This simply is not good enough if we are really serious about eradicating human trafficking.
I read in the Centre for Social Justice’s report, published in March, about a trafficked child who had been rescued and was later in foster care. One day, the boy went missing when he was supposed to be at his English lessons. The boy was missing for several months until, thankfully, he was found again in a different part of the country, having been trafficked again. After he was rescued for a second time, his foster carer asked him what had happened. He told her that his traffickers had been ringing him on his mobile phone telling him to meet them on the corner of the street. He had been terrified, so did as he was told.
Stories such as this demonstrate that children who have been trafficked are in desperate need of special care due to the particular dangers that they face. Last September, GRETA, the treaty monitoring body for the Council of Europe anti-trafficking convention, published its first report on the UK’s compliance with the convention, which I commend to your Lordships. Among its recommendations, GRETA urged the British authorities to take steps to address this very problem.
In closing, perhaps I may remind your Lordships’ House of our deliberations on the Protection of Freedoms Bill in February 2012. During that debate, I highlighted the problems which rescued trafficked children face, particularly the large number of rescued trafficked children who are lost while in local authority care. I put forward an amendment to provide for a legal advocate for trafficked children to accompany, support and advocate for a child victim from the moment he or she is discovered. On that occasion, I withdrew my proposed amendment in the light of assurances from the Minister that our care for trafficked children would be examined. I welcome the research into the practical care arrangements for trafficked children that has been commissioned by the Refugee Council and the Children’s Society and eagerly await publication of the review, which is due next month. The Minister can be confident that I will be reading it very carefully and looking to the Government to respond, taking appropriately robust action in this Session of Parliament.
Baroness Massey of Darwen
My Lords, I hope that the words of the noble Lord, Lord McColl, will not be forgotten; I greatly support him.
I shall speak today about children and young people and education. I will suggest that a strategy for youth is long overdue. Such a strategy would involve uniting elements of young people’s health, education, employment and other services. I am pleased that the noble Earl, Lord Howe, is to respond to this debate—somehow, for it is an unenviable task—because I think that he genuinely understands the importance of structures and systems working together.
The gracious Speech last week referred to the Government’s commitment to a fairer society where aspiration and responsibility are rewarded, to giving every child the best start in life regardless of background, to improving the quality of education and bringing forward plans for a new national curriculum, to helping working parents with childcare, and to encouraging those leaving school to go on to further education or into training.
On further education and training, a recent UNICEF report comparing child well-being across 29 richer countries highlighted that the UK has the lowest further education participation rate in the advanced world—I declare an interest as a trustee of UNICEF UK. It is clear that an emphasis on FE and training for young people must be a priority and I hope that it will be. The Children and Families Bill, which will be with this House shortly, covers a vast range of issues concerned with child well-being. I look forward to debating those and sharing perceptions on that Bill across this very knowledgeable House.
Today, I shall touch on issues of curriculum and education. Curriculum and education are of course not the same. Education is about fostering a love of learning and ambition, while the curriculum is a list of topics. I was a teacher myself once; I taught modern foreign languages. I am all for high academic standards, but I would also want to foster curiosity in young people, to encourage personal awareness and skills and to encourage discussion of religion and cultural values. I would want to give opportunities for young people’s sporting and artistic talents. I share the concerns of my noble friend Lady Billingham about the dangerous inroads being made into sport for young people. Having said that, I applaud the Lord’s Taverners’ Chance to Shine initiative, which continues to flourish.
I am also acutely aware that some young people need security and confidence in themselves before they can learn. I was interested to see the Youth Parliament announce earlier this month a campaign to support what it called preparation for life. It is after all made up of people experiencing education. It said that the focus of the proposed change in education is mainly within academic subjects—the curriculum again—at the expense of other skills essential for life. The Youth Parliament asserts that young people need to know about communities, politics, finance, sex and relationships, and cultural diversity and that it is not enough to expect parents to provide this knowledge; it must be taught in schools. I agree with that.
These skills need not be curriculum subjects in their own right, but they must be offered in school policies and the school ethos: in assemblies, in relationships within and outside the school and across subjects in the school. Such skills must be incorporated into certain subjects. They may also be offered by specialists—not necessarily teachers—in the school, as sessions in the timetable. They may include issues such as volunteering, local and national politics, how the police and other services work, and so on. Information must of course be appropriate to the age of the child and must not be one-off. Just one assembly on drugs is certainly not enough, for example. The different phases of growing up demand different content and approaches. It is interesting that the soft skills, as they are called, are also appreciated by the CBI and employers, who want their workforce to be able to act in teams and be good communicators—a long way away from a rigid curriculum.
A new report by Ofsted evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of personal, social and health education in primary and secondary schools in England. I want to dwell on that for a few minutes. Ofsted expressed concern that sex and relationships education,
“required improvement in over a third of schools, leaving some children and young people unprepared for the physical and emotional changes they will experience during puberty, and later when they grow up and form adult relationships”.
Ofsted was also concerned that such a lack of sex and relationships education might leave young people,
“vulnerable to inappropriate sexual behaviours and exploitation”.
We cannot forget nowadays the problems as well as the wonders of the internet and its influence on young people. Young people must not be left uninformed and without the confidence and skills to recognise exploitation. Of course, they are also susceptible to alcohol and drug misuse, which was spoken of earlier. Again, they need the knowledge and skills to combat inappropriate risk taking.
The Ofsted report also quotes a significant DfE research report stating that children with higher levels of emotional, behavioural, social and school well-being have higher levels of academic achievement. I for one am not at all surprised by that, so I hope that the Government will make it clear that these issues—these soft skills—are important and must be taught in schools. If they are not, children might be deprived of vital information and the skills to protect themselves.
I said at the beginning that I would make a plea for a government strategy on youth that involved young people in its development. That would be a wonderful opportunity to prove that dialogue works. Such a strategy for youth might include issues around guaranteed services for young people—for example, health and education; it might include guarantees of the availability of sport and leisure, including the arts; it might flag up the rights and responsibilities of young people as citizens; and it might encourage engagement in the political process. I maintain that young people are special and that too often they are demonised when we all know of wonderful, kind, positive young people. They should be given a prominent voice in decisions about their own welfare. They clearly can and want to be involved. Perhaps the Government can take a lead in engaging young people in developing such a strategy. Perhaps then education and involvement in the institutions of our society, such as politics, would become more meaningful.
Lord Stoneham of Droxford
My Lords, I will speak about those aspects of the gracious Speech that support people saving for retirement and the important ongoing reform of state pension provision. Obviously, the focus of the coalition is to get the British economy back on an even keel, but we should not forget the important social reforms that it has undertaken, and those in the pension field are, in my view, outstanding.
Most of the pension objectives set out in the coalition agreement have been implemented: the triple lock for state pension enhancements; the review of the sustainability of public service pensions, which has largely been agreed; the raising of the state pension retirement age and the phasing out of the default retirement age; and the launch of auto-enrolment. Most of these policies were derived from the implementation of the pensions commission’s recommendations, initiated by the previous Government. The gracious Speech brings forward further reforms: a new single-tier state pension to simplify and create a fairer system designed to encourage more retirement saving; the increase of the pension age to 67 in 2026-28 and the formalisation of a permanent system for reviewing the retirement age in future; the reform of bereavement benefits; and the automatic transfer of smaller pension pots.
These are important reforms and they have benefited from the continuity and determination of our work and pensions ministerial team: Iain Duncan Smith, my noble friend Lord Freud and Steve Webb. It must be significant that they have been together for three years. They have apparently resisted efforts to break them up and are now getting into their stride, concentrating not just on getting legislation through but tackling the central importance of delivery on pensions and welfare generally in the second half of the coalition Government. I have been reading Jack Straw’s autobiography; I always like to understand how admirers of Liberal Democrats work and think. One of the examples he gives of not-so-good government is that the previous Government, in one nine-year period, had nine Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions. The coalition has learnt that lesson in the interests of better government, just as the Liberal Democrats have learnt the importance of discipline in coalition.
I agreed with every word that the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, said on the single-tier state pension and social care. Fixing the single-tier state pension at the level for means-tested benefits will greatly simplify pension provision and end a system whereby 46% of pensioners currently rely on means-tested benefits while 33% of those entitled to claim do not do so. It also recognises the huge problem we have with pension saving and the incentives to save. In 2011, 30% of 35 to 64 year-olds made no pension provision. Activists in pension schemes fell from 12 million in 1967 to 8.2 million in 2011. It is therefore essential that the new single-tier pension will complement the auto-enrolment reform that is being phased in.
There will be transitional difficulties with the ending of contracting out, especially with the imposition of particular costs on defined benefit schemes. Legislation must provide for a statutory override that supports private sector employers coping with these problems. Steve Webb has clearly convinced the Prime Minister of his concerns. We should have confidence in his ability to guide us through these difficulties.
I was less in agreement with the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, on her view that seems to resist the further raising of the state pension age. Some 33% of children born in 2012 are expected to live to 100. By all predictions, at least 95,000 of those reaching 65 this year will celebrate their 100th birthday in 2048. Longevity and active living are increasing. I agree with the noble Baroness that, in making decisions on raising the state pension age, we should consider the quality of retirement as well as its length, and also the social inequalities that arise in retirement. We need a formal process to arrive at consensus about what is the right and appropriate state pension age. I believe that that is what the Government are seeking to do.
It is also important that pension reform must lead us to encourage the easy transfer of small pension pots between pension schemes, but we must ensure that people are not transferring their pension pots to poorer providers. Now that these key reforms are coming into place, we need to concentrate on the protection of individual pension provision and the paramount need to maintain consumer confidence in investors and saving institutions. There remains strong cynicism and an enormous lack of understanding about costs and investment risk. This area has to be regulated and reformed to encourage more saving.
I hope that the Government and the regulators will look again at the whole concept of fiduciary duties of investors to ensure that they act only in the best interests of pension clients. We will need a culture of trust, confidence and respect in pension management. That must recognise that more people will be dependent on contract-based pension schemes, rather than of those such as NEST, which have had trustee basis for their governance. We have to continue to anticipate these problems so that our worst fears are never realised.
Baroness Drake
My Lords, I am pleased to follow the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, and to comment on the Government’s commitment to people who save for retirement and to create a single-tier pension. People save for their retirement through the compulsory national insurance system, through auto-enrolment into workplace pensions and through an active decision voluntarily to save more than is delivered by auto-enrolment. Achieving a sustainable and fair pension system that delivers desirable outcomes for people requires a holistic approach across both the state and the private pension system.
The Government’s single-tier pension reforms are evolutionary, in that they continue at a faster rate than reforms commenced by the previous Labour Government in 2010. They will certainly deliver a higher state pension sooner for many women and carers and those on lower incomes. That is surely to be welcomed.
The state pension will always form a greater part of the retirement income of carers, who, as a consequence of their caring responsibilities, will spend longer periods out of the labour market or participate for fewer hours. It is regrettable, therefore, that the Government continue to exclude an ever-growing number of part-time working women from the benefits of auto-enrolment into a private pension.
Pensions are very long-term, and it is important that there is a consensus across the political spectrum about the long-term intention for pension policy. Otherwise, we will simply revert to the mistakes of the past, when successive Governments over decades took incremental decisions which contributed to an increasing dependency on means-tested benefits and to the huge decline in private pension savings, which can be seen from the early 1980s.
The single-tier pension will mean winners and losers, as changes normally do. It will be important when we consider the Bill fully to understand those trade-offs and whether, for the losers, the loss is fair and proportionate. The introduction of the single-tier pension is intended to strengthen the firm foundation for private pension savings and reduce reliance on means-tested benefits. Both are desirable, but a single-tier pension does not of itself achieve those intentions, as was acknowledged by the Government in their report, The Single Tier Pension: A Simple Foundation for Savings, which states that the starting level and uprating for the single-tier pension will have significant implications for what can be asserted about gainers and losers. The state pension must hold its value against earnings over the long term if ordinary people are to have a realistic prospect of achieving a reasonable replacement income in retirement.
Increasing the state pension age in the face of increasing life expectancy is part of a sustainable pension system. Reports from the Government Actuary on trends in life expectancy will inform the Government’s view of that age, but it is less clear how much importance will be given to the report of the independent panel reviewing additional factors such as socioeconomic differences in morbidity and mortality. Those are matters of considerable significance when setting public policy. As my noble friend Lady Hollis powerfully articulated, it would be most unfair to ignore them.
As to private pensions, there are some most welcome actions proposed by the Government, such as banning consultancy charges for auto-enrolment schemes, tackling charges generally and the abolition of short service refunds. With auto-enrolment, pension policy cannot rely on caveat emptor. Auto-enrolment is predicated on the behavioural insight that, for many people, improved information will not overcome the inertia that prevents their actively choosing to save for a pension. Furthermore, the pension chosen for auto-enrolment is a decision made by the employer, not the worker. A consequence of using inertia to raise pension saving levels—that is to say, not relying on people actively to choose to save—is that ordinary savers will have even less power and influence over the operation of that market. Therefore, it is welcome to see the Government indicating a greater willingness to set minimum standards.
There are many regulators in the private pension space—the FCA, the OFT, the TPR and the DWP—and the Government may not want to change the organisational architecture, but the need for enhanced co-operation between them is essential. The FSA’s proposals to allow employers to negotiate consultancy charges with their advisers and for those to be deducted from their employees’ pension costs were clearly not in savers’ interests and did not sit well with the messages coming from the pensions regulator. In workplace pensions offered by insurance companies, there remain significant governance challenges. No single regulator or government department has responsibility for ensuring that contract-based schemes provide value for money and a high standard of governance. Too much reliance on disclosure of information will not produce those. The majority of savers will struggle to process and act on the information provided, and the overwhelming majority will not make active decisions but end up in the default fund.
I hope that the Government will be brave and use their powers under the Pensions Acts 2008 and 2011 to set up more highly specified minimum quality requirements. I accept that it is reassuring that the Government have already announced their intention to consult on the OFT findings on the working of the pensions market, to be published later this year.
Finally, defined benefit pension provision in the private sector is, for the most part, in managed decline. The new duty on the pensions regulator to minimise any adverse impact on the sustainable growth of an employer raises concerns. The setting of prudent discount rates, for example, remains a key battleground—I make no apology for using that phrase—between trustees and employers. Trustees have to give proper consideration when setting deficit recovery plans. There is real tension between the very long-term funding requirements of a defined benefit pension scheme, the importance of the employer covenant being good for the funding of that scheme for decades to come, and the five-year horizon that many companies work to when making corporate decisions. The cases of Nortel and Lehman Brothers, going through the Supreme Court at the moment, are good case studies of such tension.
Lord Northbourne
My Lords, as my contribution is relatively brief, perhaps I may take half a minute to say how much I agree with the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, who, alas, is not in his place at the moment, on the importance of early years—the first two years of a child’s life—and the influence that that can have on the whole of the rest of the child’s life. It will also become apparent as I say my little piece that I closely agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, who, alas, is also not in her place. These things will happen.
The gracious Speech looks forward to further development of the Government’s policy on education. During the past year, major changes have been made to education policy and much more emphasis has rightly been placed on the basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy. Perhaps more importantly, a new and much more prescriptive national curriculum has now been introduced and will effectively be mandatory in all maintained schools. However, for all other subjects and for all extra-curricular activities in a school, it will be up to the school, its head and the governing body to decide the school’s priorities.
The Secretary of State, who I greatly admire, is rightly searching for greater rigour in teaching the basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy. This makes absolute sense. I can also see that there is a case for a new and compulsory national curriculum but I fear that the Government’s proposals for it may give rise to some unintended and undesirable consequences. My first concern is that there is a real danger that in some schools the compulsory and more demanding new curriculum may crowd out other facets of education. My second is about the possible effect of a more demanding curriculum on the self-esteem and self-confidence of less academically talented children.
