Autumn Budget 2025

Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe (Lab)]

My Lords, the Chancellor’s measures to combat the cost of living crisis, particularly for those on lower incomes, were the touchstone for this Budget. The Government were right to make this a priority. The Trussell Trust had to increase its provision of emergency food parcels to 1.4 million between April and September in 2024. That was a shocking 69% increase on 2019.

The most unjust and harmful impact of this is on children. As the Chancellor said,

“there is the future cost to our economy and our society, of wasted talent, and a welfare system that bears the cost of failure for decades to come”.—[Official Report, Commons, 26/11/25; col. 394.]

Any responsible Government would take action to address this. We know that removing the two-child cap is the quickest and most effective way to lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty. The Chancellor’s decision to remove the cap is a major victory for anti-poverty campaigners, but, more importantly, for the 450,000 children it will lift out of poverty.

I want to focus on social and affordable homes. One of the most transformative, sustainable and long-term ways to tackle cost of living pressures is by delivering a major programme of social and affordable housing. Analysis from the National Housing Federation found that sub-market rents in general need social housing properties and provide savings to residents of £21 billion per year, compared with what they would have to pay in the private rented sector. That represents a saving of nearly 49%. Living in social housing saves the average household more than £5,000 per year in rent. This translates to an estimated £13 billion per year saving on support for housing costs through the welfare system.

At the spending review in June, the Government announced a transformational package of investment in social and affordable homes. One of its key pillars was a decision on rent convergence, with a consultation over the summer. Certainty and urgency are needed, so that housing associations and councils are able to put in strong bids for funding in the new social and affordable homes programme to deliver on the Government’s housebuilding ambitions. Any delay to this decision would delay investment and reduce the impact on new homes within this Parliament. Can the Minister explain why this decision has been delayed? Can he confirm whether the Government still intend to implement social rent convergence from April 2026?

Can I also put in a plea for supported housing? Many schemes are closing across the country due to many previous years of cuts. Without these homes, more people face homelessness, longer stays in hospital or in-patient mental health units or homes that do not meet their care needs. Will the Minister assure us that supported housing will feature prominently within the Government’s forthcoming homelessness and long-term housing strategies?

I want finally to raise a different topic: growth in the economy and the vital role of higher education in its delivery. I congratulate the Government on their decision to link undergraduate fees to inflation. That was difficult, important and courageous. I am also thrilled at the decision to increase QR in line with inflation and the science Minister’s cast-iron commitment to curiosity-driven research. I therefore ask one final question of the Minister. What impact will the international levy have on the university sector and what is the net result of that tax, set against those improvements?