Queen’s Speech Debate – levelling-up backed, but with caveats

Conservative MPs back the ‘levelling up agenda’ but some worry that the needs of the south-east of England may be being ignored. Its MPs seem sold on the idea of freeports and praised their record on skills and employment. However, there is disquiet about planning reforms and a lack of progress on social care. 

Labour MPs, meanwhile, were not convinced there is sufficient substance to the levelling up agenda. They were also frustrated at the lack of an ‘employment bill’ in the Speech.

A Labour amendment regretting that the Speech fails to prevent ‘the potentially ruinous costs of remediation works to make buildings safe being passed on to leaseholders and tenants’ and calling on the Government to set a deadline of June 2022 to make all homes safe was defeated 358 – 200.

Another Labour amendment regretting that the Government has provided insufficient information for its proposals properly to be scrutinised; and requiring that the DHSC internal review of their operation during the pandemic be published, was defeated 367-264.

An SNP amendment regretting, among other things, the absence of bills to protect workers’ rights and reform social care in England, and of provision to make the £20 Universal Credit uplift permanent, was also defeated. The government motion passed 367-264.

Leaders’ responses to the Queen’s Speech

Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed the programme set out in the Queen’s Speech will take the country forward with ‘superb infrastructure’ and a new focus on skills, technology and gigabit broadband.  Johnson went on to praise a new UK infrastructure bank headquartered in Leeds, with £40 billion to invest as part of the ‘greatest renewal of British national infrastructure since the Victorian age’. The PM went on to say the UK will use the sovereignty that it regained from the EU to establish at least eight freeports, including in Teesside.

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer highlighted that before the pandemic there were 5.7 million people in low-paid or insecure work and 4.2 million children growing up in poverty. Class sizes were at their highest for 20 years, one in seven adults were unable to get the social care that they need, and Britain had one of the worst levels of regional inequality in Europe. He complained the government’s programme pits regions against each other in a fight for limited funding, an economy still driven by chronic short-termism, a government preparing to take money out of the pockets of working people and a Chancellor saddling businesses with debt when they need to invest.

Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey said his party want an economic recovery that leaves no one behind. Government should be backing small businesses to create jobs of the future, so that people have genuine opportunities, wherever they live, he said. They should be supporting the self-employed, instead of ‘cruelly excluding’ three million people from government help during the pandemic.

SNP Leader at Westminster Ian Blackford believes a fair recovery should follow the example of the Biden Administration in that it must be investment-led. At the centre of the SNP’s recovery plans is an economic transformation that would have fair work and the climate emergency at its heart.

‘Levelling up’ agenda

The Government’s aim of ‘levelling up’, increasing investment in parts of the country which are struggling economically, was a focus of the debate, with most Conservative MPs praising the government’s efforts. However Labour MPs were more sceptical and largely focused on what the government is not doing.

From the Conservative benches, Robbie Moore, parliamentary co-chair of the Levelling Up Goals campaign, was delighted that the Government has shown in the Speech that it is passionate and keen to deliver that. Jerome Mayhew said the chance to buy a house is one of the great levelling-up opportunities. Home ownership creates stability, savings and often something to pass on to the next generation, he said.

Conservatives in the south of England were anxious their areas are not forgotten. Although backing the levelling up agenda, Sally-Ann Hart said we cannot overlook parts of the south-east that are also in desperate need of investment in education and skills, transport infrastructure, connectivity and job opportunities, adding: “We simply must not neglect nor take for granted our core support; if we do, we are no better than the Labour party.” Huw Merriman is concerned that of the £640 billion of investment in infrastructure over the next five years, only one project is in the south-east of England. Ian Liddell-Grainger cautioned: “If we really want to even up between rural, urban and whatever, we must put more money into rural communities.”

For Labour, new Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves criticised the Government for scrapping the regional development agencies, and for having cut 60p from every £1 of funding to local councils. Dan Jarvis remarked that the Government’s flagship levelling-up fund is worth significantly less than the local growth fund it replaced. Kate Osborne asked: “Can the Government seriously talk about levelling up across the country when they are doing nothing about the fact that pay and terms and conditions are being levelled down across the sectors and the economy because of the Government’s failure to protect and enhance employment rights?”

