Chinese Embassy

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cameron of Lochiel (Con)]

My Lords, it is deeply regrettable that this Urgent Question was not answered by the Security Minister in the other place, given that it was asked by the shadow Security Minister. In light of her significant experience in your Lordships’ House, the noble Baroness the Minister is of course aware that, here, Ministers answer for the whole Government and not just their department. Accordingly, when I go on to ask a question about security issues, I am sure that she will not disappoint us by saying that this is a live planning matter that cannot be commented on.

With that in mind, the United States has said that it is deeply concerned by the new Chinese mega-embassy, given its now-revealed secret rooms and its location. Can the Minister say whether our allies, including the United States, back the approval of the embassy?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, I do not want to disappoint the noble Lord, so I will say that it would not be appropriate to comment on a live planning application. He would expect me to say that and I say it on behalf of the whole Government, not just MHCLG. National security is the first duty of government more generally. All relevant planning considerations will be taken into account when making a decision in this case.

As the noble Lord knows, the Government regularly engage with representatives of foreign Governments, including the United States, to discuss a broad range of issues. Details of those discussions are not made public.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree with me that it is a material circumstance that this will be the largest Communist Party of China building in Europe? It will co-ordinate transnational repression in the United Kingdom and espionage on an industrial scale, including electronic and human surveillance, and initiate bounties on British passport holders resident here in the United Kingdom. When the Prime Minister visits Beijing, instead of congratulating China on having planning approval for its embassy, should he not inform the Chinese authorities that we will put China on the foreign influence registration scheme, prosecute those putting bounties on British passport holders resident in the UK and tighten international repression laws here in the United Kingdom?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I understand noble Lords’ frustration about our not yet being able to answer some of the questions about which material considerations have been taken into account, but they will be when we determine the application. This is a decision for planning Ministers, independent of the rest of government. Planning Ministers must take decisions following the quasi-judicial process that is completely right and correct for those decisions and based on evidence and planning rules. On transnational repression, we will not tolerate attempts by foreign Governments to coerce, intimidate, harass or harm their critics overseas, especially in the United Kingdom.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, can we now come to some degree of reality? Embassies are for relations between states; they do not imply approval of states. Furthermore, spying activities have emanated from embassies right the way back to ambassadors being expelled from this country for being part of plots to assassinate monarchs, let alone the regular expulsion of Russian spies from the Russian embassy. Can we be very clear about the size of the embassy? Large countries tend to have large embassies, and China is a very large country. That is just a fact. Can we deal with this practically rather than with overexaggeration?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend raises the size of the embassy. That will be taken into account by the decision-making Minister as a material planning consideration.

In relation to China’s presence in the UK, it already has seven diplomatic buildings in this country. It is not new for it to have a presence here; this is about a particular planning application for a new embassy. Decisions will be taken according to the material planning considerations. I am sorry; I know it sounds a bit like Groundhog Day, but I am afraid that is what you will get from me, whichever way the question is framed.

[Baroness Hoey (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, most Londoners know just how difficult it is to get a tiny little extension approved for the back of their house. Why on earth does a foreign embassy need such a huge building in such an important area? Even the United States of America does not have such a huge embassy. Aside from security issues, does she not agree that this is a ridiculous application?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Baroness has a view on that, but the Ministers taking the decision have to determine the application as it stands. The documents were submitted correctly to Tower Hamlets Council and the decision is now being considered in MHCLG. It is a decision for planning Ministers. It is open for any party to make representations about the case, the matter the noble Baroness raises or anything else. All relevant planning considerations will be taken into account when making the decision.

[Lord Kerr of Kinlochard (CB)]

I appreciate all the constraints, and any expertise that I had is extremely out of date, but does the Minister agree that it is conceivable that those responsible for keeping an eye on the Chinese embassy might prefer it to be concentrated on one site, rather than spread over eight, nine or 10 all over London?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, that is a matter for the security services and not for planning.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, the Minister is very keen on talking about material planning considerations, and she has already said that the size of the embassy is one of those. May I ask about one of the other planning considerations, which has caused a great deal of concern: the proximity of the embassy to important data infrastructure? In considering the material nature of the planning consideration, has a full risk analysis been carried out on this issue, who carried out that risk analysis, and were any mitigating issues suggested by that risk assessment?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

As is usual with a planning application, all interested parties were able to submit representations to the planning inquiry when that took place, and they have subsequently been able to submit representations to the department as it considered this application. There were submissions from the Foreign Office and the Home Office and I am sure that very due consideration will be paid to those, in the original process and as the matter moves forward.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

Mine is also a material planning question. Given the human rights abuses in China against the Uyghurs, the Tibetan people, the Hong Kongers and many others, large protests can be expected outside the embassy, and we surely want to facilitate those protests—the right for peaceful protest here in the UK. Police have expressed concern that the site is not appropriate for such protests. Is this being taken into consideration?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The police, like other interested parties, are able to submit their information to the planning inspector and, now, to the Minister who is making the decision. When the decision is taken—and my understanding is that the final decision will be made on or before 20 January—all the relevant submissions will be made public.

[Lord Cashman (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, as a resident of Tower Hamlets, I point out that the first Chinatown in the UK existed in the East End of London, not far from where the current building is proposed—a building that has been largely disused for approximately eight years. Therefore, does the Minister agree with me that the important issue here is that we apply and enforce the same laws and principles as we would with any other country?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend makes an important point: if we were considering this planning application for any embassy, we would consider it according to the propriety guidance that exists around planning applications, which is very strong, and strictly according to the material considerations that need to be taken into account for planning. That process is broad and wide and allows all interested parties to submit the information that they feel is relevant to the planning application. It is then for the decision-maker to decide which of those should influence their decision.

[Lord Sandhurst (Con)]

My Lords, we have been told that security is a planning issue—that it is relevant to it. What are the criteria by which security is to be measured in this context?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

There are two elements of security: one is the security of the building itself and the other is the security of the site. Where those are material planning considerations, they will be taken into account as they should be, as will any submissions from the Security Service, the police and others when the planning application is considered.

New Homes: Target

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in meeting their target of building 1.5 million new homes in England within this Parliament.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

We have always been clear that building 1.5 million homes, which is vital given that we inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory, is an ambitious target. It will require a rate of housebuilding and infrastructure construction not seen for more than 50 years. We recognise the scale of the challenge, and we are driving progress through bold planning reforms, including the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and a record £39 billion investment in social and affordable housing. Our bold planning reforms will drive UK housebuilding to the highest rate in 40 years.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome many of the Government’s planning reforms, but the OBR made it clear in November that they would not be enough to hit the target. Recent completions were at a nine-year low. Many sites with planning permission are no longer viable because of escalating costs, and where sites are viable, builders are reluctant to build out because of weak consumer demand—the Treasury, rather than the Minister’s department, is partly to blame for both those things. If the Government want to get close to the target, will they not have to have a discussion with developers and in conjunction with them bring forward a successor to previous schemes to help first-time buyers?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am pleased to tell the noble Lord that I have been given the buying and selling process in my portfolio very recently. I have been looking at it in great detail, and I had a meeting with developers yesterday as part of the New Towns Network on how we improve the buying and selling process. A great deal of work is going on in my department and with financial institutions to make sure that we make this process work for first-time buyers and others in the housing market.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, there are more than 250,000 empty homes in this country, and that number is rising. What are the Government doing to tackle that scourge of empty properties, as surely it is the quickest way of tackling some of the housing crisis that we face?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend is quite right to raise the issues around empty properties. Our Government have been working to make sure that we give councils the powers that they need to drive forward work on empty properties as quickly as possible. We will enable that with new powers for local councils through the planning process to make sure that they can add into the planning process dates for when completions are due.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, as the Minister will be aware, the area of our country where the housing crisis is most acute is where people are suffering in temporary accommodation. Many councils up and down the land are really in a bind about how to build their way out of this. What work is being done specifically to help councils to provide homes to move people out of temporary accommodation?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We have a target to eliminate the use of bed-and-breakfast accommodation for families by the end of this Parliament, except in emergencies. I recognise the problems that it causes for families. We have funding of £969 million for temporary accommodation over the next three years and £950 million for local authority housing funds to increase the supply of good-quality temporary accommodation, providing up to 5,000 homes. There will be increased support for children through a new duty on councils to notify schools, health visitors and GPs that a child is in temporary accommodation. We have to end this scourge of children living in temporary accommodation.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister mentioned her negotiations with housebuilders—I think it was just yesterday. We depend on those volume housebuilders to produce all the homes that we need. Can she reassure the House that in those negotiations she will not wish away any of the affordable housing that housebuilders are obliged to provide but so often fail to?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I can give the noble Lord that assurance. We are determined to make sure that, as we go through the process of building the 1.5 million homes, enough social and affordable housing is included in that target. He will know that I take particular care to not conflate the terms “affordable housing” and “social housing”; they are different things. We have to make sure that we do our best in that regard. From the £39 billion that we have allocated for affordable housing, 60% will be for social housing.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, local planning departments are often cited as a blockage to building more homes, yet fewer than 40% of those local authorities are operating with an adopted plan. As the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill moves through Parliament, what action are the Government taking to ensure that local government reorganisation, with its many new structures, planning powers and inevitable changes of political control, is not used as a delaying tactic to produce an up-to-date plan, which strong anecdotal evidence suggests is happening?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

It is essential that the local government reorganisation and devolution process does not hold up the production of local plans. My Government have made that absolutely clear and are following up with councils that have delayed local plans. Where the new strategic plans are being made, they can be made in spite of reorganisation, and the data used for them will be transferred as soon as the reorganisation arrangements are complete.