On the first point, each school’s resources are finite in terms of both finance and well qualified staff. Each maintained school has the same per capita payment for every pupil on its roll, plus a further payment for every child from a disadvantaged background. This additional payment has, I am happy to say, recently been raised from £400 to £600 a year. However, there is a real danger that schools will decide that they have no option but to spend what it takes to deliver the new national curriculum—and then, if there is not much left, that is just too bad. I am particularly concerned that this may happen in schools with a high proportion of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Inevitably, some of those children—perhaps many—will take far longer to learn the new compulsory national curriculum than children from more supportive families. I very much doubt whether the £600 bonus per child for disadvantaged children will be anything like enough to cover the extra cost of bringing children from a disadvantaged background up to speed on the proposed new academic curriculum, let alone leaving much over for all the other important subjects about which the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, spoke: drama, sport, the PSHE curriculum, citizenship and personal and social skills.
My second concern relates to self-confidence. One of the most important roles of schooling, particularly in a society where so many families are dysfunctional, is to build each child’s sense of self-worth. In a report three years ago, Ofsted looked at two groups of schools that it had rated “outstanding” in spite of being located in very disadvantaged communities. Importantly, Ofsted, which was looking for what was common to all those schools, found that among them a brilliant headmaster was important, as were dedicated staff, but what particularly interested me was that in each of those schools, every child believed that they could succeed. Self-confidence is an essential building block for a child’s success, in school and in life. I fear that the national curriculum may be a disaster for some children, if it means that they have to be set academic hurdles at which they are not able to succeed.
Lord Touhig
My Lords, I wish to confine my remarks to social care support, particularly for people with autism. A commission on autism and ageing on which I served, and which was chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, was told that most people with autism in this country are adults and that most are undiagnosed. Autism was identified in the 1940s and the first generation to be diagnosed is therefore now moving into old age. As a consequence, very little is known about the impact of autism on ageing, and vice versa, but we know that autism is not rare. It is estimated that 1% of the population have an autism spectrum disorder, while some 70% of those diagnosed are not receiving the help that they need from social services.
Far too many adults with autism are still waiting for the everyday support that they need, so the purpose of the commission of the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, is to build on the work of the National Autistic Society and advise on the policy changes required to ensure that people with autism can access the right support as they get older and that they have equal access to older people’s services. Here, I should declare an interest as a vice-president of the National Autistic Society.
The society’s research shows that local authorities often do not identify adults with autism living in their area and do not plan and commission services to meet their needs. As a result, many fall into the gap between mental health services and learning disability services. Too often, people with autism find that they do not fit into existing structures. I am reminded that, in my 20 years as a councillor, too often when I took up a case on behalf of a constituent I would be told by an official, “Sorry, councillor, he/she falls through the net”. But who created the net? Well, we did—councillors, parliamentarians and the Government. We created the net that so many people fall through.
This year, however, there are two major opportunities to begin to change this. First, the Government are reviewing the adult autism strategy. This is a chance to assess progress on implementing the strategy so far and to identify and remove barriers preventing the much needed transformation of services to support adults with autism. Secondly, in the Queen’s Speech we have the Care Bill, which promises a fairer system for adults with disabilities. It is a good start, but it, too, can be improved. This Care Bill is important, as it relates to social care laws for adults and will provide the framework for adult care and support services in the future. I hope that the Bill will ensure that the duties covered by the statutory guidance in the Autism Act continue to apply to local authorities and the National Health Service.
Social care must no longer be a service of last resort. Under the current system, too many people become eligible for support only when their needs become acute and they require intensive, high-level care and crisis management. Research by the National Autistic Society shows that only 10% of people with autism receive social skills training, yet 55% would like to receive it; that only 10% of people with autism receive employment support, but 53% would like to receive it; and that just 17% of people with autism have access to a social group, yet 42% would like to. Many adults with autism would benefit greatly from low-level services such as befriending or social skills training, which would help them to avoid isolation and allow them to participate in society. A lack of access to these services can have a devastating impact. A third of adults with autism who responded to a National Autistic Society survey said that they had developed serious mental health problems as a result of lack of support.
Crucially, evidence from the National Audit Office shows that providing low-level services is cost-effective and prevents people from developing more complex problems. Its report stated:
“Beside the negative impact of such crises on a person’s life, acute services are also expensive, with inpatient mental health care costing between £200 and £300 per day”.
I want the Care Bill to guarantee that local authorities are under a duty to identify people with low-level needs to prevent and delay further needs accruing. They must also be held accountable for the exercise of these duties.
Many adults with autism are not eligible for support under the current system, leaving their needs unmet. The National Autistic Society, as a local service provider, knows that community care assessments can vary depending on where you live and on who assesses you. I therefore welcome the Government’s proposal to introduce national minimum eligibility criteria so that people will be assessed on the same set of criteria across the country. However, in order for the new system to be fair for people with autism, the Government must ensure that social and communication needs are given equal weight to physical needs in the eligibility assessment. The new eligibility threshold must be equivalent to moderate needs under the current system. This is essential if the Government are to succeed in their stated aim to prevent or delay care needs developing and to support people when they need care. Better we do that than intervene only at crisis point.
The National Autistic Society, Scope, Mencap, Leonard Cheshire Disability and Sense have produced a joint report, supported by economic modelling by Deloitte, which shows the cost savings that can be made by investing in support for people with moderate needs. Many people with autism can make a valuable contribution to the workplace, but they must be supported to do so. This can mean full-time or part-time employment, supported employment, internships or work experience. At present, far too many people with autism are missing out on the opportunity to fulfil their ambition and potential, while society is missing out on their talents. Just 15% of people with autism are in full-time employment. Furthermore, 26% of graduates with autism are unemployed, which is by far the highest rate of any disability group. As many as 79% of people with autism on unemployment benefits say that they want to work but need support to retain full-time employment.
We cannot change these things overnight, but the figures that I have given show just how far we have yet to travel. Indeed, we have a great opportunity to start to make a difference so that people who are disadvantaged in the way that people with autism are disadvantaged can enjoy the opportunities that those of us in this House have enjoyed throughout our lives and, indeed, the opportunities that most people in this country take for granted.
Let no one believe that the Care Bill is the light at the end of the tunnel. It is not that but, coupled with the Autism Act, it is our chance at least to see the tunnel entrance. I hope that, through the Care Bill, we will establish ways in which people with autism can enter and remain in employment. I hope that the Government will be open to working with noble Lords on all sides of the House to make sure that the Care Bill succeeds, but I also hope that the Government are open to helping to make it a better Bill, which I am sure the contribution of noble Lords across the House will do.
Lord Colwyn
My Lords, among the many briefs that I received before and after the gracious Speech, there is one from the BMA indicating its initial response to a number of proposals in the Queen’s Speech that impact on health and healthcare. While welcoming the Care Bill, which has been promised for some time, I am not sure whether the House would have tolerated any more healthcare legislation. However, I am aware of the recent statements in the popular press claiming that soaring charges have caused a fifth of people to give up going to their dentist, that as many as 500,000 patients have been wrongly told they must pay privately for treatment, and that the surge in the sales of dental kits in pharmacies is risking 200,000 DIY dentists harming themselves. I do not recognise these problems, but they must be addressed. I hope that your Lordships will allow some brief comments about the current general dental services, which provide free treatment for all children and nearly one-third of adult patients and have enabled 1.25 million more people to see an NHS dentist than in May 2010.
Having worked as a dental surgeon for more than 40 years, and declaring that interest, I welcome the progress that the Government have made in piloting a new NHS dental contract in line with the undertaking that was given in the coalition agreement. September 2011 saw the beginning of piloting of a new contract, based on registration, capitation and quality, with a focus on the quality of clinical outcomes and on promoting a preventive approach to oral health. Seventy practices were involved.
Building on this work, the Government recently embarked on a further stage of piloting, involving a larger number of dental practices. There are now 98 practices taking part, testing how the different elements of a proposed contract can work together most effectively to deliver the Department of Health’s goals of improved access to dental services and improved oral health. So far, the feedback from staff and patients taking part in the pilots has been largely positive, and I hope that it will not be too much longer before the department is in a position to begin discussions with the profession on the details of the new contact. I commend the Government for taking the time to get these reforms right.
These reforms have transformed the commissioning of dental services. Although dentists have been largely supportive of the shift to central commissioning by NHS England, there are concerns that the transition to the new structures has not gone as smoothly as it might. Dentists do not know who to engage with in the 27 NHS England area teams and the teams have yet to develop a consistent approach for working with local dental committees, which are a valuable source of up-to-date local information. Additionally, there is concern that local professional networks are not being allocated the funding necessary to enable them to provide the detailed clinical advice that NHS England’s dental commissioners will require from them. There are also worries that currently Public Health England has an insufficient number of consultants in dental public health to deliver on the aims set out in the public health outcomes framework. All of these teething troubles will need to be addressed if the Government want the NHS reforms to deliver real improvements to the population’s oral health.
At the end of last month, it was announced that NHS England is setting up a task group to look at how to improve dental services and outcomes for hard-to-reach groups. This is a very welcome initiative. The British Dental Association recently published a report on the future of salaried primary dental care services, the part of the NHS that provides dental care to special care patients who present challenges that can prevent them being treated in general practice. This report highlighted a series of issues, including a lack of funding, inadequate provision of facilities and a predicted increase in demand for this service, which will need to be overcome if the needs of these patients are to continue to be met. I hope that this is one of the issues that NHS England will be able to address as a matter of urgency, perhaps through the new task group.
Recent changes to decontamination requirements have also been welcomed by dentists. The new requirements, which include an extension to the shelf life of wrapped instruments, will continue to ensure patient safety while making more reasonable demands of dental practices. Dentists have also welcomed the Department of Health’s recent confirmation that a full review of the guidance will take place by the end of 2014, and I hope that the Minister will soon be in a position to say when this review is going to commence.
I would like to draw the Minister’s attention to the ongoing issue of the annual shortage of foundation training places for UK dental graduates. I appreciate that this is an extremely difficult issue to resolve, but it cannot be right that this year 185 applicants, many of whom will have studied in UK dental schools at a cost to the public purse in the region of £155,000 each, will have to endure months of anxiety that their career in dentistry is over before it has even started on account of there being insufficient foundation training places available. Without this training, it will not be possible for any of these students to take up jobs providing NHS dentistry after they graduate. I know that the Minister will do all he can for each of these students, and I expect that places will be found for many of them in the coming months. I hope that it will also be possible to find a long-term solution to this issue, so that future dental students will be spared deep uncertainty at a time when all of their attention should be focused on doing as well as possible in their final exams.
In conclusion, I shall make some comments on the statutory regulation of the practitioners of herbal medicine which was briefly discussed in Grand Committee on 24 April in a Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Recently two herbalists working in the Prime Minister’s constituency wrote to ask whether he would,
“kindly intercede on our behalf with the Department of Health to find out what is happening with our promised statutory regulation”.
His reply stated that,
“the Department of Health expects to consult on draft legislation to establish a statutory register of people who are authorised to supply unlicensed herbal medicines and for legislation to be in place by 2013”.
After a series of consultations, the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, announced in February 2011 that he had decided to ask the Health and Care Professions Council to establish a statutory register for practitioners supplying unlicensed herbal medicines. Nothing has happened.
It is rumoured that the Minister now concerned with this regulation, Dr Dan Poulter, is set on making an announcement on regulation without properly consulting representatives from the herbal medicines profession, who now believe that the 2011 decision is about to be reversed. The move to statutory regulation has been endorsed by the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, by two Department of Health-sponsored steering groups under independent chairs and by the overwhelming majority of the public, who responded in huge numbers to two public consultations. My noble friend has been very helpful with meetings, letters and general advice. I hope that he will be able to update noble Lords on the current situation and confirm that representatives from his department will do all they can to meet in order to discuss and enable this long-promised legislation.
Lord MacKenzie of Culkein
My Lords, I had intended to speak on the draft care and support Bill and to deal with some of the positives in it, as well as some of the issues in the interface between health and social services. I had also intended to deal with the crisis in A&E departments and, inter alia, to be critical of the absence of Bills on important public health issues such as tobacco and the minimum pricing of alcohol. However, my noble friends Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Lady Wheeler, as well as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, said all I wished to say on that, so I will not take up the time of the House by repeating it, save to say that I agreed with every word.
I will spend a little time on the issue of nurses and nursing. The image of the profession has taken something of a battering in the past few months. As a nurse I am saddened by the adverse publicity arising from Winterbourne View and Mid Staffs, among other places. There have been some shocking, inexcusable examples of bad nursing. I have no time for it; such staff should not be caring for the sick and vulnerable. They have no place in the health and caring services. However, the whole profession should not be made to carry the guilt for a few bad eggs. The opprobrium is not deserved because the vast majority are working their socks off every shift in increasingly difficult circumstances.
The Minister rightly said that,
“what went wrong at Mid Staffs was not typical of our NHS and … the vast majority of doctors and nurses give excellent care day in, day out. We must make sure that the system does not crush the innate sense of decency and compassion that drives people to give their lives to the NHS”.—[Official Report, 26/3/13; col. 968.]
I could not agree more with these sentiments. My hope is that his words will resonate throughout the boardrooms of the service because it is clear that it is all too easy to slip into the sad state of affairs that was clearly evident at Mid Staffordshire.
It is clear from the Francis report that there are issues for nursing. The noble Lord, Lord Willis, said in the introduction to his report, Quality and Compassion: The Future of Nurse Education, that,
“there has been insufficient political or professional will to implement past recommendations”.
However, the big announcement from government was to propose something not recommended in the Francis report: having potential nurses working as healthcare assistants for a year before entering formal education. I cannot see where that idea came from, because there was no criticism of nurse education in Francis. Yet the Government ignored recommendations in the report that a registered specialist status should be created for the nursing care of older people, and ignored the recommendation that HCAs should have compulsory registration. Trusts are to be free to decide whether to have ward sisters spending more time on the ward and nurses more time at the bedside.
Recommendation 209 in the report, on a registration system for healthcare assistants, could not have been stronger. It is supported by most HCAs and is meat and drink to me because it reflects almost exactly the policy of my old union at the time of Project 2000. In supporting the move of nursing education into academia and the ending of the old enrolled nurse training, as it then was, we wanted a new second-level nurse and a fully qualified, accountable service for patients.
That did not happen, but wheels turn full circle and the same debate that we led then is now being rerun. There was an interesting letter to the Times on 24 April from Dr Anthony Carr, a distinguished former Chief Nursing Officer, fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and member of the Cumberlege committee that produce the excellent report, Neighbourhood Nursing, in the 1980s. Dr Carr’s letter chimes with much of our old policy. He first asked a question that deserves to be asked: how many patients today realise that their main nursing care is given by people with little or no training whatever? For HCAs he goes on to propose the solution of a year’s training and practice under the supervision of clinical teachers. He proposes that, if satisfactory, this should lead to a licence to practise, which should be overseen by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. That would give accountability, regulation and a national standard of training.
Piloting such an idea for HCAs would fit far better with the ethos of the Francis report than the fence-sitting, “we have not ruled out regulation and registration” approach taken by the Government. The Camilla Cavendish report is unlikely to go along with regulation and registration because that was not included in her terms of reference. However, I hope that she will still support the idea. She used to write pieces supporting registration, unless my memory is playing tricks.
I go back to the Government’s proposals that aspirant student nurses work for a year as HCAs, and to their spat with the Royal College of Nursing. The college does not need me to defend it. I have never been a member. When I started my nurse training, the college did not admit men into membership, so I joined another union and ended up as its general-secretary many years later. However, much more united these rival organisations for nurses than ever divided us. It is a bit thin, unpleasant and lacking in resonance for the Secretary of State to attack the college in the way that he did because it dared to disagree with the proposal that student nurses should first work as HCAs for a year.
The Secretary of State seeks to use the Francis recommendation about the RCN as a fig leaf. Staff organisations are entitled to give a considered response and to advocate on any proposals made by Governments that will have an effect on nurses and nursing, particularly when they have not been consulted in the first place. For the Department of Health to suggest that the RCN or anyone else who opposes such an idea lacks credibility is nonsense, not least because it appears that the idea of a year as an HCA before entering nurse education is the sort of policy that might have been thought up in front of the metaphorical shaving mirror.
