Local Government Reorganisation

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Collaboration is clearly a very important part of local government, but it is not helped by the confusion between the tiers of local government and over who does what at which tier. For the 20 million people who currently live in two-tier areas, where services are split across county and district councils, which can lead to fragmented public services, this reorganisation will help to drive that collaboration across areas and bring services together into one local authority, so that everybody knows which council to talk to when they have a problem with their service.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, local councils are huge employers, so will my noble friend the Minister use the opportunity of these reorganisation discussions to emphasise the part that local authorities can play in training and apprenticeships, both in-house and through their procurement practices?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend makes an important point. As we go through the reorganisation process, it is important that we continue to pay tribute to the local government staff who are driving this forward, and that we continue to keep a focus on what local government has to offer in terms of employment. One thing that really surprised me when I first became a local councillor was the huge range of employment in local government. We must strive to make sure that students and others know about that, and that we continue to protect the wide range of apprenticeships and training opportunities that local government provides.

New Homes Target

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Wednesday 11th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Robathan (Con)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

We will hear from the Labour Benches, then the Conservative Benches.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister has outlined very clearly what a great opportunity this target is, for not only local jobs but local training schemes and use of local materials in building the houses. She mentioned local authorities, but what discussions are being held with developers and housebuilders to ensure that they commit to using local labour, putting on proper training schemes and using local materials whenever they can?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

It is very important that as we go through this process of building more homes, we also create the jobs to go alongside that. We have been working very closely with the sector and particularly with the developer skills group to make sure that we invest in skills as we go along this path of building. It has been very supportive, to the extent of investing £140 million in skills alongside the skills funding that the Government have put in. It is very much committed to this. We welcome the Home Builders Federation statement in July 2024 looking to rapidly increase the pace at which homes are built, deliver the high-quality affordable homes that the country needs and provide the skilled jobs that we know we need to deliver that.

Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards: Cost Caps for Landlords

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Monday 15th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I hope I made it clear in my earlier answer that no decisions have been taken yet. We will report on the outcome of the consultation. We consulted on a number of proposals to manage the cost burden, including a cap on the maximum investment required per property, which I think is what the noble Lord was getting at, and the other exemptions that may not be feasible or appropriate, including heritage buildings, for which I understand it might be difficult in those circumstances. We have a number of avenues of support for landlords to improve their properties. The boiler upgrade scheme offers £7,500 off the cost of a heat pump. There is the warm homes local grant, which will fund measures such as insulation and solar panels for eligible low-income households. We are doing what we can to support private landlords with a package of measures that will help them to introduce safe and warm homes.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, given the announcement in the comprehensive spending review of £39 billion in grant funding to boost social and affordable housing, can my noble friend the Minister assure me that all councils will be required to ensure that all new housing stock is built to meet the highest standards of energy efficiency, and that her department has a clear plan to implement this?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My noble friend touches on an important point. There are two developments coming forward: one is a revision of the decent homes standard and the other is the future homes standard, which will be published shortly. We have confirmed the new 10-year £39 billion programme for social and affordable homes that she referred to, and our ambition is to deliver 300,000 social and affordable homes over the programme’s lifetime, at least 60% of those for social rent. We of course want to make sure that those homes do not need any retrofitting once they are built, so they will be built to the highest standards and in accordance with both the decent homes standard and the future homes standard.

Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Wednesday 4th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Again, I totally understand that frustration. What is important to motorists is that it is transparent when they arrive, so that they are able to make their own choice about whether they wish to use that car park. When you have a sign 12 feet up from the ground that you cannot read from your car, or when it has three columns of close-printed type in font size 6, it does not help anybody. All these matters are being considered. I hope that , as a result of the consultation, we will be able to do as much as possible to ensure that the process is transparent, so that when you turn up at a car park, you know what you have to pay and how long you will be able to stay there.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, I campaigned against cowboy wheel clampers because I saw the misery that rogue parking companies caused to motorists. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that, as the AA says, if there were an independent appeals process, a scrutiny oversight board and limits on what could go to court—as set out in the code of practice—the amount of time that courts spend on sorting out disputes could be massively reduced?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for all the work that she did on this—I am sure that the people in her area were grateful for it too. There is evidence of private parking appeals processes being unfair to motorists and insufficiently independent. It is important that motorists have confidence in the appeals process and that it is genuinely independent from the private parking industry. If motorists cannot trust the appeals process, they will be less inclined to engage with it. That could lead to worse outcomes for motorists. We will seek to further understand motorists’ concerns about the appeals process, and we are certainly looking at some of the ideas that my noble friend mentioned.

Private Rented Sector: Affordable Rents

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I absolutely agree with the noble Lord about the insecurity that Section 21 presents. It is also a huge economic burden on local councils as they pick up the tab for emergency accommodation coming out of Section 21 evictions. That is why our Renters’ Rights Bill contains clear proposals to get rid of Section 21 once and for all.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, in some areas, selective licensing schemes have been introduced because of the poor performance of private landlords. They can make a real difference in improving standards. Would my noble friend the Minister consider looking at best practice in those schemes, and at whether local authorities could be encouraged to adopt them in areas where landlords are poorly serving their tenants?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am pleased to commend those local authorities which have taken steps to regulate private housing in their areas through the use of selective licensing schemes. We continue to look at how we might better support that going forward.

