Employment Rights Bill

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 21st October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am a proud GMB member; I am told that there are now more of us here than there are Conservative MPs.

Our economy is fundamentally rigged against millions of workers. How else could we describe an economy where many people’s pay does not cover the essentials, where there are people in work who are reliant on food banks, and where the state has to top up poverty wages through universal credit? Nottingham has some of the lowest average incomes in the country, and my constituents are tired. They are tired of living from pay cheque to pay cheque, tired of being unable to save, and tired of having to choose between going to work sick or falling into debt. People’s mental health is suffering as they work multiple jobs to make ends meet, or worry that they will not be given enough hours to pay the bills. That cannot go on, which is why the Bill is so important.

The Bill is about making work pay and creating a better work-life balance, and a more family-friendly economy. It is about fixing the problems that previous Conservative Governments allowed to fester, or even encouraged. The 1 million people on zero-hours contracts deserve security, and the Bill will give them the option of guaranteed hours. Those who miss work because they are sick deserve to be paid, and the Bill will entitle them to statutory sick pay from day one. Every worker deserves to earn enough to afford the essentials, and the Bill will mean that the cost of living is accounted for when setting the minimum wage, and remove discriminatory age bands.

The Bill is an investment in our future. Making work pay will give people more money to spend in the local economy, and improve people’s health, easing the pressure on public services. We have heard scare stories from Conservative Members before. They told us that the minimum wage would cause an unemployment crisis; it was not true. They want the public to fear trade unions, but trade unionists are not the bogeymen that the Conservative party presents them as. They are our postmen, our child’s teacher, and the nurse who cared for our sick parents. Trade unions are the combined power of millions of ordinary working people. From health and safety improvements to holding bad bosses to account and advancing gender equality, trade unions are a force for good in all our lives. I welcome their strengthening through the Bill, but I would like us to go further and scrap every anti-union law introduced since the Thatcher Government came to power. We must not stop here. The Bill is a vital first step to delivering the new deal for working people and resetting our rigged economy, but it is just that—a first step. We must also close all fire and rehire loopholes, create a single status of worker, and extend collective bargaining.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Wednesday 9th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

Some 38% of households in my constituency are in the private rented sector. In England, there are 11 million renters, and the number keeps growing. They have been stuck in a failed system for years. About one in three are in poverty once their housing costs are taken into account, while no-fault evictions are a leading cause of homelessness. Renters need greater protections, security and rights, but their voices and their interests have been ignored by previous Governments.

The Conservatives first promised to end no-fault evictions in 2019, but their Renters (Reform) Bill, already much delayed, stalled in the last Parliament—in no small part because of the influence of landlords in their party, some of whom we have heard from today—so this cruel threat of eviction, as the Secretary of State rightly described it, is still hanging over renters. The fact that we are on the precipice of banning no-fault evictions once and for all is a huge cause for celebration. I congratulate the Secretary of State and the Minister on introducing the Bill so swiftly, and I thank all who have campaigned for this change for so many years, from tenants unions to homelessness charities.

The Bill will also extend the decent homes standard and Awaab’s law to the private sector for the first time. It will allow tenants to challenge above-market rent increases, and will give local authorities stronger powers to crack down on unscrupulous landlords. It will create a national landlord register, give tenants more time to find a home if landlords evict them in order to move in or sell, and introduce the right to keep pets. These measures are vital, and the Bill must pass into law, but we need to go further still if we are to fix a system that is broken to its core. We cannot leave it to markets to stop rents being hiked to unaffordable levels, so we should look seriously at rent controls. We must also ensure that landlords cannot get away with ignoring the measures in the Bill. Local authorities need not only the power but the resources to investigate breaches and enforce these measures, and not just the ability but a duty to issue civil penalties to landlords who illegally evict their tenants.

Renters want a home, not just a house in which to live temporarily. They want to build lives in their communities, not feel that they will soon be priced out. Given that one in three disabled renters live in homes that are unsuitable for them, I urge the Minister to make it explicit in law that landlords cannot unreasonably refuse home adaptations. Reforming the private rented sector is not just about doing what is right for tenants; it is about doing what is best for our whole society. We will not tackle homelessness, poverty or inequality without it.

Financial Distress in Local Authorities

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Thursday 1st February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Betts]

If it was in my gift, of course I would give Barnsley the money it is asking for today, but unfortunately it is not. In another report, the Committee was fairly critical of the individual pots for levelling up, which are not joined up together. It is unsatisfactory that some councils can get bits of money from all these pots, while others get nothing at all. To address those problems, we have suggested a move towards single pots for local authorities, reflecting their needs and giving greater discretion and freedom to decide on spending at a local level. We are quite a long way off that at this stage. In principle, the Government recognise that is the way to travel, but they have not got a road map about how we are going to get there.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for all his work on this important report. It is a privilege to serve on the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee under his chairship. He does not need me to tell him that, like many local authorities, Nottingham City Council is in a perilous financial position. Our council’s spending power has been cut by a huge 28% compared with 2010, despite high levels of deprivation in our city. This is considerably higher than the average, still devastating, reduction of 19% among councils. How important does he believe it is to make the local government funding system fairer?