It is not easy to separate professional issues from what might be referred to as pay and rations. It is right that the Royal College and UNISON should ask questions about where the funding will come from for this idea; where the supervision and mentorship are going to come from; where the vacancies are, if any; and whether these people will come within the Agenda for Change pay structure. They are right to point out the risk that they will pick up bad habits and, as we used to put it, the risk of “learning with Nellie”. They are right to ask whether the idea will work at all and whether it will lead to a better nurse than would be the case if the Francis recommendations were taken up instead. Above all, nursing organisations need to be consulted and involved before such announcements are considered or made. Enhancing the status of the profession and looking after pay and conditions can sometimes be separated and sometimes not. As General Secretary of my old union, I set up a professional department for precisely that reason.
I repeat that it cannot be right that the thrust of the problems facing the NHS is laid at the door of the nursing profession. Let us have a proper look at mandatory staffing ratios. Let us get ward sisters back on the ward, taking clinical charge. Let us get student nurses doing what Francis recommended, and find a way to ensure that there is hands-on practice during the three years of university education.
The Government have said some of the right things, post-Francis, on tightening up accountability, duty of candour for providers—although, as many others say, that needs to go further—and introducing the concept of a chief inspector for hospitals. I would like to see that post being held by a nurse, and to see the Government follow through as rapidly as possible in cutting the paperwork burden that nurses endure at the moment. I want to see nurse leaders in trusts responsible and accountable for the delivery of nursing care. They should not have several other portfolios added to their role. And yes—the nursing profession needs to challenge, perhaps more that it has ever done, and to stand on its professional feet. But there has to be a cultural change in the service as well, and Governments, managers and boards have to listen.
In conclusion, I hope that the Government listen and engage with nursing organisations on all these challenges that face the NHS, and in particular that of delivering consistent quality care.
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer
My Lords, I entered your Lordships’ House in 1998, and at the first gracious Speech debate that I attended one word was never uttered—and it was probably not uttered until about 2000. Now it is one of the most commonly used words in political conversations, and one which we ask for if it is missing from legislation. That is the word “sustainable”. Indeed, my noble friend Lord Redesdale referred to it in relation to the water Bill. It can be used carelessly to mean anything from “nice” to “environmental”, or to cloak things in greenwash. But in its true sense it is a vital word to help us to frame legislation. We will certainly need to debate exactly what its definition should be now. With most of the Bills in this Session—certainly the water Bill, the Energy Bill and the legislation on HS2—we will need to consider whether the definition that we explored and put into legislation under the previous Government is still fit for purpose. Luckily, help is at hand to update and redefine the concept, because the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management has just issued a report, Reframing Sustainable Development. That new report should be required reading for all of us before we embark on a debate about what sustainability means with regard to many of the Bills in the gracious Speech.
When the concept of sustainability first came to be widely debated in this Chamber during the passage of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, we talked about it as having three elements. We likened it to a three-legged stool, with social, economic and environmental legs. That was a useful start in the thinking. This Government have made good progress in developing that thinking and deepening the understanding of the interplay between environmental, social and economic factors. For example, they have established the Natural Capital Committee and national ecosystems assessments. But we need to recognise that environmental limits are the ultimate constraint to social and economic development. Much of today’s debate has concentrated on those elements. Indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Donoughue, who is not in his place, made quite a play of ridiculing the environmental aspects, or, as he called them, the “green” aspects. But even he must realise that the planet has finite limits. Indeed, his speech reminded me of the words of Benjamin Disraeli, who said that it is easier to be critical than to be correct. I am sorry that the noble Lord is not in his place, but I shall engage him in conversation about that later.
The report of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management states:
“To be sustainable an action must not lead, or contribute, to depletion of a finite resource or use of a resource exceeding its regeneration rate”.
That definition is going to be very useful as the Government examine the various intensive livestock proposals. If they examine them under a proper definition of sustainable, they will be looking at the whole carbon cycle—and that is just for a start. The intensive livestock proposals are very complex, particularly when you look at the whole carbon cycle. They also involve things such as the disease risks, land use questions, animal welfare issues, and even the nutritional quality of the product. We need to begin government guidance on these issues by thinking about whether our definition of sustainable is fit for purpose.
That is also so with government procurement, and procurement in your Lordships’ Chamber. Many of us in this Chamber have a mobile phone, a computer or a laptop, myself included. We see from the recent report from the Gaia Foundation and Friends of the Earth, Short Circuit, the roll call of the metals and minerals needed to make these gadgets. Many of them are rare minerals, and thousands of hectares of land, forest, pasture and mountain are stripped bare in the search for them. Our gadgets are literally costing the earth. But we need only to demand that they be recycled efficiently, and we can transpose the directives about end-of-life use to see to that, and make sure that they are manufactured in a way that allows this. Then at least there would be something like a 70% reduction in the mining effort to procure the minerals. That is an example of the new way of thinking that we need to adopt on these issues. It is not just all about legislation.
In the time remaining, I want to talk about schools and nutrition in schools. Several noble Lords have mentioned the importance of early years provision. I am very pleased that in the previous Session the Government introduced more guidance on early years nutrition. Therefore, I was outraged to hear in February the head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, belittle school governors for spending far too much time,
“looking at the quality of school lunches”.
He said that many had their priorities wrong and ignored fundamental aspects of education such as teaching standards, student behaviour and school culture and instead spent their time worrying about “marginal” issues such as school lunches. Sir Michael’s comments completely ignore all the research: for example, that of Michèle Belot of Oxford University, work that directly correlates nutrition and higher achievement. Having decent food is the first step in being able to learn. Indeed, Ofsted itself commented in 2010 on the importance of nutrition.
The Government took an immensely important step when they reintroduced cookery to the school curriculum in the previous Session. They recognised the tremendous work of the School Food Trust, now the Children’s Food Trust. I hope that emphasis on the importance of early years nutrition will continue. I hope that my noble friend the Minister will have a word with Sir Michael, who is busy swimming in the wrong direction on this matter.
I was saddened to discover that the Department for Education has just downgraded the gardening and horticulture element of the B.Tech. On the one hand, the Government recognise the future challenges of food production and our position as a world leader in horticultural innovation and practice, yet the Department for Education takes this vicious swipe at the very roots from which this expertise grows. I ask the Government to have a rethink on that. The importance for our future food production cannot be overemphasised. I wish to emphasise the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Plumb, about the importance of well qualified young people going into agriculture.
Lord Smith of Leigh
My Lords, I had intended to speak on welfare or health but on Saturday evening, travelling back north on the M1, I underwent a conversion and decided to speak on culture, specifically sport. I was able to exchange my views on welfare with the Minister during a recent visit to our universal credit pathfinder and my sentiments on health have been adequately expressed by my noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and others.
The power of sport in our society was clearly demonstrated on the very day of the gracious Speech when the media chose not to be dominated by the Government’s legislative programme but by the retirement of a football manager. Mind you, he was the most famous or, in some people’s eyes, the most infamous football manager at the most famous football club in the world.
As many in your Lordships’ House are aware, I am leader of Wigan council and can give another example of the power of sport. When Wigan got through to the FA Cup Final, we were working with the club on a campaign entitled “Believe in Wigan”. That slogan rang true on Saturday evening when Wigan achieved its historic win in its first ever cup final. I want to place on record my appreciation of the work of the chairman of Wigan Athletic, Dave Whelan, and his fellow directors, and of the manager, Roberto Martinez, and the players for a wonderful victory. We believed and we came through. My only regret was that there were no local elections in Wigan this year as I am sure that, if there had been, we would have won even more convincingly than we normally do.
Sport makes a huge contribution to this country which goes far beyond the obvious benefits of the health and well-being of those participating in it. It has a major economic impact. Recent research in Greater Manchester shows that football alone contributes about £333 million to the Greater Manchester economy. Over four years, that is equivalent to the impact of London 2012 on the country, so we can see the effect it has on GVA. The Manchester brand is recognised throughout the world, largely due to Manchester United. The FA Cup Final has an audience of more than 600 million worldwide. Wigan’s appearance in the FA Cup meant that it had access to that audience and we want to try to exploit that.
Sport can also have a big influence on disaffected young people in our society by attracting members of this difficult group to engage with education, health activities and anti-crime initiatives. All professional clubs, certainly the three in my borough—Wigan Athletic and the two Rugby League clubs: Wigan Warriors and Leigh Centurions—all have extensive community programmes which enable young people to get involved in sport. That works very well in deprived parts of the borough.
I commend the work that is done by the voluntary sports sector which provides not just facilities for young people but also creates community capacity. In many of the most difficult parts of Wigan, probably the only community activity that is going on is the local sporting club. These clubs engage with the community and provide facilities. It is heart-warming to see what they do. They work largely with the council but also on their own. We set up a Wigan sports council and it was terrifically successful at gaining funding to improve facilities. We are now trying to work with those communities and the clubs. As austerity means that there will be a very different form of public provision—whether that is right or wrong, we need to accept that not as much provision will be done by public authorities such as local authorities—we need to make sure that people and communities are strong enough to make their own contributions. We will try to use our sporting clubs to get people more healthy and engaged in that, and to tell people that they can do things for themselves and demonstrate it through their sporting clubs.
Although I am sure it was pleasing for the Government to see the increase in participation in sport following 2012, and some 750,000 more people were engaged in sport, we cannot afford to be too complacent, particularly as one of the key target groups, young people between 16 and 25, was actually unchanged. We need not only to sustain the level of increase but—if we are going to match the best-performing countries in Europe—to grow the level of participation in sport.
If we are going to do that, we obviously need to make sure that there are facilities available, and at a reasonable cost and with easy access for those who need to use them. These will be provided by a variety of partners. We need to make sure that the private sector is working in local areas with the voluntary sector, with schools, colleges and, in some cases, universities, and of course with local authorities, to make sure that the facilities are available and can be accessed by young people in particular. In our case, we are looking to see how we can subsidise access by public transport. Clearly you cannot have facilities all over the place, but if you have good facilities you need to ensure that young people can access them, particularly in the evenings.
In many local authorities, including my own, we have to review the provision of facilities and, sadly, some will inevitably close. However, I want the Government to realise that there is a different way of viewing sport. By investing in sport, and in young and old people becoming more active through sport, we can save lots of money in the provision of health, education and other major services because people will become more engaged.
Finally, I remind those noble Lords who are not aware of it that the next big sporting event in Britain will start in 165 days. It is the Rugby League World Cup. In addition to the programme of matches between the 16 countries that are participating in the games there will be a cultural, social and educational programme so that visitors can engage with people beyond the die-hard rugby league fans such as myself. The Government have given great support to the initiative of the Rugby League World Cup and I thank them for that, and obviously I hope that they will maintain their support during the competition. In the previous World Cup, in Australia, we failed to do well in the competition but we managed to win the wheelchair rugby league games. I hope that this year we can do one better and win the real competition.
Baroness Morgan of Drefelin
My Lords, I remind the House of my interests, particularly two non-financial interests: I am a trustee of Lung Cancer Campaign Carmarthenshire and a board member of the National Cancer Research Institute. Like many noble Lords, I congratulate those who made their maiden speeches this evening. It certainly takes me back to the day I made mine, when I talked about occupational lung disease. I am delighted that a Bill was announced in the gracious Speech to tackle the need for compensation for people with mesothelioma.
I will focus on tobacco control, which has been referred to by many noble Lords as a major omission from the gracious Speech. One in four cancer deaths are still thought to be due to smoking. Smoking kills one in two long-term smokers. These are shocking facts. I hope that whether noble Lords support standardised packaging or not, they will agree that it is deeply disturbing to learn that eight in 10 smokers start smoking by the age of 19.
Given this uptake of smoking by young people, we must surely all be united in taking whatever action we can to reduce or even stop the young people of this country from smoking. We must, therefore, consider the role of advertising and the role that promotion may play in drawing young people into smoking. Packaging is part of this.
It is no surprise, perhaps, that packaging is a vital issue to focus on, given the results of the 2012 study funded by Cancer Research UK, which included an audit of the tobacco retail press from January 2009 to June 2011. It found that,
“the level of tobacco packaging activity is increasing. Brands appear to be in a continuous cycle of modernisation through pack redesign. Increasingly, innovative packaging and limited editions draw attention to the product”.
A review commissioned for the standardised packaging consultation concluded that there was,
“strong evidence to support the propositions set out in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control relating to the role of plain packaging in helping to reduce smoking rates; that is, that plain packaging would reduce the attractiveness and appeal of tobacco products, it would increase the noticeability and effectiveness of health warnings and messages, and it would reduce the use of design techniques that may mislead consumers about the harmfulness of tobacco products”.
Given this and our need to prevent millions of children from starting to smoke, we have a responsibility to introduce standardised tobacco packaging as part of a comprehensive strategy to tackle tobacco at local, national and international level.
Therefore, along with many of my colleagues across the health community, I am extremely disappointed that the Government did not include legislation in the gracious Speech. This absence of a Bill inevitably raises the question of the Government’s response to their consultation on standardised packaging. Nine months after the consultation ended, we are still awaiting a response from the Government. Can the Minister confirm that the Secretary of State for Health is still considering how the Government should respond to this consultation?
In the time we have been waiting, Cancer Research UK estimates that more than 150,000 children have started smoking. I call on the Government to respond in favour. We have waited long enough. We know that the Public Health Minister in the other place is convinced by the evidence, and there are many in this House who have voiced their concerns today, including the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, the noble Baronesses, Lady Jolly and Lady Wheeler, my noble friend Lord Hunt, from the opposition Front Bench, and my noble friends Lord MacKenzie and Lord Patel, who have all voiced their concerns and hopes for government action.
Let us take a moment to reflect on the support for standard packs, which is extremely broad. I mentioned the support of the health community. I cannot overstate the extent to which health organisations agree with this measure. Smokefree Action Coalition brings together 190 health and welfare organisations: royal colleges, the British Medical Association, charities such as Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Trading Standards Institute and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. They all support the idea of standard packs.
This issue also resonates with the public. If one shows people examples of existing packs that are clearly aimed at young women, they are horrified. YouGov polling shows that 63% of adults support the removal of branding from cigarette packs, and just 16% are opposed. Some 85% of people back government action to reduce the number of young people who start smoking. In the Government’s consultation more than 200,000 members of the public supported standard packs. These are the supporters of standardised packaging: a majority of the public and more than 190 health and welfare organisations.
Yet their collective voice has at times struggled to be heard over the well organised campaign by the tobacco industry. In 2012, Japan Tobacco International said that it would spend £2 million on adverts arguing against standard packs. To date, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled its claims to be “misleading” and “unsubstantiated”. While the tobacco industry argues that smuggling is increasing and that standard packs will make things worse, HMRC is clear that smuggling has halved in the past decade, and the Trading Standards Institute backs standard packaging, saying that pack design makes no difference to its efforts to tackle smuggling.
The evidence is clear and substantial. A majority of the public, 190 health organisations, the World Health Organisation and many others all support standard packs. The tobacco industry has spent millions on advertising to oppose standardised packaging, which indicates just how much store its sets by pack design.
Like the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, I hope very much that when Her Majesty said in the gracious Speech that other measures will be laid before us, we will see a Bill aimed at stopping children taking up smoking through the introduction of standard cigarette packages.
Lord Gilbert
My Lords, I start by apologising to the whole House for the fact that I was not here at the beginning of yesterday’s debate. The consequences of that, I realise, fall upon Members who are here today, who have to listen to me giving the rant on transport that I was going to give yesterday. Such are the easy rules of protocol of your Lordships’ House that one is able to speak on any subject in the debate on the Loyal Address on any day of the week.
I thought that I would start with Heathrow. Heathrow is a national disgrace. It is not worthy of a third-world country, yet we brag to ourselves about what a splendid airport it is. I have friends in New York who come to London via Charles de Gaulle Airport in order to avoid Heathrow, and I am not in the least bit surprised. There are many such examples. If you arrive at a terminal at Heathrow—I have not counted the number of terminals but this applies to most of them—by private car or taxi and it happens to be raining, you get wet. It is as simple as that. To call that a modern airport is unbelievable. Sometimes with one or two of the terminals—the latest ones—you have to get on a bus to get from your gate to the plane. You would do better than that in Lagos. It really is a scandal, yet we go around shouting our heads off about what a brilliant airport it is.
Of course, this is not the direct responsibility of the Heathrow authorities, but when you leave Heathrow terminal 5 the only road sign you get—if noble Lords do not believe me, they can go and have a look—points to a place called Staines. How many people arriving at Heathrow want to go to Staines? They have never heard of Staines and they do not know where Staines is, but there is nothing else to tell them where to go. That is our prime international focus. It is unbelievable.