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

My Lords, I have listened carefully to the Minister about what the Government are doing, but we have a country with the number of planning permissions granted in the past 12 months at the lowest level since 2013 and construction costs rising by up to 40%. How are the Government now going to deliver the at least 1 million homes that the previous Tory Government did in their last term, let alone the promised 1.5 million in the next 3.5 years left in this Government?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

On buildout rates—the number of planning permissions in place that are not built out—I think we can look to the previous Government for the answer to that question. We are changing incentives in the housing market, giving local authorities the tools that they need to speed up delivery, requiring developers to commit to delivery timeframes and giving councils the power to refuse to consider applications from developers that consistently fail to build out quickly enough, as well as exploring a delayed homes penalty. As well as all the positive-side and demand-side incentives that we are putting in place, I think that will make the biggest change to housing delivery that we have seen in many generations.

[The Lord Bishop of Manchester]

My Lords, I am grateful for the answers that we have had, particularly around social rent and affordable rent. Does the Minister agree that we also need to make space for things such as community land trusts and other community-led social housing initiatives, which can often provide accommodation in particular niches and communities that is much more sensitive to the needs of local communities? They may not be volume builders, but I would urge that they have a vital part to play.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We need to take particular care to make sure that we use all the mechanisms to deliver some of the very specialised housing that the right reverend Prelate refers to. Some of those local trusts know exactly what is needed for their local communities. They do a fantastic job, and my Government want to support them through the funding that we are providing, as well as through any supporting measures in the planning reforms that we are bringing forward.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, is not a fundamental constraint on achieving construction output the depleted and ageing workforce in the building industry? Does that not therefore necessitate an expansion of off-site fabrication? That requires long-term planning, long-term financing and a regular flow of orders to be efficient. Will that not ultimately lead to a major council house building programme?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The funding in the £39 billion programme will see a great increase in the building of council homes, as will the ability of councils to use that funding as top-up funding for the 100% of receipts they can now keep from right-to-buy sales. My noble friend makes a good point on modern methods of construction. We need to boost their use. They are critical to improving productivity in the construction sector, delivering high-quality, energy-efficient homes more quickly, and creating new and diverse jobs in the sector.

[Lord Hampton (CB)]

My Lords, according to Historic England, up to 670,000 additional homes could be created through the repair and repurposing of existing historic buildings. Have the Government had any conversations with Historic England about this?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I do not know whether the noble Lord has yet had a chance to look at the new National Planning Policy Framework. We are, rightly, focusing attention on how we use the resource of historic and heritage buildings to deliver the kind of homes that we need. The National Planning Policy Framework is undergoing consultation; it is there for people to comment on, and if the noble Lord would like to put his comments into that, I would welcome them. Historic and heritage buildings are clearly an area that we need to examine in great detail to get towards the provision of 1.5 million homes that we know we need.

Building Safety Regulator (Establishment of New Body and Transfer of Functions etc.) Regulations 2026

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage]

That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 11 November be approved.

Relevant document: 44th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Considered in Grand Committee on 15 December.

Motion agreed.

National Plan to End Homelessness

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bird]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether new funding allocations to local authorities are sufficient to deliver the prevention commitments in the National Plan to End Homelessness.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, last week the Government launched their £3.5 billion national plan to end homelessness, a bold initiative informed by the voices of those with lived experience of homelessness and rough sleeping, as well as councils, mayors and homelessness organisations. Over £3 billion of that funding will go to local government through the local government finance settlement, with prevention at its core. The strategy is designed to tackle the root causes of homelessness alongside immediate action to help those experiencing homelessness now. It will bring an end to the current tension that forces councils to choose between investment in prevention and meeting temporary accommodation costs.

[Lord Bird (CB)]

With £2.8 billion spent on temporary accommodation in the last year by local authorities, forcing many of them towards bankruptcy, the £2.5 billion the Government have allocated, even if you look upon it as trying to cover the costs, is 28% short of the actual cost of temporary accommodation for local authorities. Are the Government going to do anything about allocating enough resources so that we do not have this situation where people are left on the streets because there is no temporary accommodation, and do not have the problem of our local authorities going bankrupt?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am grateful for all the work the noble Lord has done in this area. The Government are very aware of the challenges councils face due to the rising demand for temporary accommodation; it has been growing in recent years and is a real challenge for them. We are committed to considering the best way to sustainably fund good-quality temporary accommodation and reduce reliance on poor-quality provision. To support this, we are working across government, including with our colleagues in the DWP, in the interministerial group on homelessness and rough sleeping to explore the impacts of subsidy rates on local authorities. This week we will announce the local government finance settlement—the first multi-year settlement in a decade—giving councils the certainty they have repeatedly asked for to enable more spending on prevention and less on crisis management. That is the answer to this in the long term.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, the welcome national plan identifies newly recognised refugees leaving asylum support accommodation as being particularly vulnerable to homelessness, yet says nothing about the 28-day move-on period, although local authorities and voluntary organisations have criticised it as a key cause of homelessness because it does not give newly recognised refugees long enough to find independent accommodation. Will my noble friend therefore impress on the Home Office the importance of reverting to the 56 days it piloted and emphasise the importance of this to the Government’s homelessness strategy?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

What my noble friend says is indicative of the issues we have in this area of making sure that we work across government to solve some of these problems. The Home Office has committed to strengthening data-sharing processes with councils for 100% of newly granted refugees at risk of homelessness within two days of a discontinuation of asylum support notification. This supports early intervention by enabling councils to commence homelessness assessments. We will continue to monitor the impact of all the policies, including refugee move-on, hotel occupancy, asylum accommodation costs, local community impacts and pressures on local authorities and public services. It is important that we work across government and with our partners to improve that move- on support and reduce the risk of homelessness.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, as the Minister will know, one of the groups hit hardest by homelessness has been young people. Many charitable groups, such as Centrepoint, are trying to look at a different size standard so that it can be developed at a lower cost. I want to be very clear that it is only charitable organisations. What work have the Government done to support this work to see whether it is viable?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We had some long debates during the planning Bill about the size of accommodation and the stepping-stone type of accommodation provided in some parts of the country. The noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, initiated those discussions. We are still discussing those issues because they are very important, as the noble Lord says. Specific content within the homelessness strategy focuses on the issues of young people, building on the national youth strategy, and will give young people the skills, connections and opportunities they need to thrive, with a key focus on prevention of homelessness among young people. We want to develop a cross- government action plan with measurable targets to reduce homelessness, particularly among care leavers under 25. We are working on this. The noble Lord makes an important point about the size of accommodation. It is still under discussion, and I will keep him in the picture on that.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, there is a real issue around the allocation of funding for homelessness prevention. While the strategy helpfully recognises this and commits to some adjustments, we still have no published needs-based formula. When will we get one? Will it set out how rent levels, housing supply and market-measured pressures are weighted? Does the Minister agree that without this it is really hard to judge whether allocations are fair and transparent and genuinely reflect local need?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

It is very important that we continue to work with local authorities in tackling this problem. Under the new strategy, every council will publish a tailored action plan alongside its local homelessness strategy, with local targets and key outcomes. That will feed into the national picture so we can make sure that we are targeting the funding where it most needs to go. The new formulas we have devised for the local government finance settlement, which will be published later this week, are focused on making sure that the money goes where the need is and where there is less ability to raise additional funds through council tax. We are working very hard on making sure that the funding goes where the need is, and we will continue to do that. With councils now being able to set their own targets on this, we will be able to feed those into some more national targeting.

[The Lord Bishop of Derby]

My Lords, I welcome the continued investment of £185 million allocated to the rough sleeping drug and alcohol treatment programme from 2026 to 2029. But what progress has been made towards this Government’s safer streets and opportunity missions to improve support and early intervention, particularly for children and young people who are struggling with the dual crises of substance abuse and experiencing homelessness? Is this work one of the factors being used to determine which additional councils will receive this new funding?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Two pieces of work are going on here around the homelessness strategy and the child poverty strategy. Having set up a Housing First scheme in my local authority when I was a council leader, I know it is very important that you do not tackle just one issue. The roof over the head is key but so is support for complex needs. That is why homelessness is such a complex issue—you have to tackle the underlying issues. Those issues can be drug and alcohol abuse, poor mental health, financial capacity, chaotic lifestyles or any combination of those factors. All these things have to be worked on at the same time, which is why it is crucial that we have the interministerial working group. It is working across departments to tackle all these issues together so that we can make a real impact on homelessness.

[Lord Wigley (PC)]

My Lords, homelessness is a scandal in all parts of these islands. Is there not more scope for taking unused or underutilised buildings within local or central government and using the capital value of them to release the funds necessary to modify them and find an urgent answer to a problem that, at Christmastime, we should all be aware of?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Lord about the scandal of homelessness. That is exacerbated in the wintertime. Of course, we want to see both more homes and more buildings generally brought back into use. The Government’s strategy on delivering more housing is looking at this from a number of different angles. Local authorities already have a wide range of powers available to help tackle long-term empty homes. We are committed to empowering their use. We outlined in the English devolution White Paper the intent to strengthen the ability to take over the management of empty homes. We will review how effectively social housing providers use their properties. This is really important. There can be nothing more demoralising if you have not got anywhere to live than to walk along streets and see empty homes. We have to tackle this; we were left with an absolute crisis and this Government are determined to make a real difference in this area.

Building Safety Regulator (Establishment of New Body and Transfer of Functions etc.) Regulations 2026

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage]

That the Grand Committee do consider the Building Safety Regulator (Establishment of New Body and Transfer of Functions etc.) Regulations 2026.

Relevant document: 44th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Andy Roe, who has been leading the work to improve the performance of the building safety regulator and whose peerage was announced on 11 December.