[Mr Betts]

I completely agree that it should be made fairer. The only caveat I would add is that one authority’s system of fair funding is another authority’s unfair funding, which is always a challenge. Everyone accepts that the funding system must be brought up to date. The current funding system has data in it that goes back to the last century, which is not a reasonable way to allocate money in the current age, so yes, it needs to be revised.

On the funding cuts and the council tax increases, the biggest funding cuts have tended to be made to those councils that used to receive the most grant, which tend to be the poorer councils. The council tax increases have disadvantaged councils with a low council tax base, which tend to be those councils who received the biggest cuts. We have not gone into that in detail in this report, but I know we have had evidence to that effect in the past.

Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 3rd July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Chris Stephens]

Let me add trade unions and workers who decide to take strike action. Yes, we know who the Government’s enemies are because they have been legislating against them in the last year since they crashed the economy.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

In Nottingham, we have significant numbers of people, including Hongkongers and those from other parts of the world, who have fled from many countries perpetrating human rights abuses. They rightly do not want their councils or universities to be complicit in human rights abuses that their family and friends continue to experience. Does the hon. Member agree that public bodies must have the right to take a principled stance against, for example, the persecution of the people of Hong Kong, the Uyghurs in Xinjiang or political dissidents across China?

[Chris Stephens]

I do agree. I am going to quote an exchange between the hon. Lady and a Minister later in my remarks, so she may want to intervene again. I have Uyghur Muslims as constituents. I know how serious the issues are. I have Kurdish constituents who are very concerned about the oppression of Kurdish people in Turkey and Syria, for example. I will always stand beside those people, but the Bill will prevent public bodies and institutions from taking such steps. That is a real concern.

The Government are leaving themselves open to a new slogan: never mind the probity, feel the width. Their ability to grow trade is now severely constrained, so they seem to be selling off their own principles to the highest bidder. Previous attempts to work with others in making the world a decent place are now to be put aside. Rogue nations are to be tolerated for the sake of business and their transgressions ignored. The Bill—the dog’s breakfast that it is—leaves them open to that charge.

Amnesty International UK is right to say that the Bill will

“make it almost impossible for public bodies to use their procurement and investment policies to incentivise ethical business conduct that is human rights compliant.”

However, perhaps the objective is not surprising. From the UK being an original drafter of the European convention on human rights, I note that some on the Government Benches now wish the UK to leave that. We would have hoped that the Conservative Government might have learned from their disastrous policy of giving succour to the apartheid regime in South Africa. When the world railed against that regime, the then Conservative Government turned a blind eye, even though we already knew the consequences of appeasement from earlier experiences.

We have learned in the last century what happens when Governments do not have a conscience and turn a blind eye to wrongdoing. We have learned that responsibility lies not just at a national level but at a local level—and, yes, even at the level of the individual. Now we are informed that giving expression to that conscience locally will be penalised under the law. It would appear that the only good conscience is a Tory conscience as expressed by a Government Minister at Westminster.

I ask myself: why are the Government pursuing this policy? Does every Government Member want to stifle local democracy? Every society has its share of people who are mainly self-interested, with little concern for those outside their own circle. It would be good to think that that proportion of society has shrunk as we have become more aware of world affairs. But it still seems to be far too substantial, suggesting to niche voters that principles are costly to us and we cannot now afford them. That is a dangerous game. It is much easier to break down society than to build it up; to make people isolationist rather than internationalist. Patching that fragmented society together again would be a monumental task. But there is good news: there are some parts of the United Kingdom where that dystopian dream is not being pursued—quite the opposite, in fact.

We have had helpful support in our position regarding Israel, for example. On Thursday, at that very Dispatch Box, the International Trade Minister told the House that the UK has a clear position on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories:

“they are illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace and…a two-state solution.”—[Official Report, 29 June 2023; Vol. 735, c. 408.]

As set out in Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office guidance on overseas business risks, there are clear risks to UK businesses related to economic and financial activities in the settlements and we do not encourage or offer support to such activity. So the Government’s position seems to be, “Don’t do it. We don’t support it, but we’re not going to allow people to boycott it.” That is a very confusing position for the Government to find themselves in. The Secretary of State suggested that the Bill does not stop boycotts of occupied territories, but actually we need just to read the Bill to see that that is exactly what it proposes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to close this challenging but important debate on behalf of the Opposition. The debate has covered Britain’s place in the world, freedom of speech, human rights, genocide and a whole range of other important topics.

