Queen's Speech 2014
4th June 2014
Summary
The Queen has delivered her speech to the House of Lords setting out the Coalition Government's programme for the next Parliamentary year. This will be the last parliamentary session before the 2015 General Election.
The speech emphasised the need to continue strengthening the economy in order to ensure security and stability for Britain: "this Queen's Speech is unashamedly pro-work, pro-business and pro-aspiration".
A list of the Bills and draft Bills announced in the speech are below. For further details on Bills announced, please see The Queen's Speech: what it means for you as well as the full background briefing notes on the Queen's Speech (PDF document). You can read the full speech here.
Bills relevant to local government
Infrastructure Bill
Planning
The Bill would allow certain types of planning conditions to be discharged upon application if a local planning authority has not notified the developer of their decision within a prescribed time period, reducing unnecessary delay and costs.
The Bill would simplify the process for making changes to Development Consent Orders (DCO) by speeding up non-material changes to a DCO, and allowing simplified processes for material changes.
Homes and Communities Agency
The Bill would permit land to be transferred directly from arms-length bodies to the Homes and Communities Agency, reducing bureaucracy and managing land more effectively.
The Bill would ensure that future purchasers of land owned by the Homes and Communities Agency and the Greater London Authority will be able to develop and use land without being affected by easements and other rights and restrictions suspended by the Agency.
Transport
The Bill would turn the Highways Agency into a Government owned company, with the stable, long term funding needed to plan ahead. It would create units within Passenger Focus and the Office of Rail Regulation to represent the interests of road users and to monitor the company’s performance.
Land Registry Charges
The Bill would transfer statutory responsibility for the local land charges register and delivery of local land charges searches to the Land Registry supporting the delivery of digital services and extend Land Registry’s powers to enable it to provide information and register services relating to land and other property.
Building Regulations
The Government would set a minimum energy performance standard through the building regulations. The remainder of the zero carbon target would be met through cost effective off-site carbon abatement measures - known as ‘allowable solutions’. Small sites, which are most commonly developed by small scale house builders, will be exempt. The definition of a small site will be consulted on shortly, and set out in regulation.
Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill
Legislation will be introduced to help make the United Kingdom an attractive place to start, finance and grow a business.
Aims of the Bill include:
To make it easier for small businesses to access finance; improve payment practices between small businesses and their customers; providing small firms with fair access to the £230 billion spent each year in the form of public procurement contracts; and increase the availability and sources of finance for businesses that want to invest.
Bring a new Statutory Code and independent Adjudicator to ensure that the sole traders and small businesses that run 20,000 or so tied pubs across England and Wales are treated fairly.
Prevent public sector employees keeping redundancy payments when they come back to the same part of the public sector within a short period of time.
Childcare Payments Bill
A new scheme will be introduced that supports working families by giving support equivalent to basic rate tax relief on money spent on childcare, up to a maximum of £2,000 per year for each child. For every £8 that a parent pays for childcare, the Government will contribute £2.
To improve education attainment and child health, the government will also ensure all infants will receive a free school meal.
Wales Bill
The Government will continue with legislation giving the National Assembly for Wales and Welsh Ministers more power over taxation and investment.
The Wales Bill:
devolves stamp duty land tax and landfill tax to Wales, enabling the Assembly to replace them with new taxes specific to Wales
allows further taxes to be devolved, with the agreement of Parliament and the Assembly
provides for a referendum in Wales on whether an element of income tax should be devolved
allows the Assembly, subject to a vote in favour in a referendum, to set a Welsh rate for the purpose of calculating the rates of income tax to be paid by Welsh taxpayers
grants new powers for Welsh ministers to borrow to fund capital expenditure, and extends the circumstances in which they can borrow in the short term to manage fluctuations in tax revenues
gives the Assembly the power to decide the procedure for scrutinising and authorising the Welsh government’s tax and spending plans
Draft bill relevant to local government
Governance of National Parks (England) and the Broads draft Bill
Direct elections
The draft Bill would enable direct elections to be held in English National Parks and the Broads, by an order of the Secretary of State.
The draft Bill would, for the first time, and when the Secretary of State so provides, enable eligible residents of the Parks to directly elect some of the Authority members responsible for running their Park and taking planning decisions. The same would apply in the Broads.
Amending the political balance requirement on local authority appointees
The draft Bill would also allow local authorities to depart from the political balance rule if they appoint 3 or more members to the Park (or Broads) Authority, where doing so would allow them to appoint a representative of a ward within the Park/Broads.
Allowing a wider range of parish representation
The draft Bill would also allow parish councils to select their representatives to a Park Authority more widely. Currently they must select a parish councillor or Meeting Chairperson. They would be enabled to include anyone eligible to stand as a parish councillor, if the Park Authority requests it, and the Secretary of State so provides.
Announcements relevant to local government
Increasing housing supply
The Government will seek to increase housing supply and home ownership by reforming the planning system, enabling new locally-led garden cities and supporting small house building firms.
The Government will provide development finance to support smaller builders to develop new homes across the country. The £525 million Builders’ Finance Fund will deliver up to 15,000 further homes on small sites over the course of its programme. The Government will also scale back the imposition of Section 106 levies on small-scale development.
The Government will introduce a £150 million repayable fund to support up to 10,000 new service plots for custom-build homes, as well as consulting on how to implement a new Right to Build to give custom-builders the right to land in their local area.
The Government will help speed up the time taken for sites granted planning permission to be built out, including reforming unwieldy procedures and conditions attached to existing planning permissions, whilst protecting environmental safeguards.
The Government will amend secondary legislation to further reform change of use rules to make it easier for empty and redundant buildings to be converted into productive use, supporting brownfield regeneration and increase the supply of new homes.
The Government will introduce the secondary legislation to allow for a locally supported garden city to be built in Ebbsfleet, backed by an Urban Development Corporation. A Locally-Led Garden Cities prospectus was also published in April, outlining the support Government will offer to other areas interested in new locally led Garden Cities. The Government is also rolling out two further programmes to provide infrastructure support for large-scale, locally supported schemes.
Basic need funding for new school places
The Government is investing £5 billion in basic need over the life of this Parliament (2011-12 to 2014-15), compared to £1.9 billion in equivalent period 2007-8 to 2010-11.
We will invest over £7 billion from 2015-21. In December 2013 we announced £2.35 billion for 2015-17 as the first stage of these allocations.
We are also investing £2.5 billion through the Pupil Premium to improve education for the most deprived children.
Academies and Free Schools
In England, the Government will help more schools to become academies and support more Free Schools to open.
Apprenticeship reforms
The government will increase the total number of apprenticeship places to two million by the end of the Parliament.
Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM)
To improve education attainment and child health, the government will ensure all infants will receive a free school meal.
Following the Government’s announcement on 17 September 2013, the Government is introducing free school meals (FSM) for every child in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools from September 2014.
Scotland: Case for UK and implementing new powers
The government will continue to implement new financial powers for the Scottish Parliament and make the case for Scotland to remain a part of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland
The government will continue to work with the devolved administration in Northern Ireland to rebalance the economy, promote reconciliation and create a shared future.
Bills in full
Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill
National Insurance Contributions Bill
Infrastructure Bill
Pension Tax Bill
Private Pensions Bill
Childcare Payments Bill
Modern Slavery Bill
Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Bill
Service Complaints Bill
Serious Crime Bill
Recall of MPs Bill
Wales Bill
The full background to the Queen's Speech can be found at -
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/317823/Queens_Speech_lobby_pack_FINAL.pdf
