King’s Speech

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, who talked twice of his obligation to speak truth to power. Perhaps I may say to the House and to him that I think he did that rather well.

This has been a wide-ranging and very interesting debate. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Markham, will forgive me if I say that I thought his introduction, which was also wide-ranging, put a rosy gloss on the Government’s performance in the fields of health, education and housing in particular. The debate has rather demonstrated that the evidence for that is lacking and that in all those areas and others that we have heard about there are some serious structural and resourcing problems.

The gracious Speech proposed a number of Bills. I missed a proposal for audit reform and hope that it will appear in the not-too-distant future. I thought that we might get something on adult social care and children’s social care, and we did not, but it is possible that something is proposed for the Autumn Statement.

I had hoped for something to promote dentistry and healthy teeth, particularly in children. As my noble friend Lord Allan pointed out, NHS dentistry services are in serious trouble. Perhaps something will be said in the Autumn Statement because the Minister talked about the importance of prevention of illness. It is not happening in terms of the state of the nation’s teeth.

I had also hoped for something to promote real devolution in England. England is too centralised, but while all control of resources and tax raising lies with the Treasury, devolution to combined authorities will prove problematic, because they will end up competing with one another for the favours of the Treasury. What happened, I wonder, to the blueprint produced by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership in March this year on how to devolve tax to the regions of England, which was launched by the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, a few months ago? It seems to be commanding support from members of all parties, but it may require a new Government to get implemented.

The Prime Minister said that the King’s Speech would not contain gimmicks, so I am pleased that it contained no proposals to ban tents occupied by homeless people. As we have heard from a number of speakers, homelessness is not a lifestyle choice; tents are given to homeless people for good reason. It can make them feel safer, and keeping people safe is a stated objective in the gracious Speech.

The noble Lord, Lord Howarth of Newport, reminded us that 130,000 children live in temporary accommodation; it is the highest figure ever. The cost of temporary homes, including bed and breakfast costs, has risen to £1.7 billion a year—which could, of course, be used to promote social housing. Demand from young people aged 16 to 24 for advice on homelessness has increased by 5% in the past year, with 135,000 young people a year accessing homelessness services. Homelessness among all ages rose by 50% between May 2022 and May 2023. We know that the affordable homes programme is not delivering the volume of homes needed. We know that we need more housing that is truly affordable, with rents tied to local income. That means that we need more homes for social rent.

Only the state can provide protection to citizens. A public housing crisis needs public, and not private, solutions. There are some appalling conditions in the private rented sector, which is not properly regulated. There have been record rises in rents—the fastest annual rate now since records started seven years ago. Private rents are up by 5.6%.

I welcome the Renters (Reform) Bill. Section 21 has increased the number of evictions without a reason, and the proposals in the Bill will certainly help. But I am very concerned, as was the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, about the delay in implementation of the ban on Section 21 evictions. How long is that likely to take? I hope that selective licensing schemes will continue to allow local authorities to improve private rented sector properties. I hope that a future Government will amend the Housing Act 2004 to remove the requirement for councils to seek approval for larger selective licensing schemes. I should declare my vice-presidency of the Local Government Association. The problem is that England is too centralised for everything to come to Whitehall for decision.

Finally, I am very pleased by the leasehold and freehold Bill. I think that is generally the view in your Lordships’ House, because it represents a huge step forward. It will make it easier for existing leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold. As the Secretary of State said, the current system is reminiscent of a feudal system, which is against the interests of consumers. There will be many issues to test when the Bill comes before the House; it needs to be part of a major reform of property law. As we have heard from the noble Lord, Lord Truscott, we need better regulation of managing agents, and we must address the need for commonhold in flats.

I look forward in the months ahead to taking on many of these issues to improve the Bills we have, as the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, said.