At the heart of the debate lies a central question: does the Bill balance legitimate, strongly held and well-meant desires to challenge behaviours overseas on principled grounds against important protections for particular nations or regions in the face of disproportionate treatment? I am afraid the answer is no.

We believe there should be legislation to frame boycott and divestment-type activities—legislation that allows communities to decide where their money goes—in response to human rights or genocide concern, while ensuring such decisions are made equitably and consistently so that the world’s only Jewish state, for example, is not singled out and targeted. This is consistent with our long-held stance against the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.

Colleagues can have confidence that we believe in such framing legislation, because the shadow Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan (Lisa Nandy), and I tabled such amendments to the Procurement Bill in Committee, some months ago, and on Report. The amendments were rejected by the Government, but the Bill tabled in their stead, the Bill before us, is considerably worse than the option we offered.

My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) called the Bill a “dog’s dinner.” He is generally not a man to disappoint, but his sentiment was one of disappointment, which was echoed in the remarkable contribution of my right hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge), who spoke of the frustration of those, including the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak, who want to see legislation that the House can unite behind. We do not have that currently.

There has been a range of other excellent contributions. The Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alicia Kearns), referenced clause 3(7), as did my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) and the hon. Member for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond). This subsection breaks the distinction between the state of Israel and the occupied territories, which is a significant change in Government policy, and it asks significant questions about our compliance with UN resolutions. The Minister must account for that change of policy and assuage some of those concerns in her summing up.

The right hon. Members for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Sir Simon Clarke) and for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) said that foreign policy matters of this nature are not for local decision makers. Well, we do not think that is right. My hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield) made a very strong argument about how it has worked and been effective in his community in the past. In a bolder argument, the hon. Member for Edinburgh East (Tommy Sheppard) rightly said that it is our communities’ money. I, like many colleagues, am a member of the local government pension scheme—that is our money; and I am a council tax payer—that is our money. It is not unreasonable that we might want to have a say in how it is spent.

[Nadia Whittome]

This Bill is anti-democratic and anti-human rights. It frustrates peace efforts in the middle east and it is an obstacle to social justice everywhere. As such, it has been condemned by a huge range of civil society organisations, including trade unions, charities and faith organisations. Does my hon. Friend agree with them and with me that for those reasons the Bill must not receive a Second Reading?

[Alex Norris]

Yes, I think that what has been striking is that colleagues who come at this from very different places and parties have reached that conclusion of the inadequacy of this legislation. I hope the Government will reflect on that. The hon. Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) asked what our alternative was. The hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) made a powerful contribution, but I slightly challenge his suggestion that we were saying that we should rip this up in an unspecified way. That is not the point we are making. We are saying that we tabled an amendment to the Procurement Bill that we think is better. If the Government think it is technically inadequate, we would be happy to work with them to improve it. What we do know is that it is much better than what is before us today.

My hon. Friends the Members for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald) and for Cynon Valley (Beth Winter) made important points about what this Bill does to the devolved regional and national settlements—it challenges and presses them greatly. The right hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb) and the hon. Members for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and for Strangford (Jim Shannon) made powerful anti-BDS cases. I hope the position that my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan (Lisa Nandy) and I have taken on that assuages some concerns. My hon. Friend the Member for Strangford is my friend and we should always be honest with our friends, so let me say that he has done peerless work in this place on tackling the persecution of Christians abroad and he should have real concerns about how this legislation would fetter such activities in the future.

I will cover some more of the contributions as I get through the rest of my points, but certain concerns must be addressed by the Minister in her closing remarks. First, which of the two possible readings of clause 1 do the Government intend? Does the “territorial consideration” provision mean that not wishing to procure from Xinjiang is unacceptable but that not wishing to procure from the entire nation of China would be acceptable? Or does it mean that all actions of all foreign Governments are beyond the scope of local decision makers? How, at this stage, can it be satisfactory that there is ambiguity? As we have heard, this is legislation that will head straight to the courts. Secondly, to accept clause 3 is to exalt the Secretary of State ahead of any other public representative, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) said. It is to set aside the mandates of the Mayor of the West Midlands, the Mayor of Greater Manchester or of the leaders of councils in favour of the Secretary of State. It is to give that person, whoever they may be, sole arbitration of human rights abuses, of genocide. That should give all of us pause, but it is worsened by clause 4, the gagging clause, which my hon. Friends the Members for Sunderland Central (Julie Elliott), for Liverpool, Riverside (Kim Johnson), for Leeds East (Richard Burgon)—

Oral Answers to Questions

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Monday 5th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Felicity Buchan)]

That policy area is led by the Department for Education, but I agree that Kirklees Council needs to improve its performance on EHCPs. I understand that colleagues from the Department for Education have been working closely with that council to support it in doing so. We are awaiting the most recent publication of figures, which are due to be released imminently.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

T2. Over 1 million households are waiting for social homes, including more than 9,000 in Nottingham alone, but rather than expanding our council housing stock, there was a net loss nationally of 14,000 council homes last year. When will the Government take action on our housing crisis and enable council housing to be built en masse?

