Residential Leasehold for Flats

Debate between Lord Adonis and Baroness Penn

Thursday 30th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, as I have said, we believe that commonhold provides a potential way forward to move away from leasehold for flats, but there is reform of commonhold that needs to take place so that it will be fit for purpose. I reassure the noble Baroness, as I have others, that there are significant measures in this Bill that do exactly what she pointed towards, which is giving leaseholders greater control over the properties that they own and live in.

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

My Lords, the wider problem, of course, is that there are far too few new homes, either leasehold or freehold. Is the noble Baroness aware that France, with a population of about the same size as ours, now has 12 million more homes than Britain, and has built more than twice as many new homes as we have over the last 13 years? There has been a net addition of 2 million homes, a high proportion for social lease. I know that Ministers are not talking to their European counterparts at the moment, but does she not think that learning something from our European partners could be valuable in tackling the housing crisis?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are absolutely committed to increasing supply. The noble Lord is right that that is part of the solution, particularly when we have in place the provisions to ban new leaseholds in new houses. But the Government are delivering on that promise. We are on track to deliver our commitment to 1 million new homes during this Parliament. We are investing £10 billion in increasing the supply of homes, and in the last few years we have seen some of the highest rates of home delivery in decades.

Levelling Up: Project Delivery

Debate between Lord Adonis and Baroness Penn

Thursday 23rd November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, as I have highlighted, the department is very happy to speak to any project that sees that it is facing perhaps unavoidable delays in delivery. Our first priority should be looking at what we can do to reduce those delays, but, as I have said, we have also put in place flexibility in the system to extend some of the deadlines.

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

My Lords, will the noble Baroness tell the House how much damage to levelling up is being done by the cancellation of HS2 to Manchester? Is she aware that, once HS2 is built to Birmingham but not to Manchester, it will take 40 minutes from Euston to Birmingham but 2 hours and 10 minutes from Euston to Manchester? What does she think that will do to business investment decisions over the next generation, and does she not see that this will decimate the economic prospects of the north of England?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I am afraid I completely disagree with the noble Lord. There is a choice to be made about where that investment goes, and the Government have made the choice to invest in transport projects that will connect towns and cities within the north far better. It will deliver more improvements to more people faster than the continuation of further legs of HS2.

Skills and Post-16 Education Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Adonis and Baroness Penn

Committee stage
Monday 19th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness said that there was now a scheme for enabling large employers to transfer part of the proceeds of the apprenticeship levy to SMEs. What is the incentive for them to do that? It was not clear to me why they would do it, apart from just good will—they may do it for good will, but it is good to have some incentives. Also, although she issued a lot of warm words about younger apprenticeships, she did not—unless I missed it—directly address the third part of the amendment from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Clarke, which requires employers receiving apprenticeship funding to spend

“at least two thirds of that funding on people who begin apprenticeships at Levels 2 and 3 before the age of 25.”

What is the Government’s view on an actual requirement that two-thirds of the funding be spent on those who are under 25?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

As noble Lords will be aware, when large employers pay the apprenticeship levy, those funds stay in their account for up to two years and, if unspent, return to the Government. They fund wider apprenticeship provision, such as the provision of maths and English tuition, the administration of the scheme and other aspects of it. However, we know that large employers have unspent funds. They may, for example, want to transfer those to other businesses in their supply chain that would benefit from taking up apprenticeships in that form. That is one incentive they may have to transfer the levy funds.

On the point about obliging employers to have two-thirds of their apprenticeships filled by young people, while we want to ensure that young people and employers are incentivised to take up apprenticeships and are working towards that, one piece of feedback we get from employers about the unspent levy is a lack of flexibility on how to spend it. There is always a balance in ensuring that there is sufficient flexibility for how employers can use their levy while making sure that it delivers on the aim: high-quality, technical apprenticeship schemes that deliver the skills that employers need.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

My Lords, is the noble Baroness able to give us any information about the provision of apprenticeship options through UCAS? I appreciate that she may not have that information available, so could she write to Members of the Committee about it? There is quite an important issue about actual availability and pathways for young people going through vocational and technical education routes.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I am aware that that was one option being looked at to improve the way that young people can navigate their next steps, post school. I do not have the specific outcome of that investigation to hand, so I will happily write to the Committee on that matter.

United Kingdom Internal Market Bill

Debate between Lord Adonis and Baroness Penn

Consideration of Commons amendments
Monday 14th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

I want to ask the Minister a very specific question. She talked about consultation, but will she undertake on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government to commit that they will not make investments under the shared prosperity fund, or any of its successors, in the territories of the devolved Administrations without their consent? This is about not just consultation but consent. Further, does she realise that, if she does not do so, none of the other assurances that she has given is worth the paper they are written on?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I believe that this issue was the subject of the amendments tabled by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, in the previous round of ping-pong. Those amendments were sent to the Commons and the Commons rejected them, so we are discussing a new set of amendments in this round of ping-pong. This question was dealt with in the previous round and is, as the Speaker of the House of Commons determined for previous amendments, subject to financial privilege.

Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2020

Debate between Lord Adonis and Baroness Penn

Tuesday 20th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

My Lords, it is vital that schools are kept open, wherever possible, and that full online learning is provided where they cannot be. I will ask the Minister five specific questions about what is going on in the schools sector. The first is on the closure of schools. Under the tier 3 regulations, schools will be the last institutions to be closed. According to the Government’s guidance, schools will be the last sector to shut, if further restrictions are required. But the Welsh regulations, which were introduced today, have closed secondary schools beyond year 8 for the first week after half-term. Will the Minister assure the House that similar regulations will not be introduced as part of tier 3 in England?

Secondly, even when schools are open, a lot of pupils are being sent home because of Covid infections, but there is no uniformity in the definition of the rules by which they should be sent home, how bubbles are defined and how many students are sent home, depending on how many have been infected. The latest figures show that only 68% of schools do not have substantial closures and one in 10 students is not in school, with whole year groups often being sent home because of one or two infections. I am told by head teachers that there is no adequate guidance on this from the Department for Education. They would like pupils to be sent home only when infections are traced to groups that sit together. This would dramatically reduce the incidence of pupils being sent home and schools being closed and would bring the state system in line with the private sector, where very few pupils are being sent home.

Thirdly, this time, unlike the last closure, the temporary continuity direction provides that there should be online learning, but there are no standards of provision for what it should constitute. Ofsted is inspecting online learning, which is a big step forward from last time. Will the Minister undertake to provide the lessons of that to all schools?

I will ask the last two questions quickly. Where online learning is required, because pupils have been sent home, the provision for laptops to be given to poor students is not uniform. Many schools are finding that they can apply for free laptops only after the pupils have been sent home.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, could the noble Lord respect the time limit for his speech?

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

Will the Minister undertake that all schools are able to apply for laptops upfront, without having to wait until pupils are sent home?