The establishment of the building safety regulator was the most significant reform of the building safety regime in decades. The building safety regulator has removed significant risk from the system and placed residents at the heart of housebuilding. The regulator is an important and non-negotiable part of our built environment, particularly as we deliver 1.5 million homes and accelerate the remediation of unsafe buildings.

The BSR was first established within the Health and Safety Executive. The HSE provided invaluable leadership and experience during the establishment and early operations of the BSR. It is now time for a new phase for the BSR. In June, my department announced reforms to the regulator, including investing in strengthened and dedicated leadership for the BSR; operational improvements, including the creation of a new innovation unit to improve the processing of gateway applications; and bolstered, long-term investment in the capability of the BSR and its capacity to work with industry. Alongside this, we announced the intention to move the BSR out of the Health and Safety Executive, establishing it as an arm’s-length body of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. That is the specific purpose of these draft regulations.

These regulations set up a new arm’s-length body sponsored by MHCLG that will exercise the functions of the building safety regulator, as established under the Building Safety Act. The regulations transfer the functions of the building safety regulator from the Health and Safety Executive to this new body. The provisions of these regulations will come into force on 27 January 2026.

The regulations enable the smooth transfer of powers so that the BSR has the legal basis to continue to perform its functions without interruption. They include transitional provisions to cover the period where staff and services will move over in stages from the HSE to the BSR. The regulations provide that the BSR will maintain its operational independence, with its own powers, strategic plan and programme of work, as outlined in the Building Safety Act. This move does not change the functions of the regulator or the ministerial powers and responsibilities set out in the Building Safety Act.

This change will support the building safety regulator for the coming years, strengthening accountability and providing a singular focus and dedicated leadership for building safety regulation. Importantly, this is also the first step towards establishing a single construction regulator, a key recommendation of phase 2 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. The new body for the building safety regulator will form the basis of the single construction regulator. The regulations will make sure that the building safety regulator continues to deliver its statutory functions under the Building Safety Act, while leading it into a new era. This will provide the foundation for a stronger, more accountable system that prioritises safety while supporting innovation across the built environment.

I hope that noble Lords will join me in supporting the draft regulations, which I commend to the Committee.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, I join the Minister in congratulating Andrew Roe on his peerage. The experience that he will bring to your Lordships’ House from London Fire Brigade and the building safety regulator will be enormously welcome.

This instrument was debated in another place last week, on 10 December, and it completed its consideration in 12 minutes. On 11 December, the Industry and Regulators Committee produced its report, headed Building a Better Regulator. Within that report is a chapter on exactly the subject that we are debating this afternoon—namely, the single construction regulator—and it gives the background to the decision to which the Minister referred: the need to have a single construction regulator. It goes on to say that witnesses were broadly supportive of the proposal for the single regulator, with several suggesting that the current system was “fragmented”.

However—and this is the point that I want to make in this very short intervention—there were notes of caution. The Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists argued that

“it is more important that these functions be delivered effectively, than that they be delivered by a single body”.

The institute suggested that the priority should be addressing current regulatory challenges rather than merging functions. Philip White questioned whether this was the right time to establish it and, as with the BSR’s move from HSE to a body within MHCLG, he argued that the organisational change would lead to “disruption”, while suggesting that the regulator would do its best to

“keep business going as usual”.

The Select Committee listened to that argument and to the argument for going straight ahead, and concluded, in paragraph 106:

“We support the Government’s broad proposal to establish a single construction regulator. However, we heard concerns that organisational changes could distract from the immediate imperative of improving operational performance. The implementation of this further organisational change should wait until the BSR is delivering its building control decisions within statutory timeframes”.


As we know, that is not what it is doing, so the question that I want the Minister to answer is: why is she going ahead, it seems, in defiance of a very clear recommendation from a Select Committee? I appreciate that it reported last week, after the instrument had been laid, but none the less it is a clear recommendation that we should not go ahead in January. I wonder how the Minister would respond to that clear recommendation from a unanimous report by one of your Lordships’ Select Committees.

--- Later in debate ---

The SI must be judged against that reality, and doing so shows that it is still unclear that the Government have grasped the full scale of the problem. We will not oppose these regulations, but nor can we pretend that they resolve the crisis in front of us. The country needs homes, growth and a regulatory system that is safe, swift and effective. I hope that the Minister will address the concerns I have raised and, more importantly, that the SI marks not the end but the beginning of the serious reform that the system so urgently needs.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have participated in this short but interesting debate. Of course, a number of judgments always have to be made about the right time to take action. The noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, is quite right to say that this builds on the work of the last Government. We all want the same thing here: we want the homes that people live in to be safe and for people to feel confident that the buildings they live in are safe.

I will pick up some of the points made. All three noble Lords who spoke raised similar points. I will start with the question of whether the transition to the new BSR governance arrangements will disrupt operations, because it is important. The noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, mentioned that undue disruption should be avoided, and I completely agree with that. The new team at the BSR is fully committed to this change and preparing for it. Maintaining a strong focus on operational delivery is its real priority. The plans to move the BSR into a new body within MHCLG are designed to have the minimal impact on current operations. Improvements in the BSR’s performance have been under way since August. Significant numbers of applications have been cleared, and new operating models are delivering dramatically reduced processing times. I think we are all very pleased to see that. It is right for the residents who are on the end of this, but it is also right for the industry, which has been waiting for this progress.

The noble Lords, Lord Elliott and Lord Young, both asked why we are going ahead with this now. It is very important that we make this commitment now to move at pace on implementing the recommendations of the Grenfell inquiry. We are taking early steps to prepare for regulatory reform by supporting the BSR to move into this new phase of its operations. The move to a new body accountable to MHCLG will deliver a dedicated focus for building safety and strengthen accountability to Ministers and Parliament, which is important. It also marks an important milestone towards our commitment to a single construction regulator. I do not think there is any disagreement in the industry that that is where we need to get to.

We are grateful for the very thorough report from the Industry and Regulators Committee on the building safety regulator. We are carefully reviewing it. As the noble Lord, Lord Young, said, it came out only on 11 December, so we need a bit more time to consider it. We will carefully review it and provide a full response to the committee early next year in line with the required timelines. I know there are notes of caution in the report about effectiveness, rather than a single body, but I know that the whole team is dedicated to achieving this without an interruption in performance, and with the performance improvements we have already seen. That will start the process towards a single regulator, which is important, but it is also important that it does not distract from operational performance.

I will give a brief outline of some of the performance improvements that have happened. Between 1 September and 24 November this year, a record 40 new-build applications were processed from the previous model case load, with the majority approved, allowing construction to begin on 10,000 homes. Cases received in recent months are being handled by the new innovation unit, which has dramatically reduced decision times by 20 or more weeks, compared with the previous peak of 38 weeks for approved new-build decisions. That is a dramatic improvement. Across all application types, overall performance also continues to improve, with a record 578 cases closed since August. Of course, we will continue to monitor this very closely.

Cases received in recent months are being handled by the new innovation unit, and that removes the reliance that the BSR had had on dispersed expertise. The innovation unit has dramatically reduced those processing times: as I said, by 20 weeks or more. Quality applications are essential to ensure that projects can progress. This is another area where there is a lot of dialogue between the BSR and the industry, and it has run webinars and sessions with developers to help them to understand what is needed by the BSR. That is a mutual dialogue. The BSR is continuing to support industry leaders; it is publishing guidance for applicants. But, of course, as we would all want it to say, it does not want to compromise on safety but wants there to be an understanding of what the expectations are.

We hope that moving the BSR to its own body will improve operations: the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, referred to this. It will create clearer lines of accountability and allow the operational flexibility that comes from the BSR being its own specific organisation. I hope that will build on the record progress we have already seen since the changes made in June.

The noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, referred to the shortage of specialist fire and building inspectors, and some of the other specialisms that are required. We recognise the overall pressures on the building control system and on fire engineering capacity, which is why we have established the independent building control panel and the fire engineering advisory panel to look at the underlying issues and report back in the new year, so that we can fix the system as a whole.

We will work with the independent panel, the BSR and the wider building control sector to establish a shared, long-term, financially sustainable vision for building control services, so that they are able to provide assurance, inspection and enforcement activities that support housebuilding, cladding remediation, decent homes, net zero and social infrastructure ambitions. We have provided £16.5 million to support the recruitment of registered building inspectors to backfill those supporting the BSR and continue to look at options to grow the overall sector.

The BSR has also enabled certain class 2-registered building inspectors to take on some of the less complex, higher-risk building work, freeing up class 3-registered building inspectors to focus on new builds and remediation. A total of 125 cladding workers will be upskilled through the launch of the Construction Industry Training Board’s rainscreen facade installer training. I thank the Construction Industry Training Board for playing a strong hand in supporting work on this. Each year by the end of this Parliament, 100,000 construction workers will be recruited and will be overseen by the Construction Skills Mission Board. Across the board, maintaining the performance is key to this. Starting to move towards a single regulator is the right move to make now. We need to keep an eye on the performance and make sure that it is maintained.

In conclusion, the Government are committed to ensuring the safety of all residents. The building safety regulator has overseen a fundamental change in the built environment, and ensures safety is at the heart of housing. These regulations will enable the smooth transfer of the regulator from the Health and Safety Executive to its own body. I hope the Committee will welcome these regulations.

Motion agreed.

Business Improvement Districts: Town Centre Renewal

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

My Lords, in begging leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, I draw the House’s attention to my register of interests.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, it is with some trepidation that I answer a Question from someone with as much experience in the subject as my noble friend. I thank him for the work he has done on BIDs across London, supporting the mayor to deliver 50 of them, and particularly for his work on the Camden and Euston BIDs.

