New Homes

Lord Bishop of Gloucester Excerpts

Tuesday 12th September 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing, which is why, through our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, we will deliver tens of thousands of affordable homes for sale or rent across the country. The levelling up White Paper committed to increasing the supply of social rented homes, and a large number of the new homes delivered through our Affordable Homes Programme will be for social rent.

[The Lord Bishop of Gloucester]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that answer about affordability, but I wonder what steps the Government are taking to ensure that the definition of affordability is a good one. Could we redefine it so that it means affordable for most local people in that community, and look at what that is doing to house prices generally in each area?

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

We had a debate on this quite recently on the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill. Through the consultation on the NPPF, we are looking at affordable housing and, when we have finished that consultation and looked at the results, we will consider it further.

Leasehold Charges

Lord Bishop of Gloucester Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Gloucester]

My Lords, some of the most vulnerable in society, including prison leavers and refugees, can be heavily penalised by the housing system. In the south-west, there is a joint project with the police and crime commissioner to manufacture low-cost eco-pods which provide not only employment and skills for prisoners on day release but a potential solution to rehousing vulnerable people. What is being done to speed up this sort of housing provision for vulnerable groups?

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

I thank the right reverend Prelate for that question; I do not know what is being done, but I will certainly get an answer. I know from personal experience that these pods can work very well, particularly for homeless people. In the short term and in bad weather, in local communities—even next door to local authority town halls, et cetera—they can give the shelter that is required during difficult times for very vulnerable people. However, I will get an update.

Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill

Lord Bishop of Gloucester Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 20th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bird (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for her very wonderful celebration of children and putting children right at the centre of everything. I have been involved with homelessness and crime for much of my life and I can honestly say that 90% of the people I have worked with started in child poverty. There is a kind of mystic belief going around that anybody can end up homeless—and it is true, if you have mental health problems or problems around drink and drugs. Drink and drugs are the great leveller—they can certainly bring you down—but 90% of the people I work with are suffering from the fact that they came into the world in poverty. They came into a world where many of their parents did not realise that, when their children went to school, this was an enormous opportunity for them to get some social mobility away from poverty.

I give the example of my own family, who looked upon the 10 years, from five to 15, that I spent in school—well, actually they threw me out when I was 14—as a babysitting service. That is all they wanted. There is a real problem around the inheritance that one generation passes on to the next. In my opinion, if this Government were really serious about social mobility and levelling up, which are roughly the same thing, they would put children right at the centre and the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, would not have to put her hand up and say, “Can we not at least include children in this exercise?” There is no exercise if we do not include children in it.

I am not an expert on the figures and facts—I can give some of them—but I can honestly say that there are some very frightening things around social levelling up and all that, around social mobility and poverty. One of the most frightening things I have run into, and I do not know whose figures these are but they have been bandied around, is that only 2% of people from a social housing background actually finish their schooling and get a good job or go to university or college. So, when we talk about levelling up, about breaking poverty, or about people being able to socially move away from poverty, we need at least to look at the fact that there are some things that look good, but do not actually add up at the end of the day.

When it comes to housing, we have to change social housing and move it on, so that it becomes sociable housing; so it becomes a mix and our children who were born into poverty will get support because they are in good housing with a good schooling and all those other supports. We need to have a really joined-up look at how we can dismantle poverty among the poorest of us, and the best way is to start at those very early years. I would like to see the Government put the mission of the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, right at the front of this and say, “Yes, this is levelling up; we are going to start levelling our children and put all the support in as part of the process.”

[The Lord Bishop of Gloucester]

My Lords, I too will speak in support of Amendment 4. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for tabling this amendment. I am very aware that my right reverend friend the Bishop of Durham is a co-signatory and is unable to be here today to speak.

Levelling up, as the Government’s White Paper initially outlined, is about equally spreading opportunity across our country. It is about challenging unfairness and allowing people to live more fulfilling lives—I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bird, for his inspiring speech. These are aims that surely all of us welcome, but I cannot see how this will ever be achieved unless the Bill includes reducing child poverty.