[Michael Gove]

I share the hon. Lady’s commitment to making sure that there is more socially rented housing, and indeed more affordable housing overall. Again, I would gently point out that we have built more social homes under this Administration than were built under the previous Labour Government. I should also point out that, under the previous Conservative Mayor of London, more homes were built than under the current Mayor of London.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dehenna Davison]

I am sure the hon. Member will be very, very pleased to read the funding simplification plan we will be publishing in due course.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

3. If he will give local government powers to set rent controls.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Felicity Buchan)]

The Government do not support the introduction of rent controls in the private rental sector. Evidence suggests that they discourage investment, lead to declining property standards and may encourage illegal sub-letting, which would help neither tenants nor landlords.

[Nadia Whittome]

In September last year, a survey by the tenants’ union ACORN found that 48% of private renters had received a rent hike from their landlord since January 2021. Some increases were as high as 67%. In a cost of living crisis, that is fuelling poverty and homelessness. Will the Government act now to freeze rents, allowing vital breathing room while more permanent solutions to tackle spiralling housing costs are devised?

Levelling-up Fund Round 2

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Thursday 19th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Frazer]

I thank my right hon. and learned Friend. I am sure it will be possible to discuss how Swindon can continue to grow. His area has indeed been successful in previous rounds. He mentioned the towns deal, which was allocated nearly £20 million. South Swindon will continue to be well represented—I know he fights for the area on a day-to-day basis.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

If we rank the 317 districts in England, we will see that Nottingham is the 11th most deprived. Despite our clear need, not one of our three levelling-up bids was successful, yet the Prime Minister’s own very wealthy constituency was awarded £19 million. When will the Government end this ridiculous charade of favouritism and truly level up places such as Nottingham by restoring the billions in funding that Conservative Governments have cut since 2010?

Private Rented Sector Housing

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Tuesday 15th March 2022 Westminster Hall

[Ian Byrne (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered private rented sector housing.

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Gary. I thank Members for attending this debate today and for what I know will be powerful contributions. I start by paying tribute to my constituents in Liverpool, West Derby, who are the innocent victims of this country’s current housing system. I also want to thank ACORN, the Vauxhall law centre, Generation Rent, Shelter, the Daily Mirror and the many other organisations for their campaigns to get the changes we need.

For millions, the current system in the private rented sector is failing to provide homes that are safe, secure and affordable for everyone. Mindful of this House’s sub judice rules, I am unable to go into the details of some of the appalling cases that my constituents have written to me about. However, issues raised with me by private renters include: constituents with health conditions such as asthma whose landlords have left them in damp properties with no gas supply in the middle of winter; constituents, including children, who have been hospitalised and suffered serious health impacts as the result of disrepair in their homes; and families living in fear of bailiffs, who were served a section 21 eviction notice by the landlord after complaining about terrible disrepair and conditions. My constituent told me:

“Section 21 takes the humanity out of the situation and that’s precisely the problem. We are human and lives are being carelessly destroyed!”

Other constituents who have contacted me wanted the Government to take urgent action so that nobody in future has to go through the same horrific experiences. Nationally, the private rented sector includes some of the oldest stock in England; it remains the tenure with the lowest standards, based on the Government’s decent homes standard. The latest English housing survey found that one in five homes in the private rented sector is classed as non-decent, and 12% have a category 1 hazard for which the most serious harm outcome is identified, for example, as death, permanent paralysis, permanent loss of consciousness, loss of a limb or serious fractures.

Does the Minister know how many serious injuries and deaths have resulted from making people live in such appalling accommodation? Shamefully, we have a system that means a private renter has more than a one in 10 chance of living in a home that could kill or seriously harm them or their children. Let that fact sink in—how can this be allowed to continue?

Private rented sector homes also have the worst energy standards on average. That means private renters will have to pay significantly more in heating bills because of poor insulation, inefficient heating systems or lack of double glazing. With the cost of living crisis starting to bite and energy prices set to soar, private renters really are in a precarious situation. Added to that, it seems that complaining puts them on a fast track to eviction. Research from Citizens Advice shows that those complaining to their local authority about disrepair were 46% more likely to get a section 21 from the landlord. Section 21—the fast track to eviction—must be scrapped.