Then we have a bunch of idiots who want to put an airport in the middle of the Thames estuary. I have never heard anything more bonkers. It would be right in the middle of the shipping lanes and in the middle of the climate of the Thames estuary, with the catchment areas in northern France and Brussels, and with very doubtful access to emergency services. I cannot imagine a more ridiculous idea. It goes without saying that I think that Heathrow should have four runways, but I would say that, wouldn’t I?
I now want to say something about the railways. I know a little bit about this as—this is probably without the memory of your Lordships—some 40 years ago Harold Wilson made me Minister for Transport. I am so envious of the present Minister for Transport, who is told that he can concentrate on capital expenditure. With all the money that I had, there were a lot of lunatics on the Labour Back Benches telling me to cut bus fares. That is what I was supposed to do with the money I was given. It was not to improve the infrastructure that the country desperately needed, but that is how it was.
The idea of HS2 is absolutely idiotic—another idiotic waste of money. We do not need it. The money would be much better spent on electrifying parts of the network that are not yet electrified. In particular, a huge amount could be spent on modernising the current infrastructure in London and the south-east. A great deal has been spent on extending platforms and signalling, but further electrification would add greatly to the efficiency of the country and to the welfare of people living in this part of the world.
I want to say a word or two about motorways. We pride ourselves on our motorways, but hardly a single motorway reaches a port in this country. I challenge any of your Lordships to tell me which motorways get to ports. Freight and passengers come off a ship and, having gone through a lot of suburban roads, they will get to a motorway. Very few motorways are motorway from start to finish. The M25 has toll structures in the middle of it. That is not a motorway. Some go down to two lanes in each direction. Anyone who does not know that has never driven on the M40. It is an absolute disgrace and dangerous.
I am keen on two other things. One of my predecessors as Transport Minister was the great Fred Mulley. Denis Healey once said he thought that Fred was the most underrated Minister in Whitehall. He may well have been because he was a delightful fellow. Later, after I left transport, I served under him at defence. He loved roundabouts. I hate roundabouts. They are the biggest damned-fool contribution to road congestion in this country. If I had my way, we would replace every God-damn roundabout in sight with grade separation. It would cost a lot of money but this fellow, the Transport Minister, has lots of money for capital improvements. It would speed up the traffic, reduce pollution and add to road safety in this country.
There is one other thing that I did not get around to doing in the 15 months that I was at transport. We should have at least one overhead gantry sign before every turnoff on every motorway. If you do not have them and there is a line of lorries on the inside lane, you do not even see that your exit is coming and you can miss it very easily. There are lots of ways in which sensible money can be spent on the transport infrastructure of this country without wasting it on mad ideas such as airports in the middle of the North Sea or high speed rail and trains that we do not need. I am grateful to noble Lords.
Baroness Walmsley
My Lords, I like roundabouts. They often have flowers on them and are very good reservoirs for wildlife. I shall focus my remarks on the Children and Families Bill that is currently going through another place. I am pleased to say that there are several things to welcome; for example, the improvements in the independence of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. Like Oliver Twist, I always want more, so I will be hoping for a few further improvements. However, generally, the Bill provides a great step forward and one that will allow the Office of the Children’s Commissioner to take its place at last around the table of international children’s ombudspersons.
I also welcome the changes to the arrangements for children with special educational needs, for which we have to thank my honourable friend Sarah Teather, the former Minister of State for Children and Families. Thanks to her, at last we will have a holistic approach to the needs of these children. I know that there are concerns about this and how it will work but I am sure we can sort that out when the Bill comes to your Lordships’ House.
I welcome the parental leave measures and I welcome with caution the changes on the arrangements for adoption but it is a pity that the Government did not take the advice of the Select Committee on Adoption Legislation in relation to racial matching and how soon fostering for adoption can be considered. Those matters will be debated in more detail on Thursday afternoon, so I will keep my powder dry until then.
The main issue on which I shall concentrate is the proposal to change the ratios of adults to children in early-years settings. I think that that is a daft idea. I am a great believer in evidence-based policy and in consultation. I am afraid that there is no evidence that these proposals would result in either an improvement in the welfare of children or in the affordability of childcare. When 95% of the professionals responding to a consultation tell you that you have got it wrong, the Government must pause for thought. Fortunately, my own party leader, the right honourable Nick Clegg, read the consultation responses and took notice. I was delighted with his statement that he is not convinced these proposals should go ahead. I agree and hope that he will stand firm.
The Government report, More great childcare, proposed changing adult to child ratios for babies under two years from one to three to one to four, and for children aged two to three years from one to four to one to six. Of course, some might say, “I had four children and I managed”. Yes, but they were not all under two at the same time. We need to remember that, however well qualified and committed, a child carer has only one pair of eyes and one pair of hands. So to be asked to look after too many children could actually put children in real danger as well as impeding their development.
These changes are counter to research evidence on quality and ratios. The current ratios are not there by accident but for a very good reason. Research for the Department of Education by Munton, Barclay, Ballardo and Barreau in 2002 and research from New Zealand in 2011 indicates the safe and effective ratios and I do not believe that they should be changed. It has been said that Sweden, whose childcare we all admire, has no national ratios. However, it has ratios but these are established locally.
Changing the ratios so that young babies vie with three others for their needs to be met by one practitioner will inevitably mean that many of their attempts at communication through eye contact, babbling and pointing will be missed. Yet evidence tells us that it is the responsiveness of the carer, noticing and responding to these small signs of communication and mirroring the child’s facial expressions, which supports language development.
As we all know, language development is one of the most important factors which must precede learning to read. A confident speaker with a wide vocabulary will become a confident and happy reader, and that will have an enormous impact on his future academic achievement. Research by Wells and Nicholls, Language and Learning: an Interactional Prospective, and significant articles from The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry provide the proof of the importance of interaction with adults in language development. This would be impeded if the ratios were increased. The changes are also counter to evidence and recommendations in the government-commissioned Nutbrown review of 2011. I believe that Professor Nutbrown, among many other professionals, has expressed her concern about the Government’s proposals.
If ratios are revised upwards, babies will find their care needs to be less well met, leaving less time for peaceful cuddles during feeding or for patient coaxing during weaning. Responding quickly to need plays a large part in supporting babies’ development of empathy and self-control. A recent book by Paul Tough, How Children Succeed, brings together evidence from numerous research projects in the United States, one of which shows how important is the touching and cuddling of the baby to brain and social development. This helps the child to develop resilience and the ability to concentrate and persist in a task, all essential for future success. Much of this is, of course, provided by the parents, but when a child is being cared for by somebody else it is very important that this interaction is carried on.
The main reason given for the idea of changing the ratios is to make childcare more affordable for parents. However, we are told that settings will be able to raise the ratios only if they have highly-qualified staff. While I strongly support the aim of increasing the qualifications of staff working in the early years, I cannot see how this would bring the costs down. More highly-qualified staff will want to be more highly paid, thus cancelling out any savings that might have been made by the nursery by taking on more children per adult. It is only right that staff who work to get higher qualifications should expect to be paid more. Otherwise, why would they bother? The sector is not highly paid, so there must be some incentives to train.
Andreas Schleicher of the OECD has been quoted in support of the changes, but what he actually said was that, while staff qualifications are more important than ratios, the research relates to “formal schooling—primary, lower secondary and upper secondary”. But here we are talking about the youngest children who have very different needs. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted, has also been quoted in support of the Government’s proposed changes, but Ofsted has taken no public position on the matter. Sir Michael rightly supports improvements to staff qualifications, but he accepts that the arguments for the youngest children are different.
I know that these changes would be voluntary, but it is clear from the consultation that most parents do not want them either, and I think they will look very carefully at ratios when choosing care for their children. There are other ways of making childcare more affordable while protecting quality and the Government have made a great start with recent announcements about tax relief. The noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, who is not in his place, said that education is a good investment. I agree with him; indeed, I usually do, and today is no exception. But good quality early years education is a particularly good investment, beneficial to the individual and to the economy, and the Government should embrace it. The evidence for this is “sky high”, to quote a Scottish Minister when proposing more Scottish Government investment in the field. Will my noble friend the Minister look kindly on the evidence when the Children and Families Bill comes to your Lordships’ House?
Lord Turnberg
My Lords, the Care Bill represents an important recognition by Government of the need to tackle one of the major problems facing society: how we cope with the growing number of elderly dependent people. The fact is that we are all living longer, and although we are also remaining healthy and active for longer—here I must disagree slightly with my noble friend Lady Hollis; we are extending healthy life for longer, at least for women—we are leaving behind a long tail of unfortunate elderly people who are increasingly disabled with multiple chronic illnesses, many living in poverty, lonely and neglected. It is this growing group that is too frequently admitted to hospital as an emergency when they are tipped over by an acute exacerbation. They stay in hospital for far too long when they would be much safer and certainly better off at home. This is the picture that is painted so clearly in a recent Age Concern publication.
The Bill goes some way to providing help for pensioners themselves in the cap it will put on how much they have to pay for their long-term care. We can argue about how high or low the cap should be, but it is important to recognise that an extra financial burden will be placed on local authorities. Once an individual’s cap is reached it will be up to the local authority to pick up the bill for their care. Yet the local authorities are already under severe constraints and are complaining bitterly about being unable to fund even basic levels of care. The projected shortfalls in the face of increasing demand over the next few years are positively frightening, and I shall return to funding issues in a moment.
The Bill also takes up the challenge of the Francis report and proposes a number of measures to try to reduce the scandal of abuse and neglect. However, in focusing on systems for the detection of bad practice and more punishment of those who offend, the Bill seems to be missing the need to prevent bad practice in the first place. I believe that it would be much more effective in preventing bad behaviour to have someone on the ground at ward level who has responsibility and sufficient clout to ensure that high standards of care are maintained. As I have said in previous debates, that person has to be the sister or charge nurse in charge—really in charge—in a career grade post, not rushing off up the nursing career ladder in a year or so. Here I would echo very much what the noble Lord, Lord MacKenzie of Culkein, said. She or he should be rewarded and given a salary similar to that of a consultant, in recognition of the level of responsibility that she or he carries. These preventive measures are likely to be more effective than simply looking for abuse once it has happened.
One really big problem is how to prevent elderly patients being admitted in the first place, where we have been failing miserably. The Bill talks of the responsibility of local authorities to promote well-being and to prevent the need for care and support but it cannot say how they might do this or where they might find the money. There are many constructive things we could do now, without waiting for government action. It is worth examining what makes so many patients end up in accident and emergency departments. Many turn up with “dizzy do’s” and falls, and yet we could prevent most of those. Poor lighting at home and the absence of handrails or chair-lifts could all be discovered by regular home visits and corrected in a timely way, which may prevent many a fall. We can reduce the incidence of fractures, particularly hip fractures, which have such a big impact on the need for admission, by reducing the prevalence of osteoporosis through screening for it, treatment with calcium and vitamin D, and regular exercise, all at trivial cost compared with hospital admission. Then there are the “blackouts” that are so common. Screening the vulnerable elderly for predisposing causes—cardiac rhythm disorders such as atrial fibrillation, transient ischaemic attacks, epilepsy—and checking for hypertension and diabetes could prevent even more admissions. Far too often, it seems that patients with a diagnosis of dementia turn up in casualty. It is surprising but true that this may be the first time that a diagnosis of dementia is made, despite it being hardly likely that their dementia has suddenly appeared overnight.
All these rather obvious, and you might think straightforward, measures should be taken in primary care with the help of social services. Unfortunately, the regular screening of the vulnerable members of a practice is far from routine. I hope that the noble Earl, who is not here at the moment, will say in summing up whether it is possible to press those in primary care to include such screening. Focusing social and mental health services around GPs will bear dividends, but we need to take more action at that level than we have managed so far. It is particularly needed in poor inner cities, where it is least likely to be available. I was, incidentally, encouraged to hear that the Secretary of State was asking for ideas along those lines. There they are.
That still leaves us with what to do about patients lingering too long in hospital when they should be at home. Here again we have lots of ideas about what to do but seem quite unable to put them into practice in more than a few places, patchily, around the country. Why do all hospitals not appoint an officer whose sole responsibility is to plan for a patient’s discharge from the moment they enter the hospital? Better co-ordination between hospital and social services now occurs in a number of well rehearsed places but we have failed in trying to scale this up. The idea of pooled budgets between the NHS and local authorities is a good one, since it promotes better integration of functions, even though pooling two rather inadequate sources of funds will not provide much of the extra money that is needed.
All these measures can help, but the overriding problem will remain one of trying to provide more care in the community with too little money. Some believe that we should close NHS hospitals and beds to provide the money. Although there may be good service and quality reasons to focus expertise in fewer places—I am all in favour of that—it is a vain and somewhat naive hope that simply closing beds will save much money. To be clear, I am talking here of the 30% of beds occupied by elderly patients who should be at home. Close those, and Bob’s your uncle. However, hospital costs are not simply dependent on bed numbers. They lie much more in the high level of acute care, which is so labour-intensive. It is the high-cost medical and nursing care that severely ill patients need for their investigation and treatment that consumes so much resource. Those services are now so stretched but are hardly used at all for long-stay patients sitting in beds waiting to go home. Closing those beds will save very little, since the hospitals will still be stretched by their acute, high-intensity work. Certainly, discharging patients home quickly is a worthwhile endeavour for the patients but I do not believe that we should be looking for much in the way of savings there.
So where is the money to come from? In his excellent report, the noble Lord, Lord Filkin, pointed quite rightly to the need for the whole Government to respond. We need a combined effort across the whole of government, including housing, transport and work and pensions, and the Treasury and the Cabinet need to consider their overall priorities. Ultimately it is the priority that government as a whole gives to care of the elderly compared with the many other pressures it is under that will count.
Viscount Bridgeman
My Lords, in the short time available to me, I propose to speak about the role of general practitioners, who are regarded widely as the jewel in the crown of the National Health Service.
Your Lordships will be aware that throughout 2012 there were tortuous negotiations with the Department of Health about the GP contract. Agreement was reached at the start of 2013. I intend to touch on one aspect of this agreement today: doctors’ out-of-hours service. Of course, there is no question of GPs going back to the situation before 2003, when doctors in general practice were effectively on call on a 24/7 basis. Since then, a number of arrangements have evolved for dealing with out-of-hours work; some are run by the former primary care trusts, some by co-operatives of GPs and some by independent contractors. With any of these structures there must inevitably be a degree of patient dissatisfaction—perhaps I should say unease—since the patient will not be seen by a member of a GP practice familiar to him or her. This must be accepted and the challenge is to make these out-of-hours services as efficient and patient-friendly as possible.
I am advised that some of the doctors engaged in out-of-hours work will have had no experience of the particular skills it demands during the 10 years that the current out-of-hours regime has been in place. While out-of-hours doctors have to have the minimum qualifications to be a GP, and it is not a speciality as generally understood, nevertheless particular skills are required in assessing acutely unwell people; by the very nature of this work, there will be limited or no documentary back-up. Undoubtedly there are many able practitioners engaged in this work, where they may find the flexibility of out-of-hours work attractive and they may not want the responsibilities of a GP partnership—or indeed simply for the extra money. Nevertheless, it is a widely held view in the profession that there are many doctors in out-of-hours work who would have difficulty getting mainstream GP jobs.
Added to this is the media interest in this subject, including a particularly critical article in the Daily Mail yesterday, which that newspaper has followed up today. Now that responsibility for out-of-hours work has been passed back to GPs, does the Minister envisage an expansion in terms of numbers in the out-of-hours work service? Is he able to confirm that provision has been made for the costs of training? Fundamentally, what degree of monitoring does he envisage for the contractors and the qualifications of their personnel, bearing in mind media reports that cite instances of specialised nurses taking the place of doctors due to shortages of the latter?
I have the privilege of speaking after the noble Lord, Lord MacKenzie of Culkein, who has unrivalled knowledge of the nursing profession. I will address one particular aspect that affects nurses. Attention has been drawn previously in your Lordships’ House to the matter of language testing of nurses from the EU who have the right under the freedom of movement directive to practise in the UK. Significantly, there are different procedures for doctors and nurses. The GMC may register doctors from the EU. It can assure itself inter alia of the candidate’s English skills and only then issue a fitness to practise certificate; in other words, it is a perfectly workable and effective arrangement.