Toby Perkins remarked that the gap between London and the south and the north of England is bigger than the gap between West Germany and East Germany before unification, which is ’a stunning demonstration of the failure of the northern powerhouse’. Separately, he complained that since the introduction of the apprenticeships levy, apprenticeship numbers have actually fallen. Liam Byrne said budgets such as the national skills fund and the national prosperity fund are being dictated from Whitehall. Just hand the whole thing over to the west midlands and trust the people of the west midlands to implement these plans properly, he pleaded. Dr Rupa Huq remarked that levelling up should encompass ‘intergenerational readjustment’ rather than simply reward ‘gerrymandered Tory-voting territories’.

Business taxation

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “The Government have provided support for businesses not just to get through the crisis, but, through tax cuts such as the super deduction, to help them invest and drive our recovery forward.”

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves (Labour) said the Government must level the playing field between physical high street shops in our town centres and the online retail giants, saying that ‘more tax gets paid by shops on the local high street than when we buy online’. She said the UK has lost nearly 10,000 shops, 6,000 pubs, more than 7,000 bank and building society branches, and more than 1,000 libraries in the past 11 years – yet there was nothing on this in the Speech.

Richard Burgon (Lab) said the UK tax system is rigged in the interests of the super-rich, but there is nothing in the Queen’s Speech to fix that. “There is massive public support for increased taxes on the super-rich and on big business, but this Government just refuse to take on the wealthy and the powerful. So I tabled amendment (f), with cross-party support, calling for changes to our tax system to make the wealthy pay—first, to introduce a windfall tax on companies such Amazon that have made super-profits during this pandemic. Secondly, to introduce a wealth tax on the super-rich, so that they are not grabbing a greater and greater share as millions fall further and further behind. Thirdly, to increase tax rates so that those on over £125,000 a year—the top 1%—pay a fairer share. It really is time to break with the failed trickle-down mantra, which has been used for decades to justify deepening and grotesque inequality. A fairer tax system is how we start to build a fairer society.”

There was very little in the Queen’s Speech to help our thousands of small businesses all over the country with the real help they need to recover from the pandemic, said Sarah Olney, especially to support these businesses with the debt burden they are struggling with.

Indirect tax and duties

Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative) wants the Government to look at VAT treatment of yachts that are being brought back to this country. Bottomley explained that if VAT is paid on a yacht that is then kept abroad for more than three years, it must be paid again when the yacht is brought back. That will not produce any revenue, because no one will bring their boats back, he claimed. We should either bring in a marine passport or lower the rates that are above five per cent.

John Redwood said: “I hope we will soon get some VAT reductions or cancellations. VAT was imposed on a range of items that, if left to its own devices, the UK Parliament probably would not have chosen. That should be part of the Brexit bonus.” Redwood said we need more measures - tax and otherwise - to help people expand their own small businesses or to see that self-employment is a good option that might give them a better life and a higher income. We do that by lower taxes, by smarter regulations and by a Government who spend their money on buying great UK products and services and allow some of that spending to filter into small companies, as well as into the usual large companies that provide so much of the public procurement that is domestically provided, he said.

DUP’s Jim Shannon referred to the air passage to Northern Ireland and the importance of connectivity and a reduction in air passenger duty.

Conservative Giles Watling called for a differentiation in beer duty to help hospitality, helping our arts, cultural and sporting institutions back on their feet.

Freeports

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the National Insurance Contributions Bill would introduce new reliefs to encourage employers to employ veterans, to incentivise regeneration and job creation in freeports, and to provide relief on NHS Test and Trace payments.

Angus Brendan MacNeil (SNP) would ‘love’ to know what the GDP gain is from freeports, considering the GDP upshot from Brexit is not good, with the UK is forgoing 4.9 per cent.

Lib Dem business spokesperson Sarah Olney said freeports will be delivered in ‘hand-picked’ parts of the country and ‘cannot deliver jobs and growth everywhere’. They rely on special customs status and are appropriate for only limited forms of economic activity. Evidence shows that their effect is to divert economic activity from elsewhere, rather than generating new activity of their own, she said.

