My Lords, as I have set out in earlier debates, it has always been the Government’s intention that the first statement of levelling-up missions would contain the missions from the levelling-up paper. I want to repeat what I said yesterday about why we are not putting the missions on the face of the Bill. The missions will be published in a policy document laid before, and debated in, Parliament. The first example of this document will be based on the levelling-up White Paper and future iterations will include the headline and supporting metrics used to define the missions and measure progress towards them.
If we put them in the Bill, it would make this part of what we want to do—and what we think it is right to do—very inflexible. This way, Parliament and the public will have the opportunity to scrutinise progress towards the missions, including annually when the report is published. This is comparable to other key government objectives documents such as the Charter for Budget Responsibility, which is laid before Parliament for scrutiny. That is why we are doing it this way, and I thank my noble friend Lord Lansley for supporting that way forward for the second day running.
I now move to the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, which inserts the Government’s levelling-up missions into the Bill. As I
have said, that is not what we are going to do, because we do not feel that there would be flexibility if anything changes—for example, economics, data, pressures and issues in particular areas of the country. We would not have the flexibility to change the missions and scrutinise them, as I have said.
The 12 levelling-up missions are the product of extensive analysis and engagement. They cover the areas that require improvement to achieve an increase in the six capitals in the White Paper—human, physical, intangible, institutional, social and financial—and are needed to reduce the geographic disparities that we discussed today and that are identified in the White Paper. They are designed to be ambitious but achievable. They are necessarily spatial in their nature and definition, and they are neither national nor aggregate.
The missions are supported by a range of clear metrics, used to measure them at an appropriate level of geography. These metrics take account of a wider range of inputs, outputs and outcomes needed to drive progress in the overall mission. The metrics cover a wide range of policy issues but are all clearly linked to the drivers of spatial disparities.
I reiterate that the Bill is designed to establish the framework for missions, not the content of the missions themselves. The framework provides ample opportunity to scrutinise the substance of the missions against a range of government policies.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, brought up the allocation of levelling-up funds being made according to government priorities, rather than local need. Places are invited to submit bids—under the themes of the regeneration of town centres, local transport and culture —that they feel best meet the levelling-up needs of their area. Part of our strategic fit assessment test is on how far a place’s bid locks into its wider levelling-up plans and how well it is supported by relevant local stakeholders and community groups.
My noble friend Lord Holmes of Richmond is not here and will therefore not move Amendment 13, but a number of noble Lords brought it up and I felt I ought to respond to it quickly. The levelling-up White Paper highlights the importance of the educational attainment of primary schoolchildren and sets out a clear mission to significantly increase the number of primary school- children achieving the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics. In England, this will mean that 90% of children will achieve the expected standard, and the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in the worst-performing areas will have increased by over a third. As we know, reaching the expected standards in these subjects is absolutely crucial for children to succeed at secondary school, which paves the way for success in later life. Ensuring that as many children as possible have these skills, regardless of their location or the current quality of their school, is an ambitious target, particularly as we work to recover lost learning from the pandemic.
We are already starting on that. The Education Endowment Foundation, which gives guidance and support to schools, has a £130 million grant. Importantly, we are supporting 55 education investment areas, including starting interventions in schools with successive “requires
improvement” Ofsted ratings. We are also delivering a levelling-up premium—a tax-free additional payment to eligible teachers in priority subjects—which is very much weighted to those education investment areas. We have started already, with over 2 million tutoring courses, particularly for young people who were affected by the lack of education during the pandemic.
From Second Reading, I know that many noble Lords are interested in health inequalities in this country—we heard that again today. I am sorry that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London is not here, but her Amendment 15 was nobly spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Best. It puts forward that the missions must include reducing health disparities. I note Amendment 59 from the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, and Amendment 30, tabled my noble friend Lord Holmes of Richmond, who is not here, although it was mentioned by noble Lords. All of these would mean that geographical disparities include health outcomes.
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As part of the levelling-up White Paper, we have already established a dedicated health mission, with the aim of improving the healthy life expectancy across the United Kingdom, improving health, well-being and productivity, and reducing the pressures on public services. The mission and supporting metrics are set out in the levelling-up White Paper and the technical annexe, and will be formally set out to Parliament in the statement of levelling-up missions. We believe that health is already sufficiently captured in the clause setting out interpretations of Part 1, where the term “geographical disparities” is interpreted as
“geographical disparities in economic, social or other opportunities or outcomes”—
and that will include health disparities.
