Refugees: Community Sponsorship

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [R]]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. I congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford on securing this short but important debate on the process of allowing refugees to settle through community sponsorship, to assess the numbers involved and to look at whether the Government are giving adequate resources and support to sponsors. I join her in thanks to the many communities that have already supported refugees.

It is an honour to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Monckton of Dallington Forest. Her example as a sponsor of a Ukrainian family, and shortly to sponsor another, is absolutely to be commended. But I share her concern at the reduction of grants for host families and the consequential loss of hosts. Please, Minister, can this be changed?

The noble Lord, Lord Khan, spoke powerfully of the strength of a welcoming community, to ensure that arrivals settle and become part of the community, and I agree with him.

In 2016, under Prime Minister Theresa May, the community sponsorship scheme was launched. In that scheme, managed by the Home Office, families were allocated to approved sponsors, who could be charities, faith groups or other civil society organisations. It has developed very slowly. The Sunak Government said in 2023:

“Over 1,000 vulnerable refugees fleeing regions of conflict and instability, including Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Somalia and Afghanistan, have been welcomed under one of the UK’s safe and legal routes by local communities across the UK, so they can start their new lives here”.


That was not many, over seven years.

The scheme does have good ideals. The sponsors have to demonstrate capacity to deliver their side of the scheme, which includes available funding of at least £9,000, as well as the appropriate accommodation and written consent from the local authority. Once approval was given, they were given the responsibility of supporting a resettled family for at least one year, providing accommodation for two years, and providing support for all that they might need, from accessing medical services, language tuition, schools, social services, and, importantly, helping them to find employment. This absolutely encourages cohesion.

However, the low numbers have demonstrated a problem: the capacity of local authorities to be able to play a practical role in this, without any extra resources. Let me be blunter than that. Most local authorities are struggling to deliver anything beyond their statutory duties, and it is disappointing that yesterday’s Budget was not able to change that. However, even if it had, I suspect local authorities’ capacity to help community sponsors would remain a low priority compared with the statutory duties of children’s services, children in care and adult social services. The noble Baroness, Lady Monckton, graphically laid out the consequences to local authorities of the government grant to hosts being reduced.

What has also exploded in the last few years is a worrying resurgence of groups on the far right who, instead of objective to government about their concerns for refugee policy, have taken to demonstrating, marching and intimidating the refugees themselves. Too often, police resources have been needed to intervene to stop these aggressive patterns of behaviours by protesters. That is why, 12 months ago, then Prime Minister Starmer published Restoring Order and Control: A Statement on the Government’s Asylum and Returns Policy. Along with my party, and the noble Lord, Lord German, I have been arguing for years for effective, safe and legal routes to asylum for people with real cause, and I am not sure we have really got effective, safe, legal routes at the moment. I am interested in understanding how quickly this scheme, if it works, can be developed further from the scheme first introduced a decade ago by the previous Government.

Despite what many people want us to believe, there are refugees with a real and understandable fear for their lives in their own countries, who seek to come to the UK, often because of direct—that is, familial—or indirect reasons, for example the Afghan troops who worked with us in the war in Afghanistan.

The 2025 government policy paper said that refugee sponsorship would

“become the framework for most of the UK Government’s refugee resettlement efforts”.

The three new routes still include the route I described earlier but, unless resources are improved, I cannot see that increasing very much.

The second route is by universities, through the study sponsorship route, and by companies, through the work route. This too is very welcome, but I am sure I was not alone in absolute despair when our universities had found money and offered some places to prospective students stuck in Gaza last year and this year who could not leave their small children behind in a war zone. Some of those prospective students also could not get their status confirmed in time to start their courses. The sponsorship opportunities were wasted by the universities through absolutely no fault of theirs or the prospective students. What steps are the Foreign Office and the Home Office taking to improve visa processes for candidates under this scheme, especially for universities, where new students have a deadline that cannot be changed?

The third route is the UK refugee settlement route, which opened to new referrals recently. I echo the questions of the right reverend Prelate, who asked what numbers the Government expect in each of these three schemes over the next few years. The Government say they will set annual limits, but are the appropriate resources available to make sure that, once the community sponsors have fulfilled their side of the bargain, the Government will have capacity to deliver their side, especially the timely approval of visas? The other area that community sponsors, including Reset Communities for Refugees, are asking for is support in

“clear guidance, appropriate resources, effective safeguarding arrangements and access to specialist training and support”.

I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response on those.