Employment

Ministers emphasised the government’s success in avoiding a huge rise in unemployment as a result of the lockdown, while opposition MPs focused on quality of work, highlighting inequality, insecurity and low pay in the labour market.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said GDP statistics showed that the economic impact of the lockdown at the start of the year was less severe than had been expected and unemployment was expected to reach 12 per cent or more but is now expected to peak at about half of that level. He went on to say that the Government has protected incomes, pointing to latest statistics showing that real household disposable incomes in the last quarter of last year were only 0.2 per cent below the same period the year before. Sunak reaffirmed his commitment to end low pay by increasing the NLW to £8.91. He said that kickstart has created almost 200,000 job placements for young people and the Government introduced a £3,000 hiring subsidy for small and medium-sized businesses to take on a new apprentice.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng said the Government continues to protect the lowest-paid workers, raising the national minimum wage and the national living wage. He said: “The truth is that across innovation with the vaccine roll-out, across net zero with the 10-point plan and the opportunities for COP26, and across enterprise, we have a Government who are committed to bringing progress and driving success across the entirety of UK.”

A former employment minister, Damian Hinds said one problem the Government never cracked in the ‘jobs miracle’, despite the great growth, was productivity, warning that there is little incentive for individuals to upskill because there are not the jobs available for them to upskill into. His fellow Conservative, Paul Howell, spoke of the need to facilitate the creation of high-level, well-paid technical jobs as well as roles in support and voluntary organisations, with the opportunity to deliver these through the green agenda.

Maria Miller (also Conservative) said let us have within the government legislative programme plans to stop pregnant women being made redundant and stop the use of non-disclosure agreements covering up unlawful activity, particularly sexual harassment and discrimination at work. She added: “Let us have proper shared care for dads, too, because it is better for everyone.”

For Labour, Rachel Reeves criticised the failure to increase statutory sick pay in the middle of a deadly pandemic, especially for many low-paid families. Reeves said too many people’s wages have stalled over the past decade, household debt is rising and too many people live pay cheque to pay cheque. Reeves complained that several million people have inexplicably been excluded for furlough support.

Shadow Business Secretary Edward Miliband said: “Exposed in this pandemic we see millions of workers in deeply insecure jobs, the key workers in our country underpaid and undervalued, public services under deep strain, and an economy not working for too many people in our country and characterised by deep inequalities of wealth, income, power and place. I welcome the fact that after 10 years in power some of the issues I have mentioned are at least being recognised by the Conservative party.”

A number of Labour MPs bemoaned the lack of an employment bill in the Speech. Seema Malhotra was among them. “Poor employment rights and low pay cause the in-work poverty that is a modern-day scandal,” she said. Grahame Morris said the absence of an explicit employment Bill leaves ‘business as usual’ which is, for many workers, “low pay, insecure employment, zero-hours contracts or limited-hours contracts, and a gig economy with few employment rights and no right of redress against rogue or unscrupulous employers.”

There was particular unhappiness among Labour MPs that there was no legislation to tackle what Rupa Huq called the ‘repugnant, immoral practice of fire and rehire’. Christian Matheson shared her concern. Zero-hours contracts and the exploitative working practice of fire and rehire must be banned through legislation, said Rachel Hopkins, adding that the TUC has found that nearly one in 10 workers have been told to reapply for their jobs on worse terms and conditions or face the sack.

“What about the long-overdue reform of zero-hours contracts and the gig economy?” asked Florence Eshalomi. Zarah Sultana said we need to be tackling inequality, raising the minimum wage and ending poverty pay once and for all. Stephen Kinnock said: “Many on the Conservative Benches celebrate flexibility and fluidity, yet flexibility without real choice means insecurity, and fluidity without proper investment in reskilling means mass unemployment.” Justin Madders pointed out that last year’s Queen’s Speech promised a right for workers to request a more predictable contract, presumably aimed at the many people on zero-hours and flexible contracts, yet it has not gone anywhere leaving ‘another year on and another opportunity missed to deal with those parasitic, unfair contracts’.

