King’s Speech

Lord Bishop of Oxford Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Oxford]

My Lords, it is a privilege, as ever, to take part in the debate on the most gracious Speech. I thank the Minister for his clear introduction and pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich for their gracious and eloquent maiden speeches. It is particularly good to welcome the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich to this House with his considerable expertise, as he has demonstrated, on the environment and climate change.

I warmly welcome the Prime Minister’s ambition to build a better future for our children and grandchildren and to deliver the change the country needs. It seems to me, as to so many, that so great are the challenges we face that this or any Government will need deeper humility combined with greater practical wisdom to lead the nation forward.

I shall speak on my two areas of focus in this House: the climate and artificial intelligence. Both are areas of existential risk in this and future decades. On climate, I welcome the Government’s restated determination to lead action on tackling climate change and diversity loss. As a member of your Lordships’ Select Committee on the Environment and Climate Change, I recognise the complexity of a fair transition of our whole economy to net zero, but I do not yet see this determination translated into effective leadership of granular policy, whether that is in the transition to electric vehicles, decarbonising home heating or encouraging behaviour change.

The tone of the Speech is that the world is more or less succeeding in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The opposite is, of course, the case. The years when we can avert future disasters are slipping away, as the noble Lord, Lord Stern, argued. I say, with respect, to the noble Lord, Lord Lilley, that much of the world is currently experiencing the catastrophic effects of climate change, as is well documented by the United Nations and others. We need greater leadership and co-ordination across every government department and an increased sense of urgency in this legislative programme.

In particular, I want to highlight the risks and dangers of politicising the climate change agenda, which has been a feature of recent government announcements. Reaching net zero fairly demands the patient building of cross-party and cross-societal consensus, which has been damaged by the recent changes in electric vehicle targets and the decision to licence yet more future oil and gas fields, which are unlikely to come into production in time to support the essential and urgent transition we need.

Turning to artificial intelligence, I congratulate the Prime Minister and the Government on the recent AI summit and all that has emerged from the discussions there. The summit served to raise the profile of the questions raised by AI, the ways in which the benefits of new technology can be realised and the mitigation of its potential harms. I welcome, therefore, the promise of new legal frameworks for self-driving vehicles, new competition rules for digital markets and the encouragement of innovation in machine learning. However, I encourage the Government to invest more deeply in dialogue with civil society about the impact of these new technologies. The recent summit claimed to be a conversation with civil society, but I have seen no evidence of this third key voice in the room. The Government have entered a dialogue with the tech companies, which is welcome, but this dialogue must be further informed by trade unions, academia, community groups and faith communities to build trust and confidence about the kind of society we are building. In her response, will the Minister indicate the ways in which the Government will strengthen this third arm of the conversation in the coming months and years?

Childcare Payments Bill

Lord Bishop of Oxford Excerpts

Tuesday 9th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Sheffield]

My Lords, from these Benches I warmly welcome the Bill, which will provide much needed assistance towards childcare costs for many middle-income and low-income families. I also welcome the careful expansion of the availability of childcare. However, there are two areas which I shall mention briefly where further attention may be needed.

The first concerns the equity between this provision and the provision for families in receipt of universal credit. The Children’s Society estimates that by the time universal credit is fully implemented, around half of children may be living in families in receipt of universal credit. Some of the parents in the statistics quoted by the Minister who want to return to work will certainly be in this category. The challenge of childcare costs, for those returning to part-time and low-paid work, is significant.

My questions relate to equity in the administration of support rather than the quantity. I warmly welcome the intention to develop an easy-to-use online tool to help parents to determine the best help available. How will the Government ensure that universal credit and tax-free childcare complement each other effectively? Will the Government consider making childcare accounts available for families in receipt of universal credit? Will they consider making childcare payments from universal credit on the basis of costs incurred rather than payments made? Will they ensure that families have at least a month to report their childcare costs under universal credit and so receive their full entitlement, which is so important?

My second area has already been mentioned and relates to families with disabled children, where childcare costs can be higher. I warmly welcome the extension of support to parents of disabled children up to age 16. Will the Government consider making this Bill even more effective by providing a higher rate of support through the tax-free childcare scheme for children with disabilities, reflecting the higher general costs of childcare for such parents? These questions are in the context of a warm welcome for the proposals in this Bill.

