Housebuilding: Target

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Thursday 20th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, I acknowledge the distinguished service of the noble Lord—over 51 years, I believe, in Newcastle. We obviously face very different challenges from those in the years when the noble Lord was first elected. That said, I accept that these new challenges mean that we have to consider different tenures and ways of delivering. He will have noted what I said about raising the housing revenue account, which will to help bring forward a new generation of council housing in Newcastle and elsewhere. I note what he says about affordable housing, but it is a preferred measure to press ahead and tackle what is a very important challenge, which we all acknowledge.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

Does my noble friend feel that over the forthcoming holidays he and his ministerial colleagues might draw inspiration from the Conservative manifesto for the 1955 election? It stated proudly that over 1 million homes had been built in four years, entitling the party at that point to say:

“Only under Conservative administration can the nation be sure of a housing policy in line with its needs”.

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend very much indeed for referencing the success of past Conservative Administrations, under Macmillan particularly, I think. I reassure him that, if I find that I am getting bored over the Christmas period, I will indeed pick up that manifesto, but I have to say that I have other plans.

Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Thursday 13th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, I do not disagree with the noble Lord on the importance of the task, but I disagree with him about the forum. This is a Treasury issue. I will write to him, and copy the letter to other noble Lords, to give as much detail as I can on what is happening, but this is a broader issue. I do not disagree with him about the interaction between commercial rates in the high street and the issue about digital and online taxation, but I stress the point I made earlier: there is a movement away from the high street and noble Lords will be aware of that. I am sure we have all used digital services. Yes, there is an issue of fairness and an issue about where the taxation should lie, but I think that gives the answer to the noble Lord that it is the Treasury that is leading on that. I will certainly write to him with more details.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

Both my noble friends Lady Neville-Rolfe and the Minister referred to Salisbury. Can the Minister give a little more detailed information about the extent of the assistance and support the Government are providing and, most importantly, the results flowing from it?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, first, my role as Minister for Faith has been mostly pastoral—just to see what attendances at the cathedral and at churches in Salisbury have been like. There was quite a dip after the second Novichok incident, if I can call it that, and there has been some recovery from that. I do not have details of the precise financial assistance in front of me but I will cover those details in the letter that I will send to noble Lords.

Devolution: Sheffield City Region

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Monday 5th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

My Lords, are there any other examples of deadlock elsewhere in the country blocking progress towards city deals?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, the only other example until recently was in relation to Tyneside, where south Tyneside, Gateshead and the Durham authorities, including Sunderland, could not agree with north Tyneside; but we moved forward with north Tyneside on its own and with special arrangements in relation to the transport authority.

New Towns

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Tuesday 14th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

The noble Lord has a point, though of course it is not always in the right places. Very often, we have great areas of green land where it would not be appropriate to put a new town. He is right about the pressures that exist and the fact that we often overstate the amount of built-up land, even in the south of England. That said, we are using brownfield sites, for example in Ebbsfleet.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

How long will it take to complete the Government’s very welcome but ambitious programme for new towns and villages?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My noble friend raises an interesting point. As I have indicated, the target, or perhaps aspiration, is 220,000; I think that by the time that aspiration is reached, not many of us in the Chamber will still be here.

Devolution (Constitution Committee Reports)

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Monday 9th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

My Lords, we return to the debate on the Constitution Committee’s reports and the report of the EU Committee on devolution. Among other things, this debate brings us the maiden speech of a new noble friend. My noble friend Lord Duncan of Springbank is to reply to this debate in terms that I hope will reassure us about the Government’s enduring commitment to the union. He follows in office my long-established and personal noble friend Lord Dunlop, who throughout his career has been a staunch defender of the union and sometimes showed a little more flexibility than I have managed to create.

