Queen’s Speech

Lord Davies of Oldham Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Oldham (Lab)]

My Lords, my first task is to congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle on her inspiring contribution. I have a very close friend who is a Geordie. I fear he spends rather more time at St James’s than at St Augustine’s, although he is a fairly regular churchgoer. I will certainly be able to give his spirits a little lift—and, by heavens, those who went to watch Newcastle United over the past season need more than a little lift at this stage—from the very good impression the right reverend Prelate made in the House today.

I have some sympathy with the Minister for having to reply to a debate as wide-ranging as this, particularly since, as he would expect, I am going to direct most of my remarks to the issue of the economy, when he is rather more a specialist on transport matters. On transport matters, I had anticipated that he would probably have a fairly easy ride; after all, HS2 was conceived under a Labour Government, was carried forward by a coalition Administration, is now making progress under a Conservative Administration and in due course, I am sure, will continue towards completion under a Labour one. However, I had not anticipated the noble Lord, Lord Framlingham, being so forceful about his opposition to HS2, and it may be that the Minister does not have such a cosy ride as he might have anticipated on that very important Bill.

There is no doubt that a Bus Services Bill is long overdue, although of course we will want to examine the details with some care. London has set the pattern for a way in which one can integrate transport in which buses play a crucial part. Everyone knows the joy of catching a bus in London: you are actually told when it is going to arrive, and it does, and generally you are able to find reasonable room on it because of their frequency. I do not have the slightest doubt, as the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, said in his strong argument in favour of the Bill, that authorities such as Greater Manchester can match London in terms of achievement in implementing the Bill once it becomes law and they have the ability to do so.

The problem is, of course, that the Government talk rather ambitiously about local authorities and the regions but then act more than a little meanly. You cannot have a northern powerhouse without effective resources allocated to it, otherwise it is just an expression and a form of words. At this stage I am not sure, apart from the general structure of what is meant to obtain, that the Government have the ability to put the resources into making the northern powerhouse a reality. It is noticeable that almost as soon as they announced the concept they were busy deciding to reduce certain rail projects that would have enhanced the situation. So the jury is out on that, and the Government will be watched very carefully on the question of the allocation of funds, particularly against a backdrop where the Chancellor continually claims that his big commitment is to reduce government expenditure and government debt. Not that he has been so hot at doing the latter; after all, he got only half way there by 2015, when he was meant to have completed the task. Four to five years’ grace has now been granted to achieve this absolutely prime objective. I do not think many people will cut him much slack if he fails on this scale again over the next few years.

The other aspect of transport that concerns us is the extraordinary delay in the most important transport decision of all—the question of aviation and the runway in the south-east. I had the same impression as the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson: here were the Government talking about space travel from Newquay, which was likely to happen somewhat earlier than a third runway in the south-east. I may be overpessimistic on this front, but it certainly does not do the Government’s reputation any good at all when such a critical decision has been stalled on, year after year. In addition, of course, every year they have a very good, persuasive argument—certainly a pretty self-interested one—for why the decision cannot be taken at that point. I do not think the country is prepared to countenance much more delay.

My noble friend Lady Jones raised crucial questions on a whole range of matters under debate today, which I therefore will not repeat. But I hope the Minister will respond—again, operating somewhat outside his normal brief—on the crucial issue of climate change. We all recognise that some progress was made on this issue before Christmas, but it is by far the most important issue that confronts not just us or Europe but the whole world. We are beginning to see illustrations of the failure to control that aspect at present in the measures that have been taken thus far, and it is essential that this is a major priority for government.

I make no apology for concentrating on the economy. The Government pride themselves on their various projects but they do not create the means to turn them into reality. First of all, it would help if the Government took effective steps to get their tax revenues in. From the very beginning I have never understood this Administration; why did making a smaller state mean that the first group of people they attacked were Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs—the very group of people who could produce the resources, if effectively used, to improve the economic position of the country and the financial position of the Government? But, of course, cuts were made to HMRC and now we are left with the appalling piece of information, which we heard about the other day, that the French have been 10 times more successful than the British in dealing with Google’s taxation obligations. Can noble Lords think of a greater condemnation of the inefficiency of a Government than their failure to raise the resources to which they are entitled because they have not produced the effective machinery to do so?

We should also appreciate that at present there are a whole range of difficulties with the economy. We had a brief discussion at Question Time today about the balance of payments. Many noble Lords in this House will recall a time when the balance of payments—and even quite marginal movements in them—used to dictate election outcomes. Now this Government can carry an absolutely appalling deficit in this respect and have an appalling record in comparison with other advanced countries, yet they appear to brush it off as of no concern. But of course it is of concern, because it reflects just what my noble friend Lord Giddens emphasised earlier and what my noble and learned friend Lord Morris introduced with regard to a specific area; namely, that if we do not safeguard industries such as steel, and invest in and support manufacturing, we will lose the wherewithal to run an efficient and effective economy. The Government have been pretty slack in their response to these issues; we live in hope with regard to the Tata Steel dimension, although even there the Government looked slow off the mark in responding to that well-heralded crisis. Nevertheless, let us hope that lessons have been learned and that they intend to ensure that that crucial dimension of our productive effectiveness is protected.

The Government have also been unfair in their dealings with taxation and benefits, as my noble friend Lord McKenzie indicated. Those in the lowest deciles of income have been hit far more harshly than the top 10% in the country. It is ridiculous that tax breaks are given to the extremely well-off while the disabled have their benefits challenged and indeed cut. Is the House aware that 85% of the welfare cuts have fallen on women? So much for any semblance of equality under this Administration.

Of course, there is also the intergenerational dimension. Our young people face higher university fees and, if they go to college, they find courses being closed because further education colleges have been denied resources under the savage cuts in that area. If they have an apprenticeship, it bears hardly any comparison to the concept of a real apprenticeship, which saw an individual learn a skill under close supervision and with support over a period of time. Now, in many cases an apprenticeship is not much more than a makeshift, limited investment in the training and skills of our people, yet the outstanding issue that faces our economy is our lack of skills. The Government say that they intend—I repeat “intend”; there is not much sense of achievement yet—to build houses, but the construction industry says, “No go. We haven’t got the skilled people to meet the kinds of demands that you’ve been making of us”. That is some condemnation of the Government.

Against that background of continued anxiety, the Government are a little prone to quoting the fact that the international economic situation is difficult to handle. China is no longer growing at the rate that it was; nor is Brazil. The European Community is not the strong market for our goods that it was in the past. How wonderful that that party now looks to the international situation to excuse its economic failures, yet blames the deepest British economic recession since the war on overspending by a single Government—the Labour Government—in Britain. Those false excuses will not do. When the Government fail, they produce a whole range of holes down which our fellow citizens fall.