I recently spoke to Professor Ian Sinha, a consultant respiratory paediatrician at the fantastic Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in my constituency, about the health impacts of poor housing conditions. Ian told me:

“The consequences of poor quality housing can be fatal for children: the National Child Mortality Database identified poor housing as one of the top risk factors associated with the inequalities that result in children's deaths....If babies and children breathe air rife with fungus, toxins, and dust, in overcrowded and cold homes, their lungs develop abnormally. Even though we focus on the shortterm effects, the problems they face in adulthood are even more stark—the poorest children are 5 times more likely to develop adult diseases like COPD, and chronic illnesses such as this lead to the poorest adults dying two decades earlier than the richest ones in Liverpool and many other cities...Poor housing can result in 20 years being taken away from your life...There is a window of opportunity for children to develop and grow—and the state of housing in which millions of children are forced to live is holding them back...That’s why good housing for all should be the very essence of any levelling up agenda otherwise it’s a vacuous nonsense.”

Professor Sinha continued:

“Parents are gaslighted at every opportunity—landlords deny pest problems—but mothers of premature babies tell us they know there are rats in the house because they see bite marks in their baby’s oxygen tubing; mothers tell us that when they reach for the cereal there are rodent faeces in them; mothers tell us that their toddlers are afraid to go in rooms because they see mice looking at them through the gaps in the floorboards that still haven’t been fixed. While parents are told that damp isn’t an issue, they tell us their children are waking up coughing thick mucus every night in rooms riddled with mould, and they are bullied because their clothes smell of damp”.

After listening to that, we must remind ourselves that it is 2022, not 1822.

It is clear that the current legislation is failing, which is compounded by a decade of Government cuts to local authority budget cuts and the cutting of access to free legal support. Between 2009 and 2019, local authority budgets to ensure that private rental standards were kept up were slashed by 44%. Local authorities have lost almost half their capacity to enforce standards.

Selective licensing is a tool that local authorities can use to tackle poor property conditions and poor practice in the private rented sector. The landlord licensing scheme in Liverpool, which ran from 2015 to 2020, found that 65% of properties were not fully compliant on the first visit. Some 37,000 compliance actions were taken to improve conditions and 250 rogue landlords were prosecuted. I saw this first hand when I worked with my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Dan Carden), as his office manager, when we utilised the scheme to tackle rogue landlords. I hope the Minister can enlighten us further as to why landlord licensing is not operational across the whole country.

The regulatory framework for the private rented sector is fragmented, underfunded and, quite frankly, broken, and the White Paper and renters reform Bill must address these systemic issues. A renters reform Bill was promised by the Government in 2019. Where is it? Every single day that the Bill is delayed is a day millions spend in cold, insecure, unsafe and unaffordable homes.

During the height of the pandemic, renters were trapped in unsafe housing while the Prime Minister was apparently picking out new wallpaper. Now, many renters are fearful of section 21 evictions if they raise complaints, because they cannot afford to move house in the middle of this appalling cost of living crisis. The power imbalance means that the mental pressures facing renters are built into this broken system.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

I wholeheartedly agree with the points my hon. Friend is raising and I thank him for leading this debate. I am regularly contacted by constituents whose private landlords are refusing to fix issues. Like the examples raised by my hon. Friend, they are not small problems; ranging from black mould to rat infestations, these failings have a disastrous impact on my constituents’ health and wellbeing.

As it stands, tenants who decide to withhold rent from landlords who fail to maintain their properties to standard will be in breach of contract and have next to no protections. Does my hon. Friend agree that increasing protections for tenants should form a fundamental part of our strategy to make the PRS safer and improve conditions overall?

[Ian Byrne]

My hon. Friend makes some fantastic points, and I fully agree. I thank her for all the work she does on this issue in her constituency.

The Government must present the White Paper as a matter of urgency, and new legislation must have real teeth and be enforceable. A renters reform Bill must abolish section 21 and end no-fault evictions, drive up standards through an updated and improved decent homes standard and create a national landlord register and licensing scheme to improve accountability and ensure that legal standards are met. It works—Liverpool has shown that. This is not more red tape, but an investment in the health and wellbeing of present and future generations. To reinforce this, have the Government undertaken a cost-benefit analysis of what it means for a child to grow up in a home that is a threat to their health and safety?

Let us put ourselves in the shoes of the people whose cases I have outlined. If an MP or a Minister were asked to live in a flat riddled with mould, in such a state of disrepair that it endangered the life of their family members and might lead to reduced life expectancies, we would rightly hear howls of rage reverberating from both sides of the Chamber. Let us take that fury and that righteous anger and, as legislators, represent with the same force the millions who are suffering that fate daily, forced into silence because of our unjust system. That would really be levelling up, and the Minister knows it—taking on the vested interests and doing something transformational, changing the life chances of millions for the better. Surely that is why we are all in this game.

This Bill must not tinker around the edges of a broken system, and it should not just move the goalposts. It must empower tenants and hardwire social justice into the system. From working with the Minister on numerous Bill Committees and Select Committees, I know he understands the need for change; but deeds will be the measure, not words.

East Midlands Economy

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Westminster Hall

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir David. I thank the hon. Member for Mansfield (Ben Bradley) for securing the debate.

