The State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday July 17th represented the Labour government’s first chance to set out its legislative agenda and show its priorities over the coming parliamentary session. It was considered a relatively jam-packed speech with around 40 bills outlining the government’s programme for the coming parliamentary calendar with bills ranging from football governance to safety at public venues. With the advent of not just a new parliament but a new government, the first new Labour government since 1997, we at Society Matters wanted to unpack what these bills mean a little more, focusing on the more social welfare-based announcements.
Firstly, the Government announced a Renters Rights Bill. This builds on a previous bill first proposed by the previous Conservative government that never made it to the statute books. The renters rights bill will ban Section 21 (so called ‘no fault’) eviction notices and extend Awaab’s Law to private renters as opposed to private renters as opposed to just the social-rented sector.
We at Society Matters welcome this move, having discussed Awaab’s Law in the February edition of our newsletter. For those not familiar, Awaab’s Law proposed legally binding timeframes for social landlords to carry out repairs to properties, introduced following the death of a 2 year-old boy Awwab Ishak from exposure to mould. Initially, these timeframes would have only applied to the social-rented sector but the government will now move to apply these to the private-rented sector too, addressing one of our main criticisms of Awaab’s Law.
One of the majorly-trailed pieces of legislation prior to the election and forming part of Labour’s ‘New Deal for Workers’ was the Employment Rights Bill. This will ban what the government call ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts and ensure workers have a right to a contact that fairly reflects their regular work hours as well as reasonable notice for any cancellations/changes to shift patterns. It will also extend parental leave, protection and unfair dismissal and sick pay to all employees from day one, as well as removing the lower earnings limit for statutory sick pay (currently workers need to earn at least £123pw on average in order to qualify).
The Kings Speech also highlighted the government’s commitment to racial and disability equality, through the introduction of the Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill enshrining in law the right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. As well as making it easier for ethnic minorities and people with disabilities to bring forward tribunal claims in relation to underpayment, it will also introduce a legal requirement for reporting on the ethnic minority and disability pay gap in hopes it will encourage employers to take action on the associated pay gaps. Indeed, the Office for National Statistics concluded there was a 13.8% pay gay between disabled and non-disabled employees. Between 2012 and 2022, Black African, Caribbean and Black British workers all earned less than White workers.
What was noticeably absent from the King’s Speech were measures related to dealing with child poverty. During the general election campaign, the Labour Party stated that whilst abolishing the two-child limit of certain benefits (believed to be a key contributor to rising child poverty in the UK) was an ambition, it couldn’t justify making what it called ‘unfunded spending commitments.’ No direct measures have since been forthcoming, but it is worth noting however that since the King’s Speech, the Prime Minister has since announced the creation of a ‘Child Poverty Taskforce’ that aims to develop a government-wide child poverty strategy to guide government and policy in reducing the numbers of children growing up in poverty. We examine this more closely in our latest newsletter webinar.
The King’s Speech represents a landmark moment in the political direction of this country. The first Labour government to come out of opposition since 1997 elected on a promise of ‘change’ with a majority almost matching what was considered Tony Blair’s landslide victory in the same year. We have talked here about some of the most relevant to the dealings and business of Society Matters, whether that’s in relation to housing, employment or wider equality, but this is far from an exhaustive list. The King’s Speech should never be taken as a complete list of everything that will be brought forward in the parliamentary session but it provides key indicators of where the new government’s priorities lie. Time will tell whether the government can bring about the real change needed to improve the lives of the people we and our parent charity Citizens Advice Gateshead deal with every day.
For those interested, more information on the bills, background and details found within the King’s Speech can be found here.