Public Sector Productivity
Baroness Blake of Leeds Excerpts(2 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, for securing this important debate and for her opening remarks. I thank all noble Lords for their contributions. I could clearly spend at least 12 of my minutes on each contribution, so I apologise in advance for the fact that I will not be able to get to everyone. However, there will be many opportunities going forward to discuss this important area.
It is clear that we all agree there are substantial opportunities to improve public health sector productivity and efficiency and that we want the Government to do as much as possible to harness it. This is a complex and cross-cutting challenge involving major culture changes, as the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, indicated at the start, and has the potential to significantly reform the way in which we deliver our public services and improve value for the taxpayer.
In response to the noble Lord, Lord Patten, I think the jury is out concerning working from home. It is clear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach; there is an expectation of a minimum of 60% of office workers working in the workplace, but there are so many aspects to consider.
The Government have been quite clear and open about the grave challenges facing our public finances. Our public services are facing immense pressures, with prisons overflowing, the NHS in a critical state and local government under huge financial pressure. We have also said that we will need to make some tough choices to overcome these challenges.
Alongside those grave pressures, the Government are also aware of the inherited challenge of improving public sector productivity. As we have heard, public service productivity, as at quarter 1 2024, remains 6.4% below pre-pandemic levels. I have to be honest: there was not a plan from the previous Government, and we need to put one in place. We know that the ONS will have a vital role to play in tracking public service productivity. The IFS says that the direct impact of the pandemic cannot explain the continued failure of productivity in these areas.
The Government have already taken decisive action to protect our public services and tackle waste. As an immediate first step in her first month, the Chancellor announced a decisive set of measures to eliminate waste in the public sector and move the agenda forward. The Government accepted the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies to resolve long-standing industrial action across a number of sectors, which obviously brought their own significant economic cost. I do not think that we need to make any apology for taking that swift action, stopping chaos for the public and ensuring that public services get back to operating as efficiently as possible.
Thirdly, the Government commissioned reviews of key public services, including the NHS, to ensure that we fully understand the scale of the challenges that the Government have inherited. However, it will take a long time to truly recover our public services, and it requires a relentless focus on eliminating waste, delivering reform and improving public sector productivity.
A more productive public sector means that we can deliver higher-quality public services, achieving greater value for money, and move towards improving our economy—a win-win for everyone. This is why, in launching the spending review, the Chancellor set out her approach to reforming public services. The first idea is around the mission-led approach to government, changing the way in which government works and allowing different departments to come together and work together to tackle issues of common concern. Most importantly, it is about putting citizens at the heart of the Government’s work and delivering long-term ambitious outcomes that make a meaningful difference to people’s lives. We so often forget that sense of purpose in what we are here to do.
I understand the comments that the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, made about investment. We will allow for separate treatment of investment spending, with investment being recognised as vital to our growth strategy. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Addington, for his very moving speech, as always. This debate, as I said, is about better outcomes for people and making sure that their considerations are brought in at every opportunity.
The next area covered by the Chancellor is around prevention. Preventive public services are obviously better for the public. Early intervention in the life cycle of any problem can be life-changing or indeed even life-saving. That is why the Government will focus on prevention and early intervention to support better outcomes across our public services, reducing the long-term spending pressures facing services such as the NHS, as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, so eloquently outlined, referencing the recent report from the noble Lord, Lord Darzi. It is about intervening early and detecting health problems, resolving them more easily and stopping them from deteriorating and causing more suffering as well as being more expensive to treat. We have a terrible situation while we are not investing in our communities and young people, which is leading to an increased risk of criminality later in life, at incredible cost to the public purse.
We have to acknowledge the comments from the noble Lord, Lord Patel, around capital spend and quality of services, which is absolutely fundamental. How could I not reference the noble Lord, Lord Elliott, a fellow Leeds loiner? I am very pleased to welcome him into the Chamber. I do not have time to address all the questions that he asked, but I steer him towards our “make work pay” commitments and how we will bring partnership work in to deliver on the issues that he so eloquently raised.