This Government recognise the important role business improvement districts can play in supporting local growth and regenerating our high streets and town centres. In the Pride in Place Strategy, published on 25 September, we committed to raising the standards of BIDs by making them more transparent and accountable, consulting on the ballot process and legislating to expand property owner BIDs outside London. Further details will be published in due course.

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend the Minister for her reply. Does the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill offer an opportunity to strengthen and expand the role of business improvement districts within the devolved economic development frameworks, so that they can play a fuller part in accelerating town centre renewal? Within this, do the Government intend to give property owner BIDs, which my noble friend has already alluded to, a distinct and autonomous status separate from occupier BIDs to support more effective high street regeneration?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

BID reform is not included in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. However, the Pride in Place Strategy included a commitment to give property owners a formal role in shaping local priorities by expanding property owner BIDs outside London as soon as parliamentary time allows. Landlords will be able to work with councils, tenants and communities to create thriving high streets and support growth across the country. We are aware of calls for property owner BIDs to operate separately from occupier BIDs and the policy is currently being refined, working with the sector. Further details will be published in due course.

[Baroness Pidgeon (LD)]

My Lords, the hospitality sector is the backbone of town centres. A 5% cut in VAT for hospitality businesses would give such a boost to our high streets. Does the Minister agree?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We have provided a great deal of support for small businesses, including those on our high streets. The Chancellor announced some steps in relation to business rates in the Budget recently. There are a number of steps in our small business plan to support those small businesses which operate on our high streets, including helping them to address their costs and constraints, creating a licensing regime that supports the growth of hospitality and night-time economies, and enabling them with local collaboration and capacity building, as well as addressing crime and anti-social behaviour on our high streets, which we know is a blight on those small businesses.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister acknowledge how important culture in the round is in this context? Has she seen the report Improving Places, produced by the Mayor of London, the Arts Council and King’s College London, which details, through case studies, everything from supporting artists’ studios to wider community events? This is so important for energising our cities and towns, and being an essential part of their social fabric.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I agree with the noble Earl. I have not seen the report he refers to, but I will take a look at it. I am sure, as we discuss the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, that we will have lots of discussion about how to support communities as they promote arts and culture in their areas. As the noble Earl is aware, in the Bill we are extending the powers for local groups to register assets of community value and giving them a longer time to take the necessary steps to empower them with a community right to buy. We are taking those steps, and we understand the importance of those cultural assets on our high streets and in our towns. As we discuss this in the Bill, I am sure the noble Earl will work with us to develop it further.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, further to the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, about the hospitality sector, is the Minister aware that pubs are a vital part of town centres and urban regeneration? So why did the Chancellor persecute pubs in her Budget, so much so that hundreds are now banning Labour MPs from going into them?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

As I have already said, the Chancellor announced a number of steps to support our high street businesses as part of the Budget process, including steps on business rates. We are all focused on making sure that we do all we can to support the hospitality industry, including the licensed trade, and we will continue to do so. I am sure that, as those steps begin to take hold in our communities, we will see the hospitality industry and the licensed trade right in the heart of our town centres, as they always have been.

[Baroness Andrews (Lab)]

My noble friend the Minister will recognise that we have to reinvent the high street. We recently had a Built Environment Select Committee report on this, which set out a number of different policies through which this can be done. One of the most successful and easily within reach is to make sure that we have more public services, including diagnostic centres and housing offices. People are now almost inevitably directed to digital centres for those things, yet they are desperately keen to talk to people instead. Having argued with my own local council about bins recently, I know how relieved I was to talk to somebody who actually knew what a bin was. All this can be done easily, and it would revitalise the high street in a way that would benefit community members of all ages.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I absolutely agree with my noble friend. One of the benefits of local councils is that they do know what bins are—we are very familiar with that. I agree with her about the presence of both the public and private sectors in our public spaces. When I took part in the regeneration of my own town centre, we were very keen to make sure that we made best use of the public buildings there to generate footfall, while also encouraging the private sector to do the same for buildings with a huge diversity of uses. We know that there has been a visible decline in high streets, so we need to turn around that trend by fostering vibrant town centres and making sure that there are amenities, services, green spaces, a cultural offer and high-quality infrastructure.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

It is nonsense for the Minister to say that the Chancellor has helped the hospitality industry. The industry is up in arms because the Chancellor has increased the costs of employment and of the goods it sells, thereby damaging the sector considerably. To say that, somehow or other, her Budgets have helped is frankly not true.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The Chancellor is committed to making sure that our small businesses are supported. As I said, we have produced our small business plan, which has a huge number of measures to help small businesses. We continue to work with the small business sector to make sure both that we find out what is getting in the way of it developing and that we smooth the path for the improvements it wants to see.

[The Lord Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham]

My Lords, has the Minister considered the significance of historic church buildings in city centre revitalisation? In my diocese, for instance, the recent renewal of St Mary Magdalene Church in Newark has not only repaired the grade 1 listed building but significantly developed the town’s cultural and economic vitality. There is uncertainty about the future scheme for VAT relief for listed churches, and the cap introduced last year affected long-planned projects around the country. What assessment have His Majesty’s Government made of the impact of that and of continuing the scheme beyond March next year without the cap?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I greatly value the role played by religious buildings from all denominations in our public spaces, and the right reverend Prelate was right to refer to some of the development that has taken place. The Pride in Place Strategy sets out how we will deliver £5 billion over 10 years to 244 neighbourhoods, which means that our communities can take part in developing their neighbourhoods in a way that is right for them. We will deliver £20 million of funding and support to be spent by local neighbourhood boards, and we are encouraging all members of the community, including community organisations, to get involved with those boards to drive local renewal. We will then have a separate pride in place impact fund, which will deliver a cash injection of £150 million to an additional 95 places, to be spent to improve high streets and community spaces.

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

My Lords, although business improvement districts work hard to revive our town centres—for which we thank them—many of them face tightening fiscal environments, despite the previous answers from the Minister. Business rates are rising, employers are dealing with higher national insurance contributions and the freeze in personal tax thresholds compounds pressures on local workers—and this coupled with costly local government reorganisation. Do the Government believe that this combination of rising costs and administrative upheaval is helping or hindering town centre renewal and local growth? What assessment have they made of the impact of these measures on our town centres?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The local government reorganisation that is taking place will create more resilient and stronger local councils, which will be able to support their communities with the suite of activity that we have provided in the pride in place funding, to make sure that they are developing and that the community spaces they value are being supported and developed in a way that is right for them. Local government has been absolutely denuded of funding over the past 14 years, so I will not take any lessons on how to support local government from the Tory Benches in this House. It is really important that we get local government on a firm footing with its funding, so that it can support the local communities that have felt that their high streets have been neglected for far too long.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Consideration of Commons amendments and / or reasons
Wednesday 10th December 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage]

That this House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment 33C.

33C: Leave out lines 7 to 9

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to see the Planning and Infrastructure Bill return to this House for the final time. After today’s debate, the Bill will soon conclude its passage through Parliament and will thereafter become law. It will drive investment and productivity, and facilitate a step change in the delivery of the new homes and critical infrastructure our country so desperately needs.

This legislation will create certainty and speed up the process for consenting nationally significant infra- structure. It will create a new sustainable model for development and nature recovery, and establish mechanisms for effective cross-boundary strategic planning. We can and must do things differently, and this Bill will enable us to do so. That is why we have been so determined to ensure we can make use of its provisions as soon as possible and why I am delighted that, following today’s debate, it will shortly become law.

We have already debated at length the intention behind Amendment 33, proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Lansley. Following our debate last week, the Government tabled an amendment to give effect to this change, which will now see the first set of regulations for the national scheme of delegation be subject to the affirmative procedure. I am pleased to say that, on Monday, the other place agreed to the government amendment which gives effect to that change, removing the unnecessary provisions in Amendment 33 in respect of future regulations, for which there are already powers in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, for his continued engagement. This change, alongside existing safeguards built into the legislation, will ensure that an appropriate amount of parliamentary scrutiny is able to take place on these provisions ahead of implementation. Given that this House has already confirmed its agreement with the noble Lord’s amendment, I trust it will now lend its support to Motion A. I beg to move.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, as the mover of the original Amendment 33, I am grateful to the Government for accepting the substance of that amendment. I therefore agree with Motion A to agree to the Commons’ further amendment. I heartily endorse what Minister Pennycook said in the other place on Monday: it is now about getting on with using the powers that are available under this and previous legislation. I wish the Government well in that endeavour.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on accepting such a sensible amendment. She was kind enough to write to me about non-hazardous reservoirs. She said in that letter that the regulations and guidance will be kept under review. I urge her to use her good offices to ensure that both Houses will be able to review that. I once again record my huge disappointment that the non-hazardous reservoirs legislation will not come into effect before 2028, which is far too late, given the impact. Reservoirs are operating below capacity already, and the deficit we will face in Yorkshire over the next year especially is deeply regrettable.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who contributed to this short debate. The question from the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, is possibly out of scope of the Motion before us, but I am always happy to meet with her and discuss this further. She has a detailed letter from me today explaining the Government’s position.

I will very briefly address the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock. It is vital that, in exercising democratic oversight, planning committees operate as effectively as possible—as I know she knows only too well—by not revisiting the same decisions and focusing on applications which require member input. The Government want to make sure that skilled planning officers in local authorities have the right level of trust and empowerment to resolve more applications more quickly in the service of residents and businesses, and that our planning professionals are fully supported in their role, with their skills and experience put to best use. I know she will be more than familiar with all those issues.

