The UK’s Demographic Future

Lord Bishop of Leicester Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Leicester]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, for his work in bringing together this report and giving us the opportunity to debate it. I add my thanks to him for his fascinating speech today and his wider contribution to this House, and I wish him well for the future.

The authors of this report raise various thorny policy problems, each of which demands careful negotiation so as to manage conflicting trade-offs. It would be easy to brush them aside in favour of more electorally popular concerns or to oversimplify them to stoke division. I want to put on record first my support for an open debate on questions such as, “What is a reasonable level of population growth?” It may be an uncomfortable question, but what are we here for if not to model healthy, mature debates on uncomfortable questions?

I want to focus my remarks on the chapter on social cohesion by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali. While I would differ from Dr Nazir-Ali on a few of his points, I welcome his overall thrust: calling for more attention to be paid to the fabric of our society and how it is affected by the demographic shifts noted in the report.

Perhaps, though, it is not attention that is wanting. We are not short of policy papers, polling results or comment pieces telling us that we are a divided, lonely and polarised nation—ironically, that seems to be the one view that we are all agreed on. Rather, what is needed beyond simply attention is action and leadership. The former Faith Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Khan, is among those calling for a clear social cohesion strategy, and I add my voice to that. Indeed, my first question to the Minister is this: can she assure us that the Government are working on such a social cohesion strategy and doing so as a matter of urgency?

I use the phrase social cohesion, rather than integration, deliberately, because what is needed is something more than support for newcomers to the UK to settle well here. Here, my emphasis is slightly different from that of Dr Michael Nazir-Ali. If it were only immigration that affected the strength of our communities, we would find higher levels of loneliness, lower levels of civic participation and of social action, and a reduced sense of belonging in areas with higher immigration. But that is not what the data shows: once researchers control for poverty and neighbourhood deprivation, any negative correlation between diversity and social cohesion disappears.

Yes, the Government should pay attention to how new migrants can be supported to become active participants in our communities—I would give one example as restoring the funding for ESOL programmes to its previous level; it is almost impossible for somebody to navigate British society, let alone appreciate our history and values, if they cannot understand English.

However, that by itself will not heal our fractures. We need to wrestle honestly with the toll taken by poverty, deindustrialisation, decades of increasing individualism, institutional distrust and inequality. We must take seriously the fact that the media and social media do best, commercially speaking, when they drive us further apart; and we know that there are global actors who use social media, and who have no shortage of funding, to sow discord and fear.

In one of the letters of the Bible, St Paul describes the Church as a body with many members, all different and each indispensable. That is the image which, I believe, should ground a social cohesion strategy. How can we all be supported and encouraged to use our gifts to serve the common good and feel a sense of belonging, even of obligation, to one another?

Our debate today will naturally focus on what the Government should do. When it comes to social cohesion, Governments certainly have an important role. They can and should invest in community infrastructure, enforce laws against discrimination and create the conditions in which trust can grow; but for that to be sustainable and fruitful, everyone has to feel a sense of responsibility for our common life. I would like to see every institution—from schools to universities, businesses, public services, sports, arts and cultural organisations—recognising that bringing people together across difference is part of their social responsibility. Does the Minister agree with such a whole-society approach, and can she share how the Government plan to achieve it?

Preparing for Extreme Risks (RARPC Report)

Lord Bishop of Leicester Excerpts

Thursday 12th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Leicester]

My Lords, I, too, am grateful for the Select Committee’s work in tackling such an important subject and, in particular, I concur with the authors’ recognition that,

“the UK must move away from a risk management strategy which … often ignores or fails to appreciate the interconnected nature of our society”,

and that we must instead,

“produce a risk management system that ties all sectors of society together.”

Interdependence is a fundamental part of human nature and policies that follow the grain of that nature are far more likely to succeed.

I was disappointed, therefore, that although the report advocated for a whole-society approach, no reference was made to the role of faith groups in emergency planning and response. Faith groups and leaders across the country were an integral part of the response to Covid-19. A 2020 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society, based on research with local authorities, found that faith communities were instrumental in local responses by offering buildings, running food banks, information-sharing, befriending, collecting, cooking and delivering food, and providing volunteers for local authority programmes. Accordingly, the APPG found that local authorities developed a new-found appreciation for the agility, flexibility and professionalism of faith-based organisations, and that local authorities were keen to continue and build on those relationships in the future.

When I consulted with my own local public health team, I heard a similar account. In Leicester, throughout 2020 and 2021 there was a fortnightly faiths engagement group that brought together public bodies with faith leaders to co-ordinate how to translate and disseminate important messages about the virus itself and the associated restrictions. Our city’s director of public health, Professor Ivan Browne, told me: “I would argue that any strategic document that in any way considers a community response to a crisis must consider the role of community and faith groups.” Another example would be the 2016 floods, when Khalsa Aid, a Sikh charity, together with groups of Muslim volunteers, spent weeks in the affected towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire, serving thousands of hot meals and helping with the clean-up.

Across the UK, when there have been terror attacks or explosions, churches have opened to offer shelter and hospitality for those affected and places for emergency services to base themselves. Of course, there is also the Salvation Army, which as well as being a Christian denomination is one of the world’s largest providers of social aid and humanitarian assistance, frequently on the front lines of the response to earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis across the globe.

Even as we speak, faith-based organisations are responding to another national emergency, which might not require flashing blue lights or daily briefings, but is shocking in its scale nevertheless. Across the country, and for several years now, churches, mosques, temples, gurdwaras and synagogues have been hosting and supporting food banks and community pantries. Faith groups may appear to be superfluous stakeholders to government departments responsible for risk assessment and planning, but the children of God in need of food parcels may tell a different story.

Faith groups also have a distinct contribution to make in the face of crises. Beyond meeting material needs alone, they are often central in reinforcing a local sense of identity and the connections that comprise a community’s social fabric. The gift of our common life together can easily be disrupted by disaster or conflict yet cannot be maintained or mended by a statutory service, no matter how well intentioned.

As well as their institutional presence, most faiths have an other-centredness at their core that prepares their members to be willing, as well as able, to help. Week in, week out, most people of faith are working to grow in patience, generosity, temperance, wisdom and, most importantly, compassion.

With this in mind, I suggest that the Select Committee’s report should go further when it speaks about the role of education in building our society’s resilience. We should also consider how our education system can build what psychologists identify as the five pillars of resilience: self-awareness, mindfulness, self-care, positive relationships, and a sense of purpose. These are the building blocks of a resilient citizenry.

If the Civil Contingencies Act is to be updated, as the Select Committee recommends, to reflect the importance of several societal organisations not recognised in the current legislation, might I suggest that faith groups and faith-based organisations are also included?