Planning Reforms: Net-zero Carbon Emissions
Lord Jamieson Excerpts(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
My noble friend is quite right about onshore wind and solar, and that is why the Chancellor announced in July the immediate removal of the inexplicable ban on onshore wind in England. The planning restrictions in place in England since 2015 could have led to a single objection to an onshore wind turbine preventing it being built. As I said, we are considering further the issues of solar, particularly the importance of connections to rural areas. His point about mayors is well made. We will be making a Statement about the English Devolution White Paper in the next few days. That will give powers to mayors to do the right thing and to drive this clean energy agenda forward in a way that is right for their area.
Lord Jamieson (Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as laid out in the register. In their press release of 23 September, the Government said that all social housing will have to achieve an EPC rating of C. Can the Minister tell the House how much additional grant funding the Chancellor will allocate to support local authorities and councils to achieve this for existing properties?
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
There has been significant additional funding for affordable housing, and some of that will of course be used for the net- zero agenda. That funding was found in spite of the £22 billion black hole we found in our budgets, and I am very pleased that we have been able to do that. It is important that, as we drive forward a revolution in social housing, building more of it than we have seen for generations, we make sure that those new social homes do not have to be retrofitted and are at the highest standard of net zero.
Social Care Strategy
Lord Jamieson Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Lord Jamieson (Con)
My Lords, I draw attention to my registered interests, in particular as a councillor in Central Bedfordshire and a member of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, for initiating this important debate and congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, on her maiden speech, which was excellent. I also express my thanks to the extraordinary contribution made by the many people employed in the sector and the carers—with that, I also pass a virtual hug across the Chamber to the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy.
As many have outlined, social care and health are in crisis. We are all living longer, which is great news, but an ageing population means that more of us will need care for longer. We just do not have the care or health service that is up to providing the services that we need today. As has been mentioned here, it is not just pensioners; there has been a 25% increase in working-age adults needing care and a near doubling of SEN over the past 10 years.
The instinctive solution is to say that we need more funding—more money. Unfortunately, that is just not practicable. In my experience of councils, they have seen the share of expenditure taken up by social care increase from 50% to over 70% in the past 15 years—somebody said that it was 80% for some councils. If we look at government expenditure, we see that the amount spent on health, social care and social security has gone up from 30% to 45% over the past 30 years. The health and social care workforce is forecast to increase from roughly one in 10 of the current working population to one in five over the next 20 years. Unfortunately, this is simply not sustainable. We need a radical change of direction, and we need to be honest with ourselves and stop kicking this can down the road.
As a society, we need to support people to live healthier for longer and to live independently. Of current health outcomes, only 20% are down to health interventions; around 30% are down to the environment in which we live and another 30% are down to the choices we make about how we live our lives. It is outside the health system that we can make the biggest differences to our longer-term health and independence.
As the Darzi report mentioned, we need to change the NHS, focusing on prevention, early intervention and a move away from medicalisation. This means more GPs, community health, better public health and changing how we work, with things such as community health hubs that bring together a multifaceted approach and treatment outside of hospitals. We need to accept that this will mean a transfer of funds away from the acute sector and the consequences of that.
Housing has an absolutely crucial role. An active, healthy life involves having friends and living somewhere suitable that promotes independence. We do not need more mass housing estates; we need to bring people into cities, towns and larger villages, where they can be part of the community and where services are on their doorstep. It is about having the right accommodation for the right point in your life. Having the right housing saves money. In Central Bedfordshire Council, we estimate that extra care facilities save the council and the NHS around £4,000 per apartment and improve the lives of the people living in them.
Technology has a huge role to play, and innovation, as was mentioned earlier. That will happen only if we have real devolution and integration at a local level. I am not in favour of a national social service, but one locally led by local leaders, with devolution of health, housing, DWP, skills and other budgets. Underpinning all this is the need for a cultural change, personally and as a society. The state has a crucial role in supporting those who need it, but it is also there to facilitate the changes we as a society need to make as we plan for our future. It is about facilitating as much as delivering. It is not just funding, it is housing, health and social care—it is culture. We need a radical structural change.
Housing: Modern Methods of Construction
Lord Jamieson Excerpts(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Lord Jamieson (Con)
My Lords, I thank the committee for its report and my noble friend Lord Carrington for his introduction. I also declare my interest as set out in the register as a councillor and, previously, a member of the previous Government’s London housing task force.
As with so many issues in the development and housing market, the key is providing confidence to investors, suppliers and prospective workforce that there is a long-term market. Currently, everyone in the housing market lacks certainty, most particularly that they will be able to access land upon which to build. This is exacerbated by the ever-changing regulatory and planning environment. It is no wonder that companies seek to maximise value in the short term and are unwilling to invest in technology and training when they have no long-term visibility.
MMC has significant potential, particularly in our cities, but adoption has been limited to date and tends to focus on the limited area of timber-frame open-panel houses. To really move forward, an investor in MMC will need to be confident that there is a market, which means they are no longer hamstrung by a lack of sites and the delays and unpredictability of the planning system.
It is not that this nor the previous Government do not recognise the need for site availability. However, it is crucial that the detail of government planning proposals delivers sufficient viable sites and gives the industry confidence this will continue. I ask the Minister: how will they ensure that mandatory targets are delivered, particularly in urban areas that have previously delivered so little?