From the SNP benches David Linden complained that another legislative session without an employment Bill means yet another year without neonatal leave and pay provisions on the statute books. It means a failure to legislate for flexible working, and it means a failure to reform the inadequate statutory sick pay system, which was found utterly wanting during the height of the pandemic. Marion Fellows said the Government is missing the opportunity to protect workers’ rights and close the disability employment gap. Kirsten Oswald said pregnant women and new parents still have no protection from widespread discrimination and unfair redundancy. It is now three and a half years since the Government responded to a joint inquiry by the Department for Work and Pensions Committee and the BEIS Committee by promising a response to the Taylor review, complained Chris Stephens.

For the Lib Dems, Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine complained that we have had many vague promises and hints about employment measures in the Speech, ‘but an employment Bill would have been welcome, perhaps with something for unpaid carers and something to make flexible working the default position in British society’. But she wants people to keep on working flexibly where that is right for them and called for new protection for vulnerable workers in the gig economy, such as the right to paid breaks and leave, plus a 20 per cent higher minimum wage for zero-hours contracts.

Business and economics (general)

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said that, “Across the country, small and medium-sized enterprises face a long road to recovery. For months, we have called for a comprehensive plan for British business with debt restructuring at its heart. Instead, we have a Bill that tinkers with state aid and that will leave us investing a fraction of the support that countries such as Germany or Denmark give to their industry.”

“The scrapping of the Industrial Strategy Council, the ending of the industrial strategy policy and the Treasury land grab of industrial strategy have been received with dismay by many in the world of manufacturing—employer and trade union alike,” commented Jack Dromey – adding that manufacturing is key if the Government are to come near achieving their objective of levelling up.

Tobias Ellwood (Con) said there is a 1930s feel to where we are today, with weak global institutions, rising powers, global economic challenges, and a lack of western co-ordination.

Harriett Baldwin (Con), a former bond trader, remarked that with the amount of fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus in the UK, there is quite a strong risk that we might spark inflation. Baldwin said: “We are running quite a large risk in terms of our deficit, with the potential for interest rates to go only one way from here: upwards. That could really damage the brighter future for the next generation.” She said we must bring our deficit back to being a manageable one that gives bond markets confidence that the UK gilt market is one of the best places in the world to invest. 

Gareth Thomas bemoaned that the Speech could take the needs of financial mutuals more seriously by modernising the rules by which they are governed, helping the smaller mutuals to raise capital more easily. Why on earth has the long-promised deregulation of credit unions not happened?

Pete Wishart, SNP, said this is a programme designed to expand the power of this Conservative Government and undermine all who may challenge them. SNP business spokesperson Stephen Flynn said the UK Treasury has coined more than £350 billion of oil and gas revenues over the decade, and that should mean the UK Treasury that has a responsibility now to act and to ensure that jobs in the north-east of Scotland are protected.

Education and skills

To fulfil the prime minister's promise of a "lifetime skills guarantee" - made last year - the newly announced Skills and Post-16 Education Bill includes a new student finance system to overhaul the current student loans system, which will give every adult access to a flexible loan for higher-level education and training at university or college, useable at any point in their lives. Employers will have a statutory role in planning publicly-funded training programmes with education providers.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said this is an historic moment for ‘radical reform’ in post-16 education. Williamson said the lifelong loan entitlement will transform opportunities for everyone. The Turing scheme opens opportunities in many more countries than just 27 EU countries. He said that the Government has temporarily extended the time for universal credit claimants to undertake training to develop work-related skills and qualifications, and will review this in six months.

The lifetime skills guarantee was praised by many of the Conservative speakers. Sir David Evennett, a former teacher and lecturer, claimed it would transform the provision of skills across this country. Tom Hunt said it was a huge benefit and a huge plus. Robert Halfon, chair of the Education Select Committee, and Jonathan Gullis both called it ‘transformative’, with Halfon adding that he also wants to give businesses a skills tax credit for every worker they retrain in vital skills.

Halfon also spoke of a need to look at reform of the apprenticeship levy to ensure that more disadvantaged would-be apprentices can climb the skills ladder. Degree apprenticeships should be ‘rocket-boosted’ with the ambition of having at least half of all students completing degree apprenticeships over the next 10 years, he added.

Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said the Speech was a missed opportunity. Apprentices, and BTEC and vocational students, have been repeatedly treated as an afterthought, she argued. She complained that the lifetime skills guarantee is not guaranteed for everyone because people cannot use it if they are already qualified to level 3; they cannot use it unless they are getting a qualification that the Secretary of State ‘has decided he thinks is valuable’ and they cannot use it if they need maintenance support while they are learning. If they are already qualified to level 3 in their existing field but need to retrain for a new industry, there is nothing on offer for them. Labour suggests suggested using the underspend from the apprenticeship levy last year to create 85,000 youth apprenticeship opportunities.

Toby Perkins said the lifetime skills guarantee is merely the reintroduction on a smaller scale of what existed under a Labour Government.

Steve McCabe wants a more flexible and imaginative use of the apprenticeship levy, which is in danger of becoming a ‘jobs tax’. McCabe is sceptical about the idea that a man or woman who is made redundant in their mid-40s will be motivated by the prospect of a £10,000-plus loan. He said: “We should be using the National Insurance Contributions Bill to see whether there is a way in which people who have a long record of contributions and are facing such choices can be entitled to an advance to help with retraining. We also need more local commissioning for job programmes in areas of high and stubborn unemployment, especially to help disabled people back into work.”

On the lifetime access to education, SNP’s education spokesperson Carol Monaghan, said all it does is pave the way for increased financial liability. No longer will educational debt, which is on average £50,000 on graduation for students in England, be reserved to the young; now the Tories want people of all ages to be saddled with debt for their education, said Monaghan.

Layla Moran (Lib Dem) wants data on the kickstart scheme at a county level, rather than a regional level.

Welfare and economic support

Rupa Huq (Lab) was among those concerned about the three million people have had no Government support for over a year because they fall between the cracks in COVID-19 financial support. She added: “The artificial situation of millions of the young on furlough is another bubble soon set to burst when that is withdrawn as we lurch from cliff edge to cliff edge.”

Stephen Timms (Lab) complained that in the pension scams report of last month, the Work and Pensions Committee which he chairs recommended legislating against online investment fraud, but it appears that the Bill will address only user-generated content.

Jessica Morden (Lab) was disappointed that the Speech failed to incorporate long-awaited reform of the benefits system for terminally ill people.

John McDonnell (Lab) said COVID-19 has laid bare the millions who are in poverty and a social security system that has provided no security. The Speech drags the UK back to mundane politicking, providing no sense of hope or direction at a time when our people are in desperate need, having suffered 12 months of tragic loss of life and 11 years of austerity pay cuts and the undermining of their public services, he said.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner urged the government to introduce a bill to tackle low pay and overwork in the care sector. She said that the low-paid and insecure nature of employment in social care meant that many carers were not entitled to sick pay. “That issue is at the heart of our response to the pandemic. There is simply no substitute for raising the level of sick pay and expanding coverage so that all carers can afford to self-isolate.”

The Government are entrenching inequality and pushing people deeper into poverty by imposing a public sector pay freeze, cuts to universal credit and an efficiency review in the public services, said Steven Bonnar (SNP).

Wendy Chamberlain (Lib Dem) believes the failure to uplift legacy benefits means that an estimated 1.9 million disabled people are missing out on much-needed support. The delays in the managed transition programme to universal credit have also meant that a number of people have inadvertently transitioned, she said. Chamberlain also called on the Government to extend bereavement support to unmarried couples.

Northern Ireland

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) said the Northern Ireland Protocol impacts on consumers and businesses in a way that DUP believes is entirely unacceptable and the protocol should be replaced with measures that ‘fully respect’ Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market. Donaldson said: “The world’s fifth largest economy is the UK, and our UK provides us with the support and resilience that we need through difficult times, and with incomparable opportunities when times are good.”

Sammy Wilson, DUP’s Treasury spokesperson, said the Government must address the Northern Ireland protocol. “If we are going to have an equal chance in the levelling-up agenda, Northern Ireland must not be economically and democratically disadvantaged by the imposition of Brussels rule, which we are left with as a result of the protocol.”

