The government has made the full extent of its ambitions clear in the King’s Speech, including major reforms to devolution and house building.
Forty new pieces of legislation – nearly twice as many as in the last parliament – are being prepared in the opening days of Starmer’s government. Headline manifesto pledges, such as the scrapping of the VAT exemption for private schools, are included. So too is a proposed bill to remove voting rights entirely for hereditary peers in the House of Lords.
In a speech delivered by the King to a packed upper chamber, the government also announced the creation of at least seven new arms-length bodies to coordinate policy: the Industrial Strategy Council, the Border Security Command, Skills England, the Armed Forces Commissioner, Great British Railways, Great British Energy and “an independent football regulator”.
In a further homage to the technocratic tradition of New Labour, the Budget Responsibility Bill would introduce a “fiscal lock” that greatly increases OBR oversight over government tax and spending, including preventing any “large-scale” fiscal changes unless an OBR assessment takes place.
There is an English Devolution Bill, which would make it easier for communities in England to gain new levers to stimulate growth including a “right to buy” power over “empty shops, pubs and community spaces”.
The government also plans to put railway contracts into public hands “as they come to an end or if operators fail to meet their commitments” – a pledge short of full-scale nationalisation.
The rhetorical effect of so many bills is impressive, but the number may also be a strategic choice. “It reflects that we have a lot of lawyers in this government who have particular views on how to avoid being ambushed by annoying amendments”, suggests the Institute for Government’s Jill Rutter.
One bill likely to face resistance even from within Labour, for example, is the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which would enshrine the government’s plan to remove the right of local councils to object to new housing developments.
Keeping bills narrowly focused, supporters argue, may minimise the scale of resistance in parliament and get new laws on the statute book more quickly than bills tackling numerous issues at once.
A government cannot simply legislate the economy into life, however. It must also identify the necessary battles and devise a political strategy to win them.
On the health service, the government pledges to “seek to reduce waiting times” but a bill to that effect was notably absent today. And only time will tell whether plans for a National Wealth Fund to coordinate industrial strategy will provide the right incentives to the private sector in practice.
Starmer has every reason to be ambitious. It is now up to Rishi Sunak as interim leader of the opposition to scrutinise the vision contained in the King’s Speech in the weeks ahead.
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