Queen’s Speech

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the Minister’s contribution to the debate on the gracious Speech. As we would have expected, he has put the best spin on some rather thin pickings in the Government’s legislative programme, and although I would not expect him to admit it, I guess that he is a tad embarrassed at the lack of vision and depth in the Bills that we are considering today.

Our country is facing huge challenges economically and environmentally. Economically, we are clearly not immune from global market turbulence, but we can take steps to mitigate its impact. Sadly, the Chancellor seems incapable of the strategic interventions that are necessary to do so. As a result, all the key indices—growth, wages, investment and productivity—are being revised downwards. We are failing to capitalise on the weak pound, which should make exports more attractive, and at the same time manufacturing and construction outputs are down. Worryingly, we are becoming too reliant on the rise of debt-fuelled consumption to prop up domestic demand, with all the inherent risks that we know too well. Even the Chancellor’s own measure of success—he pledged to balance the books by 2015—rarely gets a mention these days, since it has proved to be an elusive failure. It is no wonder that the latest polls show that the electorate no longer trusts the Chancellor to manage the economy effectively.

This Queen’s Speech represents a missed opportunity to tackle some of the underlying causes of our economic woes. Rather than relying on long-term austerity, we need a proper investment strategy that delivers the infrastructure, skills and technology to create our high-wage, high-tech future. At the same time, we need to address our overreliance on financial services and their long-overdue need for reform. The truth is that despite the lessons of the financial crash, the banking sector is continuing very much with business as usual: risky loan packages are creeping back on the market, bankers’ bonuses are hitting eye-watering volumes again, and the race is on for quick profits at the expense of long-term investment. My noble friend Lord McFall made a profound speech on this subject in your Lordships’ House recently in which he catalogued how the banks have been impervious to the fines and the redress handed out for their wrongdoing and have carried on paying out their megabonuses regardless. Do the Government accept that this Queen’s Speech represents a missed opportunity to tackle that abuse?

At the same time, we have seen the owners of BHS asset-strip the heart out of it, leaving the government-run Pension Protection Fund to bail out the pensions of the staff. The fund was never intended to be used in that way, but this is not the first time that a company has torn up its pensions obligations in the race for quick profits, so what are the Government now doing to tackle this abuse?

We were all appalled at the levels of tax avoidance revealed in the Panama papers. They exposed the fact that for many wealthy individuals and businesses paying tax has become a choice not a necessity, and that all too many are simply choosing not to pay. Clearly there is an urgent need for action on this. The latest figures from HMRC put the gap between what is owed and what is collected at some £34 billion, yet the staff have neither the resources nor the enforcement powers to intervene. While we welcome the measures to hold corporations to account on tax evasion, it is clear that we have a long way to go to tackle it effectively. Sadly, on this issue, as with so many others, the Queen’s Speech represents a missed opportunity. Although we welcome the lifetime savings and the soft drinks levy included in the programme, it is rather more a case of what might have been.

A similar theme applies to the environmental aspects of the speech, or should I say the lack of them? Last December saw a historic agreement in Paris to limit global warming to two degrees, with an aspiration of 1.5%, by cutting carbon emissions. By all accounts, our Secretary of State, Amber Rudd, played an important role in delivering that deal. Each country is to have its own plan to deliver the commitments made, but, sadly, since that time the Secretary of State has been strangely quiet. In fact, the measures introduced both before and after Paris have reversed our previous progress and stifled emerging renewable technologies. So it would appear that either she has been lent on or she has had a failure of courage in these areas. Either way, it seems an incredible shame that we are failing to grasp the opportunity to tackle the causes of climate change head-on as well as showing leadership to the rest of the world on this issue.

Climate change is only one of the big global environmental challenges that we are ducking. Globally, we are running out of resources: our natural capital is being depleted; supplies of water, forests, fish and biodiversity are in decline; and global food supplies are coming under pressure from global populations, migration to cities and the impact of climate change. At the same time, one-third of all food produced globally is being wasted, with food waste adding 8% to global carbon emissions as well. These are not just global figures; they matter to us here in the UK. Food security has become more important, but our self-sufficiency has dropped from 80% to 62% and continues to fall.

UK agriculture contributes £9 billion to the UK economy, but farm incomes are dropping and, as we know, many dairy farmers are going out of business. Sadly, a small number of powerful retailers and food producers are squeezing the life out of the farming sector. Of course, we know that our membership of the EU is crucial for protecting the environment, providing support to farmers and designing out waste, but there is much more that the UK Government could be doing, such as investing in agricultural research and technology, curtailing the stranglehold of business over farm prices and encouraging resource efficiency. There is also a need to tackle poor diets, raise awareness of the public health benefits of changing eating habits and improve food labelling to encourage consumers to buy British products. Sadly, apart from the specific sugar tax, none of those challenges are addressed in the legislative programme today.

Meanwhile, the Government also seem intent on ducking a rather urgent environmental and health crisis that is killing thousands of people each year. Last year, the charity ClientEarth successfully took a case to the Supreme Court on air quality. The court ruled that the UK Government had breached the Clean Air Act and instructed them to fulfil their responsibility. Defra’s subsequent lack of a coherent response will shortly see them back in court. In contrast, London’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, has made this issue a priority, doubling the size of the clean air charging zone and bringing it in earlier than planned.

The ability to show what Labour can do to improve the economy and the environment locally is one reason why we support moves towards further devolution. That is why we welcome the concept of the local growth and jobs Bill, but although we support the local retention of business rates, the Government have failed to explain how that will be done fairly. We also welcome the new powers to enable councils to regulate bus services and stop their long-term decline. However, the truth is that this Government’s cuts to local government have hit the most deprived areas hardest. Piling on more responsibility without the necessary funds will simply cause further suffering and hold communities back. We also expect to see more than just rhetoric when it comes to supporting the northern powerhouse. The reality is that the infrastructure projects continue to be concentrated in the south rather than the north.

Finally, the gracious Speech has some rather thin offerings on one of our biggest challenges: the lack of affordable homes in this country. The Government know that they are nowhere near meeting their ambition of building a million new homes, and the neighbourhood planning and infrastructure Bill offers no real solutions to the housing crisis. Under this Government, the number of families accepted as homeless has risen by a third and rough sleeping has doubled. There are over 200,000 fewer home-owning households and the supply of social housing is being squeezed. The proposed privatisation of the Land Registry is wrong on so many different levels that it is difficult to know where to start. We will of course have the opportunity to set out our objections in more detail during the passage of the Bill.

We look forward to the coming months and to scrutinising all the Bills in detail. As ever, we will be constructive and collaborative where we can, and we look forward to working with noble Lords from around the Chamber.

Finally, I, too, look forward to the contributions today, and I have particular pleasure in welcoming the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle to the debate. I look forward to her maiden speech and to the very particular perspective and wisdom that she will bring to the work of the House in years to come.