Finally, there is one community I know well and have worked with for some time which has been accessing a safe and legal route to settlement in the UK for many years, but not without some problems. Unfortunately, the Government still refer to this group as refugees, but I believe they are wrong to do so, and I have said so before. These are the brave opponents of the Chinese regime in Hong Kong, who already hold British national (overseas) status and have fled to the UK because the Conservative Government of the day recognised, when we handed Hong Kong back to China, that they were entitled to be British nationals.

Since that handover of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997, and especially over recent years, when people fleeing Hong Kong arrive in Britain, Home Office staff often treat them as if they are exactly the same as all other refugees without British national status. Please will the Minister ensure that this practice stops? Yes, they may seek help and support if they arrive in distress, with no or few possessions, and they will need help with resettlement, but the first and biggest hurdle for them is overcome already. They have a right to come to this country, and it is shocking that their first encounter is immigration staff who do not even know this.

Leaseholder Remediation (Building Safety) Bill [HL]

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 11th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I add my congratulations to my noble friend Lady Pinnock on presenting her Private Member’s Bill—the Leaseholder Remediation (Building Safety) Bill—to your Lordships’ House. It is a vital tool in remedying the remaining outstanding issues arising from the failures that led to the Grenfell Tower fire and many other fires over many years. I also want to thank her for her determined campaign over the years, not just in your Lordships’ House but broadly across the country, working with leaseholder groups, to resolve the issues for leaseholders. I declare my interest as a vice-chair of the All-Party Fire Safety and Rescue group.

The Bill from the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, stands as a reminder of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017 in which 72 died, 70 were injured and 223 escaped, the victims of the Lakanal House fire of 2009 in which six died and 20 were injured, and survivors whose lives were all irrevocably changed. As others have already said, thousands of buildings remain unsafe, and government funding covers only the replacement of cladding.

The noble Lord, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, rightly said just now that the criminal liability following the Grenfell Tower fire has not been resolved and this must continue to be a priority for the Met Police. I understand there are still a large number of open cases, which should be encouraging, but I hope that they include manufacturers of construction products, too.

I want to focus on how the Bill clarifies and strengthens where responsibilities sit, especially for leaseholders who have, through no fault of their own, been severely let down by the state not closing loopholes, and by failures of builders and the housing sector. It is needed because, despite many reports and reviews, including Acts of Parliament such as the Building Safety Act 2022, and building standards statutory instruments, the developers and builders are still refusing to shoulder the responsibility for their failings, or for their suppliers and subcontractors, and are expecting everyone else to do so, including leaseholders, who face not just inexplicable bills for failures by others but, because of that, find their flats unmortgageable, unsellable and unlettable.

It is an absolute scandal, and it is extraordinary that it requires a Private Member’s Bill to remedy the issue, given that the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the Hackitt report made it clear how standards needed to change urgently and who was responsible. It is worth remembering that the problems uncovered after Grenfell included cladding panels on the outside of the building that were not appropriately fireproofed but which were sold as such and which contractors put up on the building, some of which were not inspected properly. There is no doubt that this was against regulations, and the Judith Hackitt report exposed many other breaches of regulation, not just at Grenfell but, as more buildings were checked post Grenfell, across buildings recently built or renovated.

Scandals have been uncovered across the country. In one tower block, a whistleblower reported that, the week before a fire inspection, all the fire doors by the stairs on each floor were removed and replaced by approved ones, and a few days after the inspection, the new ones were removed and the old ones were returned. This was not a few pockets of bad practice; this was illegal practice in order to save money—illegal practice that could cost the lives of residents in the event of a fire, as happened at Grenfell.

The last Conservative Government believed that the Building Safety Act remedied the legal loopholes, but, as my noble friend Lady Thornhill and others have said, it excludes buildings below 11 metres in height, as if they never caught fire and as if illegal cladding were safer at a lower level. The Grenfell Tower fire started on the fourth floor and was immediately dangerous at that level and above. My noble friend Lady Thornhill listed the other building defects not covered by the BSA, of which there are many.

We need to face up to the fact that the remediation work on the 4,000-plus buildings over 11 metres is still nowhere near complete, while thousands of leaseholders in buildings under 11 metres are still caught in a Catch-22, with unsafe blocks of flats with non-compliant ACM cladding and developers insisting that leaseholders should pay, rather than those that actually put up the illegal cladding. The Bill in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, addresses these points and puts the responsibility where it lies, back with those developer and construction companies.

This Bill clearly sets out the liability and recovery arrangements, remediation obligations, responsible parties and contractual arrangements. My noble friend Lady Pinnock and others have outlined the appalling effect that this remediation crisis has had on leaseholders, who have watched their flats lose substantial value, so that many are now in negative equity and the sales market has stultified. Some leaseholders are also being asked to pay for 24-hour fire watch on their building, even though it is clear that the defective work that has made it unsafe should be the responsibility of the developer or contractor. This Bill remedies that.

