National Infrastructure Projects: Devolution
Debate between Lord Birt and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage(3Â weeks, 4Â days ago)
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Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
Data centres are a useful example of why the planning system needs flexibility. Some data centres will go through the local planning routes and some will be NSIPs because of their scale, power requirements, economic role or resilience applications. The noble Baroness makes a very valid point around how we use grey water and so on, and how we can use the heat output from data centres for use in residential or commercial applications.
Lord Birt (CB)
My Lords, I worked at No. 10 some 20 years ago, when the decision was made in principle to build a national high-speed rail network in the UK. As we know, that network now goes just from Birmingham to Euston, is not yet open and is 140 miles long. At exactly the same time that that decision was made, the Chinese started building their high-speed rail network. Twenty years later, it is 31,000 miles long. What conclusion does the Minister draw from that?
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
I will not make any points about the nature of Governments that can move without fear of having to be re-elected, but we have to get better at this. That is why all this work has been done since our Government came into power to make sure that we improve both infrastructure planning and the process for delivering infrastructure. We need not only to get the planning system working more smoothly but to have far better ways of making sure that the project management of these schemes is working effectively and smoothly. The first step is to get these things through planning without having years and years of hold-ups in the courts and elsewhere.
Local Resilience Forums
Debate between Lord Birt and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage(5Â months, 2Â weeks ago)
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Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
I absolutely agree with my noble friend that one size does not fit all in this respect. He may be aware that my fellow Minister, my noble friend Lady Twycross, and myself have both worked in emergency services, so we know how important it is to get this right for local areas, and that absolutely goes alongside the devolution programme. Alongside that reorganisation and devolution, we are committed to strengthening the role of strategic authorities and mayors in local resilience, which will give the opportunity to develop local solutions. We are safeguarding emergency preparation and response effectiveness, making sure we get that continuity through the reorganisation programme. Part of the trailblazer programme is to introduce the concept of chief resilience officers, which we are looking at and will be testing. That will inform the 2027 review of the Civil Contingencies Act.
Lord Birt (CB)
My Lords, utilising modern science and technology, the police appear to be addressing the most serious crime very effectively. But we all know that we have an epidemic of offending on our streets—and our high streets—unmatched in my lifetime, with shoplifting, phone-snatching, drug-dealing and rogue bikers. Does the Minister accept that we need to take a fresh look at how the police are organised and tasked?
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
My noble friend Lord Hanson, who has the next Question, may be better placed to answer that question. I agree that there was a real error made in decriminalising shoplifting. We are addressing that now and work is being done on it. As the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, carries on his review of police structures, which will report this summer, the Home Office is absolutely committed to ensuring that local policing remains at the heart of any changes to force structures. The policing White Paper is clear that responsive local policing will be guaranteed through local policing areas, with local officers focused on tackling the epidemic of everyday local crime. That undermines our communities; it causes great distress in them, and both our mayors and our police service want to tackle that as quickly as possible.
New Homes Target
Debate between Lord Birt and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage(7Â months, 3Â weeks ago)
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Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
It ill behoves the Government who caused the housing crisis to be pressing us on this. We have already taken very significant steps, which I have outlined, to move this forward. We updated the National Planning Policy Framework. It is early yet to see an impact from those changes. We expect to see the effects feeding through into a higher number of homes being granted permission later in the year. However, new figures show that already we are seeing some green shoots of recovery, with a 29% increase in housing starts compared with 2024. It will take time to turn the tide after decades of underinvestment and a failure to build the homes and infrastructure that we needed to keep up with demand. We expect housebuilding to ramp up, particularly in the later years of the Parliament, as our reforms take effect. We will continue on our mission to deliver those 1.5 million homes.
Lord Birt (CB)
My Lords, I return to the question of social housing. Since 1990, the UK’s population has grown by around 20%—an additional 12 million people. In that same period, our stock of social housing has not grown but contracted by nearly 10%. We now have fewer than 400,000 units of social housing than in 1990. Precisely how many additional units of social housing do the Government expect to have by 2030?
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
The Government are committed to the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation. That ÂŁ39 billion social and affordable housing programme I spoke about will combine the best elements of previous programmes with new design elements to make sure that we maximise the delivery that we want to see, enabling providers to build the types of homes that the country needs. The ambition is to deliver around 300,000 homes with at least 60% social rent. We have also provided long-term income stability for social housing providers with a 10-year rent settlement, which will help to give them the stability and confidence they need to invest even further in funding for social housing. It is a comprehensive policy package. We want a simpler, more transparent system and are driving forward. We know that social housing is important.