(1 month ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, I thank the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York for successfully balloting this important debate, and I congratulate my noble friend Lord Sharma on his maiden speech. He not only has a degree in applied physics but qualified as a chartered accountant, and then has a wealth of experience over many years in both the private and public sectors. I can see that he will make many valuable contributions, based on real-life experience, to your Lordships’ House.
His Majesty’s Official Opposition are committed to fostering social cohesion, strong communities and strong local economies. Indeed, our aim is to work tirelessly and constructively with the Government to promote these ideals into real action, not just words. I will first set out where we are today on social cohesion and focus on the work that the previous Government undertook in order to make progress.
The strength of our communities and local economies is shown at its best during difficult times. I think noble Lords will all agree, without exception, that the Covid pandemic remains a powerful example of a time when communities throughout our United Kingdom came together to support each other during an incredibly challenging period. This was referenced by the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London. The noble Lord, Lord Bird, referred to Darning Street, and my noble friend Lord Jackson talked about the vaccine rollout.
Every one of us can remember the amazing efforts that volunteers made to ensure the most vulnerable residents had the food and other essential household goods they needed throughout the pandemic, with volunteer groups taking huge steps to support their neighbours and communities. The Make a Difference campaign saw thousands of laptops donated by men, women and families all over the country, so that as many schoolchildren as possible had the tools that they needed to enable them to continue their education while being confined to their homes. It was an unbelievably difficult period for many.
We are reminded of the vaccination campaign. In January 2022, the chief executive of NHS England paid tribute to the more than 100,000 people across the country who stepped up to the plate and supported the vaccine rollout. Among them were 48,000 volunteer stewards and 17,000 volunteer vaccinators.
More recently, we have seen communities come together in the face of flooding, following severe weather events such as Storm Bert. Just yesterday, it was reported that a volunteer in Northamptonshire has taken two weeks off work to lead a team of volunteers to help residents of the Billing Aquadrome, who have been affected by flooding. On the night of Storm Bert itself, I saw farmers in the local community going out on their tractors to warn drivers in advance of the rising flood-waters, and going further down the road and towing any unfortunate drivers for whom the waters were already too high. These are just two of the hundreds, if not thousands, of stories of the selflessness and bravery that people have shown during challenging times.
A strong community is the foundation stone of where we live and who we interact with. It can be our identity and essence; it can be a driving force for good deeds and doing the right thing. We know what we can achieve when we work together—it can be ground-breaking. That is precisely why strong communities matter.
However, we know that social cohesion can be challenged. The most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London, and the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, all mentioned the riots we saw this summer. The riots were entirely wrong, not to mention unlawful. There are elements in our society who fall short of the values that we aspire to, and we must join together and speak with one voice in condemning violence. Whatever the purported motivation, violence of any form, whether on our streets, in our shops or in our homes, is never acceptable and is an affront to everything that we stand for.
It is critical that we seek to understand what went wrong, not just this summer but in previous events. We must establish the root causes of these crises and address them head-on. We have to bring those who committed criminal acts to justice, while at the same time seek to heal divisions wherever they appear. The riots showed that there is clearly much work to be done to bring our society together.
His Majesty’s Official Opposition will work constructively with the Government to build kinder and stronger communities, rooted in our core national values of tolerance and mutual respect. Let me repeat that: tolerance and mutual respect can be the only way forward, as was well referenced by my noble friend Lord Sandhurst.
When in government, we made a conscious and consistent effort to boost support for communities across the country through our landmark levelling-up program. Between 2019 and 2024, we put left-behind communities first, injecting cash directly into local authorities and community-led projects to revitalise our high streets, local pubs, community amenities and local schools. Through three rounds of our levelling up fund, we awarded £3.8 billion to 216 projects, including the restoration of community-owned assets, from Haigh Hall in Lancashire to Alford Manor House in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Both these assets are now set to be restored for the benefit of local people, bringing residents together and strengthening the community.
