Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill

Baroness Henig Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 17th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Henig (Lab)]

My Lords, first, I add my congratulations to our two excellent maiden speakers in this debate. I look forward to hearing more from them in the future. Coming so late to this wide-ranging debate, is there anything new left to say? “No”, I hear your Lordships say. That is probably the answer; however, I thought I would therefore take this opportunity to reiterate some of the broad themes that have run consistently throughout this long and extremely interesting debate, which has covered such a number of topics.

The first issue, which has been raised by a number of noble Lords, is whether the levelling-up measures in the Bill amount to more than an appealing soundbite or a political slogan, but its contents would appear to suggest not. There are five pages of aspiration on what levelling up might look like across 12 policy areas, and then a further 387 pages focusing mainly—as many speakers have pointed out—on planning, local government and housing development. So, the consensus in the debate thus far has been that reality does not match the Government’s rhetoric and, furthermore, that serious problems in both rural and urban areas are not being addressed. There is the additional matter that the levelling-up missions will be created and assessed exclusively by the Government, with no independent scrutiny or audit, and, as we have already heard, no joining up of individual missions.

A second theme is why the Government have been willing to preside over widening disparities since 2010, before their conversion to the importance of levelling up in the last two or three years. Why was levelling up not important before that? Many speakers have pointed out that economic, social and environmental disparities have widened alarmingly since 2010—probably not surprisingly, since spending on public services was sharply reduced after that. We have also seen local government funding slashed, forcing councils to close a wide range of cherished local amenities, sports centres, other recreational facilities and libraries. For example, Sure Start centres, which did such valuable work and were central, one would have thought, to any levelling-up mission, have all been closed down. Such pots of regeneration money as have been made available by the Government, to be bid for by local authorities, appear to have been allocated on extremely flexible criteria, as the Prime Minister inadvertently revealed in the summer, and serious depravation does not appear to feature highly. We have also heard about European regional development funding not being fully replaced despite government promises.

Another theme running through the debate is transport inadequacies, particularly in the north and the Midlands. They were well documented by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds, and indeed by my noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, whose sad tale of poor services between Birmingham and Leicester resonated strongly with this Leicester girl. How can we take seriously a levelling-up Bill that has no strategy to improve connectivity between major cities and less urban areas, and between the north-east and north-west of the country?

Noble Lords have reminded us of a great many other serious omissions. Of course we should welcome the fact that, rather late in the day, the Government now want to take action to address the widening disparities of recent years, but what form is this action going to take? There is a good deal of lofty rhetoric, but again, as speakers have pointed out, no additional resources to be allocated by the Government to strengthen overstretched planning services, for example, or to help local government carry out its new responsibilities effectively.

One of the main themes throughout this debate has been the extent to which the Bill can be amended. Can it be amended to achieve more positive and ambitious outcomes? I welcome the fact that colleagues across the House have already made many constructive and wide-ranging suggestions to improve this legislation in respect of environmental issues, devolution measures, more social housing and so forth. In Committee, I will be looking to incorporate the agent of change principle in some of the planning provisions, as the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, has already suggested. I very much hope that other Members of the House will join us in that.

Having said all that, and whatever the changes that we may be able to put through, there will still be a great gulf between what the Government are proclaiming and what the Bill will actually deliver. That is why we need to make it clear to the electorate, among whom there is already much and increasing disillusionment, that as it stands, the Bill will bring about little actual levelling up, except of course in one familiar area. That is to say that the Bill will result in yet more powers moving up from local level to the Executive—what a surprise. I am sure we will hear much more about this and the other themes as this Bill progresses through its stages.