The third way in which the Government intend to reform public services is by harnessing the power of digital data and technology across the public sector. Our vision is for a modern, digital and tech-enabled Government who give citizens a more satisfying experience and help to turbocharge economic growth. To do this we have already started conducting rapid pieces of work to identify the greatest opportunity areas in the public sector for digital and AI. This work will help to inform the decisions that we are making at the spending review.
The noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, raised some incredibly important issues around skills, the change in the modern workplace and what we need to bring in to address that, working right through the education system—starting now with children through early years, primary and secondary, and into their college choices. She raised a fundamental point about the damage that—I am afraid—the party opposite did in government with the narrowing of the education curriculum. I can only reference the really important work that has been done by bringing music into schools and the direct relationship with maths skills, for example. Partly because of my background, of course, I stress that we already have many examples of service reform from across local government.
I know first-hand from my time leading Leeds City Council the powerful impact that targeted prevention can have. I am talking about pre-Covid days here. For example, in Leeds, we took the proactive decision to focus on early intervention and support. By doing this, in the area of children’s services, the council not only safely reduced the number of children going into care but made significant financial savings. This is proof of the benefits a prevention-first approach can have for individuals, communities, the taxpayer and, particularly in this case, children and families and the futures they bring together. There are so many other examples of this. We need to look and learn.
In conclusion, a more productive public sector means that we can deliver high-quality public services, achieve greater value for money, and move towards improving people’s lives—a win-win for everyone. It is through targeted action across all of these areas that we will make a lasting improvement to public sector productivity. Of course, the growth mission will be at the heart of everything that we do in this area.
I refer noble Members to the fact that we have an upcoming Budget at the end of this month. We need to look at this carefully. Most importantly, we have the promise of a multi-year spending review early next year. For too long, I am afraid, under the previous Government, all the public sector organisations had to rely on annual projections budgets. It is not a sustainable way to deliver good-quality public services. Value for money is important. Improving quality of life has to be absolutely paramount and needs to be central to the drive for change and improvement that we are striving to achieve.
There will be opportunity for more debate, but the Government are already putting things in place: establishing a new office of value for money; bringing in planning reforms; developing Skills England and, importantly, our industrial strategy; and, as I have said, the importance of the mission approach, particularly in this case the growth mission.
Bus Fares: National Cap
Baroness Blake of Leeds Excerpts(2 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Lord Moylan
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they plan to continue the national £2 cap on bus fares, which is scheduled to end on 31 December.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
Making fares more affordable for bus passengers is one of the Government’s top priorities, as we know how important it is for those passengers. The Government are looking at the future of the national bus fare cap as a matter of urgency and considering the most appropriate and affordable approach for the future of the scheme.
Lord Moylan (Con)
My Lords, the Minister must know that if a decision is not made very quickly, almost immediately, the bus companies will not be able to implement the policy from 31 December. Is this another one of those questions which is caught up in the pantomime of chaos in Downing Street? Why should passengers suffer because the Government cannot make a timely decision?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
Honestly, I do not recognise any of the pantomime within the Department for Transport. This is one of its top priorities. Extra resource is being put into the department to deal with it. The department knows how important it is that local authorities working with their partners can deliver this and how popular it is. But the noble Lord is right that the scheme finishes in December 2024. The outcome was delayed before the election, but I can assure him that the department is treating this as an absolute top priority.
Baroness Randerson (LD)
My Lords, the numbers travelling by bus outside London have declined significantly in recent years. As a priority, we need to get young people back on buses because they need access to those buses for jobs and education. Does the most appropriate and affordable scheme that the Minister refers to include a standard reduced youth fare, or even a scheme for free fares for young people?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The most important aspect in taking this forward is that it is for local determination. The money going to local authorities is not ring-fenced; they are able to look at different schemes for their particular localities. In areas where youth schemes have been brought in, they have been very successful—look at how Greater Manchester is moving forward, with an increase in passengers. I hope we can roll it out across the country.
Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-Afl)
My Lords, can the Minister say if the Government are taking any particular action with respect to coastal and rural communities? The noble Baroness remarked that young people need access to travel to get to work, and yet the infrastructure is completely destroyed in some of these areas.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
Rural communities come up all the time when we are talking about bus services. I have lived in the wilds of the Yorkshire Dales in the past and I know exactly how important it is. But the important thing is that local determination can highlight priorities, and we know how much the bus cap has helped rural communities over the last few months. This is something that will be of great concern as we consider how we take it forward.