The other problem is that it is evident that, in many cases, there are still no real deadlines or timelines for making homes safe. The G15 organisation, which represents the largest housing associations in and around Greater London, says that it will take until 2036 to complete all its remediations—nearly two decades after the dreadful fire at Grenfell Tower. But other owners of large amounts of housing are not even saying when their work will be completed.

I say to the Minister that, if the Government do not accept my noble friend Lady Pinnock’s Bill, the current slew of lawfare will continue and possibly grow. The courts have already had a number of cases. In URS Corporation Ltd v BDW Trading, a developer sought to recover the costs of remedial works undertaken to address the structural defects in a residential development. This was in the Supreme Court, which rightly disagreed.

My noble friend Lady Pinnock referred to the massive hike in insurance costs for leaseholders. In Tobias v Grosvenor Freeholds (The Central), at the First-tier Tribunal, a landlord had the benefit of an insurance-backed scheme that could have provided a route to remediation costs. The tribunal said that the availability of insurance did not take away responsibility under a statutory regime of remediation of defects. So one party was saying that it did not need to pay as the other party had insurance, even though the responsibility was clearly theirs. This Bill provides clarity about that responsibility.

I cited these cases very briefly to illustrate a key point: nine years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, some parts of the industry are still trying to get out of their responsibilities, especially their financial responsibilities, often leaving leaseholders in the firing line. This short, clear Bill closes many of the legal and contractual responsibilities, which will resolve issues for leaseholders of today and tomorrow, and ensure that developers, builders, contractors and housing bodies must take responsibility for their roles under law. I hope that the Minister will confirm that the Government will provide the justice that leaseholders deserve and agree to the progress of the Bill.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Phase 2 Report

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for making that point. The Government are committed to ensure lasting transparency and accountability by creating a publicly accessible record of all public inquiry recommendations. We need to learn from past mistakes to stop them being repeated and ensure that a clear process is there on reforms. As I said in my previous answer, we will report back to Parliament annually, ensure we have quarterly updates on GOV.UK and continue to meet families and victims.

I was with victims yesterday with the Deputy Prime Minister, listening to the concerns and, naturally, frustrations. Lasting transparency is important; we also want to commit to enforcing a legal duty of candour through a new Hillsborough law. Your Lordships may recall that this is something we have talked about. We need to compel public authorities to disclose the truth, ensuring transparency in major incidents, such as the one mentioned by the noble Lord. We want to hold those responsible for failings to account, and we are committed to that.

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fire Safety and Rescue. I thank the Minister for the information on PEEPs. When is “later in 2025”? It would be useful to know, and I look forward to seeing the detail. I remain concerned that the detail is not quite as clear as some of us with disabilities would like.

Following on from the other points noble Lords have made about the recommendations in principle, with recommendations 43 and 48 it seems that the Government are not quite doing it in full because it sounds like, first, it is onerous and, secondly, it might cost money. Yet one is dealing with voluntary organisations as first responders, and the second, and in my view much more important one, is about codifying the training required for local authorities and other category 1 responders. Why are they only in principle and not accepted in full, with the resources needed?

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My Lords, on the question on PEEPs, the Government have committed funding this year, 2025-26, to begin this important work by supporting social housing providers to deliver residential PEEPs for their renters. Future years funding will be considered at the upcoming spending review. I will come back to the noble Baroness on which part of the year in particular.

The noble Baroness asked why we are not accepting those recommendations in full. I want to be clear: we accept all the inquiry’s findings and will address all the recommendations. However, we have to look at how we work through the recommendations. The commitment is clear—we accept them in principle. But there are different ways of dealing with this. As I said to her on the previous issue about the single regulator, there are some conflicts and we want to make sure that we do this, which is long-lasting, sustainable, makes a difference to people’s lives, and makes people feel comfortable and confident in the system as something they believe in.

Cladding Remediation

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Monday 25th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, the very serious fire in a high-rise block of flats in Dagenham in August has resulted in the residents losing their homes and not even being able to access their belongings. They are also in real financial hardship. They are really grateful for the support from their local council, Barking and Dagenham, which has stopped them having to pay any council tax and provides weekly support meetings. Last Thursday, the owner of the building announced that it was to be demolished, without any discussion at all with the leaseholders and residents. The council cannot force the owner to the table, so I was very pleased to hear the Minister talk about enforcing remediation and working with people. Is there anything she can do to help these residents get the owner in front of them, so they can find out what is actually happening?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for raising that issue, and to Barking and Dagenham Council, which acted very quickly to support the residents. A great deal of action is being taken on building owners who are not progressing remediation works, getting them to do so as quickly as possible. The enforcement action is strengthened by funding for local authorities, as I said earlier.