Car Parking Companies

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I hope that anybody in Wales who is interested in this will contribute to the consultation. We want much better practice in these arrangements, across the United Kingdom. Any contributions to the consultation will be welcome.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, when I was campaigning to ban cowboy wheel-clampers, otherwise known as modern-day highway robbers—a campaign in which the noble Lord, Lord Spellar, was very helpful—I was very aware of the need for the Security Industry Authority to have adequate powers to deal with rogue parking companies that come up with more and more ingenious ways to persecute motorists. Can my noble friend liaise with Ministers in the Home Office to ensure that the Security Industry Authority, perhaps during the consultation that she has talked about, has adequate powers to punish those rogue companies that persecute motorists?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I very much understand the issues that my noble friend has outlined. We will do our best to work across government. That is a Home Office issue, but I would be happy to meet her and the noble Lord, Lord Spellar, to discuss this further.

Political Parties: Funding

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am grateful for that question. There is no doubt that the system of campaigning has changed very dramatically, particularly in the last few years with the advent of social media. However, in my experience of campaigning—which spans a number of decades—political parties have adapted their campaigning but have not let go of their traditional methods. So although social media can be a very effective and efficient way of campaigning, we do still rely on some of the traditional methods. But, of course, that will be looked at as part of the review we are undertaking.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, voter registration is at shockingly low levels. Can my noble friend the Minister update the House on implementing automatic voter registration, as was also recommended by the Electoral Commission?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I agree with my noble friend that there are a large number of people still unregistered. When one goes out campaigning it is very clear that there are people who are not registered to vote who probably should be. We all need to address this and look at whatever way we can of making sure that everybody who is entitled to vote is not only registered to vote but takes part in our democracy. That is a very important part of our process, and we will do all we can to increase both voter registration and participation in elections.

English Devolution

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Baroness provided a wonderful role model for mayors going forward. Some of the innovations that she introduced during her time as Mayor of Watford are legendary, so I thank her for that service.

Mayors can use their mandate for change to take the difficult decisions needed. As the noble Baroness will be aware, they have both standing and soft power to convene local partners and tackle shared problems directly, exercising devolved powers and attracting inward investment. They have a platform for tackling obstacles to growth that might need a regional approach. Mayors are accountable to their citizens, as she rightly points out, and have the profile to stand up for them on a national stage and to partner with and challenge central government where needed—and of course it is needed sometimes.

As for the electoral system for mayors, we are not proposing to change that just now.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister will be aware, I hope, that as a former Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber I am a huge supporter of devolution and I welcome the White Paper. However, I also know that, for devolution to work, it needs strong support through organisations such as the sadly abolished regional development agencies. To avoid what she called micromanagement, can she assure me that there will be proper support from the Civil Service, perhaps even by moving civil servants out of London to the regions to deliver the devolution settlement?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend and she is quite right. I remember very well the regional development agencies, back in the day. Some of the departments in government already have a regional presence. My own department has offices in each of the regions, and we intend to extend that and offer a widespread programme of secondments to regions. I think it will be of real benefit to the Civil Service to be working in our regions and then bringing that back to central government, or the other way round: working in central government and going out to the regions. I look forward to seeing how that programme develops. My noble friend is right to say that it will be very important to see that the offices in our regions are fit and well equipped to serve the mayors and combined authorities.

Older People’s Housing Taskforce

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Monday 16th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes a very important point. I understand that accessibility in new homes—and accessibility standards for buildings in general—is an important concern. Housing is one of this Government’s top priorities. Everyone deserves to live in a decent home where they feel safe. We will set out our policies on accessible new-build housing shortly, and we will make sure that accessibility is a part of the discussion when we bring forward our new housing strategy.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, in planning for older people in housing and with regard to accessibility, is it not also important to ensure that this accommodation is near accessible bus routes, for example? Will my noble friend the Minister look at how devolved powers can be used to ensure that local authorities work together with, for instance, local bus companies to ensure that proper provision is provided for older people in what can be isolated areas?

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very important point. I will take it away with me and discuss it with Minister Pennycook. It will also be a cross-departmental discussion with the Department for Transport to ensure that the particular issues that my noble friend raises are addressed and thought of when moving forward so that we can make not only the house accessible within, but the route to the house.

Housebuilding Targets

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord is quite right to raise this. I am pleased to say that we have today published the National Planning Policy Framework, which sets out a broad framework of advice for local authorities. This is a particular issue, and we have set up our acceleration scheme to make sure that those sites that are stalled can be brought into use as quickly as possible. The department will work with all areas that have stalled housing sites to find out what the blockages are and make sure that we support them as they work to get those sites released as quickly as possible.

[Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister referred in her Answer to the issue of local skills, particularly for young people, which will be absolutely essential to fulfil the targets. But this will require cross-departmental working to assist local authorities to draw up strategies involving local employers, schools, UTCs and colleges. Can she assure me that this work is taking place at governmental level to help with devolving powers?