Gypsies and Travellers

Lord Boswell of Aynho Excerpts

Thursday 16th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I am not sure exactly which problem the noble Lord refers to, because there are a few, but I will communicate with him outside the Chamber.

[Lord Boswell of Aynho]

My Lords, as a matter of equitable treatment, is it not reasonable that if we are asking Gypsies and Travellers to meet their obligations under the law we should at the same time devise the most sensitive and comprehensive measures of their nature and definition, so that they can avail themselves of their proper rights as a minority—and they should receive those rights as well as meet their obligations?

Localism Bill

Lord Boswell of Aynho Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Whitaker]

In supporting Amendment 204A for all the reasons powerfully set out by the three previous speakers, I should like simply to add that this provision will go some way to taking care of some otherwise very awkward problems: a housing shortage which a small area cannot or will not address on its own; adequate provision for Gypsy and Traveller sites so that brutal confrontations, evictions, further illegal roadside stopping, are avoided, and gradually some inroads are made into the accumulated shortage of legal sites. The words “accommodation needs” reflect exactly the wording in Section 225 of the Housing Act 2004, and will readily be understood to refer to all homeless people, whether itinerant or settled, with the right degree of equality and fairness.

[Lord Boswell of Aynho]

My Lords, I have not spoken previously on the Localism Bill, nor would I claim any particular expertise in the planning system, but I would like to respond to the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, in the context of this debate, with particular reference to Gypsies and Travellers.

The noble Baroness and I, and indeed my noble friend Lord Avebury, have participated over a number of years in the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gypsy Roma Travellers, and we have always been conscious of the difficulties that that community faces in adequate site provision, and also the degree of lack of salience—or should I say lack of appetite, perhaps—by local authorities in meeting their existing obligation. I can well understand her fears that these might be projected into the future.

Perhaps I may just comment from my experience over nearly a quarter of a century in another place as a constituency MP. The two planning issues on which I tended to wrestle most assiduously were either at the macro level, major infrastructure projects, or at the micro level, difficulties about Gypsies’ and Travellers’ sites—whether they were organised or not—but more typically, when there was no adequate provision, and they were moved on; although the provision in Northamptonshire tended to improve over the years.

This particular amendment is of course about making an adequate assessment, and that is a proper start. The difficulty, in my experience, is that very few authorities see themselves as having an interest in carrying out this assessment—one or two enlightened ones do, maybe for economic reasons, in order to secure a temporary labour force. Most will do as little as they might. And yet, one could fairly say that the amount of land required to meet all these needs across the nation is quite small, and in local authority areas is even smaller. It would certainly be in the interests of local authorities, who wanted to put some order into this process, to make adequate provision so that people could move to those sites and away from others. We do not want to open the recent wounds about that matter, but I think that a number of authorities are very diffident about doing so.

The reasons for that are perhaps, first, that they may fear that they are shouldering a disproportionate burden; in certain cases they may feel, secondly, that the very fact of assessing provision or having a discussion about it may, as it were, attract or create an additional population whose need has then to be met; and thirdly, they are, to be frank, often facing the hostility of the local settled population, and a very strong political pressure not really to meet their duties.

This has to be balanced; what I have always said locally is that the one thing I do not take is a one-dimensional view of this. There is a need for give and take, sensitivity and a proper discussion on both sides, but it has to start with a proper assessment. There may be a feeling that this is not going to happen.

In addition to this, I should just make the point—and it does look back to the issue of cross-border co-operation—that of course the nature of the travelling population, by definition, is that people move around; not all the time, or in every case, or outside or across local authority boundaries, but it does mean that they have to be looked at with at least a degree of flexibility and sensitivity, given, as the noble Baroness has said, some of the social pressure which is upon many of them, and which is evinced by many frightening social statistics in terms of a perinatal mortality or health outcomes, education, and the rest of it, which we need not go on to tonight.

I am not an ideological opponent of the Localism Bill—I think it is a good approach for the reasons that my noble friend Lord Deben very eloquently brought forward a few minutes ago. But we have to look at meeting the needs, indeed meeting wider statutory responsibilities for equality, which are enshrined in the duties of local authorities, and seeing whether they are adequately discharged.

I hope that encouragement will be sufficient for the local authorities so that they meet their obligations. All I can say is that I very much hope that the Minister can reassure us that she will be able to keep a watch on the situation, and I hope, if it is necessary—though one trusts that it will not be—that she will keep an open mind to any other measures or contingencies that may be required to see that this small but significant and vulnerable section of the population and their housing needs are assessed and met.

[Lord Newton of Braintree]

My Lords, being from Essex, albeit from Braintree and not Basildon, I am a bit hesitant, as my noble friend will probably understand, to follow him down the path of the issue that he has raised. I have to say that it was a brave speech and I have considerable sympathy with the approach that appeared to underlie it.