Since I entered the House in 2011, nothing has brought me greater satisfaction and pleasure than my three-year stint on the Constitution Committee between 2012 and 2015. Wise counsel was provided by convivial colleagues from across the House. Immensely skilful chairmanship was supplied first by the noble Baroness, Lady Jay of Paddington, and subsequently by her successor, my noble friend Lord Lang of Monkton—how wonderfully well they steered our discussions. The testimony of a wide variety of expert witnesses helped to add authority and depth to our discussions. Absolutely first-rate officials drew our conclusions and recommendations together in lucid reports to the House and the Government. When the work is done, however, those involved in the committee’s activities have to brace themselves for some disappointment. The Government’s responses to their detailed and carefully considered reports on issues of great political significance are invariably delivered after long delays, in breach of the commitment included in paragraph 11.39 of our Companion to the Standing Orders:

“The government have undertaken to respond in writing to the reports of select committees, if possible, within two months of publication”.


I was a member of the committee when it carried out its inquiry into intergovernmental relations in the United Kingdom. Is it not extraordinary that over two and a half years should have elapsed between the publication of the committee’s report and this debate? In their response of just five and three-quarter pages, which they took just under two years to prepare, the Government make a perfunctory apology for the delay but offer no explanation for why this protracted delay occurred. Convincing apologies surely need to be accompanied by clear explanations.

Indeed, throughout the response as a whole, explanations of the Government’s views and decisions on the issues raised in the committee’s report are hard to find. The Government seem to think it sufficient simply to assert their own positions and views in a rather curt fashion without giving their reasons for adopting them or for rejecting, as they so often do, the committee’s recommendations. I note, too, in passing that the Government need to improve their proofreading: there is a serious grammatical error at the start of paragraph 8.

I am perhaps in danger of being unfair; the response has positive features. In paragraph 12 it states:

“The concordats and devolution guidance notes will be reviewed by the four administrations in due course”,


repeating the point for good measure in the following paragraph. But when will this be done? Rarely are definite dates assigned to the useful developments foreshadowed in the response.

We are told more than once that plenary sessions of the Joint Ministerial Committee—the linchpin of the entire structure of intergovernmental relations—are to be held more frequently. This pledge seems to be being redeemed. The Joint Ministerial Committee met in October last year and again in January this year. The terse communiqué of just eight sentences issued after the meeting in January stated:

“Ministers agreed to meet again in Plenary format later in 2017”.


Has a further date been fixed in conformity with the pledge to increased frequency?

The Constitution Committee’s report noted:

“The current reporting of JMC meetings is bland and unilluminating; much more information could be made public in advance of and after meetings”.


The eight unilluminating sentences issued after the last JMC meeting on 30 January hardly suggest that improvement is on the cards. There is, however, a specific undertaking in paragraph 17 to publish a report on intergovernmental relations this autumn. Has a firm date been fixed for its appearance?

The large measure of uncertainty surrounding many features of future intergovernmental relations surely lends weight to the Constitution Committee’s recommendation:

“The Government should consider whether the framework of inter-governmental relations should be set out in statute”.


In that way core principles and the basic shape of the system would be clearly defined and the devolved Governments would have their place in the system firmly delineated, but the Government say, curtly, in paragraph 6 of their response that they do not agree, without of course giving any reasons.

At the heart of both the Constitution Committee’s reports before us today there stands a question of immense national significance. The report The Union and Devolution sums up that issue perfectly:

“The UK Government needs fundamentally to reassess how it approaches issues relating to devolution. What affects one constituent part of the UK affects both the Union and the other nations within the UK”.


My noble friend Lord Empey, who has been detained in Belfast today for pressing family reasons, has often eloquently deplored the haphazard and ill-considered nature of recent constitutional changes which show why a new approach is needed. Ten months ago one element of our constitutional arrangements ceased to function. The ramshackle coalition of political incompatibles at Stormont collapsed. It had impressed no one with its capacity to deliver good government. Here is one illustration of the need for the fundamental reassessment for which the committee has called to ensure that such a crisis is fully considered in the wider context of the union.

Another issue that proves the point is the denial of the right to same-sex marriage in the same part of our country, even though it commands widespread support there. Why should our fellow countrymen and women, who are fully part of our union, have to endure such discrimination?

