King’s Speech

Baroness Pinnock Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, it has been a really interesting, wide-ranging and well-informed debate. I hope Ministers have been listening carefully, because they have been given plenty of ideas, freely given, for them to take up and introduce as part of their bid to create a better Britain—or whatever the phrase is. What has become crystal clear during this debate is the disappointment expressed by many at the paucity of the Government’s ambition. The Government have run out of energy and ideas, but what has not diminished is the scale of the challenges facing people who are delivering vital public services. For people who are waiting for an operation, waiting for years on the housing list or waiting for a GP appointment, these challenges have direct and personal consequences. The failure of the Government to show some understanding of the situation many people face by addressing the immediate issues they are facing in the gracious Speech is leading so many to complete despair.

As my noble friend Lady Barker said, there is not a strategy in sight in this gracious Speech. As the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester said, where is the long-term vision that is promised? That leads me to the NHS. We are all now going to remember the wonderful image provided by my noble friend Lord Allan of the Government in the driving seat of the NHS car. It is veering across all the lanes, doing many U-turns, running out of fuel and failing to reach its destination. It is memorable, but what is sad is that it resonates so much to so many: that that is where we are with our National Health Service.

On the long-promised reform to the Mental Health Act, I had not realised it was 40 years since the previous Mental Health Act was passed. That has raised concerns across the House, including by my noble friends Lady Tyler, Lady Walmsley and Lady Burt—all my noble friends and many others as well. There does not seem to have been any justification for not introducing that in the gracious Speech. There is cross-party support and consensus has been arrived at, so where is the Bill? It will be genuinely important for us all to hear why the Government have chosen not to include it in their programme for government.

My noble friend Lady Barker made the very important point about data sharing across the health service, local government, social care and children’s social services; I hope the Minister will respond to that query.

There is growing pressure on primary care, which some Members have raised. We know that there is a grave recruitment struggle for general practitioners, which obviously has a consequential impact on hospital care. We have the long-term workforce plan for the NHS, but we also need some short-term change to fill the gap until we reap the benefits of it. Meanwhile, people across the country are not able to get a GP appointment when they need one. My noble friend Lady Harris spoke eloquently—as did the noble Baroness, Lady Bull—about long Covid and the impact it is having on many people across the country. The Government perhaps need to give more attention to dealing with that.

I was pleased that my noble friend Lord Shipley raised dentistry and the failure of many families to find NHS dental care. It is shameful that some communities where I live rely on a third-world charity called Dentaid to access free dental care. Perhaps we all ought to be ashamed that this is the case in the seventh richest country in the world, so I am really pleased that my noble friend drew attention to that.

My noble friends Lady Burt and Lady Barker and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London all raised the issue of the Bill to ban conversion therapy: where is it? I will leave it at that because it is very important for a section of our society, and for some of us who have a commitment to equality across all our communities. I repeat, where is it?

One area that received good support across the House was the plan to reduce the availability of tobacco and to ban vapes for children. My noble friends Lord Rennard and Lady Walmsley, who have been constant campaigners on this issue, have spoken for us all. We are going to welcome it because we believe in cutting disease and early death. There is a green light for it. I will reflect what the noble Baroness, Lady Jay, said about the 26% cut to the public health grant. Without public health you cannot reduce health inequalities, which was raised by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London.

This brings me to adult social care. Reform has been promised and promised, but where is it? Too many families tell me that they are struggling to find appropriate home or residential care, particularly for those suffering from dementia. Somebody has to grasp this issue. There is not enough funding going into it and it is causing councils to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy. We are asking council tax payers to pay into this social care premium. In my council area, people are paying an average £200 a year extra on their council tax for adult social care that is not being reformed. That is disgraceful and needs to change.

I will say a word on local government finance, which is important and I hope will be addressed in the Autumn Statement. Today, another major council is on the brink of issuing a Section 114 notice of impending bankruptcy. Without local government to deliver public services locally, we are all bereft. My noble friends Lord Wallace of Saltaire and Lord Shipley both pointed to the importance of local democracy and the need to shake off the shackles of central control to allow it to flourish and do what it does best.

That brings me to housing. We are all glad that tents have not been banned, but we are not happy about everything in the Renters (Reform) Bill. Although the Bill is good, it is not good that Section 21 evictions are not being ended and banned straight away and will still be hanging over private sector tenancies.

The noble Lord, Lord Best, was right to talk about the housing crisis, as we did all through the debates on the levelling-up Bill and we are still having to deal with it. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, that it is about time the local housing allowance is thawed and raised, so that people do not have to sub the cost of their rent from meagre benefits.

The leasehold reform Bill gets a muted welcome from me, because it does not deal with the abolition of leasehold for flats. Without that, we cannot deal with the other big issues that are raised in that potential Bill about the Building Safety Act, which is unfinished business.

It has been a really good debate. It is a pity that the Government’s programme is not as good as the debate we have heard.