Lord Watts (Lab)
My Lords, most of the money that comes to the bus companies in income is derived from the public purse. Will the Minister make sure that we get value for money for the taxpayers and stop bus companies ripping us off?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
My noble friend hits on a very sensitive and important issue. Value for money must be driven throughout any scheme that we come up with, and that is one of the top priorities of the work that is happening as we speak.
Lord Shipley (LD)
My Lords, the Minister said that the department was working very hard to get a solution to this important problem. Can she put a better timescale on that, given that there are only a few weeks to go before the current funding scheme comes to an end? Are the Government holding this for a nice, hopeful announcement on Budget Day?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
Of course the Budget is an important consideration as we go forward, and we know that it is coming up very soon. I assure the noble Lord that work is carrying on at the moment. More capacity has gone into the department to deal with this; it knows that the clock is ticking and how important it is that a decision is made.
Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)
My Lords, the previous Government recognised that in rural areas it is sometimes very difficult to have a traditional bus service. That is why we invested millions of pounds in demand-responsive transport. Will the new Labour Government look favourably on that mode of transport?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
At the moment, all options are on the table. The noble Baroness will remember our conversations during Covid about working with the operators and the local authorities. There are so many aspects of this, and nothing is off the table. We are looking at the history and at how we can take things forward.
Lord Snape (Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister accept that, for once, we have had a sensible suggestion from the Opposition Front Bench? Does she agree with me that reducing the £2 fare to £1 and extending it, which would help passengers and bus companies, could very easily be paid for by taking the £2 billion or so needed from the roads budget? This would enable the noble Lord who asked the Question to rattle on again about the war on motorists.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I think it is above my pay grade to talk about the outcome of the Budget discussions that are taking place. This is a critical moment, with the Budget at the end of October. All these factors must be taken into account in looking at value for money and how we can get the best bus services. We must not forget that the reason we are doing this is for the passengers. Buses are so important for our communities. They are lifelines for people going to work and meeting up with their loved ones; they are an essential service which I am afraid has fallen foul of the price of profitability in too many cases.
Lord Berkeley (Lab)
My Lords, will my noble friend try to ensure that, when a decision is made on what kind of bus subsidy we have, there is a long-term element to it? It is very difficult for bus companies and their passengers if the services, frequency and fares change every few months, as they have done in recent years.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for that suggestion. I will certainly pass it on to the department for consideration.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)
Can the Minister confirm that there are no plans to take away special arrangements for elderly passengers on buses or other forms of transport?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I assume that the noble Baroness is referring to the English national concessionary travel scheme. We have absolutely no plans to withdraw it, reduce it or means-test it.
Lord Dubs (Lab)
My noble friend said that all options are on the table, which I welcome. Of those options, would she consider using her influence to ensure better co-ordination between buses and railways? I can give her nightmare examples of a lack of co-ordination. It would smooth things for passengers and improve the use of buses.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I completely agree with my noble friend. There is no point in having a regular train service if passengers cannot reach it by bus. It is always about the consideration of the last mile of a journey. If people get into their cars, they tend to stay there. It is a very important aspect that has been picked up by looking at the bus open data service. Bus companies sharing their data has been an enormous problem—anyone in the north of England knows that that helped prevent us bringing in an Oyster-style ticketing service across the north. It is crucial that we get this right and that all companies are obliged to share the information.
Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)
Could I press the noble Baroness further? She has given a very positive answer on concessionary fares for the elderly, but her response does not actually give a commitment to continue the £2 fare. Could she give a more positive answer about the timetable and an assurance that there will be no cliff edge from 31 December this year, particularly for young people and those living in rural areas who do not benefit from the concessionary fare, which has played such a positive role in rural transport?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I hope I made it clear that the success of the scheme is well recognised. We have to look at all aspects to make sure that it is sustainable going forward and that we do not have to return to this in the future. So many people depend on this and it is very popular. Of all the schemes that have come into place, this one is very well known; the public actually know about it and this has led to an increase in patronage. People have changed their habits from using other forms of transport to using the bus. In my view, it has been a real success.