Communities and Local Government/Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

I very much welcome the inclusion in the Queen’s Speech of a climate change Bill. Like many hon. Members, I have received many representations from constituents for the inclusion of that Bill. One thing I would say is that I have not yet been convinced by the argument that we should have annual targets. I listened with great interest to the comments made in a thoughtful speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe (Mr. Morley), who clearly has a great deal of experience in this field. His idea that we could move towards some accommodation, and perhaps some agreement across the House, is very constructive. Many Members of the House know more about the details of this matter than I do, so I shall concentrate on one element of it, which is related to housing. There is an issue of energy conservation, which can be addressed quickly by the Government. I see on the Front Bench my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning. I hope that we are now making progress on new building regulations for housing in particular, but for other buildings as well, to try to ensure that the new homes that we build are energy efficient to the greatest extent possible. I welcome the fact that, with home information packs coming in next year, there will be an energy audit for every home that is sold and the introduction of a star rating of some kind, so that everyone can clearly see the energy conservation related to the home that they are buying, as well as suggestions on how with additional work the house might be improved. There are other very simple things that we could do. We have a successful initiative to make improvements to our social housing through the decent homes programme, although one element that the Communities and Local Government Committee highlighted as in need of further improvement was energy conservation. Current standards do not meet building regulations standards, and we clearly need an energy homes-plus initiative to deal with a number of measures, particularly the energy conservation of social rented housing. We should perhaps gain a bit of experience and consider what happened with the clean air programme, which as a child in Sheffield I remember. We identified a major problem of industrial and domestic pollution from burning coal, but within a few years, a Government initiative at national level, which was carried through with local council support, led to the replacement almost overnight in most homes of coal fires with gas fires. That was done with a measure not only of prescription, but of grant and encouragement. Perhaps we could consider such a programme to improve energy conservation, particularly in the homes of people on limited incomes, who might not be able to afford the measures. I remember when I was leader of Sheffield council in the late ’80s and early ’90s going to Denmark and Sweden to look at combined heat and power schemes and being impressed even then by the information on conservation that was available to people from the state and from local government. They could trust that advice because it was independent. For example, people could go into a local shop to see on display the products that could be put into their homes to improve energy efficiency. They could also get independent advice on what products might or might not be worth trying. Confusingly, many householders who instinctively feel that they ought to be doing something about energy conservation and improving the energy efficiency of their home are not sure what to do or where to go for independent advice on which initiatives they should be taking and which are perhaps not worth the money involved. Perhaps the Government will consider how that might be improved. I welcome other elements of the Queen’s Speech such as the local government Bill. I do not want to go into the detailed proposals that I expect will be made, because I have already welcomed the White Paper, which sets out most of those initiatives. Rather than concentrate on the details, I shall just say that I believe that the Bill will probably mark a sea change in the relationships between central and local government. Ministers and the Government are talking in a different language about local government and are, I hope, building up a relationship of trust with local government, which has been absent from Governments almost from time immemorial. The other day, I went to a Local Government Association briefing and heard representatives from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties all say that they welcome the Bill and want to work with central Government on the proposals. That is a very positive development. Nevertheless, if we are to build on that we must address some other issues. We await the Lyons report. Frankly, unless we get a significant change and bold proposals on financial devolution in local government, we will not make much progress with the whole devolution agenda. I want some radical measures to emerge from Lyons, but in particular we must address the nonsense that local government collects directly in council tax only 25 per cent. of the money that it spends overall. If we are to give local government some more real powers, we must loosen the string that it is so attached to—central Government, the financial string. That has to mean giving control of the business rate back to local authorities. Unless we make that change, we will not be able to alter fundamentally the relationship whereby local government is so dependent on central Government. We must also address the demands for capital infrastructure spending in our urban areas, particularly our major cities. Earlier this afternoon, I chaired a meeting of the all-party urban development group. We had an inquiry on infrastructure funding in our urban areas and the problems in getting funding up to levels similar to those in cities on the continent. What came forward over and over again was the fact that so many decisions in this country have to be referred to the centre. So many decisions are fragmented across Departments, as are so many of the funding streams, and there are no genuine abilities for local authorities to borrow against future revenue funding streams to make capital improvements, which will eventually create added value in the community and probably largely pay for themselves. That is a challenge, and I hope that when Lyons reports he will address it and the Government will pick up proposals that he makes. Tied into that is the need to see our local authorities in a slightly wider context. My hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, South (Sir Peter Soulsby) made that point earlier. So many of our local authorities relate to an administrative area, but not to the economic footprint of the communities in which they sit. I look forward to the Government making proposals on moving towards city regions and giving them more powers, particularly over transport, skills and wider planning issues. That was not in the White Paper, but negotiations are going on between the Departments for Transport and for Communities and Local Government in particular, and, again, it could be another bold and radical initiative for the Government to take within the spirit and the policy of devolution.