As my right hon. and hon. Friends have already detailed, a decade of cuts has devastated our communities and people’s lives. People have been pushed into poverty, there is a homelessness epidemic, bus routes have closed and schools are falling apart. As my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood) said earlier, in 2019, the east midlands had the lowest public spend on economic development and transport and the third lowest on public services.

On top of more than 10 years of austerity, the Government’s failure to protect lives and livelihoods during covid has caused further economic misery and injustice to our region. Businesses have folded and people have lost their jobs. Retail and hospitality sectors dominated by low-paid workers —often women—have been particularly hit hard. Many are trying to get by on furlough pay that is less than the minimum wage, or even without any financial help at all. In Nottingham East alone, more than 14,000 families are set to lose £1,000 a year when the universal credit cut comes into place. Most shameful of all is that the majority of people in poverty are in working families.

Coming out of the pandemic, we need well-paid, secure jobs that help produce the kind of society that we want to live in. It is not enough just to develop our economy; we need to decarbonise it as well. There are no jobs on a dead planet and we must invest with the future in mind, not just the present.

Booming manufacturing once dominated Nottingham’s economy and our city was renowned as the centre of textiles, but from the 1980s manufacturing declined. For my grandparents’ generation, half of Nottingham jobs were in manufacturing, compared to just 4% in 2021. There is a huge potential for a new generation of green manufacturing jobs in and around our city and region; good-quality, well-paid jobs in sectors such as recycling and reuse. Rather than exporting our recycling content abroad, where much of it ends up dumped in the ocean, when will the Government bring these jobs to Nottingham and Nottinghamshire?

Will the Government put the money where their mouth is when it comes to tackling climate change and levelling up? Can the Minister provide a figure on Government investment in green economic development in the east midlands over the last five years? Can he provide details of conversations he has had with representatives of renewable and green industries about economic investment in the east midlands? Will he agree to meet me and representatives from local green industries to discuss capital investment in our region and opportunities for support from the Government?

With the scale of the climate and ecological emergency, that demands nothing less than post-war scale investments and economic transformation—a green deal. All of us, regardless of party politics, would be letting down those we represent to demand anything less today.

The Local Government Association website provides a list of devolution deals over the last decade. As the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (Ruth Edwards) mentioned, they include deals for Cornwall, Tees Valley, the west midlands, London, south Yorkshire—the east midlands is nowhere to be seen. For how long can our region be overlooked when it comes to Government investments? We saw that the Chancellor’s constituency—among the fifth most prosperous in the country—has benefited from levelling-up money. In constituencies such as Nottingham East, more than one third of children are living in poverty. When are we going to get our fair share? Can the Minister tell us whether the east midlands will get at least the £8 billion that the west midlands received with the Conservative Mayor?

Finally, I would like to stress the importance of devolving and investing in a way that is truly transparent, democratic and empowering for our local communities, because devolution should not mean handing power and money from one man in Whitehall to one man in a region. Communities need a real say in how this money is spent, so that they can be part of building the kind of economy that works for them and creating stable, well-paid jobs in the here and now, investing in industries that will protect the environment, and ultimately giving their children the future that we all deserve.

--- Later in debate ---

[Luke Hall]

We have been clear about the areas of the country that are in the highest categories of need. The levelling-up fund is based on the fund’s priority themes of economic recovery, transport connectivity and regeneration. We have recognised that need in three districts in Nottinghamshire: Bassetlaw, Mansfield and Newark and Sherwood, as well as the city of Nottingham, which has been identified as a category 1 priority. In Derbyshire, Derby and the districts of Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, Erewash and High Peak have been identified as category 1, as has the city of Leicester. Those bids are being assessed and an announcement will be made later this year.

[Nadia Whittome]

Will the Minister publish the metric by which those calculations are made? I do not understand why the Chancellor’s constituency, which is among the top five most prosperous in the country, has been considered a priority for levelling up, but not constituencies such as ours, where the Minister has heard that over a third of children live in poverty.

[Luke Hall]

I just outlined the numerous places in the east midlands that are in category 1. Significant information about the indexation is published on the Government’s website. I urge the hon. Lady to look at that.

There is an important role here for the Members of Parliament. We recognise that formally in the levelling-up fund and we encourage the hon. Lady to make a case through that. We recognise the significant number of category 1 places in the east midlands. We have heard significant pleas for extra investment in the east midlands. A number of Members have talked about making sure we deliver that on the ground. We have made significant investments in the region in recent years, including committing £212 million for nine town deals: two in north-east Derbyshire, one for Loughborough and one for Stapleford. We are investing £49 million in five high streets in the east midlands, over £370 million in the local growth fund and £64.5 million in getting building funding. That will help to drive local growth and economic recovery in the region. Some of those are already bearing fruit at a local level. The £2.6 million local growth funding we awarded for the Vision University Centre Mansfield is helping West Nottinghamshire College to address the skills gaps in the area. The £3.7 million of local growth funding has supported the opening of the Museum of Making in Derby in May 2021, as part of the redevelopment of the historic silk mill. There is £9.5 million of local growth funding supporting the opening of a technology institute—a new build that provides facilities for skills development, to meet the needs of the automotive industry in Leicestershire. The east midlands has received over £3 billion in covid recovery grants, including small business and retail, hospitality and leisure grants, local restriction grants, support payments and restart grants.