I want to come in on a different aspect of this, which is emboldened by the speech of the noble Lord from the Cross Benches. My concern in this field is that the more you go for localism and devolve decisions downwards, the more you will risk people saying, “We don’t want this in our back yard. Put it in somebody else’s”. As regards affordable housing, we need to recognise that even in the smallest units, which are not always recognised by villagers in some quite small villages—I live in a fairly large village in Essex—or the most articulate and active people, there is a need to provide houses for the families and young people who are perhaps not so comfortably off but who are essential to the overall life and social structure of the village or the neighbourhood, as it is defined in this Bill.

We need to recognise that with the disappearance of pressures from above—that is, the spatial strategy—on local authorities to build this, that or the other number of houses, we slightly strengthen the ability of everyone to say, “Yes, we all know that a lot of houses are needed but not here, thank you”. We may need to do something to correct that. The thrust of the point of the noble Lord on the Front Bench opposite, although not the wording particularly, is probably well made, and I hope that it will receive an understanding response.

Postal Services Bill

Lord Boswell of Aynho Excerpts

Wednesday 4th May 2011 Lords Chamber

Lord Jenkin of Roding: My Lords, I listened to the noble Lord with some interest, but I should have thought that, if ever a brand name would be of immense value to anyone who bought the business afterwards, it is that of Royal Mail. I hope that I am not being indiscreet but when I discussed privatising Royal Mail while I was in the Department of Industry in 1981, I was told brusquely, “It’s royal—we can't touch it”, so it has been delayed for my noble friends to bring to the point now which I would really have liked to have seen a long time ago.

[Lord Boswell of Aynho]

My Lords, perhaps I may comment first on the amendment which has just been moved by the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy of Southwark. We all have an interest in the continuation of the proud name “Royal Mail”, which honours those who have worked in that service over 300 years. All of us here should respect that, not only those who are historians or antiquarians. At this point, perhaps I had better declare my interest in archives and my involvement with the all-party group, of which the House may be aware. However, if the noble Lord looks forward to the proposed new clause in government Amendment 54, which has been grouped with this amendment for convenience, we might have a more substantive discussion. I look forward to the Minister's comments on that amendment, on which I shall speak in a moment.

I make no apology for wanting to see that this is got right because it is not necessary to be a fan of TS Eliot’s poetry—although I am one—to understand that the past is very much part of the present and the future and that it should not be possible, in a mechanistic way as it were, to unpick them or to take no notice of them. It is really important that the heritage and pride which have gone with that name and its tradition are celebrated and maintained, not least because it is a matter of obvious sensitivity in relation to the monarchy. We do not need to speak about that in detail but the monarch’s head appears on our postage stamps and her title attaches to our postal service. We hope that will continue.

However, as I said in Committee, any of us who have been to see the Royal Mail’s museum and archive, which is the subject of the government’s proposed new clause tabled in Amendment 54, will know the richness of what is there. There is complexity and fascination in how designs were considered, modified and put into circulation and that is all part of the tradition which should go with this. It is important that we make these commercial changes—I am not resiling from that—and that we do not spend unreasonable money on resourcing the past, however important it is. I said in Committee that there were some concerns about the resources available for the existing archive.

I thoroughly welcome the proposed new clause in Amendment 54 which is really, if I may say so, a considerable tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Clarke of Hampstead, to his colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Christopher, to my noble friend Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville and, modestly, I hope, to the little contribution that I made on a warm early April afternoon when we first discussed this in Committee. We raised it with the Minister, who said that she would go and think about it. She has clearly done so and we should give her a good measure of credit for that.

The proposed new clause which the Minister intends to bring forward in the Government's name is promising. For a start, it is prescriptive as to duty in that the Royal Mail company will have to send a report, which she will have to consider. That report will have to come to Parliament and anyone who has been here for any length of time is aware that that provides a channel for questions, an opportunity for expressions of dissatisfaction and so forth. Yet it does not inhibit the company in the nature and form of what it does, which is the right approach. If we sat there saying, “This is what we will do with the archive and this is the precise specification of the new and successor arrangements”, we might live to regret that and not be able to deliver it, so flexibility is desirable.

However, because these things tend to be forgotten—unless I am under a misconception; if so, my noble friend the Minister will no doubt disabuse me—it is also probably right to record that in creating this new duty, which goes beyond the existing obligation of Royal Mail, there will be obligations in relation to the archive and what we call the state process of the business. The opportunity to retain postal material and the obligation to report on what is being done is a new and welcome duty. However, we are substantially talking about a concern, which we should never forget when the ownership of public assets is moving from the public to the private sector either in whole or in part, to impose the right kind of traditions and conditions to ensure that the element of public service is not overlooked and that a great archive’s future is adequately secured.

Finally, the Government have been wise in not being too precise on the nature of this by providing, in effect, an ongoing and if necessary contingent liability on successor organisations. I do not particularly mind who owns the archive, provided that it is available publicly as a jewel in the crown and an asset that is on display, that it is adequately resourced and that we may long continue to celebrate it despite the ownership changes which are taking place under the Bill.

