NHS 10-Year Plan

Lord Mawson Excerpts

Wednesday 9th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I would be delighted to add those details to the letter. I am very sorry to hear about the noble Lord’s condition and its pertinence to this part of the debate.

[Lord Mawson (CB)]

My Lords, I welcome this plan. As some will know, my colleagues and I have been working in this space for over 40 years, trying to encourage a move into our communities of a more joined-up approach. Are colleagues in the health department talking to colleagues about the Planning and Infrastructure Bill? Our work is now right across the country, in many communities, and we still see that lessons are not being learned. You still have major developments where the health centre is at one end of a site, the nurse is at another, the school and the community buildings are somewhere else—none of it is joined up. All this disconnection is at great expense. How, at this important moment, can steps be taken to try to join up these conversations? How can we try to ensure that in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill there are messages from the health service about the important need to enable this?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I am very aware of the noble Lord’s work in this area, particularly on regeneration. As the plan outlines, looking at the new neighbourhood provision, and how to bring different neighbourhood and community services together, gives us a fantastic opportunity to make sure that the whole community is considered—for example, it will look at connectivity with the centres, which has not always been the case in the past. It is a great opportunity and I am very much aware that our colleagues in planning, and MHCLG generally, are involved in our discussions.