We all know that one of the great failings in the Grenfell situation was the failure to take residents’ voices seriously enough. We are clear that all projects should comply with the guidance in the code, and we will take action where needed if there is a failure to comply with the resident voice. The code is not currently legally binding; however, it does include references to legislation and has been developed in accordance with guidance and requirements. We will keep the status of that code under review, but there is redress for residents should they need to seek it.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Report

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Friday 22nd November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my interests as a vice- chair of the All-Party Group on Fire Safety and Rescue and as a vice-president of the LGA. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, who laid out many of the Hackitt reform proposals that are so essential.

I start by paying tribute to the victims and survivors, many of whom had complained about the lack of safety in their building for many years, and the wider community around Grenfell. They still face many problems every day. I am pleased that the fire services have recognised their own failures but, as the Minister said in his opening speech, that is just the start of the failures of so many bodies, public and private. At the heart of this inquiry report is the evidence of the poor treatment of people, especially those already marginalised in our society. Sir Martin said it was a

“marked lack of respect for human decency and dignity … many of those immediately affected feeling abandoned by authority and utterly helpless”.

This could also be written about the other inquiry reports, such as Windrush and infected blood. All of us, whether Ministers, politicians, officials, staff or members of the public, must constantly challenge our own thinking and behaviour to make sure that we change. The tenant management organisation failed badly. Never again should social housing tenants be regarded as not worthy of safe housing, or treated as Grenfell tenants were treated. Never again should the vulnerable, especially the elderly and disabled, be regarded as not worthy of safety systems to get people out of burning buildings. It seems extraordinary that in the 21st century, and after 40 years of serious fires, we have to fight for the changes needed to ensure that buildings are safe, mainly but not only from fire.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry is blunt that building safety has failed for decades in central government, local government and the construction industry. He says that every death single was avoidable. Can the Minister confirm that, as with the Infected Blood Inquiry report, the Government will review these recommendations at pace? Specific criticism about the deregulation of safety legislation is important. The failures of the construction sector, whether regulators, manufacturing companies, builders, maintenance or management agencies, are also shocking. The 2018 Dame Judith Hackitt report’s 50 reforms for the sector were accepted by Sir Martin Moore-Bick and the last Government in 2019. Key was the golden thread of safety, running through the sector from manufacturing construction to regulation and training. After the Hackitt report was published, the last Government accepted that they should implement it urgently, but it appears that only more consultation happened. The steering group on competencies for building a safer future, a sub-group of the CIC Built Environment Professions Together, has noted that:

“The Hackitt review suggests that a year should be required for completing this work, with updates every quarter. On 5 October 2020, the Competence Steering Group released its final report, Setting the Bar, which includes recommendations designed to produce a new competence regime for construction safety. In December 2018, James Brokenshire launched Building a safer future: an implementation plan”.


On 2 April 2020, in response to the Building a Safer Future consultation, the new Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick MP,

“announced steps to introduce mandatory sprinkler systems and consistent wayfinding signage in all new high-rise blocks of flats over 11 metres tall”.

However, it went out to consultation and we still wait for government action. Can the Minister say when there will be an update in Parliament on the implementation of the Hackitt recommendations and the publications of the very urgent guidance?

The Fire Safety and Rescue APPG has repeatedly written to Fire Ministers about fire safety in flats over the last two decades. We had real frustration in getting Ministers to answer our questions, whether in person or in writing, including after each of the many serious flat fires and coroners’ reports that predate the Grenfell Tower fire, including Lakanal House. Most Fire Ministers over the last 20 years did not engage, not least because fires of this type were a multi-departmental issue. Speaking as a disabled person, I say that one of the areas that most worried me was that 40% of the disabled residents in Grenfell Tower died. There has been much debate in your Lordships’ House, during the passage of the then Building Safety Bill and other legislation, about how important personal emergency evacuation plans are. The excellent fire safety briefing by Triple A Solutions for Equitable makes a clear distinction between the appropriateness of the provision of PEEPs versus person-centred fire assessments. It also explains, in the subsequent pages, why it is so necessary.

