Housebuilding Targets

Baroness Browning Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend is right that there is no planning officer tree out there that we can go and pick planning officers from—I wish there were. Highly skilled planners are fundamental to running a proactive, efficient planning service for the communities they serve and ensuring that new developments are well-designed and facilitate local growth. We have set up a scheme with the Local Government Association to make sure that we are recruiting and training 300 graduate and apprentice planners, and encouraging some of the planners who have stepped out of the public planning sector to come back in wherever possible. That has proved successful so far, and we hope we will continue to increase recruitment at a level that will support planning for local authorities.

[Baroness Browning (Con)]

My Lords, has the Minister had discussions about the landholdings owned by the Church Commissioners and the Duchy of Cornwall, something very important in the West Country? Is there going to be equal compliance on those landholdings as elsewhere in the country?

[Lord Aberdare (CB)]

My Lords—

Social Care Strategy

Baroness Browning Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Browning (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, on bringing this debate to the House today. I wish the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, a warm welcome and congratulate her on her maiden speech.

I hold a lasting power of attorney for a younger close relative who has had a local authority package of care for over 20 years and in recent years we privately funded a homecare package for my husband, who had Alzheimer’s. So I speak from what they call now the “lived experience”. So I first say thank you to all those who work in the social care sector—and, to the Government, here are my 10 priorities for a bit of activity now that they are in office.

First, there are not enough carers—we know that. Please make this a priority. Stop talking about integrating health and social care—just make sure that it is happening. Look at where it works and where it does not; legislate if necessary. It is a postcode lottery. Put in place, through primary care, a system where those reaching the fragility of old age, or diagnosed with a disease—I am thinking particularly of dementia—are not just left to deteriorate at home without some overview.

With regard to carers, there are many vulnerable people who have no carers at all—not even relatives. Do not wait for a crisis before they come into contact with health. It will cost a lot more. For those who have carers, flag them up on GP and hospital records. Unpaid carers often get ill themselves—often brought on by exhaustion. Please stop sending very elderly people to hospital unnecessarily and then keeping them there for days or even weeks on end. Not every fall on to a carpet needs an A&E admission. Please keep people at home where possible.

A comprehensive, fairly funded care policy has been promised by all Governments but never delivered—please do it. Anyone who thinks that the country cannot afford it will soon find out what it costs their family when they need it. Please consider the plight of couples where one partner uses up all the savings on care and the second person is left with virtually no financial means at all. Please consider—I know this is a Conservative idea—using tax relief as an incentive, not a penalty, to help resolve the financial challenge of a social care policy. Please try and make out-of-home placements as local as possible, particularly where children are affected. This is more important than looking for the cheapest option.

Ten years for a plan—which I believe is what is proposed—or even a Royal Commission, is far too long. Do not say, “Nothing can be done until everything is done”. Be brave—that is what those needing care have to be every day.