Queen’s Speech

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Monday 17th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rosser (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, we have had the privilege this afternoon and this evening of listening to many thoughtful and interesting speeches, not least to the acclaimed maiden speeches of my noble friend Lord Coaker and the noble Lord, Lord Morse. Judging by the comments of so many who have spoken, both maiden speeches have been much appreciated. I am sure we all hope that they will be but the first of many contributions in this House from both noble Lords.

In her comprehensive opening speech, my noble friend Lady Jones of Whitchurch raised numerous questions and points. One point which she raised was the recent Public Accounts Committee report’s conclusion that Defra

“does not have ‘the clout to lead the rest of government’”

to deliver their environmental programme. That does not bode well for the relevance and effectiveness of the Environment Bill and our ability to address climate change. It also raises the issue of how much clout any of the departments with responsibility for the issues we are discussing today actually have in influencing government policy.

Local government has been decimated over the last decade, with spending power reduced by a third at a time when demand for services has soared. To meet legal duties to balance budgets, already depleted reserves and yet further cuts to already heavily reduced services are having to be used and made. What is it that this Government continue to have against local government and the vital services it provides to the communities it serves? The government department concerned is clearly either unwilling to, or incapable of, standing up for local government. Yet the effects of the rundown of local government services on local communities are all too obvious and numerous. For example, while the Government express concern about levels of youth crime and acknowledge the social and mental issues that many young people now face, including youth unemployment, they seem unwilling to accept that the rundown of local government youth services we have seen has withdrawn a vital pillar of support for many young people in need of help and advice.

The extent and breadth of social care provision has already been, and continues to be, cut back by local authorities as a result of funding being reduced over the last decade. One in seven adults were unable to get the social care they needed even before the pandemic. Yet there was nothing specific in the Queen’s Speech that recognised the hardship and problems this has created for many vulnerable people and their carers. The continuing non-appearance of the Prime Minister’s oven-ready plan for social care clearly indicates that it remains simply a figment of the Government’s imagination.

A projected planning Bill, based on proposals drawn up by friends of property developers, will further reduce the ability of local government and local communities to influence the nature and form of future developments directly affecting their localities, as many noble Lords have already said. Existing planning laws and regulations are not unnecessary red tape. They are there to prevent inappropriate and excessive developments, and to strike a balance between protecting the environment, while taking proper account of the interests, needs and priorities of local communities, and ensuring an appropriate supply of new homes and other needed infrastructure.

My noble friend Lady Jones of Whitchurch and other noble Lords have referred to planning permission that has already been granted for an estimated 1 million homes that have, nevertheless, still not been built. A Government who were serious about providing more affordable homes and social housing would be addressing this unacceptable situation, rather than seeking to pass legislation which rides roughshod over democratic local government and the concerns of local communities. This legislation seemingly also takes priority over acting now on the cladding scandal arising from the Grenfell tragedy four years ago and its already devastating effect on leaseholders, to which the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans referred.

I turn to transport. The Government have just produced a bus strategy. They say they want to increase levels of service but seem unwilling to accept that a key reason we have lost so many bus routes is because local authorities no longer have the financial resources to support loss-making but much-needed routes and services.

The Government’s bus strategy refers to an objective of cheaper fares outside London, which are way higher than those within London, where the mayor and Transport for London have much greater power over levels of services, routes and fares. I hope that, if elected metro mayors also want greater powers over bus service provision within their areas, the Government will not allow bus operators to delay or thwart them in achieving that objective. Perhaps in winding up the Minister could give that assurance on behalf of the Government.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, said, there has been no reduction in overall transport emissions, which make up a significant percentage of the UK total. If we are to reduce harmful pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, address the looming disaster that is climate change and improve the environment, we will have to encourage people back on to public transport through the provision of better and cheaper services. That means recognising—including by providing the necessary resources—that the overall value of such services to society and the environment extends far beyond the state of a financial balance sheet.

The likelihood of this Government recognising any such thing is a matter of some considerable doubt. We have recently seen the Government put pressure on the Mayor of London to increase fares, which might suggest that their approach to reducing the gap between fare levels in London and most areas beyond it will be more by forcing up fares in London than by providing the resources to reduce them outside London.

We have recently seen the Government’s approach to encouraging people back on to our trains; namely, an above-RPI inflation fare increase some two and a half months ago. Quite what that is meant to achieve when it comes to encouraging passengers deterred by Covid and government instructions back on to our trains is far from clear. The Government claim that above-inflation fare increases are needed to finance improvements to the rail network. The reality is that the Government’s deliberate high-fare policy is to ensure that passengers in this country continue to pay a higher percentage of the running costs of the rail network than in virtually any other country in Europe. Environmental and societal considerations and benefits appear to get little of a look-in, which says a great deal about the attitude—or alternatively the lack of influence—of both the Department for Transport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The only high-power energy source offering rail potentially net-zero carbon is electricity. Rail decarbon-isation is unlikely to happen without further electrification, yet in 2017 the Government cancelled a number of major rail electrification projects—another short-sighted decision if ever there was one. Indeed, this Government have cancelled more rail electrification projects than probably any other.

The Queen’s Speech provides for a Bill for phase 2b of High Speed 2 from Crewe to Manchester. Consultation with residents and communities affected by phases 1 and 2a has left a lot to be desired. Whether or not the Government have learned anything will become clear over their approach to phase 2b. If the Government want communities immediately affected by a new high-speed rail route running non-stop through their back yard, as well as communities further away, to at least not strenuously oppose the project, they need to look at it also from the perspective of those impacted—including looking at improving transport links from those communities to the new high-speed route so that those most affected can at least see some potential benefit coming their way. There is, though, continuing silence in the Queen’s Speech on the exact fate of phase 3 of HS2 from Birmingham to Leeds—not so much levelling up as levelling off.

My noble friends Lady Sherlock and Lord Coaker, the latter in his passionate maiden speech, spoke powerfully about the inadequacies of current welfare and employment rights and protection policies and the silence of the Queen’s Speech on this issue. Even before the pandemic, there were over 5 million people in low-paid or insecure work and well over 4 million children growing up in poverty. The pandemic has now ruthlessly exposed the inadequacies and gaps in current government policies, which an either unwilling or lightweight Department for Work and Pensions does not intend to address or does not have the clout within government to address. What, for example, has happened to the employment Bill announced in the 2019 Queen’s Speech?

We now await the Government’s response to the many questions and points raised in this debate on communities, the environment and climate change, transport and welfare. However, that response cannot cover up the reality that too many of the crucial major issues requiring transformative change we face today have not been addressed by the legislative programme set out in the Queen’s Speech.