Stephen Farry (Alliance) said the Northern Ireland protocol is there as the minimum required to address the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland, and to protect the Good Friday agreement, but it is a blunt instrument. The focus must be on practicalities: not scrapping the protocol without a genuine or plausible alternative, but getting as many flexibilities and mitigations as possible, he said. He went onto to say we should learn the lessons from the past year, build a new society, invest in thousands of green jobs, and transform our economy to be both sustainable and equitable.

Housing and planning

A number of Conservative MPs weighed in on the government’s controversial planning reforms. Sir Iain Duncan Smith commented that overriding residents in new designated growth zones will be a real problem. Even now, in many places, the idea of building ‘out-of-keeping’ tower blocks is a major problem. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said that as MP for the Cotswolds he is ‘extremely concerned’ about some aspects of the planning Bill, such as that all land will have to be designated as either growth for renewal or protected areas, and that could be enforced through the local planning system. Tim Loughton said ‘we do not level up by levelling and concreting over the diminishing open spaces, particularly in the south-east of England’. Sir Robert Neill said we need to modernise our planning law, but we should not do that at the expense of proper, democratic involvement from communities who will be affected by the new proposals.

On the Labour benches Andy Slaughter said the planning bill shifts power from elected local government to developers, which is a recipe for poorer-quality homes, the ruination of townscapes and fewer affordable homes.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick agreed it is a problem that by the age of 30, those born between 1981 and 2000 are half as likely to be homeowners as those born between 1946 and 1965 and this means ‘too many young people are being locked out of the benefits of capitalism’.  He said a quarter of all affordable homes in this country will be built to modern methods of construction, which helps to create the pipeline for investors to come into that sector.

Dr Liam Fox said the regeneration of some of our great cities, particularly in the northern part of England, will stop the drift of people to the south of England, which adds to the pressure on housing.

Mark Pawsey (Con) is concerned at proposals to levy council tax on approved but unbuilt houses, saying it might provide an incentive to build out before applying for further consents, but housing markets operate in peaks and troughs.

For the SNP Patricia Gibson complained that the UK Government are investing only one third of what has been invested in Scotland to decarbonise homes, which means that they are unlikely to meet their own targets to decarbonise homes by 2050. She said the positive benefits of restoring local housing allowance rates, with all the positive impacts that that can have on homelessness, means it is worth saving.

In the last 12 months, 80 per cent of house sales in Cumbria have been to the second home market, complained Tim Farron (Lib Dem). Farron went on to say: “People can talk about levelling up, but it does not look like levelling up to me when we see a school closing because there are not enough permanent homes locally to send children to that school.”

Environment

From the Conservative benches Philip Dunne said ‘levelling up needs to accommodate digging down if we are to improve water quality and meet the binding environmental targets’. Felicity Buchan said that ‘we need to build back our economy, we need to build back better and we need to build back greener’. Andrew Griffith argued that, just as global capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty and transformed the length of human life, and just as we have seen with the vaccine development, so too will it be business that solves the climate crisis. Henry Smith hopes the Environment Bill will secure the UK’s place in the world as a global leader in the new green industrial revolution.

Another Conservative, Bob Seely, said: “If we are serious about our environmental agenda, we must lift VAT on brownfield sites and slap VAT on greenfield sites. We can then use the VAT from greenfield sites to equal out the equation, equal out the economics, equal out the true environmental and social costs and double down on brownfield sites.”

Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Meg Hillier (Lab) said that, over the last decade or so, we have seen the privatisation of the UK Green Investment Bank, and even the removal of its absolute requirement to deliver green investment; we have seen the failed green deal, which cost over £100,000 per loan; and we have seen a fourth contest launch for carbon capture and storage, which would help to tackle some of our energy intensive industries. The first three fell at the first hurdle, she said.

From the Labour side Beth Winter said the Environment Bill is insufficient to tackle the climate emergency and is concerned that it will not prevent regression on environmental standards as we leave the EU, especially regarding air quality, waste management and the use of pesticides. While President Biden is demonstrating bold policies in the US, lighting the way for a green-focused recovery with investment in new industries, technology and research and development, this Government are tinkering around the edges, fretted Catherine West.

