10th May 2022, the Queen was set to attend parliament. Unfortuantly due to ill health, Prince Charles officially delivered the speech and opened Parliament.
The purpose of the Queen’s speech, is to mark the start of the parliamentary session and outline the Government’s proposed policies and legislation for the upcoming year.
Among the 39 bills discussed, the housing policy was featured heavily within it.
There were talks about ‘levelling up’ plans, which will make it a legal duty for the Government to report its progress on tackling inequality between different parts of the UK, saying; ‘A Bill will be brought forward to drive local growth, empowering local leaders to regenerate their areas, and ensuring everyone can share in the United Kingdom’s success. The planning system will be reformed to give residents more involvement in local development [Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill].’
This will give Councils more planning powers which could see English landlords being compelled to put their High Street shops up for rent if they’ve been empty for months.
There was also talks about supporting the Bank of England and retuning the inflation rate to its target, as well as bringing forward an Energy Bill to deliver the transition to cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy which will build on the success of the COP26 Summit in Glasgow last year (Energy Security Bill).
On top of that, it was said the Government will introduce legislation to improve the regulation of social housing to strengthen the rights of tenants and ensure better quality, safer homes [Social Housing Regulation Bill] which will introduce the Renters Bill which aims to abolish the ‘no fault’ evictions from Section 21 which was covered in our previous post here.
‘The bill will abolish what the government has called ‘no fault’ evictions or section 21 evictions and seek to give renters better rights if they told to leave despite complying with the terms of their tenancy.’
The opening sentence of the speech noted that the Government’s priority is to grow and strengthen the economy and the cost of living for families, however, there is concern from people saying that there is very little in the proposals that will address these concerns.
Speaking of the Queen Speech in Parliament, Miatta Fahnbulleh, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, had said during Question time with the attorney general, Suella Braverman, days after, “even when the government’s measures are taken into consideration, families on average are still £1,100 worse off.”
She claimed: ″Your numbers are literally made up!” as Braverman said “1,600 better off this year compared to last year because of these cumulative changes”.
Due to the ‘Partygate’ scandal and the war in Ukraine, several Bills have had to be carried over from the previous session delaying the legislative agenda.
Comments