King’s Speech

Lord Carrington Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Carrington (CB)]

My Lords, I add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock. I also welcome a great deal of what was in the gracious Speech.

I will concentrate on a couple of things: the renters’ rights Bill and farming in the countryside. I therefore declare my interests in the private rented sector and farming as set out in the register.

On the reform of the private rental sector, I have always condemned the improper use of Section 21 and have urged early improvement of Section 8 to enable justified evictions to take place. I look forward to hearing the Government’s position on this, as so much depends on getting the correct balance between the rights of renters and those of the landlord, or the supply of rental accommodation will be adversely affected and rental costs could rise.

I also hope that the previous idea of making all tenancies assured periodic tenancies is being reconsidered, as with the abolition of Section 21 there is no need to abolish fixed-term tenancies or assured shorthold tendencies. A fixed term agreed between two consenting parties excludes early repossession except in the case of non-payment of rent or anti-social behaviour. There is a clear demand from some renters for a specified rental period. That is also in the interests of landlords, who can avoid the costly turnover of tenants. For tenants and landlords, there is the opportunity to negotiate favourable terms.

Since the late 1980s, ASTs have worked very well for most tenants and landlords, as can be seen from the figures. The average tenancy length in the last English Housing Survey is 4.3 years, so allowing tenants to fix a longer period that suits them is in their best interests—surely a vote of confidence in the system.

Another concern that needs to be taken into account in the Bill is the housing of agricultural and other workers in the rural context, where housing, and particularly affordable housing, may be in short supply. Access to affordable accommodation is a key part of rural employment, and we should remember that 85% of rural businesses are not farming or forestry. We need to consider the various grounds for possession of houses and flats that have been occupied by service workers who have retired or have left employment and where there is a clear requirement for the new occupant to have that accommodation for the better performance of their duties, whether it be agricultural worker, security personnel, teacher, nurse, policeman, warden or forester.

I also welcome the commitment to introduce a new decent homes standard to the private rental sector. Similarly, I look forward to the introduction of new minimum energy-efficiency standards and the associated reform of energy performance certificates, as the current rules are not fit for purpose, particularly in the case of older buildings and many rural buildings.

Turning to farming and the countryside, I welcome the new team at Defra and acknowledge their extremely supportive voices that have already been heard at the Yorkshire show and other locations. Like many others, I regret that farming did not feature in the gracious Speech, but despite the fears of the noble Earl, Lord Devon, the noble Lord, Lord Colgrain, and no doubt many others, I have today hosted on behalf of the NFU a meeting at which the Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner, went through what the Government were up to on farming. I can assure everybody that ELMS, SFIs, badgers, mental health, rural crime, trade and the uplands were all mentioned, so I think we can rest considerably assured by that.

On the proposed planning reforms, I join others in calling on the Government to update the National Planning Policy Framework to include a weighted argument in favour of food production, with the benefits of farming clearly recognised by the planning system to support food production across England. A recent survey found that 84% think that food production targets are as important or more important than environmental targets for farming. This leads to the proposed land use framework, which we have heard about and of which I am greatly in favour, as long as sufficient flexibility is built in to deal with changing circumstances, whether from climate change or disease.

It is clear that good arable land should not be covered in solar panels, but somehow we need to accommodate energy, biodiversity net gain and water, so a real and informed debate must take place on the right balance between agri-environment and food production. I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Curry, for all the work that he has done in this sector, and let us hope that we can build on it.

At a more detailed level, it would be good to see greater flexibility in planning approval for on-farm reservoirs and slurry stores as well as wider farm diversification projects. In the rural context, planning permissions for affordable housing need to be speeded up to help our rural communities to attract more jobs and grow the rural economy. Although the recruitment of 300 planning officers is helpful, I suggest that a faster solution would be to delegate simple and less political planning applications to qualified private sector companies, as is the case with building controls. I would be most interested to hear Ministers’ views on this.

On energy, in the situation where farmers occupy some 70% of all land, local authorities should recognise that ground-mounted solar and small-scale on-site wind generation can help farm businesses to become more sustainable and viable. Permitted development rights for wind generation should be expanded to allow farmers to become self-sufficient in energy all year round. Also, farmers, landowners and other operators need faster and affordable access to rural electricity grid connections.

I end with a final plea on the farming side. If we are to deliver our farming and agri-environmental priorities, the Government need not only to maintain but to increase the multi-year agricultural budget for the duration of this Parliament. Andersons, the independent consultant, has calculated that the public funding needed to deliver statutory environment, climate and policy ambitions in England in this Parliament is an annual agricultural budget of around £4 billion. That is not just money for farmers; it is funding that will give farmers the confidence to invest for the future and help to make possible the Government’s aims on sustainable food production, food security, environment and net zero.