Climate Change: Housing Insurability, Mortgage Lending and Financial Resilience
Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts(3 weeks ago)
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The Lord Speaker (Lord Forsyth of Drumlean)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Lord to speak.
Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]
My Lords, on housing insurability, what consideration is being given to the problem of premium escalation and refusal to insure in areas that have not flooded but are shown as at risk on flooding mapping due to climate change? Would it not be helpful if we could have some review on how local authorities disseminate such information, its effect on premiums and how it is used during property conveyance? I declare an interest as a resident of an apartment where flood protection measures have enabled us to avoid the increased premiums I am referring to in this question.
Lord Livermore (Lab)
As I said, the Climate Change Committee has assessed that the insurance gap is currently low relative to most countries. Flood risk, though, is the most immediate concern for UK households. The Environment Agency’s latest flood risk assessment indicated that around 6.3 million properties in England are at risk of flooding, increasing to 8 million as a result of climate change. The Government are working with Flood Re to ensure the scheme remains effective and financially sustainable through to its planned end date of 2039, and discussions are ongoing to understand and tackle the medium-term pressures.
Middle East: Economic Response
Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts(2 months ago)
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The Deputy Speaker (Lord Gardiner of Kimble) (Con)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is taking part remotely. I invite him to speak.
Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]
My Lords, with AI causing reductions in apprenticeship training and with minimum-wage resistance from employers, why do the Government not look, in addition to the laudable initiatives that they are introducing, at the 1980s community programme? It emphasised environmental improvement, the arts and charities. It took young people off benefits and put them into work in local communities, at a time when dangers from anti-social activities were developing from long-term inactivity and unemployment. Ministers might read the speech of former MP Graham Allen of 29 July 1988 on the Nottingham operation of the programme in his constituency. It is a lesson to be learned from the past.
Lord Livermore (Lab)
I am grateful to my noble friend for what he said. I will certainly look up the speech and programme that he mentions, and will recommend it to my colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions as they work with Alan Milburn on his review. As all noble Lords know, Alan Milburn published the interim report of his review and his final review is coming out in the autumn. The kind of scheme that he mentions is worth looking at and, as I say, I will look up the speech that my noble friend mentioned.
Middle East: Economic Update
Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]
My Lords, on the background to this strategy and the shock referred to by the Minister, as post-conflict Iran at some stage moves from regional threat into a period of post-conflict reconstruction, do we intend to stand by and watch as Israel takes advantage of the situation by accelerating its programme of land annexation, thereby further promoting regional insecurity and international tension? These conditions challenge the very recovery projects and programmes we are funding, which were identified in the Statement. We all support Israel in its hour of need, but should we not be demanding in response and end to the settlement expansion, as it challenges the stability we all want? It will destabilise recovery.
Lord Livermore (Lab)
I am pleased to say that this is a Statement about the economic situation, and I do not think anyone would ever put me in charge of diplomacy. I am not going to stray into matters that are much more properly a subject for my colleagues in the Foreign Office, so I shall leave it there.
Autumn Budget 2025
Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts(7 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]
My Lords, while I welcome much in the Budget, I will raise a single issue: the reforms to council tax. On a number of occasions over recent years, I have raised in Westminster and in the northern media anomalies in the levying of council tax. The classic example is that the levy on a Cumbrian council house is the same as the charge on a £60 million house in Mayfair. Harold Pinter would have revelled in all its absurdity.
How has this come about? We need to go back not only to the antecedent valuation date, or AVD, set in 1991, but to the potential for revenue raising being available primarily from parking revenues. With that in mind, some years ago I undertook a project comparing local authority charges in the north with charges in a selection of boroughs in the south, all charging lower rates. My findings and data were widely disseminated, provoking an avalanche of mail and the use of my data in the House.
My conclusion was simple: we need to revisit the system and introduce new bandings. Earlier this year, I proposed new bandings I, J, K and L. The Government are proposing the use of cash thresholds, and I cannot quite understand why. I am sure there will be an explanation and I wait with interest to hear it. Why can we not have new letter bandings, set perhaps at £2 million, £3 million, £4 million and £5 million-plus? We could then begin the slope of progressive movement down the scale of letter revaluations.
I am more than aware of the sensitivities in dealing with amendments to local taxation. Some say that the late Baroness Thatcher lost her leadership over her decision to introduce the community charge in the late 1980s. I understand that we need to act with care. The establishing of council tax liabilities under a 1991 AVD is becoming increasingly abused and administratively complicated. At some stage, we will have to bite the bullet and reform the system. The question is whether we can do it without generating widespread anxiety and an electoral backlash.
We have a number of options. During revaluation transition, we could freeze households to existing bandings for a number of years: let us say 20. We could freeze bandings to current occupancy or even limited successor occupancy. Whatever we do, we have to deal with a system in which problems are inherent: levels are often too high and remain unchallenged or are too low, due to factors widely recognised in the House. It is perfectly possible to progressively create a system based on current letter valuation principles, where council tax payment levels remain broadly unchanged yet which at the same time deals with the absurdities in a system that has long passed its sell-by date.
Independent School Fees: VAT
Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is participating remotely.
Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]
Why not positively foster pupil migration from the public schools into the state boarding school sector, such as Keswick School, a comprehensive in the Lake District? They offer a far wider social mix, often higher standards of education, help to foster far more balanced social interaction among the young, and all at a fraction—often one-third —of the cost. Is this discussion about not just tax receipts but breaking down social division that can begin in childhood and later divide society?
Lord Livermore (Lab)
I am very grateful for my noble friend’s insights. I will take those on board.