This will be my final time at the Dispatch Box speaking on this Bill. I am not going to say “thank goodness”, but we have had some very long discussions and sittings. I once again place on record my thanks to all noble Lords who have engaged with the Bill and the department through the Bill’s passage. The open and robust nature of our debates has undoubtedly strengthened the Bill.

In particular, I extend my heartfelt thanks to the noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Pinnock, the noble Lords, Lord Jamieson and Lord Roborough, and the noble Earl, Lord Russell, for the time they have given to engaging so thoughtfully on this critical legislation. I also thank all the civil servants and the staff of the House, who have sometimes had to work very late on the Bill. I very much look forward to working with noble Lords as we take forward the implementation of the Bill, which will be a major step in the Government’s reform programme. The House should be under no doubt that we intend to move quickly over the coming months so that we can realise the full benefits of this legislation.

Motion A agreed.

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 8th December 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage]

That the Bill be now read a second time.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, I first extend my thanks to the many noble Lords with whom I have already spoken about this Bill. I am grateful for their engagement with this very important legislation. I know that a number of noble Lords have been closely engaged in delivering front-line services over the years, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those in this House who have taken part in that. We know that our residents greatly value the services that impact their daily lives. This whole Bill will bring that decision-making closer to the areas and communities that it impacts.

This Government were elected on a manifesto to deliver change. We are determined to transform our economy and our country through a decade of reform that delivers better public services and growth in every community and every corner of our country. Many hard-working communities that are the backbone of our economy have been neglected for far too long. They have seen good jobs disappearing, their high streets in decline and the dream of a decent home pushed even further out of reach.

Rebuilding these foundations is central to this Government’s mission, but we will not achieve our goals unless we fundamentally change the way our country is run. That means handing power back to local people, who know their areas best, so they can make decisions on what really matters to their communities. This is what the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill will do—drive the biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall to our regions and communities in a generation. The Bill will make devolution the default setting. It will give mayors new powers over transport, planning, housing and regeneration; rebuild local government so that it can, once again, deliver good local services that people can rely on; and empower local communities to have a bigger say in shaping their local area.

Strategic authorities are at the heart of this change. The Bill is creating strategic authorities as a new category of authority in law. They will make it easier for local leaders to work together over larger areas to drive through big, pro-growth projects such as integrated transport networks and housing. Crucially, the Bill will give new strategic authorities powers to pilot and request new functions, with government having a duty to respond to requests by established mayoral strategic authorities. Strategic authorities will operate at three levels: foundation, mayoral and established mayoral, and the Bill will define the powers and responsibilities of each of those levels.

Working alongside parliamentarians and local councillors, mayors will drive forward the delivery of people’s priorities, igniting growth and unlocking opportunities for their local area. That is why the Bill will give them wide-ranging new powers in areas such as transport, planning and economic development, which have a real impact on people’s lives. For example, mayors will be able to intervene in strategic planning applications to unlock housing, and there will be powers for all strategic authorities to license shared cycle schemes so that they work for everyone and we do not see bikes strewn across all our pavements.

The Bill will also see more mayors take on police and crime commissioner functions and become responsible for fire and rescue authority functions, allowing them to take a joined-up approach to improving public safety. They will also be able to appoint commissioners to support them as their responsibilities grow, similar to the way this works in London.

The Bill is the floor, not the ceiling, of the Government’s ambition and we have already demonstrated how seriously we take mayors’ rights to request new powers. We announced at the Budget that mayors will be given the power to raise revenue locally through a new overnight visitor levy, and we are consulting on whether to also grant this power to foundation strategic authorities. This is a ground-breaking step for the future of devolution, with transformative investment potential for England’s tourism sector and the wider economy. This Government are committed to giving mayors the tools they need to drive growth and deliver for local people.

None of this reform can be achieved without strong local government. Councils are the bedrock of our state. They are critical to delivering local public services that people can rely on, but they have been neglected for too long. The Bill will help rebuild local government as a “fit, legal and decent” foundation of devolution. It will establish the local audit office to help fix the broken, fragmented local audit system—nobody who has been in local government over the last few years will pretend the audit system is working properly.

We will also reform local authority governance by requiring councils with a committee system to move to a leader and cabinet model or, otherwise, undertake and publish a review on the decision, while putting a stop to new local authority mayor roles being created. This change will streamline decision-making across all councils, making it easier for people to understand how their council is run, while also respecting local democratic mandates where the committee system was adopted more recently following either a council resolution or a public referendum. In those cases, we will allow them to continue for the period that was voted for.

The Bill will also give the Government the tools to deliver local government reorganisation across England, resulting in better outcomes for residents and savings which can be reinvested in public services. I know that noble Lords have raised concerns about the powers we are taking in the Bill to incentivise local government reorganisation. To be clear, reorganisation is a crucial part of the Government’s mission to fix the foundations of local government, creating unitary councils that can deliver the high-quality services that all our residents deserve.

I assure noble Lords that we are fully committed to working in partnership with local areas. Our long-standing position remains: we will always seek to work with local areas on proposals for reorganisation brought forward by local areas. This Bill will enable the Secretary of State to direct areas to submit proposals to reorganise, but this power will only be used as a last resort when areas have failed to make any progress following an invitation.

As I have previously laid out, we want to give mayors the tools and opportunity to unleash the potential of their area with a more ambitious role and deeper powers. Each mayor will serve millions of people and manage multimillion pound budgets. This role has to be underpinned by elections that command public confidence. The Bill will revert elections for mayors and police and crime commissioners to the supplementary vote system after the May 2026 elections to provide greater accountability and a strong personal mandate. This was the voting system in place when mayors were first established, and it is the best system for electing people to single executive positions. In addition, the Bill will bar mayors from also sitting as MPs, ensuring that local places benefit fully from having dedicated local leaders.

We are not just giving mayors more power; we are also handing more control directly to the communities they serve. This Bill will give local communities a bigger say in shaping their place, with councils required to make sure that effective neighbourhood governance is in place. Communities will also have the tools to transform their high streets and neighbourhoods through a new community right to buy to save much-loved community assets such as pubs and shops from being lost, and to protect sports grounds, which are at the heart of so many communities and a source of great local pride. The Bill will also support our high streets by banning the unfair practice of upwards-only rent reviews, preventing the blight of vacant shopfronts. Every community should have the opportunity to thrive, and these measures are fundamental steps in achieving this.

I will now turn to a few amendments we made to the Bill in the other place. We have listened to parliamentarians and the sector and have introduced a modest number of amendments to ensure that the Bill functions correctly and delivers for local people. First, on London’s strategic licensing, I am sure noble Lords will agree that London’s pubs and restaurants are the beating heart of London’s cultural life. They contribute to our capital’s world-class status and to the growth of the economy. Yet for too long, hospitality businesses have been held back by a licensing regime that lacks proportionality, consistency and transparency. That is why we have brought forward amendments to establish a new licensing regime in London that will give hospitality businesses greater confidence and create the conditions for London’s night-time economy to thrive.

These amendments will also introduce a call-in power for the Mayor of London to determine borough licensing applications of strategic importance. The policy direction of the call-in amendment is clear. However, to ensure we fully digest any wider changes to the operation of licensing as a result of the call for evidence from the licensing policy taskforce—which closed on 6 November—we will bring forward more detailed amendments at a later stage in the Bill and we will continue to engage with noble Lords on this.

To support this Government’s commitment to deliver 1.5 million homes in this Parliament, we have taken steps to cut unnecessary and duplicative bureaucracy. Amendments have been introduced which will allow mayors to adopt a written representation procedure when determining certain planning applications of potential strategic importance and which remove the requirement that the local planning authority must consent to mayors of strategic authorities when making, revising or revoking a mayoral development order. However, I assure noble Lords that this change is not an attempt to bypass local planning authorities. Mayors will still have to bring them along as they will be crucial to delivering these orders. It is about empowering mayors so they can provide the strategic leadership that areas deserve.

We have also brought forward an amendment which will devolve the approval of lane rental schemes from the Secretary of State for Transport to mayors of strategic authorities, putting decisions in the hands of those with knowledge of their area.

On taxi and private hire vehicles, the Government recognise the challenges that the current licensing framework can cause, including inconsistent standards across the country and the practice of “out-of-area” working, where drivers choose to license in one authority area but work wholly or predominantly in a different authority area. As highlighted by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey of Blackstock, in her recent National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, out-of-area working creates concerns in some authorities about the safeguarding standards applied to some of the drivers operating in their area. The Bill therefore creates a power for the Secretary of State to set national minimum standards for the licensing of drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles. Setting these licensing standards will help bring some consistency across licensing authorities.

Finally, we have taken concrete steps to ensure that local government members are able to perform their duties without fear for their own safety or that of their family. The world has changed a lot since I started being a councillor and this Government are clear that intimidation, harassment and abuse have no place in our democracy. This Bill puts it beyond doubt that a member’s, or co-opted member’s, home address should not be published by default. The amendment we introduced will also prevent the disclosure of home addresses when they are declared as interests at public meetings.

I know we all share a wish to set the sector on a firmer footing, ensure local government is fit, legal and decent, and empower communities to deliver real change and opportunities. We believe this Bill is a fundamental step in achieving this. By enabling the biggest shift of power from Whitehall to local areas in over a generation, this Bill will support the change residents expect and deserve: better joined-up delivery of public services, good jobs and politics being done with communities, not to them. I move the Bill.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank noble Lords from all sides of the House for their excellent contributions. It has been an engaging and constructive debate and, for someone as passionate about devolution and local government as I am, it is heartening to hear that passion echoed around the Chamber. We may have different views on how we do things, but that passion for moving some of the powers and funding that are currently held in this little bit of London to local areas has been echoed today. We all know the pressure that the current system is under. It is not working in many places now, and it certainly is not sustainable for the future. We can see the signs of the system cracking all around us, and we need to move forward with this.

