Gordon Brown-worth the wait?
Filed Under Country Curtain | Posted on January 12, 2008
Gordon Brown has finally been able to present his first legislative programme. So was
it worth the wait?
It seems like it was a century ago that Gordon Brown first became known by his perennial epithet, %26lsquo;Prime Minister in Waiting, largely because it was. Finally this month though, having got his feet firmly under the table at Number 10, the time at last came for him to push through his first full programme of legislation, presented to the nation in Novembers Queens Speech.
There were few surprises in the monarchs revelations, by and large, especially since much of the legislation had already been announced, or at the very least hinted at by Brown and his team but thats partly what weve come to expect from the serious, sometimes even dour Scot. Indeed, after 10 years of Tony Blairs interminable media flourishes and talent for producing spin where theres frankly no need for it, a bit of good old Protestant restraint could well be exactly what the nation needed. It was all rather like one of Browns erstwhile budgets, setting out the Governments aims for the next year in a cautious, reasoned manner and not getting carried away with the gloss and razzamatazz of his predecessor.
Among the few surprises that were to be found lurking, the extension of flexible working rights for the parents of children over the age of six will be one that is welcomed by social campaigners. Good parenting leads to well-adjusted families, and well adjusted families lead to sustainable cohesive communities, or so the rhetoric goes, and the new legislation will help on this front, fitting in nicely with the Governments Respect agenda, and the all round fluffy-factor of the New Labour project. Libertarian critics may argue that its something of an anomaly that the Brown governments staunch continuing support of identity cards, and desire to extend pre-charge custody periods, doesnt stick to the same agenda.
That may be a different argument, but support for the extension is far from universal. Business leaders have complained that the new regulations are simply too flexible, and pointed out that 18 months ago the DTI looked into, and rejected, an extension to current provisions. What has changed since? is the obvious question. Conversely, union leaders feel the new provisions do not go far enough, noting that the right is to %26lsquo;request flexible working, not receive it: This is a welcome continuation of the progressive direction taken by the Government on flexible working, says Diana Holland, national officer at the Unite union. It is an important recognition that flexible working opportunities can make the difference to successfully combining work and family life, and therefore should be open to all workers.
The right to ask is a long way from the right to get, and we still have many experiences of workers whose families want them to work flexibly but their employer wont allow them to. The proposal to extend the minimum age for leaving full time education seems to present a significant opportunity to make real inroads into tackling social exclusion, provided it is applied correctly. Its an oft-repeated complaint within the construction sector that even to train for a trade qualification, too much emphasis is placed on academic ability. It remains as vital as ever that government recognises that not every child in Britain has academic ability, but that does not mean they lack ability. It would be a disaster, on a personal level for those concerned as well as on a national level when it comes to addressing the skills gap, if the recent obsession with sending every 18-year old to university regardless of ability meant that those of a more practical disposition were neglected and left to become the dispossessed underclass of tomorrow.
As John Dunford, head of the Association for School and College Leaders, notes: We need to be clear that this is not strictly about raising the %26lsquo;school leaving age, but about keeping young people in some kind of education or training until they are 18, most of them full-time, including apprenticeships and workbased training.
In terms of announcements that affect the social housing sector more directly, most had already been made, and reactions were predictably mixed. The Housing and Regeneration Bill will see the merger of the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships, and as such will bear the responsibility for achieving Browns three million new affordable homes target, as well as implementing the recommendations of the Cave Review into Social Housing Regulation. The industry has broadly welcomed the changes, though as is so often the case emphasised that the proof is in the actions of the group, not its creation per s%26eacute;. Stephen Teagle, Galliford Trys affordable housing director, commented: It is essential that the new agency combines the very best elements from English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation and brings together improved supply of much needed new homes with high quality, mixed use regeneration schemes.
Liz Peace, director of the British Property Federation also gave her support, albeit qualified once again. We welcome the clear intent to prioritise housing and infrastructure provision, which must be right for future generations, she said.
But the government must remember that for many families, finding a home is not a future problem. It is a present one in the here and now. In the interests of providing affordable homes for many more households ministers must consider the merits of a professional private rented sector and we would like to see this given greater encouragement.
The Planning Reform Bill looks likely to cause most controversy. Ostensibly designed to ease the planning process in order to oil the wheels of, among other things, affordable housebuilding, critics have accused it of being little more than a green light for the state and corporations to ride roughshod over local concerns. The campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has been typically vocal on the subject. Ben Stafford, head of campaigns, commented: The Planning Reform Bill looks like being a developers charter a dismantling rather than an evolution of the planning system introduced by the 1945 Labour Government. Ministers must listen to the concerns of the public who responded to their planning reform consultation in the summer. They should scrap plans that will reduce the publics say on major development and be damaging to the environment.
Be that as it may, those at the sharp end of fighting the current housing crisis may beg to differ. As Mark Nesbitt of Manchesters Tung Sing Housing Association comments elsewhere in this issue: Theres an obsession with keeping the %26lsquo;urbanised people hemmed into city centres, away from the middle class and gentry with acres of green open space around them. We have to break through the rhetoric and ideology of the 1947 Town and Planning Act regarding building on green belt land.
Clearly, something has to give somewhere down the line, and when town and country lock horns over politics its rarely pretty, as evidenced by recent fox hunting legislation, or indeed, on a more extreme level, the extermination of Cambodias urban intelligentsia by Pol Pots Khmer Rouge.
By way of a last word Adam Sampson, chief executive of Shelter, seems to hit the nail on the head when he notes that all the legislation in the world is meaningless without action on the ground: Although the Government can legislate for change, its now up to other bodies like local authorities, developers, planners and housing associations to start delivering on the ground.
The number of homes built last year was just over 165,000 while there are 1.6 million people on council house waiting lists and thousands of young people and families desperate to get a foot on the housing ladder.
As a society we must all take responsibility for ensuring there are enough affordable homes for everyone, including both social rented and homes to buy.
For all the ASBOs in the world, society remains a very tough thing to legislate.
Tags: amp, becom, cog, combine, desire, future generations, hunting, orations, target, tony blairRelated posts
Leave a Reply