This is about the present and the long-term future. As has already been said, the latest statistics are that there are 3.9 million children living in poverty in this country; that is more than one in four. With more and more families turning to food banks and the experience of persistent poverty tripling a child’s likelihood of having mental health problems, this cannot continue.

What does it mean for years to come, when these children and young people are adults? Even if you are lukewarm regarding care and flourishment, none of this makes long-term financial sense, and it certainly will not lead to long-term levelling up. Child poverty has been calculated to be costing the Government £38 billion per year. That does not fully take into account the financial impact of needs and services which can then become necessary in later life, whether that be health costs, various support services or criminal justice services. We know that children who are not invested in to give them the best start in life are more at risk of failing to flourish as young people and adults.

Poverty limits a child’s future opportunities and employment prospects, largely due to the impact it has on education. If levelling up is about equally spreading opportunity across the country, it is essential to ensure that children are receiving quality education. Yet how can we expect them to receive quality education when so many are facing the realities of poverty? The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, has already spoken about the Child of the North APPG report. One youth ambassador expressed how poverty was impacting their life:

“The main impacts are education. No matter where you are, school is difficult … It isn’t just hunger. The worry is still there. That feeling of worry never leaves. How your sister’s trip to the zoo is going to be paid. How you’ve not seen your mam eat. All going through your head in a chemistry lesson.”


The impact of poverty on a child’s life and future should not be underestimated. It impacts education, physical and mental health, relationships and access to opportunities. It is therefore impossible to achieve levelling up without putting the mission of reducing child poverty at its heart.

Furthermore, as has been said, child poverty is an inequality that people face throughout the country. I know that if my right reverend friend the Bishop of Durham was here, he would highlight the stark inequality in the north-east of England. Absolute child poverty may have fallen marginally across the UK since 2015, but it has risen in every local authority area of the north-east since 2017. This makes the gap between the north-east and the UK average poverty rate the greatest it has ever been.

Ending geographical inequality, which this Bill strives to accomplish, means ending the inequality of child poverty equally across the UK. Prioritising a strategy around reducing child poverty will improve not only the well-being of millions of children throughout the country, allowing them to flourish, but employment prospects and earnings, increasing economic growth and benefitting the country overall.

Childhood may not be permanent, but the experiences we have in our childhood shape the rest of our lives. Reducing child poverty in every local authority, and across the country, must be a priority now, because without doing so levelling up will be nothing more than a distant fantasy.

[Lord Stunell (LD)]

My Lords, I will speak to the amendments in my name, but I could not begin without commenting on the three very powerful speeches which have just been made. I hope very much that the Minister is listening and will be able to give something better than a formulaic response to the pleas that have been made.

In the amendments standing in my name and the name of my noble friend Lady Parminter, there are references to two other missing links in the metrics which are in front of us via these 12 missions—missing in both the Bill, where there are no links at all, and in the White Paper that preceded it. There are 12 missions set out in the White Paper and none of them references the need for future investment to achieve net-zero emissions as the fundamental basis of levelling up. I find that, frankly, astonishing. It is all the more surprising because the White Paper itself takes space in section 1.4.1 to explain that the risks and opportunities that the transition to net zero raises are greatest in exactly those parts of the country that most seriously need levelling up.

The White Paper points out that to achieve a just transition, the most challenging area is in those places where levelling up is most needed:

“Parts of the UK that need to undergo the largest transition”


to net zero

“lie outside the South East, often in some of the least well-performing areas of the UK.”

The White Paper recognises that there is a correlation between the intensity of the impact of the intended transition to net zero and areas that need levelling up. In other words, you need more of it in the places where levelling up is needed the most. It clearly identifies that but then proposes no action to respond to that impact.

