My Lords, this group of amendments seeks to persuade the Government to be more specific about the missions and metrics of levelling up. I wish to speak initially to Amendment 8 in my name.
I remain very disappointed that the Government have failed to include their White Paper missions in the Bill. It makes me ask whether there is some shame on the Government’s part in stating clearly in legislation that our country has the worst levels of regional inequality of any part of the European Union, and whether the Government are committed to addressing those inequalities with determination and sustained funding.
Amendment 8 challenges the Government to include in the Bill the missions so clearly set out in the White Paper. All my amendment does is repeat those missions. They are not perfect, and they are necessarily the ones Liberal Democrats would include. We would perhaps include something more specific on health inequalities and life expectancy, which is one of the missions, and we would include child poverty more specifically than do the ones on deprivation in the White Paper. However, those are the missions the Government have chosen and they will do a good job—if the Government keep to them, and to the metrics in the addendum to the levelling-up White Paper.
I accept the argument that the Minister gave last time, that missions change over time. Of course they do, and my amendment makes it clear that they will and that the Government should change them. However, that an entire Bill should fail to list what the missions are seems to me a failure of government ambition and determination. At the moment, the Government will set out their missions after the Bill has been enacted. Perhaps the Minister will be able tell us whether they will include all the elements in the White Paper.
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Of course, they could fail to do so, which is my concern. The Government might pick and choose to suit a different political agenda, and then the promise of levelling up will be dead. As we have heard from the noble Baronesses, Lady Lister and Lady Finlay, the lifelong and generational harm to individuals, families, their communities and this country will not be tackled if the Government determine not to follow the strategy in the agenda set out in the White Paper. Hope and trust will fade that those in power have any serious intention to make people’s lives better. We on these Benches will scrutinise that first government statement of levelling-up missions and metrics and hold the Government to account if they fail to set out the White Paper missions in full.
Throughout the debate this afternoon, the Minister has responded to our challenges on rural proofing and the levelling-up funds, as addressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, with a list, given to her by her department, of various relatively small—in the big scheme of things—packets of funding to address some of the inequalities. That is fair enough, and the example that comes to mind is £150 million for rural community assets, which could include public houses. However, this is not the same as having a sustained, long-term, deep-seated strategy, which is what the White Paper says should be happening. It is scattering bits of confetti, in the shape of funding, for issues to be addressed here, there and everywhere.
Given that the Government will set their face against putting the missions in the Bill, we must turn to having specifics in the Bill. We have heard two extraordinarily powerful arguments, one in favour of addressing child
poverty, the scourge of this country. A third of children live in poverty. Perhaps many noble Lords live in areas where they see children in poverty. I do. I see them coming to school without a coat on when it is cold, without shoes that fit properly. I talk to teachers who tell me that the children are hungry. We are one of the richest countries in the world—this cannot be right. The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, and my noble friend made powerful arguments. We will support them wholeheartedly to get this in the Bill, because if the Government address nothing else, they are going to address child poverty.
We will also give our wholehearted support if the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, wishes to test the opinion of the House on putting health disparities in the Bill. She rightly argued, as the Marmot report told us, that if you deal with health inequalities, you will deal with the social determinants of health: decent housing, skills and well-paid employment.
If nothing else, if those two issues are laid out in the Bill, we in this House will have achieved at least something to improve the Bill—to ensure that the Government focus on two big issues that are fundamental to levelling up our society. I look forward to the Minister’s response. If those amendments are pushed to a vote, we will certainly support them.