I will answer a couple of points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Scott of Bybrook, and the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, before I start picking up particular detailed points in the Bill. The noble Baroness spoke about respect for local identity. These proposals have come from local government. We have not devised them in the office—there is no map-drawing going on in Marsham Street. That has been done by local people in their own areas. I will not take any lessons from the Tories, who dithered and delayed on local government review and devolution. They did some devolution, but they left huge areas of the country stranded from the increased powers and funding that some areas have benefited from. That cannot be right, and we need to address that now.

The accountability gap that the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, mentioned is there now; what we are doing is introducing locally elected mayors to provide local accountability for local decision-making. With the powers that will be devolved from Whitehall to those local mayors, they will have a powerful democratic mandate to take decisions on behalf of their residents. With the strong local authorities that will sit alongside them and the neighbourhood governance that will take that accountability to the very local level, this is an empowering Bill in terms of accountability, not the other way around.

The noble Baroness asked about funding. There is £200 billion of funding being devoted to this mayoral project, and that gives areas a real chance to make decisions on their own behalf. There are other powers, which I will come to.

The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, mentioned fiscal stability. Fiscal stability comes from having growth and investment in every part of our country, not just in the bits of it where it is decided that it will be. We will get that fiscal stability only where we are making decisions on growth and investment at local level. It is therefore very important that we take these steps now.

Just briefly on the noble Baroness’s point about adult social care—which is well made; we know that there are huge problems with adult social care—each of the proposals for local government reorganisation contains the area’s ideas of how to do the transformation to adult care services. With that local input and the work that the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, is doing, I think that we have a chance to make a real step forward on adult social care after a long time of waiting for that to happen.

I will endeavour to respond to different points in turn, but I would be happy to discuss topics of interest in detail in advance of Committee. The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, asked an important question about other government departments and how they are reacting to the Bill. I simply point to the huge amount of co-operation that we have had from other government departments on, for example, skills, transport, public health and prevention, policing and the fire service. There has been a great cross-governmental project to work on this. I have some of my fellow Ministers sitting on the Front Bench with me and I know that they will be working in their own departments on how we devolve these powers to the local level.

The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, also asked whether this devolution can really be delivered with local government finances in the state that they are. I very much regret that they are in that state, and we need to move that on. The answer to that question is that we simply cannot deliver the public services that people deserve and the growth that people need to see without making these changes. To the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, I say that we absolutely understand the pressures: many of us have been very close to those pressures over the years, but we need to move this on now.

I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Janke, that mayors will have powers devolved from Whitehall, not upwards from local government. That is very important. We will have stronger, more sustainable unitary local authorities delivering services to local people. As my noble friend Lady Griffin very articulately pointed out, that will instead create the opportunities and growth that we need to see across our country. Of course, people are worried about change, but I point to the success that we have seen right across mayoral areas already. Those areas that already have mayors are making great strides forward with economic growth, housebuilding, skills, transport and infrastructure.

Let me be clear, particularly to the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, who I have spoken to on many occasions at Hertfordshire events as well as in this House, that the historic institutions, such as lords-lieutenant and high sheriffs, remain a fundamental part of local life and will continue to do so.

A number of noble Lords raised issues about the functions of local government. As I said, no one is drawing maps in Whitehall; they are being devised and owned by local people. This place-shaping goes right to the heart of the local government reform that the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, referred to. Devolution by default is the principle right at the heart of the Bill. As mayoral authorities grow and get more established, they can request more powers, as we have already seen our colleagues in Manchester and other mayoral authorities doing. The Bill sees our system of devolution move away from an ad hoc and inconsistent model, replaced with a model where it is clear what places can access, when they can access it and under what conditions. Our new system of conferring functions on levels of strategic authority is devolution by default, which will streamline the devolution of functions. All areas can be confident about the functions they will receive and, as the framework deepens over time, they will know that they will have access to the new powers as they are introduced.

I am very grateful for the examples of great local action that we have heard. My noble friend Lady Elliott is right that accountable responsible mayors must have the funding that they need to deliver local outcomes and the right framework to demand further powers when they are ready to take them. The noble Baronesses, Lady Scott, Lady Shephard, Lady Bennett and Lady Maclean, and the noble Lord, Viscount Trenchard, all spoke about issues relating to the establishment and the expansion of functions. The Government have been clear that devolution can deliver growth, unlock investment and deliver the change that the public want to see. That is why we want to see more parts of England benefit from devolution. Our engagement with councils to date has demonstrated that there is real appetite for this devolution across England, and the Bill will streamline the process for establishing new strategic authorities. It is our strong preference for devolution to be locally led.

However—and I hope this addresses some of the points about the powers that we have put into the Bill to deal with issues through ministerial-led routes—there are powers providing those routes to establish or expand strategic authorities or provide a strategic authority with a mayor. I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Storey, and others who have raised this issue that these powers will be used only where no local agreement can be reached, where this cannot be moved forward at a local level. We much prefer this to be done at a local level, and this measure will definitely be a last resort. The powers will be subject to conditions and statutory tests and will not be commenced automatically. Instead, they will be commenced by regulations only when Ministers consider it necessary and we will ensure that Parliament has the opportunity to engage further on this matter.

My noble friend Lord Bassam’s points on pace are noted. I thank him for all the work that he did in Brighton. I agree that we need to establish stable unitary authorities as the foundation for devolution, and I am grateful for his comments.

As it has been mentioned in the debate many times, I will briefly refer to the devolution priority programme mayoral elections. Although we had a Question on it earlier, it is important to reiterate those comments, as they were questioned by the noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Shephard, and the noble Lord, Lord Wallace. The noble Lord, Lord Lansley, spoke about the importance of pace in the devolution priority programme associated with this, and the noble Lord, Lord Pack, mentioned this as well. Of course, we are committed to this extension of devolution and, for Cumbria, Cheshire and Warrington, the first mayoral elections for the new strategic authorities will take place in 2027, as those local authorities had already requested that that be the date for them. For Norfolk and Suffolk, Greater Essex, Sussex and Brighton, and Hampshire and the Solent, which are all areas that currently have two tiers of local government, we have announced that we are minded to hold the first mayoral elections for those areas in May 2028, because we know mayoral devolution is most successful when mayoral strategic authorities are underpinned by strong unitary councils. Therefore, holding elections for new mayors in 2028 will allow enough time for the reorganisation process to conclude and unitary councils to be well established.

On the issue of why culture and heritage are not included in the competence list—the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, the noble Baroness, Lady Prashar, and my noble friend Lady Griffin mentioned this—the current list of thematic policy areas is deliberately broad and is intended to allow a wide range of activities to fall within the scope of the areas of competence. Many initiatives relating to culture, heritage and tourism would naturally be encompassed within the economic development and regeneration area of competence. Strategic authorities will remain key players in supporting culture and heritage initiatives locally. Many are already using their existing powers to support culture, heritage and tourism.

The noble Baroness, Lady Prashar, raised important points about the ability of local government, confidence in its institutions and how that can drive community cohesion. She is absolutely right to raise that, which is why it is important that these institutions are stable and people have confidence in them. The noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, mentioned the environment, which is the specific competence of mayors, and energy, which is the subject of new powers over local growth plans and strategic planning.

The issue of the appointment of commissioners was mentioned by the noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady McIntosh, and the noble Lord, Lord Shipley. I think that the noble Lord asked why they are not local government leaders. They can be local government leaders if that is the way that the mayor decides to take this. Local authorities will have critical new functions to undertake. They require representation on national bodies and joint working. It is not realistic to expect a mayor to do all this on their own. That is why mayors will be able to appoint and remunerate commissioners to lead on one of seven areas of competence, helping to increase the capacity in their strategic authorities. The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, asked about rural communities in this respect. Mayors can set an expectation that one or all of their commissioners should focus on rural issues. This is rightly a local decision.

The noble Lord, Lord Fuller, and many other noble Peers raised issues around local government funding. We are making good now on long-overdue promises to fundamentally update the outdated funding system and its decades-old data. We are targeting money where it is needed most by properly accounting for local need and equalising local income. We are giving local authorities greater flexibility and certainty as we simplify the more than 30 funding streams that were there when we came into office, worth almost £47 billion through the first multi-year settlement in a decade. Giving local authorities that certainty over funding, and over multi-year settlements, is critical here. We will publish the local authority allocations later in December and they will be subject to consultation and the usual parliamentary process.

On mayoral combined authority precepts, to empower mayors to deliver change in their communities, they need to be able to spend money effectively. Previously, mayors could use their precept only to raise money for mayoral functions. This did not cover some areas vital to growth, such as adult skills provision. The Bill will allow mayors to spend money raised through the mayoral precept across the whole of an authority’s function. The introduction of a precept will need to be approved through the budget voting process within each strategic authority.

On council tax, we are committed to empowering local leaders to drive growth and deliver for their communities, without placing excessive tax burdens on people. We are delivering the long-awaited local government funding reforms and the multi-year settlements, and we are consulting on modernising and improving the administration of council tax, to make the system fairer, more efficient and more transparent. That package builds a more sustainable, accountable and locally empowered system that focuses on the needs of communities.