I turn to the importance of community-centred ways of working, which the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds brought up. Recognising this, the NHS has committed in its long-term plan to improving access to community care and things such as social prescribing. The number of social prescribing referrals is a key metric used to measure progress on implementation of this commitment. Indeed, as of October 2022, there were already 2,793 link workers in place, who have already taken over 1.3 million referrals and continue to do that, thereby improving lives in communities across the country.
My noble friend Lord Lansley brought up the issue of metrics. The missions are supported by a range of metrics to measure them, taking into account a wider range of inputs, outputs and outcomes needed to drive progress. Metrics cover a whole wide range of policy issues. We worked across government to identify these missions and metrics, most appropriately for tracking progress. They are deliberately stretching and designed to force innovative thinking, as I know my noble friend would expect.
The reason we focus on healthy life expectancy incentives and activities across life is that they will incentivise activities across the life course and drive the prevention of the breadth of causes of ill health. If you talk to anybody in the health service, you will learn that prevention will be one of the important issues for them in the future. This not only impacts on
mortality but supports a more rounded target which aligns with the levelling-up agenda. It seeks to ensure that people live longer, in good health, and are able to work, and therefore to contribute to local economies and national productivity, and place less demand on public services.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, the noble Lord, Lord Best, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds brought up health disparities very strongly. We believe, as a Government, that this is of course a very important issue to the country as a whole. In January this year, we announced that we will be publishing a major conditions strategy to achieve integrated whole-person care. It will alleviate pressures on the health system, increase the healthy life expectancy and tackle conditions that contribute to morbidity and mortality.
A number of noble Lords talked about the tobacco control plan. The new tobacco control plan was published in 2022, with a focus on reducing smoking rates, particularly in the most disadvantaged areas and groups. The Autumn Statement makes available £8 billion for the NHS and adult social care services for 2024-25, which is on top of a record settlement for the Department of Health and Social Care announced at the spending review. So we are taking health disparities seriously, and the way we are doing so is through these missions.
The noble Lord, Lord Lansley, brought up private sector involvement. I think—I know—that the missions will also serve as a clear anchor for the expectations and plans of the private sector. It is important to look at the missions in a wider context. He also talked about business investment. Obviously, we want to see more successful businesses in the United Kingdom. We have already introduced a £1.4 billion global investment fund. I hope noble Lords can see that we are doing a large amount to ensure that we are dealing with health disparities and the health of the nation in the Bill.
I turn next to housing. Amendment 20, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, would require mission outcomes to
“contribute to achieving a safe and affordable home for every family”
in this country. Amendment 21 from the noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley, also addresses the role of housing in the missions. We all know that housing has a critical role in levelling up across the whole of the United Kingdom. It unlocks productivity and growth, provides people with a tangible stake in their community, and underpins the physical and mental well-being of our communities. This is why we are setting out a housing mission in the levelling-up White Paper, which states:
“By 2030, renters will have a secure path to ownership with the number of first-time buyers increasing in all areas; and the government’s ambition is for the number of non-decent rented homes to have fallen by 50%, with the biggest improvements in the lowest performing areas.”
The Bill recognises the need to build more houses in England. The department is currently consulting on revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework published in December and due to close in March, which includes seeking views on how best to embed levelling up in the planning system. The department will respond to this consultation by spring 2023, publishing
the framework revisions as part of this, so that the policy changes can take effect as soon as possible. We agree that we need to maximise the supply of new, affordable housing and make sure that more people in housing need can have access to good-quality homes. Our £11.5 billion affordable homes programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy across the country. Already, £10 billion has been invested in housing supply since the start of this Parliament, and it will unlock 1 million new homes. As I said, we have also made a £11.5 billion investment in affordable housing. In 2022—this is particularly for the noble Baroness, Lady Fox—we delivered, in this country, 232,000 additional homes. More affordable homes have been built in the last 12 years than in the last 13 years of the previous Labour Government. We still have a target to deliver 300,000 new homes every year by the mid-2020s.
Given the extent of the Government’s actions on what are really important priorities, I hope that this provides the noble Baroness with sufficient assurance to withdraw her amendment.