[Lord Clarke of Hampstead]

My Lords, first, I thank sincerely the Minister and her team for producing Amendment 54. I am touched by how this has been done, which satisfies to a great extent concerns that have been in my mind ever since privatisation was first mentioned—I think that was in 1970-something. Amendment 55 may appear to be going over the top a bit but any report dealing with sold-off public assets should have some reference in the accounting procedure to the donations received in cash or in kind by the museum, so that people can keep track of what has come in and what is going out.

Before I sit down, I should say that I have slipped up, as I should have mentioned in an earlier discussion the wonderful GPO film unit, which is another one that seems to have slipped off the edge. Anybody who wants to see how the GPO prepared for the Second World War—for maintaining its services during that period—should go to the archives, where the DVDs are on sale. They really are worth watching. Again, I thank the Minister for her courtesy.

Postal Services Bill

Lord Boswell of Aynho Excerpts

Wednesday 6th April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boswell of Aynho]

My Lords, I am delighted to follow my noble and good friend, Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, whose speeches I always enjoy. The House has enjoyed one this afternoon. We owe an equal debt of gratitude to the noble Lords, Lord Christopher and Lord Clarke, on the opposition Benches, for initiating this debate. I share with them the spirit of these amendments, and a belief in the importance of the subject. I should perhaps make clear to noble Lords that in another capacity and in another place I was involved in the establishment of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Archives, of which in due course I became the founder chairman, and of which I am still an officer. We brought it into being because we thought that archives were a part of our heritage that was unsung, understated and always vulnerable to financial pressures, and that it needed a closer focus. I think that we were right to do that.

The group sits alongside the All-Party Parliamentary Arts and Heritage Group. As my noble friend pointed out, some of us were privileged to attend the British Postal Museum and Archive for an intensely interesting morning. Not only was it intrinsically interesting, but it showed the wider importance of archives, for example by showing the relationships involved in the formulation of new stamp designs and the exchanges before they were approved and came into circulation.

I will add at this point there are always two tests. One is the importance of business archives generally. In the capacity that I mentioned, I attended a meeting in this House at which the Business Archives Council launched a new guide for businesses. It was very well attended and addressed by the Governor of the Bank of England. It showed the importance of business archives. In the wider context of heritage, we are conscious that, for example, Minton and Wedgwood are under severe pressure at the moment, and it is important that we do not slip this catch in the course of the Postal Services Bill.

My second point is more generic. Wherever one transfers an activity or asset, or any combination, to private contractors or undertakers, it is particularly incumbent on us to make sure that our heritage is preserved. As I mentioned to the House, the British Postal Museum and Archive is a major resource. It represents the distillation of many years of postal and official history. I am privileged to know its director and the chair of its organising committee, who is both a neighbour and a personal friend. We should take time—I am sure that the Minister's good will is there—to see that we get this right.

I say to the House—I need not do so at length—that there are complexities in this. Many of them are set out in the amendments that noble Lords have brought forward. I look forward to the Minister's take on this and to hearing about the ways in which she might consider taking this forward. For a start, there is an archive and an associated obligation to what was once a department of state. Like any other archive, it has a relationship with the National Archives; that should be understood. It is a continuing act of state and an obligation that we should maintain.

Then there is the postal museum. By their nature, the assets are somewhat less intensely valued, although they may have a very high intrinsic and visual interest. The assets are not quite the same as those of the archive, and that is why it is called the British Postal Museum and Archive. That leads me to suggest that there may be different solutions in different cases. As I understand the Bill—this is also my first entry into the Committee stage—there is reasonable provision, at least within the clause to which the amendment is attached, for looking at the public record function and seeing that that is satisfied. That of course applies particularly to existing records, which is I think step one of the process. Then there is the question of what happens when people discharge public duties in the future and whether securing the continuing acquisition of relevant archives will be adequately tied down by the Bill.

There is also the question of proper resources. I remember from our visit that the museum is under some pressure with regard to its existing resources, and the noble Lord has already explained the financing. Nothing is easy in the heritage and archive world at the moment. However, we need to see that the whole thing does not fall down because it somehow misses out on financing.

Although not absolutely essential, it would clearly be very beneficial to the public interest to make sure that the postal museum and archive continued to be collocated on one site, with the possibility of their development either there or elsewhere as an asset to the heritage more generally. Therefore, there is both an archive interest and a wider heritage interest.

I know that my noble friend Lady Wilcox has visited the museum and I hope that she was impressed, as we were. I am sure that this is a problem that is capable of solution, and we look forward to her response in leading the way towards it.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green]

My Lords, I suspect that everything that needs to be said has been said already and I do not want to fall into the trap of saying “but not by everyone”. There is a common thread relating to heritage. I think that keeping the Queen’s head on stamps would be a reasonable tribute as we come up to her Diamond Jubilee. An amendment on that matter was the only amendment passed in the other place, and I look forward to hearing a confirmation of that. Other noble Lords have eloquently stressed the importance of the archive. When companies are privatised, that poses a real threat to their records, and I witnessed what happened to British Telecom’s archive and heritage. Therefore, I, too, look forward to the Minister’s response.