There has been a broad agreement that local audit reform was needed. I agree with my noble friend Lady Armstrong that audit is essential for public confidence. When the whole-government accounts cannot be cleared because of the issues with local government funding, something has to change. Local audit is vital for ensuring trust and confidence that taxpayers’ money is being used wisely. We have acted decisively to clear the backlog, but significant further reform is needed. Last December, we published a strategy and consultation on measures to outline a road to recovery and set the system up for long-term, sustainable success. The Bill delivers core elements of this strategy, creating a clear statutory remit for the local audit office to oversee and streamline the system. I hope that picks up the points that noble Lords mentioned.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Bennett and Lady Pidgeon, my noble friend Lady Armstrong and the noble Lord, Lord Evans, all mentioned the scrutiny of combined authorities and local public accounts committees. All combined authorities will be required to establish both overview and scrutiny committees, and audit committees. Beyond these structures, the current system of accountability and scrutiny is guided by the English Devolution Accountability Framework and scrutiny protocol. We are reviewing both documents to reflect the changes brought forward by the integrated settlement and the Bill. We recognise that there is scope to further strengthen the system of accountability and scrutiny for mayoral strategic authorities. That is why we committed in the White Paper to exploring models for local public accounts committees and local accounting officers. We are committed to strengthening accountability alongside the strengthened devolution offer, and we will confirm our policy approach in due course.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Scott, Lady Janke, Lady Bennett and Lady McIntosh, and the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, among others, mentioned the important issue of our parish and town councils. The Government value the role that town and parish councils play; they are an important part of local democracy. There are no plans to abolish town and parish councils or to change their powers. Our plans on neighbourhood governance in the Bill are about hardwiring community engagement into local authorities themselves. Parish councils will be an important partner in creating stronger, more responsive neighbourhood governance, as will the whole range of grass-roots groups that support community empowerment. I hope that answers the point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Addington, about community groups and their engagement in this. It is for local authorities to determine whether new parish and town councils are needed, and this is done through the community governance review process.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Griffin, and the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, raised issues around community empowerment. Of course, communities need power returned to them. We want to empower local leaders so that they can better affect the decisions impacting on their areas. That is why we are giving communities stronger tools to shape the future of their local areas, such as the new community right to buy, to help protect against the loss of cherished local assets. Some 350 of the most deprived communities are receiving funding from the Government. This includes the 75 plan for neighbourhoods areas and 25 new trailblazer areas, which will receive £20 million in funding over the next decade, including the pride in place funding. There is a clear ambition to hardwire that community engagement into this new system.

On the neighbourhood governance plans, the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, talked about removing powers from local areas. It is the opposite of that; we are creating a clear neighbourhood governance system for local authorities to hardwire community engagement and neighbourhood working into their governance. The goal of that neighbourhood governance is to move decision-making closer to residents. Decisions about local communities should be made by people who understand local needs. That is why we are introducing a new requirement for all local authorities to make appropriate arrangements for the effective governance of local neighbourhood areas.

The noble Lord, Lord Fuller, and the noble Earl, Lord Devon, raised issues about rural versus urban. Like the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, I will not get involved in the cream and jam debate. I am afraid the planning Bill and the English devolution Bill are quite controversial enough for me; I will not get involved in a debate about scones. The Government recognise that neighbourhoods across England are diverse, and that rural and urban communities have different needs and characteristics. Through the review of existing council-led neighbourhood governance models, we are working closely with local authorities and the community sector to understand what works best in different contexts.

The noble Lords, Lord Best and Lord Lansley, raised important issues around mayoral development corporations. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Best, about the value of the New Towns Taskforce report and Sir Oliver Letwin’s report relating to master planning and development corporations. That is why the Bill extends to all mayors the power to create mayoral development corporations, to drive economic growth and regeneration. Mayoral development corporations will benefit residents by delivering new homes, better transport and economic opportunities, revitalising areas for future generations.

I can see I have run out of time. I am sorry; I knew I would not get through all this, but I will respond in writing to any noble Lords whose questions I did not get to. I will conclude my remarks now. I reiterate my thanks to your Lordships for their engagement with the Bill to this point. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Porter, for raising the issue of the District Councils’ Network and the County Councils Network, which have contributed hugely to the work going forward and to briefing noble Lords.

As the Bill progresses, I am happy to accommodate any requests from noble Lords for meetings or additional briefings wherever helpful. As I have set out earlier today, this ambitious legislation will deliver top to bottom redistribution of power, putting decision-making in the hands of local areas and delivering real change for working people. With this Bill, the Government will deliver on our manifesto commitment to empower local leaders and mayors to unlock growth and opportunities right across our country by making the right decisions for the communities they serve. I look forward to working with your Lordships during the passage of this legislation. I commend the Bill to the House.

Bill read a second time.

Moved by

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage]

That the bill be committed to a Grand Committee, and that it be an instruction to the Grand Committee that they consider the bill in the following order:

Clauses 1 to 4, Schedule 1, Clauses 5 and 6, Schedule 2, Clauses 7 to 9, Schedule 3, Clauses 10 to 20, Schedule 4, Clauses 21 to 23, Schedule 5, Clause 24, Schedule 6, Clause 25, Schedule 7, Clause 26, Schedule 8, Clauses 27 and 28, Schedule 9, Clauses 29 and 30, Schedule 10, Clause 31, Schedule 11, Clause 32, Schedule 12, Clause 33, Schedules 13 and 14, Clause 34, Schedule 15, Clause 35, Schedule 16, Clause 36, Schedule 17, Clause 37, Schedule 18, Clause 38, Schedule 19, Clause 39, Schedule 20, Clauses 40 to 43, Schedule 21, Clauses 44 to 46, Schedule 22, Clause 47, Schedule 23, Clauses 48 to 50, Schedule 24, Clauses 51 and 52, Schedule 25, Clauses 53 to 57, Schedule 26, Clauses 58 and 59, Schedule 27, Clauses 60 and 61, Schedule 28, Clauses 62 and 63, Schedule 29, Clauses 64 to 73, Schedule 30, Clause 74, Schedule 31, Clause 75, Schedule 32, Clauses 76 to 84, Schedule 33, Clause 85, Schedule 34, Clauses 86 to 93, Title.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I beg to move.

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

I understand that there has been no agreement in the usual channels for the Bill to be committed to a Grand Committee. I put on record that it is very disappointing that the Government have tabled this Motion without the agreement of the usual channels.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Chief Whip consulted the usual channels in the usual manner. I am also aware that he spoke to some key Peers with an interest in the Bill.

Motion agreed.

Local Elections

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

My Lords, three weeks ago, in this Chamber, the Minister assured the House that the Government intended to go ahead with all local elections in May 2026. What has changed in just three weeks? Were local government and the Electoral Commission consulted on these changes?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. All local government elections that are scheduled for 2026 will go ahead unless there are exceptional circumstances. These elections, which are inaugural elections for four new mayors in the areas concerned, have not taken place before, and my colleagues have taken the opportunity to reflect on the most effective way of ensuring that those mayoral institutions are best placed to deliver.

We know that mayoral strategic authorities are most successful when they are built on a strong history of partnership and joint delivery. Moving forward, we are seeking to facilitate the establishment of those foundational strategic authorities to build the local capacity and collaboration that is needed ahead of accessing mayoral powers. We think that this will make them stronger in the long run and make sure that those authorities are built on firm foundations. That is why the decision has been taken to have those mayoral elections in 2028. My colleague, Minister Fahnbulleh, spoke to all local authorities on 3 December.

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, the move to compulsory unitary authorities, at the same time as creating mayoral authorities, is clearly causing confusion and delay. Cancelling elections denies electors their fundamental right. Councillors remaining in office for seven years when elected for a four-year term is simply not acceptable. Can the Minister set out in detail, in writing if necessary, a clear timetable going forward for all those authorities affected?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We must not conflate the two things. The devolution programme, which is working at pace, and the local government reorganisation process are running side by side, but they are not the same thing. That is why the decision has been taken to postpone mayoral elections in the four priority areas until 2028. The other two areas in the priority programme will have their mayoral elections in 2027, as they had already requested and as had already been decided. On other elections taking place, elections due in 2026 in county councils in those areas concerned will take place. Three of the areas are elected by thirds anyway, so they will have their elections as usual, and the district council elections that are due to take place in 2026 and 2027 will take place as scheduled.

[Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is far better to get the structures of local government right and produce good-quality public services than it is to become overly obsessed with the cancellation of elections? Obviously, cancelling elections is never highly desirable, but all Governments have had to do this from time to time when faced with the prospect of reorganising local government and trying to improve what it delivers.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I agree with my noble friend, and I am slightly puzzled about the giggling from the other side of the Chamber, because this is an important lever in devolution for delivering growth and prosperity for our communities. We want to bring local transport back into public control to make people’s daily commutes easier, tailor local skills and training to employers’ needs so that people can get good jobs, and drive the regeneration of our local areas so that people feel proud of the places they live in. In order to do that important work, we need established local unitary authorities as the component parts of a strategic authority. That is why the decision has been taken to get those authorities set up properly. Funding will be available to them to start the work, and then the mayors will be elected in 2028.

[Lord Fuller (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are committed to a pattern of unitary government by the next election in 2029. If these mayoral elections are to be delayed until 2028, what is the pattern for the rest of the unitisation in the remainder of this Parliament? What steps will be taken to make sure that equality of electoral representation, which in the shires is about 9,000 electors per councillor, is equated in London, Birmingham, Manchester and the mets, where it is currently 3,000?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, the programme of local government reorganisation outside of the priority programme is proceeding at pace. We have received proposals from all the areas that were invited to put in their proposals by 28 November. We are now out for consultation, which has already started, and we will make announcements on that by March next year. The timetable for that further devolution and local government reorganisation will be announced, and the timetables will come forward then. I pay tribute to all my former colleagues in local government, who have worked together in a fantastic way to pull together these proposals. Some of them have told me that it has been a positive experience, which is good to hear. It is good to see them working together in such a collaborative way.