The Local Government Association wrote to Dame Diana Johnson, the current Fire Minister, saying:

“As you will know the report of the second phase of the Grenfell Inquiry is expected to be published this Autumn. It is disappointing that your new Department will still not have implemented the recommendations of the first phase inquiry in relation to personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) by this point, despite two years having elapsed since the closure of the second consultation on emergency evacuation. We are concerned that this failure may be at odds with the Home Office’s obligations under the Equalities Act and would welcome an opportunity to share our views with you in more detail”.


Dame Diana’s response concerned the recent announcement of the department’s plans to bring forward proposals and its recommendations. She said:

“More information on the detail of the proposals will be shared when we are able, including a formal response to the EEIS+ consultation, and we will engage with the LGA along with other partners in taking these forward”.


That is still very slow, with no firm date in sight.

I want to mention the duty of candour and the machinery of government. One of the most shocking threads through this report is that there has been no sense of responsibility and a lack of curiosity inside various government departments, by both civil servants and Ministers. That is why we have long supported the duty of candour and are pleased that the Government have committed in their manifesto to introduce it. When will legislation for duty of candour arrive? In the meantime, what changes have been made so that civil servants and public agencies always ensure that Ministers are told uncomfortable truths?

Changing the law alone is not enough. We know from when the duty of candour was introduced into the NHS that cultural change is also vital. Therefore, can the Minister outline the Government’s plans for culture change inside government? The Moore-Bick report also says that the machinery of government and its agencies failed the victims, principally through the interdepartmental working. Fragmentation and lack of curiosity resulted in action, delay and obfuscation, which cost lives. Ironically—or perhaps not ironically—this is also a criticism of the Infected Blood Inquiry report, the Hillsborough report and the Post Office Horizon reports. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that everyone across government knows which department is leading and how the current culture can be changed to ensure that no more tragedies like Grenfell can happen again? It is vital that the police and the CPS move at pace to review the report and investigate those individuals and organisations who Sir Martin said deliberately breached the law. Given the pressures on the police and the CPS, will the Government provide extra resources for this? Justice further delayed is justice denied.

Finally, how will the Government report back to Parliament on the progress of the recommendations? I ask this in light of the Dagenham fire in August. A resident of that block has been in touch, saying:

“The cladding on Spectrum Building had been mostly remediated. The cladding on the fifth and sixth floors had been replaced and held up quite well against the fire—the timber frame of the fifth and sixth floors is where the fire continued to spread … But the site clearly wasn’t safe. There was confusion over the alarms. Mandatory documents don’t seem to exist. And, most importantly, after the devastation, no one talks to residents. We have been treated terribly by the private companies who profit from the development. The local authority have done an excellent job in stepping in and helping us”.


I started by noting that we have a record of 40 years of fatalities. Eight years after Grenfell, there is still an urgent need for everyone involved—government, public services, the private construction sector, housing management agents, freeholders—to really dedicate themselves to making sure that Grenfell can never happen again.

Gypsy and Traveller Communities: Accommodation

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that comment. When I was a councillor, I had a Gypsy and Traveller site in my own ward. It is important that all council officers familiarise themselves with the cultural issues around Gypsies and Travellers. Of course, we must all strive, always, to avoid division in our communities; it is very important that communities move forward together. If we are to achieve the full potential of our country, that is exactly what we must do.

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, following the withdrawal of the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessments guidance of 2007, there has been a policy vacuum for the assessment of need. This has allowed private companies, that provide most of the Gypsy and Traveller accommodation needs assessments, to develop their own—and different—methodologies, leading to discrepancies in how those are undertaken. Will the Government develop guidance for local planning authorities on how to properly undertake Gypsy and Traveller accommodation assessments in consultation with Gypsy and Traveller civil society? Can such guidance issue a pitch target for social provision in the same way as bricks and mortar housing needs are assessed?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes a very important point. I will look at the National Policy Planning Framework when it comes out to see what guidance is provided. Other noble Lords have raised the issue of how this will be enacted. It is very important that local planning authorities demonstrate an up-to-date, five-year supply of deliverable sites. The planning policy for Traveller sites states that this should be a significant material consideration in any subsequent planning decision, so there will be enforcement powers to support the delivery of those sites as set out in planning guidance.

Social Care Strategy

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg. I completely agree with him about the importance of technology and data, and will refer to it later in my contribution. I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. I very much enjoyed the maiden speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley. She and I first got to know each other very well during the pandemic, because we were officers of the All-Party Group on Coronavirus, which had a busy time—we can probably leave the rest of it there. I also know about her passion for social care. She is a very welcome addition to your Lordships’ House.

I congratulate my noble friend Lady Tyler of Enfield on securing this important and timely debate. She rightly said that the debate must be reframed, and this has been reflected in the thoughtful contributions from so many Members of your Lordships’ House. I also thank the House of Lords Library and the many organisations that have sent us briefings.