The nurses’ regulating body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, is constituted under different legislation from the GMC and, crucially, does not at present have the freedom to monitor the competence in English of EU nurses before releasing them into nursing in Great Britain. I know from previous dialogues with the Minister that his department is aware of and sympathetic to concerns about the problem and so, in its more measured pace, is the Commission. However, the latest proposal for discussion coming out of Brussels seems to suggest that registration and fitness to practise should continue to come simultaneously. The effect of this is fundamental. It means that, once an EU nurse is registered, the Nursing and Midwifery Council still has no control over that nurse’s fitness to practise. The Government’s position on testing for English language competency appears to be set out in a Commons Written Answer of 25 October 2010 in which my honourable friend Anne Milton states:
“Post registration it is for employers and contracting bodies to ensure that any nurses or midwives they employ or contract with have the necessary skills and competencies (including language competence) for the job”.—[Official Report, Commons, 25/10/10; col. 126W.]
I appreciate that, as the directive now stands, that is the only course open to the Government, but I strongly suggest to your Lordships that it is not satisfactory and detracts from the authority of the NMC, the regulatory body.
The current proposal from the commission does nothing to alter the position and it is certainly of concern to the NMC. I would welcome an assurance from the Minister that his department will continue to press Brussels for an English language proficiency regime for nurses from the EU to be effectively the same as for doctors, so that there is a period during which the NMC can assess the English language skills of a registered nurse from the EU before issuing the appropriate authorisation to practise.
In March 2012, the Law Commission launched a consultation on the regulation of healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom, and it is due to present its final report and draft Bill in early 2014. I understand that this is likely to recommend the streamlining of fitness-to-practise legislation regarding health professionals across the UK. If this assists in resolving the problems of regulation and fitness to practise for nurses posed by the freedom of movement directive to which I have referred, it will be very welcome, as indeed will any reassurance that the Minister is able to give the House today.
Lord Morris of Handsworth
My Lords, I, too, pay tribute to the gracious Speech and to the three excellent maiden speeches that we have heard today. I want to say a few words about the invisible generation, usually labelled as “the elderly”, and like many Members of your Lordships’ House, I have to declare an interest.
As the elderly, we are constantly reminded that we carry a high maintenance cost in respect of health, pensions and of course welfare support. We struggle with our technology and are sometimes described as non-productive consumers. Mostly ignored are the positive contributions made to society by the elderly. They are carers of a husband or wife, and sometimes of grandchildren and other relatives and friends; they are the providers of support for neighbours less able than themselves; they are minders of children whose parents are being told that they must go out to work. Very many give financial support to children and grandchildren who could not otherwise stay on at school, go to university, buy a house or pay a deposit on a rented property. They are the silent army, making up an estimated 30% of all volunteers for a wide range of organisations and often filling in the gaps in care homes, hospitals, hospices, schools and more.
Yet increasingly they are denigrated by politicians and the news media. The retirement pension to which they have contributed during their working life is now a benefit, which many politicians would like to see means-tested. The elderly are criticised for taking a free prescription and bus pass, a free television licence at aged 75 and the winter fuel payment that many of us in any case hand over to charity. For many, the loss of the travel pass would mean isolation. They would be unable to visit families and friends, get to the shops or the post office, or travel to their voluntary activities, particularly in rural areas. Bus routes would be closed. Those who could afford to use a car would be castigated for not being environmentally friendly.
Nearly every debate on issues affecting the elderly starts with the precursor “the problem is”. What a difference it would make to start such a debate by merely saying “the issues are”. The fact is that Britain is woefully underprepared for the rising numbers of elderly people. We are told on the one hand to welcome the fact that we are all living longer while on the other hand that it is not affordable. For those with retirement in sight, there is mass confusion. We have had the Turner and Dilnot reports, and the report of the Select Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change. Is it any wonder that fear and insecurity is the approach of many for their retirement plans?
At what age will they be able to retire? Who knows? We saw a change flagged up in the gracious Speech, which prompted calls for another increase because in today’s world the elderly are healthier and so able to work longer. Quite suddenly, the elderly are among the shirkers with the curtains drawn who do not look for work. If they do, they become the enemies of the young, who fear that the jobs of tomorrow are being taken by the old of today. What of pensions? It is not unreasonable that many pensioners are wary of the provisions of private pensions having lost so much in past debacles, yet we are now treated as though we are responsible for the pension crisis.
One provision about which we are clear within the gracious Speech is that of the single-tier state pension, but can we please have a guarantee that recipients will not be told that this is a benefit for which they should be grateful rather than a pension for which they have paid? In March we heard from the Chancellor that the Government will introduce in 2016 a modified version of the proposals in the Dilnot review. Given the continual change in the retirement age and the state pension arrangements, early and clear decisions would be welcomed by those contemplating retirement.
The gracious Speech sadly missed the opportunity to confirm the welcome statement from the Chancellor that funding reforms for long-term care for the elderly will be introduced and that the maximum anyone will pay is £72,000. I am not clear what will happen to those who do not have £72,000. I am guessing that, as Dilnot proposed, they will be expected to sell part of the equity of their homes to pay for their needs—assuming they have homes. Currently, there are many cases of elderly people attempting to do that and risking large sums of money as a result. I fear that many will do so in future.
Many of those issues have been rehearsed in this House and in another place. I return to my original point. Old age is seen as a problem, and elderly people are seen as a liability. Those negative portrayals must change, not only for the elderly but for other groups labelled and taunted. There was a time when the target was immigrants and the unemployed. Then it was the turn of single parents and those on benefits. Over recent years, people with disabilities have been in the firing line. Now it is the turn of the elderly.
The denigration of groups and communities in our society must end soon. I very much regret that the gracious Speech made no reference to the Select Committee report, Ready for Ageing?, which could be our compass for future travel into retirement. I, for one, hope that the Government will set out their analysis of the issues and challenges and their vision for public service in an ageing society, and that a White Paper is published well before the next general election.
Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope
My Lords, it is a real pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Handsworth. I share his analysis in his powerful speech. I certainly subscribe to his view that we have yet to bottom out the full extent of the necessary changes to public policy to deal with the significant impact of longevity, not just in the areas to which he alluded in his excellent speech but more widely across government. In my brief remarks this evening, I also follow him on the need to look after low-income households, whether they are elderly or of working age.
I have enjoyed this debate. I have listened with care. I was interested in the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong of Hill Top, with which I largely agreed. The noble Baronesses, Lady Drake and Lady Hollis, both made powerful speeches about the legislation in the Queen’s Speech with which I will be most directly involved relating to pensions and carer issues.
The context of this Queen’s Speech, the political atmosphere in which we are considering these measures, is different from anything that I have seen in my political experience, and I have been around for a long while—I am not as young as I look, but that is not to mention how I feel. There is a lack of understanding of the pressures that the bottom 15% of households in our income distribution are feeling. They are severely distressed in a way that is likely to be with us for some time: longer than many of us would wish. We need to do something about that. I was recently reading some figures that demonstrated that graphically. Comparing household income internationally, the ONS discovered that the UK has dropped from fifth place in 2005 to 12th place in 2011, so it is under stress in a way that will affect all dimensions of public policy, in the Queen’s Speech and elsewhere. Welfare reform was addressed in the Welfare Reform Act 2012, but it will still cast its shadow over the coming year and beyond.
The noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong, made a point with which I particularly agreed. There is a different tone in the public mood about social protection. I have never experienced it to be quite so negative and we cannot ignore it. Again, I was looking at some figures on this, which show that 20 years ago 15% of the public thought that people lived in need because of laziness or lack of willpower; now, it is 23%. We have to be aware of that. Now, it is difficult to pass legislation to deal with such things, but it would be quite wrong not to take care to appreciate that the circumstances in which we are introducing this legislation are substantially different.
I want to say a word about housing, particularly new low-income housing. I know there are other colleagues in here who have much better experience of housing associations and I am looking forward to hearing what the noble Lord, Lord Best, says. However, I have come to the conclusion that the most important thing in the welfare domain is trying to deal long-term with housing benefit. Reflecting on and reading some of the background, I have also concluded that the only way sensibly to do that in the long term is to develop housing policy, particularly the construction of new low-income housing. We need to encourage the Government to adopt a cross-departmental strategy to deal with this. It should also be cross-country because we need to be conscious of the fact that other constituent nations of the United Kingdom are dealing with these issues—and in some cases dealing with them quite differently. We need to make sure that co-ordination is maintained.
We also need to do that with a much closer association and a more trusting relationship with local authorities because they can, and must, play a more constructive role in trying to address some of the problems. We are simply not building enough new affordable housing. I think that the National Housing Federation and others have identified the gap as being something in the region of 240,000 units each year, so the conflict between the demand and the supply is really quite substantial.
I am not saying that the Government are not taking steps, because I know that they are. Indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Best, with help from some of his friends, managed to get the noble Lord, Lord Freud, to undertake a review of some consequences of the Welfare Reform Bill that related to housing benefit changes and the like. We might get access to some of these details and statistics in the not-too-distant future, and I look forward to looking at them carefully and discussing them. This is perhaps more a matter for the comprehensive spending review which we will see in July because then we will see the spending profile that the Government have in mind, although that might take us only into the first year of the new Parliament. My real concern is that if we leave the adoption of a more coherent, cross-departmental framework in this very important area, it will be 2016 before we get started. That will be unforgivable and we will be wasting a lot of time that we do not have.
There are some obvious benefits in adopting a comprehensive new strategy for new build for low-cost housing. There is an economic case and an employment mobility case. It increases disposable income for low-income families if they have lower rent costs. More than anything else, it has a political dimension as well because ever lengthening waiting lists for housing are a major cause of concern. It is one of the reasons why the electorate is in such an unhappy situation, to put it at its mildest. If we could demonstrate some progress in reducing waiting lists, even though it cannot be done immediately, that would be beneficial.
There are lots of things that we really need to do. They need to be done in a joined-up way and to embrace future levels of capital investment and rent levels as well as housing benefit costs, but we have to do this in a way that looks as if we are addressing the problem seriously. The evidence is that we are not doing that.
I shall end with the surprising statement that I came across the other day which demonstrates that currently for every pound the Government spend on housing, 95p goes on housing benefit and 5p goes on new build. That is completely the wrong way round, and we have to use the next year to do as much as we can to redress that balance and make that change a positive reality in the not-too-distant future.
Lord Noon
My Lords, I am grateful to be speaking as part of the debate on the gracious Speech. In the time available, I shall comment on the education proposals that were mentioned, but first I must declare an interest as chancellor of the University of East London. I was very fortunate to take up this position in January this year, and I am very proud to be associated with such a diverse university in the heart of East London. In fact, it is one of the most diverse universities in the country with over 28,000 students from more than 120 countries world wide, so I am particularly interested in the likely impact of new measures in the Government’s planned legislation affecting education.
I agree with the Government that we need to see more young people having access to quality higher education programmes, but at the same time we should be doing more to encourage students from overseas to take up places here in the UK. It is good for them, and it is good for us. It enables us to build stronger bridges with different countries and spread understanding about the opportunities and strengths of the UK economy. As our economy continues to struggle, this could not be more important.
Earlier this year, my noble friends Lord Patel of Bradford and Lord Parekh and I were asked to be part of the business delegation that accompanied the Prime Minister to India. It was the largest trade delegation ever to accompany a Prime Minister on an overseas visit. The visit clearly demonstrated the importance of India to the future prosperity of the UK. Despite us being the only three delegates from the Opposition, all the Ministers and officials treated us with the utmost courtesy and respect and our views were sought out and listened to.
One of the issues I raised while I was in India was the importance of enabling more Indian students to come to study in the UK. That is something we should welcome, and it is especially important for a university such as the University of East London. We can learn a great deal from the rich diversity in our universities, especially in the business world.
This is an area that I am passionate about, and I know that there are many challenges that students face to succeed in this area, especially those from ethnic minority backgrounds. Therefore, when I was given an opportunity last year to help establish a centre at the University of East London to provide opportunities and support for students from various ethnic backgrounds to enter into and sustain careers in the business sector, I relished the opportunity. A grant was made available by the Noon Foundation that has enabled the establishment of the Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity in Business within the Royal Docks Business School, and I am pleased to say that last week I had the pleasure of spending a whole day meeting and speaking to some of the brightest and most committed business students I have ever met who have benefitted from the work of the centre.
Although these students are doing well with the support provided, the challenges are immense and include access to higher education and high-quality courses that ensure future employment. I welcome the Government’s commitment to increasing access to a good university education. I also hope that we will see more practical measures to ensure greater diversity among those students who gain a good degree. As a businessman, I welcome the emphasis on skills and on access to training and apprenticeships. My company, Noon Products, employs more than 2,000 members of staff at my manufacturing plant in west London, where our national dish, chicken tikka masala, is produced in the thousands every day. I know at first hand how important it is to have young people starting work for the first time who are skilled and have the right aptitude for work.
One of the ways in which we can support this is by encouraging effective apprenticeships, but the challenge to achieve this is great. Last year nearly 750,000 19 to 24 year-olds were not in education, employment or training. The so-called NEETs are the young people we need to target. The numbers missing out on education and opportunities are far too high. If I have understood correctly, the apprenticeship provisions in the deregulation Bill are intended to address this. We are told that there will be greater flexibility in delivery and increasing employer involvement in the design and assessment of apprenticeships. This is to be welcomed, and as an employer I would very much like to be part of this.
The Government are currently consulting on apprenticeships. The review report is entitled, The Future of Apprenticeships in England: Next Steps from the Richard Review. As I understand it, the stated intention of the review is to ensure apprenticeships are rigorous, responsive and able to meet the changing needs of our economy. I very much hope that the review will help us to achieve this and I look forward to reading the final results when it is published in the autumn.
However, employers are employing people now, and all those young people in need of opportunities do not have time to wait. We need to do significantly better to promote and improve their life chances through apprenticeships and access to higher education. This is key to securing a lasting and robust economic recovery, and we need to act now. Our future lies with the young. Our future prosperity must be firmly rooted in theirs, so I very much hope that we will see practical and effective measures in the Bill that can be taken now. I shall watch with great interest.
Lord Best
My Lords, my contribution to this debate considers the issue of housing in the context of health, welfare and several other aspects of the gracious Speech. My theme, to quote a Canadian saying, is that housing is the home of all issues. I declare my interest as president of the Local Government Association, chair of the Hanover Housing Association, chair of the council of the Property Ombudsman and, since I will touch on related matters in the context of the forthcoming Care Bill, a member of the advisory board of the Equity Release Council.
The fundamental housing requirement, which is of equal concern to all the main political parties, is to secure the building of far more homes to reduce the acute housing shortages that are the underlying cause of homelessness, overcrowding, high rents and low standards of accommodation. However, the benefits of a boost to housebuilding go much wider. It is the construction industry that can act as the engine of growth, as it always has done in previous recessions. Within that industry it is housebuilding that delivers the biggest bang in terms of jobs, not least in maintaining, modernising and upgrading the energy efficiency of existing homes. I hope that the Government can strengthen the connection between youth unemployment, now at 20% and carrying the terrible danger of a lifetime of worthlessness if skills are not acquired, and the opportunities for training and jobs presented by investment in new homes.
We have all admired the contribution of migrant building workers, particularly from Poland, but there is much to be said for investment in apprenticeships and training in the building industry for our own young people. To capitalise on this chance of tackling two huge social issues simultaneously, youth unemployment and acute housing shortages, the Chartered Institute of Building and the Construction Industry Training Board, with the Youth Build Trust, have asked Nick Raynsford MP in the other place and me jointly to chair an inquiry by parliamentarians on this theme. I feel sure that the Government will want to support this initiative.
