During the King’s Speech debate on 22nd July 2024, the Bishop of Leeds gave a speech on the topic of the economy, expressing admiration for the government’s ambition and commitment to a long term view, and raising issues affecting the economy in the North of England:
The Lord Bishop of Leeds: My Lords, I am not an economist, but I care deeply about the economy. I shall limit myself to a couple of observations, and I am sure that I can save a few minutes in the length of the debate.
First, I welcome the Minister and thank him for his illuminating and articulate speech. I admire the new Government’s ambitions, but I worry a bit that there is too much. Holding all this together in a coherent development framework will be challenging beyond words, but I wish the Government well in doing it.
I want to plead for honesty from the Government and a good communication strategy to explain to the rest of us in the country who are not economists how all this is going to be rolled out. When it fails—elements will fail for a host of reasons, not usually intentional—the Government must trust the electorate and tell us the truth. When timelines do not work and get delayed, trust us and tell us the truth so that we know what is going on. We need to be treated like adults. I understand the need to adhere to the fiscal rules, but the Government choose what those rules are, so if they have implications for the rest of us, that needs to be explained clearly in language that can be understood by people like me.
What I am glad about in the gracious Speech is that we seem to have a programme that takes long-termism seriously. I hope that can be stayed with during this very ambitious programme, where the immediate will sometimes compromise the longer term. We need long-term thinking. I speak as someone who lives in the north of England and who has to use transport north and south but also east and west. The problems that we have with rail were mentioned earlier. The amount of money that has been invested in London and the south is light years above what has been invested in the north so far. I wonder whether the northern powerhouse is turning into a northern small battery, but that is to be seen.
There are a number of issues in relation to employment that really impact us in the north. Universities—I am familiar with a number in west Yorkshire—are now struggling and making people redundant, because we do not have students coming in from abroad. I know that raises questions about the models for investing in students, but we can talk about creating employment at the same time as we are losing employment in significant areas. One of the factors involved in that is access to good communications, especially rail and road. I came to this House 10 years ago, and I remember saying at the time that only way effectively you can get from east to west and from west to east is along one road, the M62. There is nothing else. What happens to the north-east when the A66 is snowed under, I suspect even in the summer? The rail links are appalling, whatever investment has gone in. I now have to get my PA to book trains north-south to get down here, knowing that if my train is cancelled I can get the one before or the one after and still get here for what I need to be here for. That is terrible in a country like this.
What about the issues we have with water? The failed experiment of the past 40 years, where pockets of individuals have benefited from much of our privatised utilities, needs to be addressed. I read the other day—I cannot remember the numbers—that the CEO and the CFO of Yorkshire Water have received more than £500,000 in bonuses. I work in a business that does not quite understand bonuses, because I do not get a salary, I get a stipend, but I always thought that a bonus was there to reward going beyond what you are employed to do. So why are people getting bonuses for abject failure where the money goes into the pockets of shareholders at the expense of consumers? This is a moral issue as well as an economic issue. I hope that the Government will address this as they go forward.
So I come back to where I began and say that I admire the ambition, but we have to be careful that we do not lose it as we go.
Extracts from the speeches that followed:
Lord Birt (CB): Fourthly, to echo the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds and others, we have by far the worst road and rail infrastructure of any major country, underinvested in for over half a century. I hope the new Government will produce a comprehensive long-term plan—many have mentioned this—for effectively travelling within and between our major industrial areas, both by road and by rail. I hope too that Labour will eventually resurrect its original vision for HS2, framed during its previous term in office, noting that, in the meantime, China has created an HSR network of around 40,000 kilometres and Spain one of 4,000 kilometres, while the UK has still not moved past a miserable 109 kilometres of HSR. The noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, will agree with that point, I am sure.
Lord Livermore (Lab, Treasury): The gracious Speech also set out reforms to the rail sector, contained in two railway Bills, one of which establishes Great British Railways. The noble Lord, Lord Sikka, asked about those companies whose contracts do not expire in the next five years. Their contracts have clauses that can be triggered so that they expire in that timeframe. In answer to the noble Lord, Lord Fox, the Government are not reversing the decision to cancel the second phase of HS2, but we are committed to addressing key transport connectivity issues across the country that are constraining our growth ambitions. To answer the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, individual projects will be considered through the spending review, with a particular emphasis given to those that drive growth. In answer to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds, the Government are committed to improving rail connectivity across the north. Electrification and infrastructure modernisation will provide environmental benefits and support economic growth and job creation. Key to this will be completing delivery of ongoing major rail programmes—notably the trans-Pennine route upgrade.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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