How valuable it would be to have a Cabinet Minister to whom the active guardianship and protection of the constitution was entrusted. Sir Oliver Letwin, then in nominal charge of the constitution, took the Constitution Committee’s breath away by dismissing the need for such active guardianship and protection out of hand. There is a pernicious phrase, “devolve and forget”, which was rightly disparaged by my noble friend Lord Lang in his powerful opening remarks. The danger it expresses is increased by the unduly wide scope of the convention which, remarkably, still bears the name of a disgraced former Member of this House. Is it not time to consider such aspects of devolution afresh from the standpoint of the union, the rock on which we all rest, remembering always that one large part of the reason Northern Ireland has suffered so grievously in our lifetimes is that the Parliament of the union gave it no attention during its first period of devolution after 1920?

Allotments: Council Provision

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, first, as I indicated in my earlier response to the noble Lord, Lord West, growing our own food is of importance anyway. I do not know whether we are looking at this in particular through the Department for Exiting the European Union, but it is of extreme importance—as are all the other benefits of allotments, which is why they are so important, as indicated in the exchanges today.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

Is my noble friend aware that concern about public parks—to which the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, made reference—is widely shared across this House? Will he say what the Government are doing now to safeguard their future while the consultation exercise grinds along?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, I share the view that this is extremely important, as my noble friend indicated. As I said, this is acknowledged in the housing White Paper. We face many challenges, of which building more houses while protecting the green belt and public parks is one. As I said, the consultation will be open to take views until 2 May.

Directly Elected Mayors

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Monday 31st October 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, as I indicated, it is the directly elected representatives of cities such as Liverpool and Manchester—not necessarily Conservative areas—who bring forward the idea and then it is for the people to make their choice on the mayor. All the evidence on the continent, in the United States and, as the noble Lord rightly said, in London, shows that this is the way forward for ambitious deals.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

My Lords, have we not had enough referendums for the time being?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, there are certainly all sorts of drawbacks to having too many referendums.

Troubled Families Programme

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, I meant that the Government are working on the publication of the report. It is not yet ready for publication. We have to ensure that all the statistics and data are properly assessed before publishing it, which, as I say, will happen as soon as possible.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

How did the leak of this report occur?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

I am not at all sure. I am afraid I cannot advise the House as to how the leak occurred.

Draft Wales Bill: Silk Commission

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, devolution of APD is not a straightforward issue, as I am sure the noble Lord is aware. In Scotland, most people who travel by air do so from Glasgow or Edinburgh. In Wales, most people would not necessarily travel from Cardiff Airport. For example, people in the north would not think of doing so. In addition, the significant issue of state aid has to be looked at. Those are the two main reasons why it was not taken forward.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

My Lords, what would the Government’s view be of any proposal to reduce to 16 the voting age for elections to the Welsh Assembly?

Northern Ireland

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Thursday 29th January 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Lexden]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they have fulfilled their commitment in The Coalition: our programme for government to “work to bring Northern Ireland back into the mainstream of UK politics”.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Wales Office (Baroness Randerson) (LD)]

My Lords, this Government have worked hard to ensure that Northern Ireland is fully involved in United Kingdom affairs and that UK policy fully reflects Northern Ireland interests. Therefore, when it fell to the UK to host the G8 summit, we chose Fermanagh. The economic pact with the Northern Ireland Executive, the Stormont House agreement, the accompanying financial package and the corporation tax legislation all demonstrate our commitment to rebalance the Northern Ireland economy and promote peace, stability and prosperity.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

I thank my noble friend very much. Can she give an absolute assurance to the House that the Government will continue to stand robustly by their commitment to bring Northern Ireland into the mainstream of UK politics? What are they doing to ensure that their devolution of further powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly does not take the Province away from the mainstream, in breach of their commitment? Finally, has any progress been made on an issue that has been of grave concern to the House—namely, the need for action to ensure that the National Crime Agency can carry out its work more fully in the Province?

[Baroness Randerson]

I assure noble Lords and my noble friend that the Government stand four-square behind the commitment made in the coalition agreement. Of course, devolution has to work very much within the interests of Northern Ireland—that is the point of it—but it is very possible to see a very close link between our politics and that that is developing within Northern Ireland. On the National Crime Agency, some very promising discussions are under way between the Justice Minister, members of the SDLP and the Home Secretary on these matters, and there is optimism that real progress is being made. I urge all involved to work towards a successful conclusion on this because it is important that NCA services are provided in full throughout Northern Ireland, which is not getting the full benefit of protection.