English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Lord Bishop of Manchester Excerpts

Thursday 26th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Manchester]

My Lords, I think I have been cued in. I will speak to my Amendment 318A as—yes, still—the Bishop of Manchester. There is a vacancy in London, but I think I am too old to be considered.

Over the last 18 months, I have been chairing the Manchester Social Housing Commission. Central to our work has been the contributions that local residents and communities representing their neighbourhoods make to our thinking and, eventually, our recommendations. We have seen how empowered communities make a real difference. They are the people who know what it is like to live where they do. They can shape local services for the best results.

Far from being a problem for authorities to manage, communities continually demonstrate how they respond to the cost of living crisis or the epidemic of loneliness. People in communities are vital in driving their own solutions. As I go around my diocese, I see again and again how local people taking the initiative really make a difference.

I admit that, as a bishop, I sometimes get frustrated that my local parishes and clergy do not always do exactly what I want them to do—that would make life simpler for me—but the high degree of autonomy and agency that the parish system gives them means that they are often empowered to exercise the local knowledge that puts them in a much better position than me to know what would work well in their local context.

The community charter that is referenced in my Amendment 318A contains a short number of provisions that would give individuals and communities both protections and positive opportunities to drive change. Some of these rights already have clear legal precedent in other jurisdictions. Some reflect the UK’s obligations and international conventions, but they have not been effectively implemented in England or assessed. They have all been subject to legal advice, which confirms they are capable of legal implementation. Many of the specific concerns, whether about pollution or land ownership, can be dealt with by ensuring that such rights are carefully constructed and balanced with responsibilities.

Upholding many of the rights would require actions by regulators, rather than individuals. I declare an interest in clean air: I live on a major road, the A56, into Manchester, between the city centre and the motorway, and it fails every air quality test that it is ever subjected to. I know how important it is, from all the work I have done in housing—pretty much the whole of my adult life—to ensure that families can live healthy lives.

There are good examples of community empowerment from other jurisdictions: New Zealand’s right to a healthy home, promoted here by the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, as the Healthy Homes Bill, and New York’s constitutional right to a healthy environment. The rights shown in the community charter are perfectly possible in England.

When His Majesty’s Government published the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill last summer, I was very much looking forward to the changes it would propose, but the content of the Bill is overwhelmingly focused on the creation of strategic-scale local authorities. That is not a bad thing, but what is there that is genuinely about community empowerment at community level? To fulfil the ambition that is there in its title, a devolution and community empowerment Bill needs to enable communities to have a strong, democratic voice and to deliver positive solutions for their area.

Communities need to know the extent to which they have such rights, so they know whether they have a chance of their views being heard and listened to. My amendment simply requires the Secretary of State to report on progress that is being made in community empowerment in relation to the rights listed in the amendment. I will not take up time listing them all here. It is quite simple, it is quite modest; I am not intending to test the opinion of the House on it. I would be grateful if the Minister would agree to a future meeting with me and colleagues to consider how progress towards these community rights could be measured and assessed. With that in place, I think we will have a Bill, eventually an Act, that can live up to the words “community empowerment” that stand so prominently in its name. I also support the other amendments in this group, because I think it is important that we measure what we are doing to know whether it has worked or not.