Building an NHS Fit for the Future

James Murray Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[James Murray (Ealing North) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Paula Barker).

Let me begin by paying tribute to His Majesty the King on the occasion of his first Gracious Speech as our sovereign. Let me also take this opportunity to put on record how proud and glad I was to spend yesterday with my local community in Greenford, laying a wreath at the Greenford war memorial, coming together at the Royal British Legion club, and celebrating Diwali at Shree Jalaram Mandir.

I turn now to what was in and, just as importantly, what was lacking from the King’s Speech. It is astonishing that the Government announced new legislation on energy and yet their Energy Secretary was immediately forced to admit that the new laws would not take a penny off people’s bills. It is deeply frustrating, although sadly unsurprising, that the Government have announced legislation on housing that walks away yet again from unfulfilled promises that they have made time and again to leaseholders and private renters. It is a sign of how tired this Government are that there was nothing in the King’s Speech about a plan for economic growth to make people across the country better off, or the planning reform that we need to get Britain building. In short, this King’s Speech shows that the Conservatives are incapable of delivering the change that even the Prime Minister concedes our country needs.

People and businesses in my constituency, like others across Britain, have been paying the price of the Government’s failure on energy for the past 13 years. The Government’s failure meant that the energy crisis hit people in Britain harder than those in any other western European country. People are right to ask what on earth the Government were doing over the past 13 years to allow us to get into this mess. At the very least, people might have expected the energy crisis to serve as a wake-up call for Ministers, but the Government’s flagship energy policy in the King’s Speech shows no sign of their waking up. In fact, it shows just how tired and out of touch Ministers are that they appear to have simply given up trying to bring down energy bills for British families, and are happy to admit that. That is why Labour’s plan is so important to making Britain energy independent, to investing in British industry and to cutting bills for families.

Energy bills are far from the only pressure on household budgets. As the cost of living crisis continues to hit families across the country, the housing crisis that has also been growing under the Conservatives is getting worse and worse. Homeowners with mortgages are being hit by the Tory mortgage penalty. Private renters face relentlessly rising rents as they struggle to get on the housing ladder and live in perpetual insecurity. Families in social housing that does not meet their needs often have no choice other than to wait for years on end. And yet the King’s Speech offers nothing to truly get a grip on the housing crisis. The only legislation that it includes on housing represents yet more walking away from some of the promises the Government have repeatedly made and delayed.

We know that the Government have been dragging their feet for years over reforming the private rented sector. We finally have the Renters (Reform) Bill before us, but I will believe that it will become an Act under this Government only when I see it gain Royal Assent. Despite the Bill having come forward, we have already learned that the implementation of much-needed changes is to be delayed even longer. The Government are kicking the ban on no-fault evictions into the long grass yet again, despite tens of thousands of households being evicted and threatened with homelessness as Ministers dither.

Meanwhile, the legislation that the Government have announced for leaseholders would apply only to new homes, and there is nothing to roll out commonhold for new flats. Their plans fall woefully short of the fundamental and comprehensive reform that Britain’s feudal leasehold system needs. We know that that change will only come from Labour, as we have committed to enacting the Law Commission’s recommendations on enfranchisement, commonhold and the right to manage in full. More widely, there was no sign in the King’s Speech of any wider ambitious plan to do what is necessary to reform the planning system or to begin to fix the housing crisis.

Just as there was no plan to fix the housing crisis, there was no plan for economic growth. The economy is just not working under the Conservatives. Figures published on Friday confirm that the UK economy failed to grow at all between July and September, yet there was no change from the Government in the King’s Speech last week. There was no attempt to draw a line under the economic failure and decline of the last 13 years and set out a serious plan for growth.

We know that economic failure and stagnant growth have a direct impact on people’s lives, leaving working people worse off. We know that, faced with low growth, the Government have increased taxes 25 times in this Parliament alone, leaving British people and businesses paying the price. As if that were not enough, we know that working people are still paying the price of the Conservatives’ disastrous mini-Budget last year.

That is why Labour has a plan to replace 13 years of national decline with a decade of national renewal. Our plan has economic responsibility as its foundation, and under our plan, the Government will work with businesses to grow the economy and make working people in all parts of the country better off. As Members of Parliament, we are here to serve, and making life better for people across Britain is what Labour’s plan—our alternative to the King’s Speech—would set out to achieve.