We think partnership working will be key to levelling up. On the proposed East Midlands Development Corporation, we are already engaged in some excellent joint working with local partners. My hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield highlighted the key intervention in the four opportunities that he spoke about. We are currently considering the draft business case with propositions at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, East Midlands airport and Toton. I commend the councils involved, including Nottinghamshire County Council, for maintaining that momentum by setting up a company as an interim vehicle in establishing a locally led urban development corporation. That really shows the intent and local leadership. As set out in the Queen’s Speech, we intend to reform the development corporation legislative framework through the Planning Bill to ensure local areas have access to the appropriate delivery vehicles to support growth and regeneration.

This partnership approach will be crucial in developing plans for another significant opportunity in the east midlands. I was of course pleased to see that the east midlands freeport was selected early this year as one of eight new prospective freeports, subject to business case approval. Of course, East Midlands airport—the largest dedicated cargo operation in the country—is based in the prospective freeport. It will be a key economic asset in the east midlands. The right hon. Member for Derby South (Margaret Beckett) said that will happen only if the Government share the enthusiasm to deliver those projects—we absolutely do.

I particularly want to put on the record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Ruth Edwards) for all her work in driving the project forward, and my hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw (Brendan Clarke-Smith) for his support. We recognise the scale of the opportunity that the project presents for the east midlands. The region’s connectivity to other freeports and the combination of airport and rail port create a distinctive offer for the region. We are keen to see all partners working together to deliver this for the east midlands and build a strong outline business case, due for submission very shortly. We will continue to work with colleagues across the east midlands to develop robust plans to capitalise on the local growth agenda that can be delivered here.

We heard a lot about HS2. We absolutely recognise the good work done by local partners, including Sir John Peace, Midlands Engine and Midlands Connect to identify the potential impact of HS2 on Toton and the wider east midlands. The IRP will be published soon and will outline exactly how major rail projects, including future HS2 phases, will work together to deliver the reliable train services that passengers in the midlands need and deserve.

I certainly heard the passion and the unanimous voice from hon. Members about providing certainty on the project. Of course, we will take that back to colleagues at DFT and ensure that their voice is heard. I particularly want to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Darren Henry) and the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins) for making the point clearly that certainty is required. Given the long-term significance of decisions within the IRP, it is of course right that we carefully consider those priorities and take on board evidence from a wide range of stakeholders before making the final decisions.

My hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Jane Hunt) talked about the importance of delivering fairer council funding. She is aware that we had to postpone the review of relative needs and resources due to the pressures on councils getting involved in that conversation during covid. We think that was the right path, but we made some changes this year, including extending the rural services delivery grant and providing £240 million of equalisation. I look forward to working with her as we continue to have a conversation about how to ensure councils are funded fairly. Of course, there was a 4.5% rise in core spending power for the east midlands this year, which she welcomed and supported at the time.

On devolution, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield for his contribution, and I listened carefully to the arguments that he made. I am very grateful for the comments from the hon. Member for Nottingham East (Nadia Whittome) and for her support for securing a devolution deal. I recognise that it is a complicated picture across the region, but we certainly look forward to having the discussion.

There is so much more that could be said. I thank hon. Members for their contributions to the debate. I will certainly reflect on the points that have been made. I will take back to colleagues at the DFT and my Department the points about providing certainty, and we look forward to continuing to work with colleagues as we invest in this hugely important region and this important part of our agenda.

United Kingdom Internal Market Bill

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Tuesday 15th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Alexander Stafford]

I have already given way once, so I will make progress.

The Bill is not a Westminster power grab, but a guarantee of a strong United Kingdom that will safeguard jobs and make us stand tall on the world stage. It will make us all more prosperous. The devolved nations, like Rother Valley, stand to benefit greatly from this Brexit bonanza, and I will lend them my support every step of the way.

