King’s Speech

Lord Gascoigne Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gascoigne (Con)]

My Lords, I am delighted to be the first to congratulate my noble friend on an excellent and engaging maiden speech, and to welcome him firmly to these Benches. The great strength of your Lordships’ House is that it gathers men and women from across the land who have served the country in many different ways, especially in local government. My noble friend joins those mighty ranks today.

From listening to his maiden speech, it felt like this was a purpose-made debate not just for the humble Address but for my noble friend Lord Fuller himself. Alongside his many and continuing years of service as a councillor, including leading South Norfolk for more than 10 years, my noble friend has advised the Government on housing infrastructure finance and has worked on local government pensions, bringing a wealth of practical knowledge to our House on two pressing issues.

Yet, as we heard from my noble friend, he brings much more to this Chamber: an understanding of the importance of food production; a respect for British farmers and recognition of their enormous worth; a recognition of the importance of building new homes and, crucially, homes that people want to live in; and his love of Norfolk. This is something we share, as my grandparents lived in one of Norfolk’s many beautiful seaside villages. I would spend many a happy break there as a kid. As we heard, my noble friend will throw his considerable energies into the work of your Lordships’ House. As demonstrated by his maiden speech, this is something from which we will all benefit and to which we look forward.

I turn to the substance of the debate. This is the first time I have spoken since leaving the Front Bench, but also since my party has not been in power. I congratulate my two very good noble friends who I am pleased to see remain on our Front Bench. Long may that continue.

I also congratulate all three Members present on the Government Front Bench, especially the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock. Having previously been a Whip, I have had to sit in many debates in your Lordships’ House. Sometimes they are incredibly complex; sometimes, emotional and thought provoking. I have to confess that some have made me feel weary, but that is usually when I have been listening to myself speak. On occasion, I found myself listening to deliberations around nature and hearing the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock. Despite being from a different party, I always found myself—nearly always—in agreement with what she said. She often spoke great sense, so I am genuinely pleased to welcome the noble Baroness to her position on the Front Bench and say power to her elbow.

I declare that I am a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation and part of the parliamentary caucus of the Conservative Environment Network.

Today’s debate is about a number of issues at the heart of any modern and growing society: how to more build homes; how to ensure stronger communities that help deliver a sense of belonging, health and happiness; and, crucially, how to do all this while improving and restoring nature and the environment.

There are bits to welcome in the King’s Speech: the continuing efforts to explore and deliver job opportunities with new technology; further employment rights, not least for women who are new mothers; further efforts to tackle violence against women and girls; and seeking to make British rail work—and I mean work—for those who use it. I have one thing to raise: please sort out the cellular network, so that those who use trains can actually do some work while they are on them. Underpinning all this is a general point. The new Government have a mandate to deliver their manifesto, and it is right that we congratulate them on their victory and wish them well. That said, we need to look carefully at the detail of the whole gracious Speech.

Over the last 24 hours, there has been a lot of talk about ambition and no time to waste. First, on housing, I am pleased that there will be legislation to build on what came before on freehold and commonhold, which we said we would deliver if given the chance to serve again. I still bear the scars of carrying through the leasehold and freehold Act in wash-up, throughout which—and in previous days—we were berated that it was not strong enough, that we were letting people down and that Labour would act. The King’s Speech says that they will act quickly, which is good, but is there any more detail on when, or what that would encompass?

On housing more broadly, I am not going to enter the fray of whether a top-down target is better than a more bottom-up approach. I have been there and got the T-shirt from having to defend the then position as a Whip, as my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham can testify. Everyone agrees on the need to build more homes, and all the talk and determination about building many more homes is welcome, and hugely so, if only that would fix the problem.

In building any new housing, it is right that the infrastructure is there, not least to make it feasible. Again, if only other Governments had looked at ways of speeding up delivery. Anything that is seeking to streamline the process is welcome, but there is a question about funding and what in reality is the definition of speeding up. For new housing schemes, it is not just about the transport infrastructure but about what else comes with it. What makes a community, and what makes people want to live and enjoy their time in that area? It is shops and access to public services, but also green spaces.

Environment and nature matter, and there is talk about using development to fund nature recovery, but what does that mean in practice? Does that now mean that new developments will have to increase nature and biodiversity, and is nature now classed as infra- structure? I am not criticising this, and it is commendable, but there is not much else about nature either in the Speech itself or in the accompanying briefing document, despite what was in the Government’s manifesto. If this is it—I heard the brief mention in the opening remarks by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt—given the scale of the briefing on the determination to build more homes, what steps are to be put in place to constantly improve our nature and biodiversity beyond this measure?

Some have already raised the issue of water companies, and everyone agrees that industry must do better, yet I hope that in due course the relevant Bill will do more than penalise failing companies—right as that is—and look at driving investment and the support that farmers need too.

Finally, I turn to one vast swathe of policy which I am afraid is completely absent. It is not farming, fishing or rural communities. It is not even the crucial global ocean treaty. Before the election, Labour said many things on animal welfare, yet where is the ban on trophy hunting imports? Where is the end to puppy smuggling? In my view, these are easy wins, and they were in their manifesto. In the midst of the election period, the then shadow Secretary of State said that a vote for Labour is a vote for animals and that they would ban the import of foie gras, but where is it? Thankfully, animals did not have a vote or they too would be scratching their heads, a bit like me.

I recognise that my party was in power for a significant amount of time, and although I often pushed hard for much more, alongside a few others, I think we can be proud of the advances we made over recent years, especially with the animal welfare action plan and the Ivory Act, and on the blue belt and, most recently, on live exports.

I know some will say that this King’s Speech is just a start and that more is yet to come, and I hope that is true. As I said, there are some good bits in the programme. However, with so much hype, when we were told only hours ago that there is no time to waste and that the Government are full of ambition, and when you combine that with the public good will and a huge majority to make real change happen, I cannot help feeling that this is also a bit of a missed opportunity.

A year ago today, I was introduced to your Lordships’ House. Not long after, I gave my maiden speech in a King’s Speech debate on the environment. Among other things, I focused on levelling up and nature. Speeches that day called on the Government to do more. The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, was speaking from the Front Bench and I from the Back Benches. Here we are again today. Plus ça change.

Time is short. The people rightly want things to happen and now, and there is still much to do. But I am one of life’s optimists and, thankfully, there is always a tomorrow.