Debate on the Address

My Lords, we have heard a great deal about agriculture and the land but perhaps I may move us from the subject of the land to the people of the land. There is a need to safeguard those communities and to promote a community spirit in the larger towns and cities of the United Kingdom so that we become a country of neighbourhoods, where people know and respect each other. We should become a country of neighbourliness and interdependence instead of, as is often the case nowadays, faceless, postcode areas with no link between the people in the neighbourhood. We all welcome the work that has already been done to promote the idea of communities—neighbourhood councils, community facilities and localised policing—in an attempt to set up an integrated and involved local society. I should like to see a structure emerge in which the leaders or those with responsibility in the community—teachers, social workers, policemen, ministers, priests and members of other faiths—belong to the community and walk along the streets and greet people. If we can encourage that, we will take a great step forwards towards restoring neighbourliness and the neighbourhood project that is so important. People still greet each other in local shops and markets and on the streets. They know each other, and that could overcome many of the problems in our communities today. Also, we should not let the accountants have the last word. We shall pay much more dearly in the long term because communities break down and there is division and hostility. Not only would the promotion of communities be a great step forward in the cities but it would also protect our endangered smaller communities, halting the decline of villages and smaller towns. The local shop and the post office would be measured not just by their profitability but by their community value. There has to be a reasonable approach to the question of village schools. A week or so ago, at long last we unveiled the statue of David Lloyd George in Parliament Square, but, on the same day, Gwynedd education authority was talking of closing the very school in which he was educated. We need to realise that these schools have a great part to play in our local communities. Once the school, the church, the pub, the chapel, the post office and the shop have gone, a village loses its identity and becomes merely part of a travel-to-work area. The gracious Speech proposed the building of 3 million houses over the next 10 years. Will these form new towns or will they help our existing communities? Often, 20 new houses in a village housing 20 families with, it is hoped, local links could transform the life of that village. The shop would become sustainable, the post office could again pay its way and the school would have more children. I appeal to the Minister to try to organise these 3 million new houses in a way that will promote and protect our present communities. It would be strange indeed if we allowed villages and neighbourhoods to disappear while stressing the vision of restoring the community spirit to our cities. This may be controversial in many ways but perhaps we could also avoid anything that divides, or was perceived to divide, communities. I had hoped that in the gracious Speech the Government would propose looking again at the subject of identity cards. However, my dreams were shattered: the proposal for identity cards stays in place. We should look back at what has happened when people have been required to present an identity card in order to go to places or do things. I think of the pass laws in South Africa. Will it be that sort of card and will it divide people? Who will be asked to produce the card? Often, it will be the most vulnerable in our society, and this sort of proposal could well harm society instead of healing it. Noble Lords will have read that my noble friend Lady Williams has said that she will be ready to go to prison in opposing such a move. I think that if compulsory identity cards are introduced, with a requirement that they be produced on demand, many others will be ready to join her there. We must build good will and not injury in our communities. Therefore, I hope that Her Majesty’s Government will share my vision to build communities and a country of neighbourhoods in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales. My hope is that in one or two generations people will grow into a better relationship with each other.