On other occasions I have commended the determination of the Minister for Planning to overcome barriers to much-needed housebuilding, including the obstacle of the seemingly universal local opposition to virtually any development. Recently, the Government have come forward with bold plans for help-to-buy mortgage guarantees and equity loans. There is always the danger that stimulating demand, rather than directly boosting supply, will simply push up prices. But as part of the mix, these financial measures could give the housebuilders confidence to get more homes built and on to the market. However, the private sector housebuilders will construct only around half the number of new homes needed to match the number of new households formed each year. We also need subsidised housing for those who cannot afford to purchase or to pay full market rents. Housing associations could double their output with the requisite funding through the Homes and Communities Agency and the Greater London Authority. This investment really should be a high priority for the Government’s forthcoming spending review. Now is the time to harness the lending capacity of councils, which used to match the output of the private sector and build half the country’s new housing, by removing the unnecessary cap on their prudential borrowing for housing purposes, as the LGA is advocating. This would enable local authorities to finance the building of some 60,000 extra homes, mostly on land that they already own, without the need for subsidy.
Some will argue that one area of housing on which there should have been an announcement in the Queen’s Speech is the regulation of the private rented sector. However, I was delighted that the efforts of your Lordships in support of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, led the Government to bring forward an amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill that will give the consumer greater protection by requiring all lettings and managing agents, who look after about 60% of the private rented sector, to be part of an independent ombudsman dispute resolution scheme.
Sadly, the Government did not listen to your Lordships on another housing issue on which they suffered successive defeats in this House—the issue of welfare reform, which has targeted support with housing costs for those on the lowest incomes. The caps, ceilings and limits on housing benefit and local housing allowances, which are more likely to deter private landlords from letting to poor people than to persuade landlords to reduce rents to help them, have been accompanied by the levy on housing association and council tenants deemed to have a spare room. I have been much criticised for naming this the bedroom tax, but I suspect that Ministers now regret introducing this controversial measure. This levy penalises those in work as well as those who must find the money from their other benefits by cutting back on basic essentials. It is not too late for the Government to moderate its impact through a major increase in the totally inadequate level of discretionary housing payments, which local authorities need to deploy in the many cases of hardship, and where tenants cannot be offered a suitable smaller property.
It should be noted that the housing associations whose tenants are hit by the welfare reform cuts are anticipating major problems of rent arrears. This not only means they must cut back on spending on new housing investment just when the Government need them to do more, but they will be less able to undertake the brilliant community work that so many of them have been doing to provide for those with special needs, to tackle anti-social behaviour—again, something that the gracious Speech makes clear is a government priority—or to support young people into training and jobs.
Finally, I want to note the immensely important link between housing and the Government’s plans for funding social care, which we will be debating when the Care Bill reaches us. The Government’s proposals, in seeking to assist those who encounter high social care costs, are welcome, but the help provided for those in residential care may not go as far as many have hoped. A large proportion of the fees will be excluded because they cover the board and lodging or hotel costs, while the care costs will be met only at low levels, probably well below the average in each area. By my calculations, in a typical case the individual would probably not be assisted until they had spent some £144,000. If their fees reached £300,000, they could expect only some £50,000 in support.
This is where housing issues come in. If an older person’s own home is manageable, warm, accessible, affordable and safe and secure, independent living can remain a sensible option for their lifetime, with care delivered to the home when needed. They can return home from hospital, perhaps after a short stay in a residential setting, and the emotional traumas and heavy cost of moving permanently into institutional care can be avoided. If their housing is right, the Dilnot inquiry’s key recommendation for limiting care costs can work well and vital savings can be made to the NHS and social care budgets. This argues for priority within the hoped for boost to housebuilding to go to developing really high-quality older people’s housing. This has the enormous added benefit of freeing up for the next generation some of the 4.2 million houses occupied by pensioners that have more than two spare bedrooms.
The interrelationship between housing and care also argues for more and better opportunities for safe and sensible equity release schemes. These can enable home owners to recycle some of the wealth tied up in their home to do the improvements that will cut their fuel bills, make the adaptations such as replacing a bath with a walk-in shower, and generally ensure that it is not their home that forces them into residential care. Giving priority to the nation’s housing can not only change the lives of young and old but can support the Government’s wider ambitions for reviving the economy, tackling youth unemployment, reducing social care and health costs and so much more. I hope that the Government are listening.
Baroness Pitkeathley
My Lords, as the Care Bill announced in the gracious Speech will have its Second Reading next week, like some others I have decided to keep my powder dry today and focus only on why the Bill is needed, not on its content.
Your Lordships will know that there is nearly universal agreement that the social care system is not fit for purpose. It was set up originally for a country where men died shortly after they retired at the age of 65 and women died before they were 70. The new statistics showing that, for example, 11 million people who are alive today will live to be 100 are cause for celebration, as is the fact that people are living not only longer but with greater degrees of disability. However, this also means that we are spending inadequate amounts on care and support, both publicly and privately. Social care funding has totally failed to keep pace with demographic change. Since 2004, spending on the NHS rose by £25 billion, but spending on social care rose by just £43 million—or 0.1% in real terms.
We all know what local authorities have done to cope with rising demand and static resources—they have increased charges for social care and rapidly raised the eligibility criteria. The percentage of councils providing support to those with moderate needs decreased from 50% in 2005 to 18% in 2011 as the eligibility criteria have been raised to cover only those with substantial or critical needs. This has been compounded by local authority spending reductions, with social services directors reporting £1 billion-worth of cuts to services in 2011-12 and warning of even greater cuts to come.
Public provision in this area is largely seen as providing poor services for poor people, and the media all too often give us distressing examples of that. However, anyone who works in this field must also acknowledge that good care is provided to individuals within the system because of the dedication and skill of thousands of workers. There are pockets of great service to be admired and we should always remember that. In general, however, the system is perceived to be starved of cash; failing to meet the volume of need; and unfair—a lottery, especially for people with middle incomes—for the simple reason that if you die neatly without needing to use care services you pay nothing while if you happen to have an illness or condition such as Alzheimer’s, you may need expensive services for many years, costing thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of pounds. The system is also regarded as extremely confusing and difficult to find your way around.
These problems will only get worse if nothing is done. Within 20 years, the number of over-85s will double and the number of people living with lifetime disabilities will grow too. Relatively fewer people will be working and paying taxes to help pay for support. However, apart from the practicalities of money and how it is to be paid for, there are other changes in society that affect what we can expect from social care. People want greater choice and control than is offered by our current system and expectations about the standards of care are rising. It still comes as a shock to the average user of care that there is so little integration and such poor communication across health and social care systems—still less, as we have heard today, across housing and transport—regardless of the fact that people’s care needs do not come in discrete packages but are stretched across the whole of an elderly person’s life including their housing, their families and their income.
What happens when people’s needs for social care are not met? We all know what happens—they turn to the NHS. This results in increased demand for unplanned and emergency services and delays in hospital discharge. Your Lordships will have seen and heard all the publicity about pressure on A&E services recently and the conflicting views about both the cause and what should be done about it. These extra pressures of course come at a time when the NHS is already under severe financial pressure.
It is easy to be extremely gloomy about the problems in social care. However, we may have some opportunities now, principally in the Bill in the Queen’s Speech, to deal with some of them. The Government are to be praised for bringing forward a Bill which is intended to address some of the problems that I have set out by looking at the Dilnot commission and the Law Commission’s proposals and, perhaps very importantly, by defining the purpose of social care and how it is delivered.
The enactment of the care and support Bill will not just consolidate and streamline into a single statute 60 years of piecemeal law-making; it will place on a statutory footing for the first time both the principle and the practice of self-directed personal care based on individual assessment. Particularly pleasing to me is that the well-being principle is also to be applied to the individual’s carers. However, it cannot be denied that, taken together with the introduction of a capped system of funding and a national eligibility threshold, the Bill represents a significant implementation challenge for everyone with a stake in the care and support system.
Like other Members of your Lordships’ House I had the privilege of serving on the Joint Committee which gave pre-legislative scrutiny to the care Bill. We called many witnesses and received huge amounts of written evidence. Two themes were paramount. The first was the need for more integration, and the announcements today about integration between health and social care are very welcome indeed. The second was the need for more resources. Everybody was concerned about the inadequacy of the resources. I am sure that we will spend many happy hours debating that as the care Bill proceeds.
I hope that in the course of our discussions we will be able to give attention to some of the ideas that were set out in the report Ready for Ageing?, which has already been mentioned and was produced by the committee led by my noble friend Lord Filkin. It states very plainly that the welfare state was predicated on full employment and a brief period of retirement. Now, however, centenarians are common and a third of life may be spent in retirement, and yet pensions and social care continue to be organised on 1950s models. The report calls for, and states that there is a desperate need for, a national strategy that includes a radical reconfiguration of health and social care. The budgetary split between them is no longer sustainable. They must be commissioned and funded jointly so that resources can be better used.
All of this is a terrific challenge. However, it may also be the clearest call that we have ever had for a new vision for social care—indeed, for a different settlement for the older people whom we will all become. We certainly need a different vision and, by the way, more recognition of the contribution made by older people themselves. Let us not forget that 60% of childcare is provided by grandparents. Let us think also of the huge numbers of older volunteers. These are important political issues that we are actually going to have to address.
The Bill that we will consider gives us an opportunity to put a welcome focus on social care—always, thus far, the poor sister of the NHS. It will also give us the opportunity, if not to implement this new vision, then at least to consider and discuss it.
Lord Black of Brentwood
My Lords, I want to address an issue that affects millions of families in this country. It is a subject that cuts right across many of the areas that we have been discussing today, including health, welfare and education. It has a breadth and width throughout society that is in many ways far greater than the important measures outlined in the gracious Speech, yet it rarely gets a look-in when it comes to legislation and regulation. That issue is animal welfare.
We are a nation of animal lovers; 48% of UK households, some 13 million of us, own between them 22 million pets. I am proud to declare an interest as an owner of one of them, a venerable Russian Blue. At the moment, however, we are experiencing what the RSPCA has described as,
“a growing animal cruelty crisis”.
Last year, there was a 15% increase in the number of people being taken to court for the neglect of and cruelty to animals in England and Wales, and an increase of a third in the number of convictions. As a result of every conviction, more animals are taken in by animal welfare charities for care and rehoming.
I heard at first hand, on a visit last year to the wonderful National Cat Centre in Sussex, which is run by Cats Protection, that there is an unprecedented demand for its services in taking in stray and abandoned cats. However, at the same time, requests to adopt a cat have dropped to a third of what they were at the start of 2010. That is the perfect storm of increasing need and declining resource.
Many of these problems are of course part and parcel of the economic hardship that we have been experiencing, which my noble friend Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope mentioned. Pressure on family incomes of the sort that he described often means that people have to give up their pets when they cannot afford to feed them or pay for veterinary care. We have a duty to do something about this growing crisis. The treatment of animals is a barometer for the health of our society, and if we want to live in a decent and tolerant society we should be doing all that we can to promote and enhance the welfare of all animals, particularly domestic pets who give so unconditionally of their love to many of society’s most vulnerable members, including the sick, the elderly and the lonely. It is a love that we should return.
There is much that government can do to help without placing a strain on overstretched public finances, and a number of measures outlined in the gracious Speech are of particular importance in this respect. The Care Bill represents an excellent new approach to looking at well-being and personal care, centred as it is on,
“domestic, family and personal relationships”,
of which domestic pets are of course a key part. Owning a cat or dog is an incredibly close, personal relationship. Cats Protection submitted powerful evidence to the scrutiny committee looking at the draft Bill—I hope the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, remembers seeing it—about the health benefits that companion animals such as cats or dogs can offer in preventing or delaying the onset of health problems and promoting general well-being, not least in alleviating depression and loneliness and lowering stress, with the benefits that that brings to cardiac health. I therefore hope that the Bill will encourage the use of care budgets for companion animal support programmes and recognise the important role that pets play in personal well-being.
The measures in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill to deal with dangerous dogs are welcome, too. However, it is vital that the Bill cracks down on attacks by dogs on all “protected animals”, as defined by the Animal Welfare Act 2006, and not just on attacks on people and assistance dogs. In most weeks, there is a report in the press of at least one fatal attack on a cat by a dangerous dog, and that should not be tolerated. This Bill should be extended to allow us the chance to deal with this dreadful problem. In addition, we should use it as an opportunity to review the penalties for cruelty to animals under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Those who harm animals—for instance, in the cases of those who have attacked and injured cats by poisoning them with anti-freeze—should face significant custodial sentences.
If owners of dangerous dogs that attack people in public face two years in prison, why should not those who harm their pets? I heard just this morning a most awful story from my vet of how he had taken in a puppy that had been rescued by the Dogs Trust. This puppy had been wrapped up, placed in a bin liner and kicked down nine flights of stairs in a tower block. At just three months of age, it came in with 40 broken bones in its body and a lump on its head that was bigger than its head. Those who do those sorts of things should feel the full force of the law.
Welcome though these various measures are, a lot more needs doing, not least in the updating of legislation on animal welfare, which is becoming obsolescent. I wish that the gracious Speech had contained measures, for instance, to repeal and replace the Pet Animals Act 1951, which covers the breeding and sale of pets. It stems from a time when people bought pets from the window of a pet shop, but today pets are bought online. This outdated legislation does not deal with the abuse of animals that comes from the repeat breeding of pets for sale on the internet. Similarly, the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963 badly needs updating and simplifying to provide a modern and effective licensing regime for boarding establishments such as kennels and catteries.
Even in the absence of new laws or the repeal of old ones, we can do a lot within the framework of existing legislation to deal with the animal welfare crisis that we are facing. We have the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which sets out a framework for the care of animals, including establishing their five basic needs. Yet that Act has not fulfilled its ambitions because regulations under Section 13 to repeal outdated legislation have not yet materialised. I hope that my noble friend will ask his colleagues at Defra to look into this. Indeed, Ministers should look afresh at the whole structure of animal welfare legislation, dealing with commitments that have not yet been delivered and looking to deal with the out of date laws that I mentioned earlier.
I hope I will not sound like a cracked record if I return to an issue that I raised in a debate on the national curriculum in the Moses Room earlier this year. The key to effective long-term care for animals lies in education. It is essential that children in primary schools are taught about the five basic needs of animals and about the responsibility that comes with owning a pet. My noble friend Lord Nash has said that he will look into this area, and I hope that the Government will listen carefully to the concerns of Cats Protection and other animal charities.
Finally, I must tell your Lordships that since I have been studying these issues in recent months—they have been a welcome break from the rigours of the Leveson inquiry—it has struck me that the care of our animals, which is crucial, as I said at the outset, to the development of a civilised, liberal and caring society, encompasses a huge number of issues and hence a number of government departments. Some lie with Defra, where my noble friend Lord De Mauley is a tower of strength, but the Home Office has important responsibilities too. There are also issues relating to care that fall under the Department of Health, and of course there is education, which lies with the Department for Education. There are also spending issues; after all, the issue of irresponsible dog ownership alone costs the taxpayer nearly £80 million per year. If ever there was a case for joined-up government, it is this, so would it not be a good idea to establish a post for an animal welfare champion to draw all these threads together, championing the cause of vulnerable animals, saving the taxpayer money, ensuring that our children are educated in the care of pets in a way that would be of real benefit to their all-round education, and at the same time helping the elderly and the lonely? That would be a win-win for our society.
The Prime Minister rightly declared that this is a gracious Speech for ordinary hard-working families, and so it is. Let us just ensure that we include our pets, such a special part of so many families, in that noble ambition too.
Lord Sawyer
My Lords, when my noble friend Lord MacKenzie rose to speak, he said that he had had to tear up his original speech because of the speeches made by my noble friend Lady Wheeler and others, and I feel the same about mine. My noble friend made an excellent speech on the health service and on nursing in particular, and I should like to be fully and completely identified with what he said. However, there are a couple of things regarding this issue that I do not think were dealt with in that speech or in others, and I should like briefly to say something about them.
The first concerns nursing and nurses spending more time with patients and more time on the ward. My noble friend Lord MacKenzie implied that it was time to get nurses back to basics. It is part of the current ethos about the problem in the National Health Service that nurses are not spending enough time on the wards. Certainly, given the Francis report and other things, I can understand why that might be thought to be the case. At the same time, in my experience, it is crucial that we do not overlook the importance of high-quality nurse managers. Matrons and charge nurses are managers as well as nurses. Their clinical qualifications and expertise as clinicians are not always matched by their qualifications and expertise as managers and leaders.