Our amendment does not propose an additional mission to remedy this oversight, because, quite apart from the spurious precision of a particular number of missions in the first place, the transition to net zero needs to be at the heart of all of the missions in the White Paper. There is a powerful read-across to living standards, transport, skills, health and well-being—to mention the scope of just five of the missions on the Minister’s list. Amendment 18 is framed in terms of requiring pervasive action within all 12 missions to enhance their success in delivering meaningful and enduring levelling up, and seeks to avoid the temptation of short-term, quick fixes that build in carbon emissions and make matters worse or undermine the UK target of net zero by 2050.

Those risks are real. For instance, for a Minister anxious to achieve a particular mission target by 2030—on, say, living standards, which is mission 1 in the White Paper—it might be very tempting to prioritise investment in an oven-ready, carbon-intensive employment prospect, rather than in a longer-term plan that would aid transition and boost jobs far more, but not until after 2030, when the Minister’s accounting period had ended.

However, an even bigger risk is emerging, which is that new green jobs are not preferentially going to those areas that need levelling up. In fact, they are not even being sprinkled equally across every part of the country. The new green jobs and investment are following the money and not the need, with London and the south-east picking up those jobs much more quickly than the north-east or north-west of England.

Inclusive Society

Lord Bishop of Gloucester Excerpts

Wednesday 14th April 2021 Grand Committee

[The Lord Bishop of Gloucester]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, for moving this Motion. I want briefly to touch on three areas: children and young people; churches and faith communities; and those living in the shadows.

First, I turn to children and young people. Last month, I hosted an online youth forum in the diocese of Gloucester, bringing together more than 100 people so that adults in different spheres of influence, including our MPs, had the opportunity to listen to young people. Prior to that event, I spent many hours listening to young people speak about the impact of Covid-19 on their lives and I will share a few quotes. “Lockdown’s been so isolating.” “I feel like there should be more knowledge about mental health, not just depression and anxiety, and we should be taught how to deal with them.” “There’s been no direction. We don’t know what’s going to happen next. It’s hard for us to try and adapt to all these different situations.” “We haven’t had the chance to say how we feel about things.” “I really hope that sometimes we can be taken more seriously, and that our views can be put across.” “I just want people with influence to understand that there’s a wider range of issues than just the small subsection that they look at.”

There are, of course, many stories of resilience and creativity, but we cannot ignore the unseen pandemic of poor mental health and anxiety and the impact of loss of so many different sorts. My challenge would be to keep listening to children and young people and to include them in the decision-making. One way to do this is to have a dedicated Cabinet role for children and I stand with those in your Lordships’ House and the other place who are calling for that.

Secondly, there is the role of churches and other faith communities. They have certainly not been the sole distributors of hope in this crisis, but as well as chaplains in places such as hospitals and prisons, people supporting the dying and conducting funerals, there have been many worshiping communities, Christian and of other faiths, co-ordinating and accommodating community initiatives and continuing to create social capital, and indeed spiritual capital, which will be much needed as we emerge into the next season. How can central and local government help and not hinder these connections? One thing that I hope for is that there might be a vision for true partnership between the public sector and the third sector as needs and hopes are addressed.

Lastly, I turn to those living in the shadows. As a Christian, I am passionate about an inclusive society. I believe that this pandemic has heightened awareness of exclusion and inclusion—and I am not simply talking about different people’s experiences of Zoom. Perhaps this pandemic has made us more aware of the issue of many people being hidden—yes, those on their own behind locked doors, but also the abused, the unemployed, those with mental health issues, those in poverty, those in prison et cetera. Who has been seen and heard and who has been hidden and silent? We need to be asking those questions intentionally. Some of the big awakenings in our country over the past year have been around exclusion diminishing and the sort of world we want to be. Black lives matter. Violence against women and girls is to be challenged. It is for those of us with some influence to keep returning to those shadowy places to shine a light into the darkness.

There is much more that I could say, but I leave noble Lords with the three headings of children and young people, churches and faith communities and those hidden living in the shadows.