Our Lib Dem leader, Sir Ed Davey, made social care a core policy for the Lib Dem manifesto in the recent election. His experience as a child carer when his mother was ill and dying, as well as his parental role as a carer to his lovely son John, means that he knows at first hand how vital social care is, especially the role of unpaid carers. It is good that a party leader has put forward such a comprehensive package of measures to increase support for the vital work that unpaid carers do. I think this is the first time in living memory that one party has had social care as its principal policy.

The Lib Dems also point out that the current structures of the health and social care systems, as well as the failures in the structural funding of social care, have brought the sector close to catastrophic failure. It is worth going back and reflecting briefly on the Dilnot report, commissioned by Labour and published in 2010, just as the general election happened. That led all three major parties to agree to work together to accept it; that acceptance happened by 2013. Legislation even went through, and the Queen signed the Bill. As Sir Andrew said in a podcast,

“in politics 101, you learn that once the Queen has signed the Bill, you’re over the line”,

but after the 2015 general election, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer postponed it until 2020. Five years later, there is still no change.

The Dilnot commission recommended a partnership model with a much more generous means test and a lifetime cap of between £25,000 and £50,000 on social care costs, to ensure that the state steps in when people face catastrophic costs that cannot be planned for. Sir Andrew said:

“It was a recommendation for social insurance, collective provision, with a relatively large excess”.


That is why I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lilley, for his contribution on the need for nationally funded insurance in the future. We have heard him speak of this regularly during the passage of the Health and Care Act and on various other occasions. Will the Government now look at this?

The noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, outlined the financial problems that local authorities have with the 20% drop in accessible money. This is compounded by the fact that, as a result of demographic changes, the number of those needing care is continuing to increase. We are nowhere near the peak yet.

One key point that has not really been covered so far today is that disabled people’s care is treated the same as elderly care. It is certainly completely inappropriate to use the same financial systems. When the Government come to look at whatever the new financial systems are, will they use a different frame for young adults with disabilities, who do not have years of working behind them to have their own home and other resources?

The noble Baroness, Lady Murphy, spoke of the need for dementia training for all care workers, and she is right. The social care sector needs to learn from good practice, but dementia training should be compulsory.

Many noble Lords have already commented on the workforce issues. I will not cover those again, but I note that 25% of the workforce is not British and 27% of the workforce is aged 55 or over, compared with 31% of the workforce across the economy. This is particularly worrying, as our demography means the need for skilled care workers will increase. There will be a horrible hole in a very short period.

It was good to hear from the noble Baroness, Lady Neuberger, that the Rayne Foundation will provide grants for workforce improvement. I hope that demography among the workforce will be looked at.

As many noble Lords have said, we must professionalise the roles in care. We need regulation—my party favours a royal college of care—but also progression and career pathways, including apprenticeships and innovative schemes to make it attractive to young people. In the Netherlands, some care homes now offer free accommodation and 10 hours’ work per week to local students to live on-site. Not only does this help students see the reality of social care, but there have been two unexpected benefits that may surprise us. First, some of the students have changed their entire view about what they want to do after they graduate and are now working in social care. Secondly, the engagement of young people living in the home means that residents’ health is improving, including slowing down dementia.

I am reminded of a project I saw in Japan 20 years ago, where a group of 80 year-old war widows got together to do about five hours’ work a week, to give themselves some money to be able to communicate with families who lived off the island that they lived on. Their GP said their care needs went down 30%. Why do we not learn from that?

The noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, also talked about healthy living and social prescribing. Its substantial increase over the last four or five years is one thing that the last Government got really right.

My noble friend Lady Thomas of Winchester spoke of the breadth of skills and the attitudes of excellent carers. We should celebrate them and their contribution to individuals, but we must remember that they also contribute to society as a whole.

The noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, talked about the need for outcomes regulation, but that will not happen without the shift that he also discussed. The noble Lord, Lord Murphy of Torfaen, talked about good practice in his local area, but I also argue, as my noble friend Lady Thomas did, for the need for lifetime home standards in new homes—M4(2)—which would transform the lives of elderly people and stop them having to move out of their own homes. This goes way beyond the area of social care, but it could transform it.

The noble Baroness, Lady Browning, talked about early intervention for people, and she is right that that will certainly reduce the need for care. The increasing use of fracture clinics, not just to mend the bones but to invite physios and occupational therapists to work with people after their first fall, is reducing falls in later life once people are home.

The noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, is right that there is no need for a commission—many noble Lords have said that—but we have to reframe a national care service on a par with the NHS. It should not be the whipping boy. The noble Lord, Lord Murphy, is right that local services are vital in that. The noble Lord, Lord Turnberg, was also right to speak about funding.

I thought that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford’s care covenant was interesting. The Church of England’s policy working group, with its excellent values-based dialogue, is really important—as is kindness, which perhaps the CQC ought to look at. If you go into a home and see kindness, you know that, if it is led from the top, it pervades everything that happens in that home.

The noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, spoke of effective data. Thanks to Skills for Care, we have excellent workforce data, but he is right that we also need demand data.

The noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, talked about an effective integrated service. She is right that it works. The problem is the funding structures; they are a real issue. For example, in my mother’s last days, my brother and I witnessed the argument between the NHS and the local authority about whether her nursing needs in the care home were as a result of dementia or the fact that her osteoporosis had cracked her vertebra. That was a ridiculous debate. She was an elderly lady who needed nursing care, and that problem should not have been going on.

The noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, is also right that resources must be shifted from the NHS to social care. I do not want to hear another Minister say that delayed discharges are the problem. Every single NHS Minister says that, but they never actually tackle the problem, which is to change social care.

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser, for the warning about what is happening in Scotland. We should learn from those errors, too.

Many others have spoken about unpaid carers. Although I have already covered that with the work that our leader does, we absolutely know that we will fail our carers if we do not identify carers of all ages. We must commit to secure funding for care services, otherwise we will push them to the limits. That is particularly important for young carers because of the risk to them of losing their education and other support systems.

If we are the usual suspects on social care, it is time that Ministers started to listen. We have not discussed housing, transport or community activities—all those will also help. Labour’s response since the election has been disappointing, and I hope that the confidence of the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, that things will happen under this Government is true, because the time for action is now.

Housing: Modern Methods of Construction

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as a vice-president of the LGA and vice-chair of the All-Party Group on Fire Safety and Rescue. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, via the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, on securing this important debate and on his excellent speech. I note that MMC are already used successfully in student and hotel accommodation in this country.

I shall focus on two things, the first of which is fire safety. Yesterday, the Grenfell inquiry final report was published. From these Benches, our hearts go out to those who lost family members and friends and, of course, their homes and everything in them. Fire safety standards must be at the heart of modern building methods. As importantly, the recommendations of both the Grenfell inquiry and the Hackitt report should be implemented, so that maintaining and adapting all buildings is always done in the context of fire safety.

Secondly, all new homes from now on should be built to M4(2), or lifetime, standards. This is not just about disabled people, although we certainly need to be able to live in and visit homes, whether owned or rented, that meet our needs. Shockingly, well over 90% of homes do not. I am talking about the homes we need to have as we get older. Habinteg Housing Association’s research shows that M4(2) significantly reduces the cost of care assistance, because people can manage for much longer in their own homes with level access, grab rails, wet rooms et cetera. But there is a further benefit too: staying in your own home, which is what people really want to do, delays the need for expensive residential care. There are typical savings of over £20,000 for basic home care services in unadapted homes, and considerably more in residential care. Lifetime standards would save substantial public money in the NHS, and in welfare too. The extra cost for building is well under 10% yet the quality of life and lifetime savings to individuals and the state make it an obvious thing to do.

Housing: Accessibility Standards

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Monday 5th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I am afraid I will have to disappoint the noble Lord, as I cannot give a specific timeframe for that further work. The building safety regulator is responsible for introducing updates to the building regulations and it is a new organisation with a busy programme of work. However, his points are well made. To reassure him, we are taking these considerations into account in a number of ways. For example, last December we published an updated NPPF which included a specific expectation that, when planning housing for older people, particular regard is given to retirement housing, housing with care and care homes. This reflects the Government’s understanding that we need to take into account accessibility and the changing needs of our population as we build new homes.

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, Habinteg housing research shows that only 7% of our existing housing stock meets even the most basic accessibility standards. The Government’s report says that, on average, it would cost only an extra £1,400 to build a new three-bedroom semi-detached house to this standard—a tiny percentage of the cost of a new house. This would mean that thousands of elderly and disabled people could remain in their homes for life. The Government keep saying that they want to implement this standard. What is the delay?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, local planning authorities should already assess the housing needs of different groups, including accessibility needs for those with disabilities or older people, and reflect them in their policies and decisions. Guidance was introduced in June 2019 to help councils implement this policy and make use of the currently optional technical standards for accessible and adaptable housing, including M4(3) and M4(2)-compliant homes. As I have set out, we plan to take forward our commitment to move to mandatory for M4(2).