Community pubs up and down the country also play a vital role in bringing people together. Our £150 million community ownership fund supported hundreds of local groups to buy assets, such as community pubs and leisure centres. Our landmark school rebuilding fund is delivering major rebuilding and refurbishment projects at school and sixth-form college buildings across England, with buildings prioritised according to their condition. Since 2021, 518 projects have been announced under the scheme, delivering school buildings that communities can be proud of.
The most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York mentioned that difference is a gift. My noble friend Lady Bottomley talked about diversity. My noble friend Lady Helic talked about anti-Semitism. My noble friend Lord Leigh of Hurley gave an incredibly powerful insight into the frightening challenges that the Jewish community in the UK currently faces. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Lichfield talked about attacks on mosques.
We took action against the fear of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hate by delivering £70 million for the Community Security Trust over four years and £29 million in support of mosques last year alone to keep them safe and secure. We supported places of worship of all religions, through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, helping to restore places of worship in every part of the UK. The Government must look at our efforts to stamp out religious hatred and foster mutual respect within the UK, and build on that work. We hold our heads high on the record of the previous Government and our work to restore the high streets, pubs, leisure centres, community facilities and schools that are at the centre of community life in so many parts of our amazing country.
The current Government have now taken up the challenge of supporting community cohesion, and I would like to put a number of important questions to the Minister. Can he confirm that all the projects focused on strengthening our communities and our local economies announced under the previous Government will be honoured? Can he confirm that the Government will deliver the funding allocated through the third round of the levelling up fund, on time and in full? Finally, the Government have scrapped the future operation of the levelling-up agenda. Can the Minister set out what additional support left-behind communities can hope for under this Government?
In conclusion, the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York flagged the importance of neighbours. My noble friend Lady Helic talked about integration and my noble friend Lady Porter talked about well-being and health. Social cohesion makes for a strong community; it makes a local economy; it drives prosperity; it drives success; it drives health and well-being for everyone in that community.
(11 months, 1 week ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Watson, for raising this debate and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Rosenfield, on his maiden speech.
I spent 20 years advising and winning business from over a third of the companies in the FTSE 100, and I now try to help SMEs. I refer the House to my entry in the register of interests. During my time with the multinational corporates, I enjoyed many trips to Derby to see Rolls-Royce, Farnborough to see BAE and Coventry to see Jaguar Land Rover. I now travel to different parts of the country to see SMEs, but whether it is Lichfield, Exeter or Portsmouth, it is striking that wherever I go, the enthusiasm and the commitment of the workforce is the rock that allows these companies to thrive. All over this country, we have a truly amazing industrial and manufacturing sector. We should be doing everything that we can to help it.
I will therefore focus on SMEs and exports as part of a wider industrial strategy. I will give noble Lords a crucially important statistic. If you were to go to Companies House today, you would find around 5.4 million firms registered. However, of those, only 8.8% export at all. UK exports are now at the highest level we have seen in our history, and it is clear that we have a very experienced and successful team at UK Export Finance. None of that is in doubt but, taking a purely objective view, 8.8% appears to be at the low end of expectations. Will the Minister say why he believes that number to be where it is and how he believes we can help it to flourish and grow? Is it a case of allocating more resource to UK Export Finance so it can visit more companies? Do we need more material to deliver the message that exporters are more productive, diversify their risk and drive their own growth? Should the Government be working with the big banks to laser focus on promoting the benefits of exporting to those companies which are best placed to benefit from an export strategy?
Another of the companies I did business with was ARM, the chip maker and one of our great UK success stories. However, it is listed in the US, not the UK. When our brilliant companies grow and think about raising capital they should, one would think, look to list in London. However, the FTSE Small Cap index is seeing its constituents decline as well as its market capitalisation, which materially impacts the investor funds available to support our businesses which want to borrow money to expand. What steps are the Government taking as part of an industrial strategy to encourage investment in UK small caps and make the sector great again?