[Lord Grocott (Lab)]

Does my noble friend, with her long and distinguished experience of local government leadership, agree that, all too often, major local government reorganisations take longer than anticipated, cost more than anticipated and deliver fewer savings than anticipated? With that knowledge, which I am sure she is aware of in approaching her current duties, will she at least undertake to keep the House informed of any cost implications in extending the period of office of existing local authorities and any other associated costs?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his question. I am always willing to come before the House and explain the impact of our programmes on local government. We remain committed to extending devolution to all corners of England. Under the last Government, we had a patchy and inconsistent approach, which meant that some areas were moving forward quickly on this and others had not even started the journey. Our commitment is to extend that devolution to all corners of England. We confirmed on 4 December the long-term funding offer for the six areas on the devolution priority programme, and we have committed close to £200 million collectively per year for 30 years to those new mayoral strategic authorities—some of that funding will be released earlier. This is really important. In my long experience in local government, we have put off these decisions around local government for far too long, and we have ended up with local government that is not sustainable for the long term. It is time to change that now, and I am committed to doing that. I am happy to report back to the House on how that is going.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

I declare an interest in that the Green Party candidates were already working hard in these four elections and at least two of them had a good chance of winning next year. The MHCLG has said that Ministers still intend to lay the statutory instruments for the creation of the four mayoral strategic authorities as soon as possible to allow an interim period of preparation before the delayed mayoral elections. These areas will, at that time, have access to some powers, functions and funding. Will the Government clarify what this means in practice and what powers and functions will be available during the interim period?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Yes, I am very happy to do that. The strategic authorities are being set up and we will have no delay in laying the statutory instruments—it is very important that those statutory instruments go ahead as quickly as possible. Those mayoral strategic authorities will have a number of functions available in the interim period to their mayoral election to make sure that they are working to encourage the investment that we all want in their areas. I will write to the noble Baroness with the detail but, just to run through quickly, they will have a general power of competence; a duty to develop a local growth plan; power to pay grants to constituent councils; power to borrow to an agreed cap; adult skills function powers; a health improvement and health inequalities duty; functions to acquire land, provide housing and build infrastructure; and responsibility for public transport and local transport planning. There is a lot for them to be getting on with.

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

My Lords, when we discussed these elections the other day, the Minister, for whom I have great respect, suggested that I was dancing on the head of a pin. I am a little surprised that, only a few days later, she should be coming forward and dancing on the head of possibly a very different pin. Does she agree with the comment in the other place from the Labour MP for Oldham West, who said

“we need to be better than this”?—[Official Report, Commons, 4/12/25; col. 1166.]

Local leaders across the political spectrum have worked in good faith. They have put aside self-interest and differences and have done everything asked of them to secure a better settlement for the people they represent. They reasonably expected the Government to do the same. Why have the Government not done the same?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am very grateful to my honourable friend in the other place for all the work that he did in laying the ground for this local government reorganisation and the devolution programme. He is very committed to it, as I know only too well, having worked with him very closely. However, it was right that, when the new team came in, they took a step back and had a good look at this. I do not think that I am dancing on the head of a pin in terms of elections. All the elections that were due to take place in 2026 will take place; these are four inaugural elections for new mayors. It is right that we build that strong foundation of those unitary authorities before we go ahead with the mayoral elections.

Gateway 3 New-build Applications

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve the clearance rate of Gateway 3 new-build applications by the Building Safety Regulator.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, we have acknowledged recent challenges within the building safety regulator. That is why, in June, we introduced a series of reforms to strengthen it, including a new strength and leadership team under Andy Roe, steps to address operational challenges and plans for a new independent body with oversight of the BSR, as recommended by the Grenfell inquiry. The gateway 3 regime is still relatively new, and few projects have yet reached this final stage, but early experience is helping developers and the BSR to refine the process to make sure it is consistent, efficient and firmly focused on safety outcomes. The BSR is working with the Construction Leadership Council to publish a further suite of industry guidance on gateway 3 this year.

[Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (UUP)]

My Lords, given the serious demand for housing in this country, it is not appropriate that those looking for housing are waiting almost six months for stage 3 application approvals. I have been informed that, on a number of occasions, inspections have been cancelled at the very last minute with no indication of when they will take place. What is the Minister doing to take that inefficiency out of the system and allow progress on this issue?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

As I explained, a programme of significant improvement has been undertaken under the new BSR leadership team. Of course, waiting six months for inspections is not an acceptable way forward; we want to improve things, and improvements are coming through the system now. Some of the work done by the new leadership team has already introduced this significant improvement. At gateway 3—a relatively new procedure, as I said—there have been 72 applications so far, which were received by November. Some 59 of those—82%—have already been approved, so things are beginning to improve.

[Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, many local councils in cities across our country are building upwards, with high-rise housing development even for families. I welcome these milestones in advanced building safety in building infrastructure. Can the Minister assure the House that she is doing everything she can to speed up the process and to ensure that strict regulatory monitoring of the highest standard remains, once implemented, thereby avoiding at all costs another Grenfell disaster?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is quite right to point to the balance we need here. I can do no better than to quote Andy Roe, who said that

“the BSR remains firmly committed to its core mission: keeping residents and their homes safe. Life-safety critical defects cannot be ignored and improvements to efficiency cannot be pursued at the expense of rigour”.

So we must get the balance right here: we have to speed up these processes and get them working properly for the industry, but we must also make sure that, in doing that, we do not relax at all on the very clear standards we must have to keep buildings safe.

[Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate (Con)]

My Lords, there are great concerns about the standards being applied in the building industry nowadays. We no longer have Walker Morris standards to guide us, but, having had many dangerous situations such as Grenfell Tower and a lack of quality in many builds, particularly in large estates, surely it is necessary to increase the resources available to the regulator in order to deal with these matters quickly and make sure that the standards people expect are maintained.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I think the noble Lord might have been referring to Parker Morris standards, but it is quite right that we have to focus very hard on keeping up the quality of build. That is absolutely what the building safety regulator is there to do. We are making sure that we support Andy Roe and his team in what they need to do. As I am sure noble Lords are aware, there has been a capacity issue in the system, but the June spending review committed an additional £1.2 billion a year to the skills system, supporting over 65,000 additional learners in key areas such as housebuilding, remediation and building safety. That will be critical. We have also invested £16.5 million specifically to recruit and train registered building inspectors, who form a vital part of this process. We are working with the independent building control panel to identify system-wide improvements, which I am sure will help with the issues the noble Lord is concerned about.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, it is important to recognise the significant progress made recently, but, sadly, much less progress has been made on the 253 applications for remedial work to existing high-rise buildings. Some of this involved residents having to move out while still paying their mortgages and management fees for properties they cannot legally access. Due to a definition of “building work” that is arguably too broad, relatively simple and straightforward work is being caught up in the gateway scheme and is adding to the backlog. What is being done to consult with the industry so that common types of work, such as the replacement of fire door sets, can be undertaken without resorting to a gateway application at all, so that it can get on with the serious job of removing dangerous cladding?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Two things are under way, one of which is working with the industry to identify those issues; it is very important that the remediation programme is well under way. The BSR has established a dedicated external remediation team responsible for assessing all building control approval applications relating to cladding remediation, so that is under way already. The other work the team has been doing is to make sure that, with applications that are not dependent on some of the work that can go on in the interim, that work can progress, so we are not holding up final approvals but letting people get on with what can be done in the meantime. I am sure that will help to unlock some of the hold-ups that have been in the system so far.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, if this were one isolated regulator falling down on the job, that would be one thing; but one after another, these quango regulators are failing. Is it not time to look not just at an individual regulator but at the whole model and the sort of people appointed to these jobs?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord may be aware that one recommendation of the Grenfell report was to have a single building regulator. Progress is being made towards that—a single body is being set up with oversight of the building safety regulator. We need to move this forward very quickly, but it is important that we get it right as we do so. We need to work with the industry to deliver the single construction regulator in a way that will work effectively for everybody. The new body has been established through a statutory instrument, which was laid on 11 November. So progress is being made, and we need to make sure that we move this on as quickly as we can.

[Lord Jamieson (Con)]

My Lords, we have seen a significant drop in the delivery of housing starts in London. Have the Government analysed the impact of delays in and the uncertainty of the BSR process on the viability of apartment blocks above 18 metres, and thus the development of those blocks? If so, will the Minister share that analysis with the House?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

One of the benefits of the changes to the BSR is that regular data is now being published monthly. The November data has been published and is available online for all interested parties to look at. As I have said, we accept that the delays have been unacceptable. About 15% to 25% of the new dwellings that we want to build will be the responsibility of the BSR to improve. The new team has introduced an innovation model to deliver significantly reduced processing times for all new build applications—not just for London but for everywhere else. We expect most cases under the previous model to be unblocked by the year end. There has been a dramatic improvement already, with reductions of 20 weeks or more in some of the approval processes.

[Lord Inglewood (CB)]

My Lords, is not the fundamental problem here the builders, rather than the regulator? Too many builders seem to be prepared to cut corners, and that is where the fundamental problem starts.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

This is the important work that is being done—working with the construction industry and the BSR to make sure that everybody understands what their responsibilities are in this process. The construction industry has worked incredibly closely with the BSR to develop guidance on what needs to be submitted it, and to understand how we make can sure that buildings are safe. I come back to the words of Andy Roe: it is very important that people be reassured that the buildings they move into are going to be safe going forward. Our job in government is to make sure that we get the balance right between safety and not blocking up the whole industry, such that it cannot move forward with developing the homes people need. I am very confident in the ability of the new BSR team to take this forward.