Queen’s Speech

Lord Tugendhat Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tugendhat (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Bichard, speaks very wisely with the voice of experience, and I hope very much that Ministers will pay attention to what he has just said. Notwithstanding the note of realism that he has injected into our debate, at the moment we are in a time of hope. The Government have a large majority and they can plan ahead in a way that has been impossible for Administrations in recent years. In that context, the role of the House of Lords is clear. We must accept that the Government have a mandate and we must offer our revisions, criticisms and advice not only in a constructive spirit but in a way that is designed on the one hand to improve legislation and on the other to enable the Government to avoid mistakes. I hope that Ministers will accept the revisions, criticisms and advice that we offer in that spirit.

I will deal with just one particular point in the Government’s programme: their aim of improving competitivity, productivity and prosperity in the north of England. In that connection, I welcome what I read in the press of the Treasury’s plans to reassess criteria for calculating the value for money of government investment in transport and infrastructure, away from focusing on overall national economic growth and towards improving the well-being of people in the north of England and, I hope, other regions as well. This follows a recommendation of your Lordships’ Economic Affairs Committee, chaired by my noble friend Lord Forsyth, of which I am a member.

In giving my support wholeheartedly to that programme, I raise a few issues. One is that if the Government’s ambitions for the north—and, I hope, other regions—are to be effective in the long run, they cannot all be controlled from London. There will have to be more devolution of decision-making. That may well pose difficulties.

Secondly, where possible, efforts must be made to ensure that locally based SMEs are allocated contracts in the procurement process. When one looks at the record of government in this respect, it is striking that, on the whole, locally based SMEs do not share substantially in some of the plans introduced and executed so far.

Thirdly—I speak under the surveillance of my noble friend Lord Forsyth from Scotland—I wonder whether there is not more we might be able to do for Scotland. Under the SNP Government, Scotland is falling behind England in a number of respects. It will also lose the funding it enjoys at present from the various European funds, in particular the regional fund. I wonder whether there might not be scope for the UK Government to step in and provide further assistance on public expenditure in a way that the European funds have hitherto done.

Finally, I regret the Prime Minister’s election pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance—not because I want to see them go up, but because I believe that if the Government are to achieve their wider economic and social aims and to deliver to those who, as the Prime Minister has put it, have lent the Conservative Party their votes, higher taxes may well be required. I believe the public are ready for that; they want better public services and better infrastructure. If higher taxes are the price, they are willing to pay. As the old saying goes: “To govern is to choose.” I hope that if the Government have to choose between their broader social and economic aims on the one hand and higher taxes on the other, the former will win out. I believe that is what the country wants.