Holocaust Memorial Day

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Friday 2nd February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [V]]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Brixton. This year’s theme, the fragility of freedom, is very poignant and relevant, and I join in with the thanks for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Holocaust Educational Trust for their vital work in ensuring that we never forget the scourge and horror of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and other groups of people in the Second World War. I thank them and others, including the group Protection Approaches and the Lords Library, for their briefings. Along with other Peers, I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Dubs. His voice and life are an example to us all.

The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, talked of the importance of recognising the 10 stages of genocide, both in the past but also in our modern-day world. I pay my respects to the 6 million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis because of who they were, what they believed, and the community they came from. Voices from the past, such as Anne Frank, can continue to tell their story to new young generations, as the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, reminded us. We, our children and our grandchildren, must never forget. The voices of survivors have been vital, and this year we heard of the death of Sir Ben Helfgott. He spoke both of his experiences as a child in Buchenwald and Terezin, but also of his life after he arrived in the UK, and how he recovered—but never forgot—and helped others. His life and achievements were extraordinary. May his memory be a blessing.

In my contribution this morning, I will look at three of the other groups who were destroyed by the Nazis in the Holocaust, and how their fragility of freedom continues to this day.

Over the night of 2 to 3 August 1944, 2,897 Roma and Sinti people, mostly women and children, were killed at Auschwitz; 2 August is the day that the Gyspy, Roma and Sinti people mark their memorial, but it is important that we remember them too today. It is estimated that up to 500,000 Roma and Sinti people were murdered or died as a result of starvation or disease during World War II. Many more were used as forced labour, or subject to sterilisation or medical experimentation.

Today, the Gypsy and Roma community faces a very fragile future across Europe. Last autumn, research by the EU Council found that members of the community were suffering shocking amounts of bullying in the education system, prejudiced reporting by the media and threats to their legal status and rights, including as a result of recent legislative changes. We too in the UK have had legislation that affects the legal status and rights of our Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community, and research also shows that GRT children are the most bullied community in our schools.

Hitler murdered 250,000 physically or intellectually disabled people in the T4 programme. People ask where God was in the Holocaust, but Pastor Martin Niemöller’s longer 1946 version of his famous confession, which starts

“First they came for the Communists”,


says:

“Then they did away with the sick, the so-called incurables”.


He wrote and spoke movingly about how his church initially supported the Nazis in euthanasia, then slowly realised it was wrong but remained silent for too long, after which he was imprisoned by Hitler. As a Christian, it is hard to hear. That is the truth of his famous confession, what he had to live with, and that is why, after the war he publicly called on the German people to understand the impact of their silence. He spent the rest of his life talking to people around the world about how dangerous bystander silence was, including visiting South Africa and then Rhodesia. He said we all have a duty to stand up for people being persecuted, even and especially when we disagree with their views. That is a hard thing to hear today, when our society is so divided.

This is not just history for disabled people. The fragility of freedom is close to us now. In the pandemic, “do not resuscitate” orders were placed on disabled patients’ files without their knowledge or their families’ consent. Thankfully, as soon as it was uncovered, the Government and the NHS issued clear instructions to stop. But be in no doubt—certain people, chosen by this grouping, died because they were discarded. Those with underlying conditions were also denied intensive care, and some were even told there was no point in taking them to hospital. Many disabled people, including me, heard from others arguing against lockdown that they were going to die soon anyway, so there was no point in trying to protect them.

LGBT people were also targeted by Hitler and the Nazis in the Holocaust. On 6 May 1933, the Nazi-run German Student Union and SA raided and looted the Institute for Sexual Science, renowned for world-leading research on LGBT people, which was run by Magnus Hirschfeld. It promoted acceptance for gay people and pioneered surgeries for transgender people. Some trans people worked there as staff, and some of those employees, most famously Dora Richter, disappear from the historical record after that raid and are assumed to have been murdered by the Nazis during or after the attack. Four days later, the archives and library of the institute were burned on the Opernplatz. Dr Hirschfeld, himself both gay and Jewish, was away on a speaking tour at the time, and lived in exile in France until his death in 1935. During the Holocaust, gay and transgender people were deported to concentration camps and murdered.

The freedom of LGBT people is increasingly fragile today. The level of murder and physical attacks grows year on year, and Uganda last year made being LGBT not just a criminal but a capital offence. That is the beginning of the ninth level of the stages of genocide.

All noble Lords who have spoken have said why this year’s theme is very pertinent. Genocide and crimes against humanity are never inevitable and can often be prevented. That is why we have to remember the 10 stages of genocide, reflect on them in our lives and society today, and never be bystanders again.