Budget Statement

Lord Bishop of Oxford Excerpts

Thursday 27th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Sheffield]

My Lords, the prophet Jeremiah wrote a short but remarkable letter to his contemporaries long ago who had been sent into exile in Babylon. The letter has shaped Jewish and Christian thought on how communities of faith should engage with the wider society down all the generations since. The prophet’s advice is to,

“seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you … for in its welfare you will find your welfare”.

On behalf of all on these Benches, I warmly welcome the evidence of economic growth and I welcome the measures taken in the Budget to deepen that recovery. With my right reverend friend the Bishop of Chester I warmly welcome the reaffirmation by the Chancellor of our country’s commitment to spend 0.7% of our national income on overseas development.

The grant of £20 million for the maintenance and repair of our nation’s cathedrals is also hugely welcome. Our cathedrals contribute to the common good as places of worship, meeting points, and agents of regeneration and support for those in need. Sheffield Cathedral is currently completing a major reordering project. It strives to be a place for all the people of the city and is home to the Archer Project, which cares for the homeless on a daily basis.

Along with many on these Benches, I urge the Government to pay much closer attention to the effect of the cuts in government spending on the poorest in society. However, my appeal to the Government and to this House today is that measures are taken to ensure that growth in the economy is rebalanced to benefit not just a single city but the whole of the United Kingdom. Britain has one of the world’s truly global cities, London, where the economy is undoubtedly growing and investment is focused. We should all welcome that growth but too many of our urban areas outside London are failing to achieve their growth potential. Since 2010, 79% of private sector jobs growth has occurred in London but, in the same period, Britain’s next nine largest cities accounted for just 10% of all new private sector jobs created, according to the Centre for Cities report this year.

Regional imbalances have serious consequences for our overall economy. We are not releasing the creative potential of our great cities to the benefit of their regions and the nation. This has serious consequences for the well-being of many. Youth unemployment and underemployment, for example, is a major challenge in South Yorkshire and blights many lives. As the recent Sheffield Fairness Commission powerfully illustrated, inequality between and within regions and cities has serious consequences for the overall sense of cohesion and fairness of life in the United Kingdom.

The imbalance of growth by region is leading to a widening of the economic gap not only between London and the rest of the country but also between what city regions, such as Sheffield, contribute to the national economy and what they could contribute. As our economy begins to recover, I urge the Government and your Lordships’ House to give serious and strategic attention to the question of what kind of economic growth we want and how we achieve a more balanced economic recovery across the regions. This would be a suitable and urgent subject for a cross-party parliamentary commission or working group looking ahead five, 10 or more years.

There are a number of urgent areas which such a group or commission needs to address. We need to rebalance our economy back towards manufacturing. I welcome the significant measures in the Budget which support this. More is needed. The current Sheffield Master Cutler has put forward a strong case for an independent office for manufacturing competitiveness mirroring the recently established Office for Budget Responsibility.

We need to strengthen further the links between universities, research and industry, as commended by the recent Witty report. The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield is a model for the future. It is a partnership between the University of Sheffield, Boeing, Rolls-Royce and other leading companies. The centre is attracting manufacturing and production back to the United Kingdom by research-led innovation and stimulating investment and growth. This year, the centre launched an innovative apprenticeship scheme with 150 new places this year and another 250 in each year to come.

We need to develop patterns of regional collaboration and growth between cities, particularly in the north of England. We need a major shift in the balance of power to make decisions and determine investment between national and local government. The United Kingdom is one of the most centralised economies in the world. Local authorities control just 5% of money raised locally through taxation. The OECD average is 25%.

Finally, we need a significant shift in the proportion of central government expenditure and resource allocation back to the regions. The large cities of the north of England have been disproportionately hit by reductions in local government spending and in investment in transport, culture and the arts and in other areas. If we do nothing, we will see the gap between London and the regions continue to widen to the detriment of the whole country. I urge the Government and this House to address this problem with imagination, courage and vigour and develop a strategy which will rebalance economic growth across the whole of our nation.