Housing: Modern Methods of Construction
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
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Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, for the details that he alluded to. I begin with my thoughts and prayers to all who perished in Grenfell Tower and I pay respect to their loved ones. Grenfell is the context of continuous neglect in social housing provision. With two major fires only last week, we may not be learning the lessons quickly enough, with thousands of family homes remaining unsafe. If we utilise MMC, it must be using material tested to the highest safety standards. Since the 1980s, thousands of homes have been built in Canary Wharf and elsewhere without proper consideration of family needs, so a national housing plan is essential. If MMC meets industry standards, we should utilise it while mandating the strictest regime for the safety and well-being of family homes.
We can look at some of the challenges. Models exist in Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands and China using MMC building cost effectively with energy-efficient homes. Housing is not a building or buildings. It is homes for families across the generations. How will the Government use a national planning framework to secure the highest-quality MMC standards if we are to use it continuously for the well-being of a cohesive community?
Hate Crimes Against Muslim Women
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(5 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Swinburne (Con)
I can assure the noble Baroness, and all the speakers so far, that I have taken up this matter since I came into this position. The department is being asked to investigate and look at all the matters raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Gohir, and others.
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, notwithstanding the concerns raised by the noble Baronesses, Lady Gohir and Lady Warsi, I am also aware of many of the allegations in their questions. I have worked with Muslim women for subsequent Governments for at least 26 years, while I have been in the House and long before. What assurance can British Muslim women take from a prolonged absence of any meaningful engagement or action to address their experiences of discrimination inside, outside, at work and within the institutions that serve them?
With regard to the comments the Minister made about the amount of money available, there is an incredible disconnect between what she said and the experiences of women’s organisations up and down the country.
Baroness Swinburne (Con)
I would like to reassure the House that we have conducted extensive engagement over the last year in particular. The DLUHC Secretary of State hosted a round table with Muslim experts in late 2023 to hear of their experiences and feedback. Ministers have also conducted visits to a broad range of community groups to increase understanding and to see the valuable work that many Muslim community groups are doing. We are engaged in these matters, and this is one of many things we are doing to try to combat some of the issues that Muslim women in particular are facing.
Supported Housing
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, it is a privilege to follow the noble Earl and I thank my noble friend for her leadership in this debate.
Homelessness is not just about people sleeping rough on the streets. The lack of affordable, quality homes means that families and individuals endure poor-quality, privately managed, often cramped and unsanitary accommodation. For people with physical disabilities, there is often dangerously inadequate and unfit housing which is not sufficiently monitored, causing untold strain on their mental health and physical well-being.
I speak from two perspectives. The first is experience of leadership in a local authority and managing a housing association which provides an excellent quality of accommodation. The other is recently supporting a vulnerable adult on a journey through the maze of supported living.
If the system works well and a person is discharged into good-quality provision, it can be transformative, as noble Lords with far more expertise than I have said, with life-changing outcomes, an impact on individuals’ health and well-being and a reconnection to social interaction in the community—even a transition to independence.
While those are ideals, it is not the experience of many whom I have come across during the past 18 months, whether the supported accommodation is run by an independent residential care home or by a private landlord contracted to a local authority with a portfolio of housing that is often poorly, and sometimes wholly dangerously, adapted and managed. Frankly, I do not know how such accommodation has passed the inspection standards to meet the statutory duty of care.
Many individuals are stuck with desperate needs, with local health and social services simply overwhelmed because of a lack of funding, social workers, occupational therapists and other professionals, without whom many remain unnecessarily in extremely costly residential care homes. For example, lack of co-ordination between services in Medway meant that an individual who had recently had an amputation, and following positive rehabilitation in London, was placed back in Medway in costly yet wholly unfit accommodation where he was not able to properly access the toilet or shower facilities for three months, scraping his hands every time he tried to access his bedroom when leaving his kitchen or toilet.
This young man experienced 17 falls in three months trying to access the toilet over a very unsatisfactory ramp and without the promised level of local authority support, which the local authority was supposed to be paying for. As a result, he ended up in hospital for a further six months. Harrowingly, he then went back to a residential home for another very expensive batch of rehabilitation. It is a vicious circle: a process in which an individual in desperate need is not able to effect or influence change.
Due to a reduction in funding packages for supported housing, many residents are transitioning directly from a residential home or hospital into somewhere not fit for human habitation, let alone for people with complex physical needs, where local authorities are constrained with funds and have to work within the boundaries of the housing benefit cap.
I ask the Minister what consideration has been given to people accessing the good-quality homes that are often lying empty in an area when the same authorities are forced to pay thousands to residential homes and charlatan landlords who profit from their misery. It is not compassion we should talk about today but statutory duty of care and the obligatory standards we would set for ourselves.
Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
I take that into account; I will look at it and come back to the noble Baroness.
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
Also just before the noble Baroness sits down, as a former social worker, I understand the differences very well. The point that I was trying to make—perhaps in a rush—is that there is a transition from residential healthcare via social services. Local authorities have some responsibility for ensuring that people are placed properly.
International Women’s Day
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, computer glitches meant that I was kicked out of the list, so I am grateful to be taking part in this debate. I begin by recording my love and gratitude to my single parent, my mother, who navigated the hostility of the 1970s towards migrant and Muslim women while raising five children, all on her own. I too pay my humblest respect to our beloved and distinguished Baroness Boothroyd, whose kindness and affection I shall always hold very dear. I also warmly congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Lampard, on her powerful contribution.
I acknowledge that some women have individually experienced distinctive success in their chosen professions. The fact remains that the overall societal, political and financial situation and experiences for the vast majority of women and their families remain stubbornly unchanged. We need only to ask public sector workers to understand the lack of any significant improvement for women’s socio-economic conditions. Notably, the inability to balance the cost of living crisis with high childcare costs means that women are leaving the workforce in their hundreds of thousands. The eloquent description by the Minister of the Government’s commitment to women is painfully out of kilter with women around the country, more so in the East End of London, which was also a significant base for the suffragettes.
The truth is that most women remain constrained by the same old social and economic bondage, and meaningful changes are possible only if we are absolutely committed to resources which bind our Government to mandate equal pay and equal participation in political office and, most crucially, to legislate for a society where women and girls can live free from fear of violence and abuse, be it on their streets, in their workplace, at the hands of law enforcement officers or in their own homes.
Noble Lords have already spoken eloquently about sexual harassment experienced by women in public spaces, which rises to 86% among 18 to 24 year-olds. That is worrying enough. Experts at the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and other organisations are alarmed at the heightened, frightening level of child physical and sexual abuse, exposure to graphic violent and pornographic content online, and grooming, which is endemic. I can testify to that as the chair of the APPG on the Metaverse and Web 3.0, having examined the issue, and as a practitioner in the field of child protection and domestic violence. I have witnessed the tragic long-term consequences for the mental and physical well-being of women and girls who have experienced long-term violence and abuse.
Locally and nationally, statutory and NGO services remain lamentably patchy and inadequate in empowering women’s financial, housing and emotional well-being. Community trauma and counselling services, which are a prerequisite aid for women survivors, are scarce.
All national and international institutions and Governments, including ours, remain pitifully male-dominated, with a handful of exceptions, including in this Chamber, where women have achieved their fullest potential and public leadership. Nevertheless, decision-makers on the economy, education, policing, housing, environment, climate, wars and even within the space of advanced technology appear doggedly determined to ensure that women remain peripheral, at the behest of belligerent men who create absolute havoc with wars and conflicts and cause suffering among innocent women and children in their millions who languish in refugee camps all over the world. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been subject to rape as a weapon of wars, both recent and past. They still wait for justice and reparation, including in Bangladesh.
I am often asked whether women leaders would make different choices. Impulsively, I would say yes, but that has not been the case recently given the ministerial gush of emotional outbursts on migrants. It is not at all the case that all women speak for the masses of women. We have done everything within our means to support—
Lord Harlech (Con)
My Lords, with the greatest respect to the noble Baroness—
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
I am finishing. The progress that we note today is fragile. As other noble Lords have said, we can pledge to do better and act faster to eradicate misogyny and bigotry, which is embedded within our establishment and society.
Warm Hubs
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(2 years ago)
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Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
The right reverend Prelate is absolutely right. Warm hubs are there to do one specific thing, but we have the opportunity to make them not just warm, welcoming places to go but places where people who might be lonely will not be as lonely, with ongoing support for loneliness, which we know is a cause of mental health issues. He is right that hubs are an opportunity to ensure that local people get the support and knowledge they need and are entitled to, including information on such things as flu and Covid vaccines. We should be using them, and to that end I will talk—and have already talked—to the Local Government Association about best practice to move this forward.
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, I thank the right reverend Prelate for this important Question. The Minister will be aware that there are deep issues with the shortage of funding within all local authorities. They are having to scrape the barrel to fund services for children, adults with learning difficulties and a whole range of others. Can the Minister say with serious courtesy and conscience that the sixth-largest economy in the world can justify failing large sections of the community and rely on the use of these hubs? The most significant amount of work has been done by charities and interfaith organisations. Can we seriously say that we are satisfied with this?
Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)
My Lords, the Government have given large amounts of money to support people, households and businesses with their energy issues. I do not agree with the noble Baroness; I think communities are where these things are best delivered, and communities and local government know how to deliver them in the best way. I know that local authorities are always strapped for cash, but it is a matter of prioritisation for those local authorities and we have increased their grant by £3.7 billion this year. There is also the household support grant, a third of which is for supporting families and a third for pensioners. The other third is not ring-fenced and can very well be used for these sorts of projects.
High-rise Buildings: Evacuation of Disabled Residents
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(2 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
No, I was saying that we have a working group looking at the role that friends, neighbours and other residents may play in supporting the evacuation. That is essentially what I was saying: it is a working group to bring together evidence and information as part of the consultation.
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, is the fundamental question not why people with mobility issues are housed in these unsafe environments and conditions? Is it because there is simply not enough accommodation available to local authorities and housing associations? What are the Government doing to address mobility issues in their housing planning?
Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
Obviously we need to provide more affordable housing, which I think is what under- pinned the question. We have invested £11.5 billion as part of the affordable homeless programme and plan to build around 32,000 socially rented homes, double the current amount.
Islamophobia
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
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Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, I always thank the noble Lord for providing me with an easy question. Of course we want to work on establishing a definition that can be adopted, but I want the House to recognise that this is not a straightforward matter and will take time.
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, do the Government recognise that in any attempt to elucidate a formal definition of Islamophobia, religion and not race must be the central tenet? I agree with the noble Lord’s earlier response. Will the Minister give a personal assurance to the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, me and others that he will do everything he can to resolve this as a matter of urgency?
Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, I can give the assurance that we are tackling this as a matter of urgency. I completely agree with the point made about the need not to conflate race with religion. We need to get the definition of Islamophobia right.
Public Services
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(3 years ago)
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Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
As someone who spent 16 years in local government, I certainly know that we ensured that we never incentivised our staff in relation to the volume of tickets and the revenue that they could collect. It is important to increase productivity and to have sensible oversight of these matters.
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, on what the Minister just said, as a former councillor I know that such incentives do apply in some local councils. In any case, in any likely future review of government strategic effectiveness in the allocated cost of public services, will the Minister consider ring-fencing relevant funds for some specific services, such as those for domestic violence, social care for people living with disabilities and mental health conditions, and drug services for young people? Secondly, with regard to the private sector, will the Minister ensure that all contractors are fully cognisant of, and compliant with, our ambitious equality standards, including on their senior management and boards?
Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, a significant amount of the councils’ budget is already ring-fenced, including adult social care. It is for local councils to determine how they spend their resources to ensure that they meet local needs. The core spending power in the most recent local government settlement increased from £49 billion to £51.3 billion in this financial year. The ring-fencing of budgets can have the deleterious effect of forcing councils to do something that is not necessarily in the immediate interests of their local residents.
Leasehold: Building and Fire Safety
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(3 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, I agree that it is really important to engage with the people affected. I have a considerable number of meetings with leaseholder groups and am in constant virtual contact with some of the people who I believe are doing their very best to see how we can creatively address this difficult issue. I am very happy to meet the people today. It is important that as politicians we step forward and meet those people affected.
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, does the Minister accept that seeking redress retrospectively will not save hundreds of thousands of leaseholders from painful and mounting bills, as all noble Lords have said, causing enormous distress? Has he considered having proper discussions with housing associations and local authorities, which have also sold houses to leaseholders?
Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
We continue to have a number of discussions with members of the G15 housing associations, and particularly with local authorities. The hard yards of achieving a situation in which the same cladding as Grenfell—the aluminium composite material—has been got off around 96% of those buildings, much of that during this pandemic, have required work at every level of government. We will continue to engage with them to come up with practical steps to deal with other buildings with unsafe cladding.
Supported Housing: Funding
Baroness Uddin Excerpts(3 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, it is an entirely sensible recommendation that it is down to local authorities to base their plans on local needs. That is one of the reasons why we have moved away from specific ring-fenced funding—and of course, the Government can provide support for councils in that endeavour.
Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)
My Lords, as a former councillor, I agree wholeheartedly with my noble friend Lady Warwick in calling for ring-fencing for supported housing, particularly for people with disabilities, those who are recovering from mental health issues and those who have come out of prison. Those people appear to be suffering significant neglect in services, with a deficit of essential care which breaches our commitment and ambition for equality and social justice. Will the Minister meet me to discuss some recent supported housing experience that highlights a worrying lack of quality provision, which severely impairs rehabilitation, recovery and the dignity of individuals?
Lord Greenhalgh (Con)
My Lords, I am always happy to meet the noble Baroness, but I have to say that although there are some poor examples of supported housing—I am happy to learn about and understand that issue, and I will bring in my relevant ministerial colleagues in the department as well—there are also some tremendous examples of supported housing, in particular with the provision of extra care in sheltered housing, which is providing great accommodation for the elderly in our society.