Basically, hospitals work in teams. It is only teams that deliver. Anyone who has been a patient or worked in a hospital will understand that nurses do not work in isolation; they work in teams. Skills are needed to build and develop a team, to take it forward, to fill a gap, to look after an absence, and to deal with a crisis. All those important skills have to be learnt and developed by nurse managers. It is important that that is said.
In the past 10 years, developments have taken place in the commercial sector and some parts of the charity sector, and investment has been made in helping people to become high-quality managers and leaders. I am not sure that that same development has taken place in the National Health Service. We need to address that. I do not know whether the Minister would be kind enough to write to me about the ambitions in this respect. I do not expect chapter and verse, but I should like to know the direction of travel in making sure that we have world-class leadership among our nursing staff. It is worth using that word because in order to deal with the problems that we have seen in the Francis report we need that kind of ambition.
Secondly, on what I would call an holistic approach to patient care, again, the drum-beats at the moment are about patients left on trolleys and nurses not caring properly. However, the patient experience is about a lot more than a nurse and a doctor. It is about something much more fundamental and basic. If the first call to a general practitioner’s surgery is badly answered by an inattentive receptionist, it is the first step towards a bad patient experience. In the National Health Service, it is possible to have several bad patient experiences before you ever meet a clinician. It is very important that people who work in all professions—nursing, non-nursing and supporting professions—understand that the patient experience begins with them.
Everyone has responsibility for giving good patient care, including the GP who does not have time to listen properly to a patient, and the consultant who is too busy to explain exactly what the issues are and what might be done to help a patient’s situation. These skills are not taught in medical school or nursing school. I ask: are they taught or are they picked up? It is expected that these skills will be picked up and learnt on the journey from being a clinical practitioner to a manager and a leader. My opinion is that often those skills are not learnt and that they are badly lacking in a lot of health service experiences. We need to do something about that.
The skills required are those of listening, empathy and understanding. Sometimes they would be called soft skills, but they are crucial in the health service. Patients feel vulnerable, worried and anxious about what will happen to them, so it is very important that everyone who works in the health service understands that the patient experience begins with them and that they are responsible in just the same way as doctors and nurses. If it not too much trouble, I would not mind a note from the Minister about how that wider holistic approach to patient care, not just by clinical practitioners, doctors and nurses, is seen. I ask everyone in the health service to be aware of the importance of the patient experience.
Baroness Benjamin
My Lords, I was delighted that the gracious Speech contained several mentions of the intention to focus on the well-being and education of children and young people by putting measures in place to bridge the social mobility gap. I congratulate the coalition Government on their continuing efforts to address this issue. In my speech, I would like to concentrate on how even more can be achieved through cultural education within the curriculum.
Exposure to art and cultural experiences is the perfect way to build confidence, satisfy our well-being and stimulate the imagination, and the earlier children are provided with this type of stimulus the better. However, recently I chaired a Westminster Education Forum conference at which several educationalists expressed a desire for a clear direction, a national plan, as suggested in the Henry review, on how to deliver cultural education in the classroom as many did not feel confident about what was expected from them and how best to deliver cultural provision to the children.
I believe that one effective way to do so is through the discovery of Shakespeare. The many beneficial attributes this has are not all obvious for, as well as words and language, connections with music, drama and art can also be gained from studying Shakespeare. It can be used to help children develop a critical eye, teach them simple philosophy, build their natural curiosity and help them to learn to analyse information in a fun and exciting way.
Shakespeare is loved across the world. He is the most performed playwright internationally. Half of the world’s schoolchildren study Shakespeare. In surveys, Shakespeare is cited as one of the reasons many people feel proud to be British, and yet here in the UK so many children leave school with minimal exposure to this icon who is part of their cultural heritage. Whole generations encounter Shakespeare only as a topic for examination and therefore believe that Shakespeare is not for them or is too difficult.
Well, a change is a coming. I heard it for myself. Yes, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has plans for young children to be exposed to Shakespeare. It has started a campaign focusing on children aged nine to 11 in primary schools to discover Shakespeare. Too difficult? Too prescriptive? Too elitist? No, no, no. To be or not to be, that is the question. Well it will be, because in March 2014 Shakespeare Week will be launched as a major new national schools and cultural campaign to open up Shakespeare’s legacy to every child in Britain, uniting our numerous cultural venues and our versatile artistic practitioners in a nationwide celebration of Shakespeare’s creative influence. It will be a bold and original approach to learning.
Modern learning tools will be used to engage the children as several free online resources will bring the Bard to life for every subject in the curriculum. For geography, Shakespeare’s characters will be used to spark off children’s imaginations on the subject—for example, matching characters to countries. There will be resources demonstrating how pulleys helped fairies fly over the Elizabethan stage as an introduction to engineering. There will also be resources used to spark off children’s interest in writing and literature and lead them to discover other writers, historical and contemporary. As well, it will help them form a love for art and design because their young minds will not be influenced by negative assumptions. It will inspire them to have aspirations in whatever they choose to become and assist them to achieve their goals.
Most importantly, it will give them the opportunity to have fun with Shakespeare at an age when magic can still happen and before someone tells them, “It is too difficult for you, so do not bother”. Furthermore, it will provide teachers with a free, flexible resource to draw on, as much or as little as they like, in any subject they choose.
The pupil premium is encouraging schools to seek imaginative ways to broaden their outlook in provision for children. In just three weeks since the launch of Shakespeare Week, many have embraced this opportunity. Five hundred schools have already registered to take part in Shakespeare Week and the figure is rising, which is simply wonderful. I have seen at first hand how joyfully and enthusiastically young people react when they are exposed to Shakespeare. They identify with the characters who are so cleverly written as they reflect contemporary society and deal with all the emotions and feelings that young children are likely to grow up to experience: jealousy, anger, humour, revenge, guilt, fear, love and passion, emotions which are felt across all cultures.
The lyrical rhythm of the language is great for those with autism, dyslexia and learning difficulties. Many people from challenging backgrounds who are rarely exposed to the theatre are often transformed by discovering Shakespeare. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has been charged with promoting the enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare’s works, life and times. The trust has been awarded Arts Council funding to support Shakespeare Week for just two years, 2014 and 2015. I truly believe that this initiative should go beyond that time. It will ignite young children’s appetite for art and culture and develop confidence which will indirectly have an effect on their ability to learn across the curriculum in the classroom and beyond, giving them a lasting legacy. So I ask my noble friend whether the Government will consider making Shakespeare Week an annual event in the primary school calendar for the sake of our children’s holistic well-being, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The first book I chose as my school speech day prize back in 1961 at the age of 12 was the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Little did I know that the content would be a revelation to me and serve me well in my career. The works of Shakespeare were written for all people and were not meant to be exclusive, but inclusive. It is worth noting that at the television BAFTAs last Sunday two awards were given to Shakespeare productions. Yes, the Bard is still thrilling audiences 400 years on.
Shakespeare Week is an important initiative for future generations, so let us make it a permanent resource and give all our young children the opportunity to feel that they are part of something great. Who knows, one of them could even become the Shakespeare of the future. With that, I say:
“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow”.
Lord Patel of Bradford
My Lords, how does one follow such a passionate, energetic and fabulous speech at this late hour? I am afraid that mine is going to sound a bit like “Macbeth”, but I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise a somewhat neglected issue in the Queen’s Speech. I am talking about mental health, which does not feature prominently in the Government’s planned legislation and on which there are some critical issues that I want to raise.
The noble Earl will be pleased to hear that I shall start off on a positive note. I have to say that the coalition Government, when they first came to power, actually made a good start in trying to address inequalities in the area of mental health. In particular, the Government should be commended on their mental health strategy, No Health Without Mental Health, and the ambition it represented to see mental health provision achieve “parity of esteem” with physical health. I was also very pleased when on 28 February this year, the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill became law. This Act removed the last significant forms of discrimination in law and was a big step towards breaking down the prejudice and stigma surrounding people with mental health problems.
However, in spite of these positive developments, the problems are not getting any better. My noble friend Lord Layard, in his report last year with the London School of Economics, set out some of the starkest evidence I have seen that the problems are actually getting worse. For example, those with severe mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violent crime, have poor physical health, and a life expectancy up to 25 years shorter than that of the general population; in fact, mental illness now accounts for nearly half of all ill health suffered by people under the age of 65, and it is more disabling than most chronic physical disease. Yet only a quarter of those involved are in any form of treatment. The hidden costs of this to the economy in terms of lost employment and productivity are immense, at an estimated £105 billion, which is more than the entire NHS budget.
Despite this, only 13% of NHS funds are devoted to the treatment of mental health issues—and I have to question the efficacy and the appropriateness of some of the ways in which that money is being spent. For example, we know from the Health and Social Care Information Centre that prescriptions for anti-depressants are rising. In fact, the NHS in England spent more than £270 million on anti-depressants in 2011—a massive 23% increase on 2010. The NHS spent almost £1 million a week more on these drugs than the year before, resulting in a startling 46.7 million prescriptions a year. Can the Minister explain how this is happening against a background of a national programme to increase access to psychological therapies, which the evidence supports as being far more effective? While we are on the subject, how is increasing access to psychological therapies making a difference for people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds? I fear that even after decades of lobbying Governments of all persuasions to address the disproportionately poor outcomes of people from black and minority ethnic communities in mental health services in Britain, there continues to be little progress with adults and young people. There are some notable successes, such as Open Mind in Leicester, but on the whole the situation is extremely poor.
We know from the Count Me In census, which for the first time collected statistics on ethnic minorities in mental health services, that there are stark differences in access, experience and outcomes for minority ethnic groups in terms of mental health. In fact, some groups of young black men are up to 18 times more likely to be admitted to a mental health ward than their white counterparts. There are also significantly disproportionate numbers for black and minority ethnic women.
These are extremely worrying figures but they are not the only ones. The coalition Government’s own No Health Without Mental Health strategy shows that 20% of children and young people are believed to have a mental health problem. That is a fifth of all children, but we do not know how many of those young people are from a black and minority ethnic background. Given what we know about the breakdown of disorders for black and minority ethnic adults, surely it is unacceptable that these data are not available for minority ethnic children and young people. Can the Minister urgently look into this area and rectify what is obviously a glaring omission? In fact, I would welcome a commitment to gathering these data so that we can get a full picture and be better equipped to start doing something about these gross inequalities. This is vital because I fear that, without proper attention to these issues, the services for black and minority ethnic adults and young people will only get worse, especially against the background of the current upheaval caused by the NHS reforms.
The impact of this disruption within the NHS can also be seen by the fact that Section 117 services, which are for the most vulnerable mental health service users, are under threat again in the Care Bill. I was very dismayed to see that the Government have chosen to return to this issue, given that we have already dealt with it under the Health and Social Care Act. As noble Lords will recall from previous debates, Section 117 of the Mental Health Act concerns the provision of aftercare services for people leaving treatment after a period of detention in hospital. The Government finally accepted our amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill that these vital services should be preserved, and yet here we are again facing significant changes to the definition of aftercare that will in effect remove these services from many people. Clause 68(5) of the Care Bill introduces for the first time a statutory definition of “after-care services”, which I and others believe is too restrictive and could generate complex legal disputes over whether a service should be provided under Section 117. I fail to see the Government’s rationale for this and will be seeking answers from the Minister about the impact of these changes during the passage of the Bill.
Care of the vulnerable should surely be at the forefront of our efforts. I would have thought that after everything that happened at Winterbourne View we should be much more focused on preventing harms. What have we done since the scandal of Winterbourne View? For example, at the time, the case refocused the spotlight on the appropriateness of restraint and physical intervention as an approach to managing challenging behaviour. The review into the failings recommended that the Government should consider banning the use of certain forms of restraint on patients with learning disabilities. Can the Minister update us on the Government’s progress in meeting this recommendation?
However, this issue does not concern only those with learning disabilities. It would be fair to say that the approach to restraint has been confusing and shambolic within the mental health sector as a whole. Many providers do not carry out risk assessment of techniques. If we are to develop appropriate regulations and consistent training for staff, work urgently needs to be done, by appropriate medical experts, on the likelihood and probability of physical and psychological harm with regard to each restraint technique in each position. Restraint is a physical intervention and should be seen as such; therefore, like all other physical interventions, it should be based on evidence of efficacy, safety and acceptability. Is it not time that this issue is reviewed by NICE and clear recommendations made, based on evidence? Finally, the Care Quality Commission should review its actions and ensure that a robust inspection process is in place that covers not only the process of restraint in care homes but the training that staff receive.
In conclusion, I am calling on the Government to take this opportunity to do more to address the inequalities in mental health for black and minority ethnic communities, adults and young people alike; to hold to their commitment to protect aftercare services, as defined by Section 117 of the Mental Health Act; and to bring forward actions to ensure appropriate use of restraint and physical intervention across mental health and learning disability services. I would like to see a clear commitment by the Government to take action within this parliamentary Session to tackle these issues. Without such action, we could be heading towards a crisis point and once again placing some of the most vulnerable people in our communities at real risk.
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
My Lords, first, I pay tribute to the impressive number of speakers in today’s debate, and the quality and range of the topics covered. I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, the noble Viscount, Lord Ridley, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester on their wise and inspirational maiden speeches. I know that we all look forward to their future contributions with considerable interest.
There is a new enthusiasm in social media for the concept of crowdsourcing. We could do worse than apply this principle to the contributions today, because if we amalgamated all the proposals made by your Lordships we would have a much more substantial Queen’s Speech than the rather timid mouse of a legislative programme that we have been debating today. It seems that the Government cannot raise much enthusiasm for their own programme. We have already heard that the coalition is split on the legislation to increase staff/child ratios in nurseries, and now the Prime Minister himself is saying that he is relaxed about Back-Benchers amending his own legislative programme. What kind of leadership is this for the country at this time?
The country is crying out for leadership and action to tackle the 1 million young people out of work, the fall in family living standards, the lowest number of new home completions since the 1920s, inflated energy bills while energy companies’ profits rise, and the health service creaking at the seams. A Government on top of their game would be laying substantial proposals in front of us to tackle these issues head on.
What conclusions can we draw about the rather insubstantial policy offerings that we are debating here today? First, a number of the proposals make extra demands on local services that are not matched by additional local support. Local government is already struggling with a 33% cut in central government funding, and the projections are worse. For example, my noble friends Lord Hunt and Lady Wheeler, and others, have made challenging analyses of the Care Bill and raised some vital questions. Underpinning these issues, the Local Government Association estimates that there has already been a cut of £1.89 billion in social care funding, and more cuts in services are planned. It is a cruel deceit to suggest that social care provision can be modernised and integrated when the funding is not in place to make this a reality.
We support the principle set out in the Bill of capping care costs and giving family carers more support, although we share Andrew Dilnot’s concern that the cap is being set too high. There is concern that the Bill does not address the daily struggle of those seeking support right now. What reassurance can the Minister give to those people about the current and future funding necessary to deliver a modern, integrated care system?
On the issue of public health, rightly raised by a number of noble Lords today, I hope the Minister can reassure us that measures on plain tobacco packaging and minimum alcohol pricing will form part of the “other measures” to be laid before us in due course.
Secondly, on welfare reform, the Government appear determined to push on with the scapegoating of vulnerable people, including the disabled and unemployed, as well as of low-paid working families who are seeing their incomes cut. We have heard today how this is distorting public attitudes towards these groups. Meanwhile, the Government are doing nothing to raise families out of poverty. The Work Programme is failing to get the long-term unemployed into work, and the implementation of the universal credit system is beset by delays and problems.
We believe that, as a start, every young person who is out of work for more than a year should be offered a job guarantee to avoid a deskilled and demotivated generation losing faith in the prospects of fulfilling work. We would also introduce a compulsory paid job, linked to benefit entitlement, for every adult who was out of work for more than two years. Can the Minister explain what new proposals the Government have for creating meaningful work opportunities for young people and the long-term unemployed that might match this policy?
The one area of welfare reform that gives us some optimism is the Pensions Bill. I would be interested to know whether the Minister shares the views expressed in the insightful contributions of my noble friends Lady Hollis and Lady Drake in this regard, and whether he accepts their concerns about its potential implementation.