Through the Bill we will enshrine in law the principle of mutual recognition so that goods and services from one part of the UK will be recognised across the country, and the principle of non-discrimination so that there is equal opportunity for companies trading in the UK, regardless of where they are based. This not only protects the integrity of the United Kingdom, but strengthens it. However, I wish to appeal to all our fellow Britons, north of the border, across the Irish sea and in Wales. This is about more than just pounds and pence. The economic benefits of the Union are undeniable, but our United Kingdom stands for so much more than that. I have the greatest respect for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and their people, history, culture and devolution settlements. That is why I back the UK Internal Market Bill—it empowers all Britons, wherever in the United Kingdom they may live, and strengthens devolution.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

It is pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Graham, and to speak to new clause 2, which was tabled by Labour’s Front Benchers. This new clause seeks to put common frameworks on a statutory footing. Only yesterday the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster reassured Members of the importance of common frameworks. If that is the case, I expect the Government to have no problem accepting this amendment, which seeks to prevent Ministers from overriding and imposing lower standards on devolved nations against their will. However, the devolved nations have every reason to be worried because when it comes to empty words, meaningless platitudes and empty promises, I am afraid that this Government have form. There is a pattern here: the Government promise to maintain our standards while simultaneously passing laws to allow themselves to lower them.

Let us take, for example, the Environment Bill, which the Government used not to set targets, but to give themselves the power to set their own targets in the future. They voted against the principle of non-regression to stop environmental standards being lowered. We have also heard about agriculture today. The Agriculture Bill offered nothing to guarantee that food standards would not be lowered and undercut in new trade deals. Hon. Members might be wondering why the Government would keep making promises and then refuse to legislate for them. The agenda is pretty clear to me. This is about creating a race-to-the-bottom economy. It is about undermining our standards. It is about the Government allowing themselves to sell off our rights and protections in dangerous trade deals that will undermine our future for decades to come.

Meanwhile, when we tried to amend the Trade Bill at least to ensure parliamentary scrutiny, the Government rejected that, showing very clearly what taking back control actually means—not parliamentary sovereignty, but an Executive power grab. Now with this Bill, especially in its current, unamended form, the Government are trying to cement that power grab by giving themselves the right to impose lower standards on devolved nations while ripping up the withdrawal agreement that they so proudly campaigned on just nine months ago, and breaking international law in the process.

The Government’s posturing will do nothing to protect the millions of workers in all four nations across the country who are worried about losing their jobs; nothing to reassure the British farmers who are worried about their products being undercut and dangerous trade deals that lower food standards; and nothing to foster the international co-operation that we need to defeat this pandemic or tackle the climate crisis. I urge people who have spoken passionately about our food, environmental and trading standards, and the Union, to vote for new clause 2 so that the Bill does not ride roughshod over our devolved nations and so that it resembles something that is fit for purpose.

[Julie Marson (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Graham

This is a good Bill, and a necessary Bill. It will protect the integrity of the United Kingdom and our internal market as we leave the European Union. In our considerations on part 4, the description we heard earlier of our internal market as a shared asset is very apposite. Part 4 provides an important part of the framework that will allow us to uphold our obligation under the Articles of Union, which state clearly that all parts of the United Kingdom should be on the same footing in respect of trade and navigation and in all treaties with foreign powers. The United Kingdom is built upon a commitment to free trade between our four nations, and prosperity and peace are built on such trade and partnerships. The European Union, for all its faults and all its deviation from its original vision, was founded on that principle and purpose: to preserve peace through trade.

I speak, therefore, in support of an unamended Bill and unamended part 4 in its entirety. Clause 28 to 39 give us an independent advisory office for the internal market under the auspices of the Competition and Markets Authority that will act purely for the benefit of the UK and each of its nations. This replacement of EU legislation will see practical powers brought back to our devolved Parliaments to help regulate the strength and progress of our internal market and ensure a smooth transition for businesses away from the European Union. The Office for the Internal Market will strengthen the internal market’s might and efficient operation and enable real-time and considered advice to the Government to help direct their route forward.

As a one nation Conservative, I believe that global Britain itself begins with one nation—it begins at home between all four parts of the Union—and the Bill will set us up for that mission by reinforcing the United Kingdom and its internal market. We need these provisions to protect, strengthen and monitor the internal market and to make safe the Union and the businesses and jobs within it, and to protect our sovereignty and that of future generations; and we need them to become that outward looking and strong global nation that this Government and I want us to be and which the might of our internal market demands.

The Bill is a demonstration of the UK’s preparedness to manage our markets abroad and at home. It will ensure unfettered trade across the UK and avoid new burdens and barriers being put on us unreasonably. As we begin our recovery from the covid-19 crisis, these two implications of the Bill could not be more important. Businesses in my constituency rely on seamless trade across our four nations and further afield. While the Government can enable growth, they cannot create it. Throughout the crisis, we have relied on frontline heroes, in the NHS, schools, shops, and elsewhere, to get us through, but in this next stage of the recovery, it will be the wealth creators, business people and entrepreneurs who take us forward, but they need a secure, dynamic, investable playing field from which to operate. That is what these clause provide: the framework in which to grow, the springboard from which to flourish, and the rules to operate within.

I will finish by stressing our obligation to uphold the internal market and ensure that our sovereignty as one nation is secured.