My Lords, it has been an excellent debate. We have heard about all the various kinds of arts and the effect of housing. We heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, about sport and leisure. We heard about the importance of green spaces in helping us with our physical and mental health. The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, rightly mentioned that loneliness kills. If one can address that, it affects not just one’s sense of worth and well-being, as has been said, but one’s sense of community.
Parliament is a community. It sometimes does not feel like it, because we have various groups, political parties, Members, staff and so on, but we also have a lot of all-party groups and this is significant. We have sports, arts and heritage, drama and music groups. I have been a member of the Parliament choir for 22 years and have found great solace in it—I really missed it during the pandemic.
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My noble friend Lady Tyler said that we must not forget about social care. I was very interested to hear about her artist mother and how she had shared that within her social care setting. My mother was a singer, as am I. When she was in her 70s, we were rather
amused because she would talk about going and “singing for the old people” in the local care home. She did that to great effect. She got a lot out of it and so did they. I say to the Minister that I have been known to sing with the jazz band of the noble Lord, Lord Colwyn, so if he is looking for a vocalist for his blues band, I might just audition.
If Parliament as a community can benefit from all these things, then every community can. It is absolutely right that the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, should raise these issues. I would be interested to hear how the Minister feels that this principle can be incorporated in the new world of integrated care services.