Thirdly, the Government are neglecting the country’s children by failing to invest in their economic, social and physical well-being. The recent report of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has concluded that, by 2015, the number of children living in absolute poverty will rise by 900,000 to 3 million and that, by the end of the decade, 3.4 million children—about one in four—will find themselves in relative poverty. This reverses all the progress made by the previous Government in tackling child poverty and is a real indictment of the callousness of this Government. Instead of reaching the target for rates of child poverty that are no higher than 5%, they will oversee an increase to levels of 27%. Is tackling child poverty still a priority for this Government and do they still intend to take the original targets seriously?
A further example of the Government’s disregard for the welfare of young children is the ill conceived plan to increase child/staff ratios for nurseries, an issue that has been raised by several noble Lords. We said at the outset that such an increase would threaten the quality of childcare while being unlikely to reduce childcare costs, and this view is now echoed among professionals in the sector.
We are grateful that, rather belatedly, the Deputy Prime Minister is beginning to raise the same concerns. What is the status of this flagship policy now? Are the Government going to press ahead despite the overwhelming concerns expressed? When are we likely to see the carry-over Children and Families Bill in this House? I am sure that a large number of my colleagues would like to contribute to that debate. Perhaps the Minister can enlighten us as to the proposed timetable.
The Government’s disregard for the physical health and well-being of children is all too well illustrated by their policy on school sports. Under the previous Government’s school sport partnerships, the proportion of children taking part in weekly sport increased from one in four to more than 90%. As we have heard today from my noble friend Lady Billingham, the Government’s decision to unravel this provision, followed by a partial U-turn, has left a fragmented and underfunded service with no funding guarantees. That this should happen in the aftermath of our stunning Olympic success is a real tragedy. School and community sport need long-term funding commitments and an integrated programme if we are ever to repeat our global sporting success. Perhaps the Minister could enlighten us as to what plans the Government now have for how that might be achieved.
Another way in which Michael Gove has let down this country’s young people is his failure to grasp the importance of the arts and creativity in education. His tenure has been marked by grand announcements and policy shifts followed by rethinks and retreat. Not surprisingly, as described by my noble friend Lord Puttnam, Mr Gove has had a demoralising effect on the whole teaching profession. The example of the proposed EBacc was a case in point, with no status given to art, music and drama in the original proposals. The new curriculum proposals represent only a partial reprieve and the whole redesign of the curriculum has been marked by secrecy and intrigue when it should have been an open and transparent national debate about appropriate learning for the next generation of young people. Incidentally, confidence in the Government’s proposals is not helped by Michael Gove’s admission that research he recently quoted about children’s knowledge came from Premier Inn and UKTV Gold studies. Could the Minister explain how the new curriculum proposals will be debated in this House and what opportunity will exist for a real input into the final design?
The cultural legacy of the next generation is being squandered in so many ways, not just through the failings of education. The Secretary of State at DCMS has belatedly and ineffectively caught up with the economic contribution of the arts but fails to address the wider contribution, which is about our identity, ability to express ourselves, and health and well-being as a nation. This point was eloquently made by a number of noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, whose impressive maiden speech we have all applauded and whose godfather’s centenary I celebrated only last week. The Arts Council has been struggling with the burden of 30% cuts, with more to come, and local authority arts funding is being cut, sometimes to the bone. Nothing in the Queen’s Speech gives any comfort or optimism to those who see the potential of a strong local, regional and national arts presence in the UK.
A number of noble Lords raised concerns about the delay in implementing Leveson and the process of resolving the two competing royal charters. I share these concerns. Similarly, there has been a gaping silence where the communications Bill might be. We have been promised and promised again a White or Green Paper, but deadlines come and go and nothing has materialised. We need urgent action to protect children and tackle the highly concentrated and monopolistic nature of the industry. Can the Minister tell us when the communications Bill might be expected?
Finally, what kind of legacy do the Government offer young people on the environment? Whatever happened to the heady days of claiming to be the “greenest Government ever”? Who can remember the last time the Prime Minister even mentioned the green agenda positively? Not surprisingly, the Government’s proposals hold out little hope for those of us who care about these issues. Meanwhile, as CO2 emissions reach record levels, Tory MEPs have just sabotaged attempts to reform the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the Chancellor is continuing to veto the introduction of a decarbonisation target in the Energy Bill. Can the Minister explain why, against this backdrop, consumers are faced with soaring energy bills while the profits of the energy companies continue to rise? How will the Government address the powerful critiques from several noble Lords of their failure to implement effective market reform in this area?
In conclusion, there have been many more thoughtful contributions today and I am sorry that I have not been able to reference them all. I am sure that the Minister will prove more skilled than I am at that. As I said at the outset, we have the makings in this debate of an alternative Queen’s Speech that could prove to be radical and exciting. I have certainly learnt a great deal and taken copious notes. I hope that, in the aftermath of the next election, we on this side of the House will be able to produce a Queen’s Speech that rather more successfully addresses the challenges of the nation that we have debated today.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe)
My Lords, it is one of the glories of the debate on the gracious Speech that it engenders a wealth of varied and expert contributions from all quarters of the House. Correspondingly, it falls to the lot of the responding Minister to try to do justice to those contributions. Because of the large number of speakers today and the limited time available to me, I hope that noble Lords will understand if the justice that I do is of a rather rougher nature than I would ideally like, but I undertake to respond in writing to those noble Lords whose questions I have been unable to cover.
I cannot, however, omit to compliment our three maiden speakers on their contributions, which so lit up this debate—the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, on the economic and wider societal benefits of music and the arts; my noble friend Lord Ridley on the importance of affordable energy to economic growth; and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester on religious education and social well-being. The right reverend Prelate has asked me to say that he has been called back to his diocese on a very urgent matter. The House listened with admiration to all three, and we look forward to their participation in our proceedings in future.
It is perhaps natural for me to begin with the Care Bill. I was grateful for the welcome accorded to the Bill by a number of speakers. As those noble Lords have highlighted, the Care Bill is essential to achieve a modern, clear and fair legal framework for care and support. There are issues which we shall doubtless debate in Committee. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, questioned why the cap on care costs in the Bill was set at £72,000. Of course, that is the equivalent of £60,000 in 2010-11 prices, when the Dilnot commission reported. Simply, the cap is set at that level to strike a balance between protecting social care users and public affordability. The same principle will apply to national minimum eligibility criteria, which were raised by several noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, and the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, and which will be published in draft following the announcement of the spending review settlement on 26 June.
The noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, raise the issue of overall funding of social care. I would like to believe that she does not begrudge what we have done. We have sought to prioritise adult care and support. This year, the NHS is transferring funds of £859 million to support adult social care services, which also have a health benefit. Alongside that, we have seen examples of local authorities redesigning services to find more efficient ways of using scarce resources.
A number of noble Lords, including my noble friend Lady Jolly and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, raised the issue of young carers. Both departments—of health and for education—are working closely with carer organisations and young carers themselves to consider how they can best be supported through legislation and other means. We do not, however, believe that the adult statute is the right place to make provision for children. The boundary between legislation for children and for adults ensures an appropriate distinction between what is expected of adults and of children.
The noble Lord, Lord Patel, raised the issue of free social care at the end of life. I hope that he will understand if I say simply at this juncture that I note that that idea has merit, as the Joint Committee on pre-legislative scrutiny concluded. The noble Lord, Lord Morris of Handsworth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, both raised the Ready for Ageing? report by the Select Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change. I thank the Select Committee for its thorough report, and the Government will respond in due course.
The Care Bill also sets out critical elements of the Government’s response to the findings of Robert Francis QC, which are vital to delivering our commitment to ensuring that patients are,
“the first and foremost consideration of the system and everyone who works in it”.
In that context, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, questioned why we are not merging Monitor and the Care Quality Commission. The answer is that those bodies have different functions. The Care Quality Commission’s need to address quality and highlight features of care should not be conflated with Monitor’s responsibility to oversee the turnaround of failing NHS providers.
The criminal offence of providing false and misleading information was also raised. Perhaps I need to make clear that it applies to all care providers. However, as the Francis report identified that distortions to mortality rates are most significant, we plan to limit the application of the offence through regulations to provision of this kind of information.
On the issue of criminal sanctions for individuals, there are already existing routes for prosecution through the Health and Safety Executive, the corporate manslaughter Act and the laws of negligence. In future, when the new Chief Inspector of Hospitals identifies criminally negligent practice, they will refer the matter to the Health and Safety Executive to consider whether prosecution is necessary.
The lack of reference to minimum alcohol pricing and standardised tobacco packaging in the Care Bill has been mentioned by a number of noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Jones of Whitchurch and Lady Morgan of Drefelin, and the noble Lords, Lord MacKenzie of Culkein and Lord Patel. Introducing either of these measures would be very significant. We are actively looking at them both but we are determined to take the time to consider all the available evidence, rather than rushing to legislate. I look forward to further debates on the issues covered by the Care Bill with the many noble Lords who are expert in these areas.
On other health issues, my noble friend Lord Colwyn raised dental foundation training. My figures are that in this year’s recruitment, only 33 out of 1,000 applicants failed to secure dental foundation training places. We are committed to improving the process but this is a competitive process open to others including, noticeably, EU graduates. The noble Lord, Lord Turnberg, raised the issue of early identification of dementia. The Government are introducing a new enhanced service as part of the GP contract for 2013-14, rewarding practices for early identification of dementia. My noble friend Lady Barker asked about social enterprises. The Department of Health’s Social Enterprise Investment Fund has invested almost £110 million in 650 organisations, while over 10% of community health services are now provided by social enterprises through the “right to provide” programme.
The noble Lord, Lord Patel of Bradford, spoke powerfully about mental health. We are investing over £400 million to give thousands of people, in all areas of the country, access to NICE-approved psychological therapies. The mandate to NHS England makes clear that “everyone who needs it” should have,
“timely access to evidence-based services. This will involve extending and ensuring more open access to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies … programme, in particular for children and young people, and for those out of work”.
Finally on health, the issue of charges for migrants was raised by a number of noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. Such charging was actually welcomed by the shadow Secretary of State for Health in yesterday’s debate in the other place. Our approach is simply to ensure that everyone who uses NHS services contributes. We are seeking to do that in a way that will be simple for services to be provided and will be consulting on the details in the summer.
Just as care and support needs reforming, so fundamental reform to state pensions is vital in order to have a system fit to meet future challenges. This is taken forward by the Pensions Bill. The single-tier pension will deliver simplicity, introducing a flat-rate state pension for future pensioners that is set above the basic means test to provide a clear foundation for retirement. I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Hollis and Lady Drake, and my noble friend Lord Stoneham for their words of support for these crucial reforms. The noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, stressed the need to consider healthy life expectancy when looking at state pension age. The Pensions Bill introduces a regular review of the state pension age. The guiding principle of that review will be that individuals should spend a given proportion of their lives drawing a state pension but other factors are important. An independently-led body will consider and report on other relevant factors, which could include variations in healthy life expectancy and regional variations in life expectancy.
My noble friend Lord Stoneham remarked on the difficulty of the ending of contracting-out for defined benefit schemes as a consequence of these reforms. The Government recognise that this is the case; that is why the Pensions Bill contains a statutory override to help employers make any necessary changes. The noble Baroness, Lady Drake, spoke of the importance of the single-tier pension in a world where employees will be automatically enrolled into workplace pension schemes. She mentioned the importance of the single-tier pension retaining its value relative to earnings. The Pensions Bill includes provisions which mean that the single-tier pension will be annually uprated by at least earnings.
I shall turn briefly to the water Bill. The water industry has come a long way since privatisation, using private sector investment to deliver major improvements in infrastructure and the environment, but we are now facing unprecedented pressures on our water resources as a result of growing population and changing weather patterns. Doing nothing is not an option. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, suggested that the water Bill fails to deal with public affordability. However, the Bill will increase resilience, efficiency and innovation in the water sector, which will keep customer bills affordable. My noble friend Lord Redesdale raised sustainability. Ofwat has had a statutory duty to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development since 2003. We are supplementing this by introducing a new primary duty to secure the long-term resilience of our water services.
On issues around culture and media, I agree with my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones regarding the importance of creative industries and the contribution of arts and culture to our society. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, talked of the excellent returns of investment in the arts. The Government are committed to the creative industries as a vital part of our strategy for growth.
I shall conclude with remarks on two Bills carried over from the previous Session. The Children and Families Bill will transform the system for children and young people with special educational needs, reduce delay in the adoption system and reform childcare to ensure the system focuses on providing safe, high-quality care and early education for children. A number of noble Lords, including my noble friends Lady Barker, Lady Jolly and Lord McCall and the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, raised issues which demonstrate their real expertise in this area. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, my noble friends Lord Storey and Lady Walmsley and other noble Lords raised the important issue of childcare. We strongly agree that we need to do more to encourage high-quality, better paid professionals in the sector. Our proposals will help to attract more talented people into the profession by making it easier for providers to pay better wages. I hope I can offer some reassurance. The Government’s proposed new ratios bring us into line with practice in countries such as France and the Netherlands, both of which operate with less restrictive ratios combined with better qualified and better paid professionals. We want to give providers in this country these same freedoms to improve the quality of staff. The new ratios will be available only to those providers who employ highly qualified staff. We have consulted on the qualification thresholds and are considering the responses. We will be publishing the response soon.
As the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, so rightly said, nothing has more impact on children’s achievement than the quality of teaching they receive. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education is raising the bar for new teachers, supporting existing teachers to improve and creating teaching schools which model and share outstanding practice. In response to the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, I must stress that our ambitions and these critical improvements are for all children and all schools. The steady stream of applications to set up new free schools demonstrates the continuing demand from parents for a greater choice of schools within their communities. The success of the academies programme is something for which the Government do not apologise. We make no apology for our investment in a programme which is proven to drive up standards and make long-term school improvements. We want as many as possible to take advantage of the significant benefits that academy status brings.
The noble Baroness, Lady Billingham, and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, spoke of the importance of the Olympic legacy in schools. We entirely agree that we must harness the sporting spirit of 2012 for all our young people. That is why the Department for Education is providing £150 million per year and reintroducing competitive sport into the heart of the curriculum. By doing that, we can achieve an Olympic legacy in our schools of which we can be proud.
A number of noble Lords spoke about the review of the national curriculum. The noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, and the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, are concerned that the breadth of education is important. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester raised the importance of religious education in schools, my noble friend Lady Miller asked about the teaching of nutrition and my noble friend Lady Benjamin highlighted the importance of Shakespeare. The aim of the curriculum review is to enable a focus on the essential subject knowledge that all young people should acquire to be educated citizens while freeing up teachers to use their professional judgment about what to teach beyond that core and how to teach in a way that will inspire and challenge their pupils.
Finally, the Energy Bill seeks to reform the electricity market by ensuring security of supply, reducing our emissions by transition to low-carbon generation and doing all of this at the lowest cost to the consumer. I am grateful for the contributions of many noble Lords more expert than I in this area, including my noble friend Lord Jenkin of Roding. The noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, and my noble friend Lord Crickhowell raised the slow progress of energy reforms. These reforms are complex and it takes time to work through them with stakeholders. Therefore I hope that the Energy Bill will progress quickly through your Lordships’ House.
The issue of shale gas was raised by a number of noble Lords, including my noble friend Lord Ridley. The Government have set up the Office for Unconventional Gas and Oil. In the Budget, the Chancellor announced plans to incentivise shale gas development in the UK.
The noble Lord, Lord Donoughue, questioned the scientific orthodoxy on climate change. The Government are committed to implementing the Climate Change Act 2008. This commits us to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. It also sets the long-term framework for planning about which my noble friend Lord Redesdale is rightly concerned.
It is a pity that I do not have time to respond to many of today’s excellent contributions, including those of my noble friend Lord Bridgeman, the noble Lord, Lord MacKenzie, on nursing, the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, on autism, the noble Lord, Lord Noon, on higher education, and the noble Lord, Lord Best, and my noble friend Lord Kirkwood on housing. I could name many more. However, in such a relatively short speech, it is challenging to do justice to a debate of this diversity and length. As I mentioned, where possible I will write in response to other questions that were put today. I look forward to future debates on all the measures announced in the gracious Speech and I commend the programme to the House.