Alan Brown (SNP) asked why the UK Government is not doing more to get wave and tidal projects to a stage where they can be scaled up.

Wera Hobhouse (Lib Dem) criticised the Government for scrapping the green homes grant and cutting grants available for people to buy electric vehicles. Hobhouse said the Environment Bill needs to include a strong Office for Environmental Protection that has the powers and the resources needed to hold the Government to account on their climate promises, and legally binding interim targets so that the Government cannot continue to delay.

Caroline Lucas (Green) said the refusal to rule out issuing new North Sea oil and gas licences is the very opposite of climate leadership. Lucas called for a ‘better business Bill’ that would amend the Companies Act 2006 to require firms to operate in a way that benefits all stakeholders, including workers, communities and the environment, as well as shareholders. She called for a ‘wellbeing economy Bill’ that would require the Government to adopt new economic goals that ‘put people and planet first’, and that would include the Treasury.

Social care

MP from across the House were unhappy at the absence of social care reform from the Queen’s Speech.

Sir David Amess (Con) urged the Government act on their manifesto and fix the social care crisis by ‘developing and implementing a clear plan to give every older person the dignity that we very much think they deserve’. Dr Andrew Murrison (Con) wants a Dilnot-style cap on the cost of care. Jeremy Wright said there is a collective failure of policy on social care across the political spectrum, and resolving it must be a shared responsibility, because the implementation of any serious social care reform will outlast any single Government.

Speaking on the final day of the debate, Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised the government would “bring forward proposals this year to give everyone who needs care the dignity and security they deserve”. His predecessor Jeremy Hunt said: “if the NHS really is a priority for this Government, the social care system has to be as well, and I urge him Godspeed and all strength in the battles ahead to secure the reforms for social care that are so urgently needed.”

Another Conservative, Richard Graham, encouraged the government to explore the possibility of hypothecation. “In March 2017, I wrote a paper for the then Chancellor the Exchequer, laying out the case that I and the then hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford made for using hypothecation as a means of linking increases in taxation directly to improved health and social care services. At that time, the Chancellor had already said to us that he would only look at it in more detail if we could find a reputable think-tank to advocate for it, as well as us. We therefore encouraged the King’s Fund to write a report, which it did, recommending hypothecation. The former permanent secretary of the Treasury, now Lord Macpherson in the other place, also agreed that this would be a huge step forward. The reason is this: ultimately, the national insurance fund is not used to insure anything or anyone in particular, but were it to become a health and care fund, with the self-employed and the employed contributing equally, and those who have passed retirement age also contributing, then there would be an opportunity for our constituents to realise that additional taxation into the fund would help them and their families.”

On the Labour benches, Paul Blomfield said the pandemic had shone a spotlight on the crisis in social care. He called for “an honest national debate about the costs of reforming the care system and how we pay the price, not branding proposals as a “death tax” or a “dementia tax”, or talking about unaffordability.” Kate Green said local councils have seen cuts of around 40 per cent in their funding over the last 10 years, and that has put huge pressure on social care professionals, especially children’s social care professionals. Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth urged the Prime Minister to “show some leadership and get on and fix social care.” There should be a cap on costs, as this House legislated for, he said.

Joanna Cherry (SNP) contrasted the lack of concrete plans for social care in England with the SNP election manifesto pledge to take forward the recommendations of the independent Feeley review and to establish a national care service for Scotland in the current parliamentary term. SNP health spokesperson Dr Philippa Whitford claimed social care in England has been allowed to ‘wither on the vine’ since 2017, with the gap between what is funded and what is needed growing to between £8 billion and £10 billion.

Lib Dem health spokesperson Munira Wilson said that ministers need urgently to commit to cross-party talks. “They have a clear choice: to leave a lasting legacy or be responsible for an abject moral and political failure on one of the biggest public policy challenges that this country faces.”

Liz Saville Roberts called on the PM to give the Welsh Assembly the powers and the needs-based means so that it can afford proper social care.

Day one debate in full is here.

Day two debate in full is  here:

Day three debate in full is here.

Day four debate in full is here.

Day five debate in full is here.

Day six debate in full is here.

CIOT External Relations Team.