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The Cheshire Landscape Trust was established in 1981 as a charity. It promotes sustainable development by linking the local with the global, and I think that that is the right way round. It has a proven track record of community-based action, with its remit to create greater awareness and to promote action to sustain our outstanding Cheshire landscape. That is an important element of what it does, and I believe that it has lessons for us all. The trust incorporates spatial planning documents with village and town design statements, and it has helped to set up parish landscape trusts. All this helps local people to decide for themselves their own future and their own environment.
The trust has a slender workforce. It has two splendid officers, John Gittins and Katie Lowe, aided by part-timer Rachel Norton. It works by mobilising communities in Cheshire’s fascinating mosaic of market towns and handsome villages, encouraging residents to do the work themselves on, for instance, the village statements which then form the plans for further action to improve the environment. Practical expression is made in other ways, such as tree guardian schemes and the army of Cheshire parish tree wardens that has been established across the county. Since 1989, thousands of trees and shrubs have been planted and maintained by guardian volunteers. So while we have only two paid people, they have galvanised 176 tree wardens across 138 parishes, spurring hundreds of other Cheshire residents to take action and foster pride in their community. Here I turn to the Minister to say that if ever the Government wanted a good example of volunteerism, they have it in the Cheshire Landscape Trust.
The trust also promotes a “kids for trees” project, whereby every child in Cheshire schools looks after a tree. It has a Cheshire orchard project, again reviving
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The tourism industry is affected by security issues and terrorism, but it is my desire and hope that the 21st century will be one of tourism not terrorism. One thing we must respect in this industry is its bouncebackability, a word which has now been allowed into the Oxford English Dictionary, which I welcome. Tourism has been a successful industry, which is why it is sometimes neglected. I have to say that the Americans would take a different view: they look at successful industries and ask why they should not be more successful. Overseas visitor numbers are up by 8 per cent, while overseas earnings in the interests of the United Kingdom have now risen to £3,900 million a year and are forecast to rise by another 3.7 per cent by the end of 2006. Tourism was led by the Labour Government of 1964, with their Tourism Act, and Tourism Today, introduced by my noble friend Lord Smith of Finsbury when he was in another place. These are examples of how Labour Governments have a positive attitude, but I have to say with sorrow that I have not found much in the way of reference to tourism or evidence of a tourism Act to place it within many of the concerns which interest your Lordships in this debate.
There are problems in terms of tourism and the environment. I do not want to go deeply into the issue of whether taxes on flying should be increased or whether there should be fewer flights carrying tourists around the world, but tackling the matter would have an effect on the tourism industry. There is the more immediate domestic threat of the bed tax arising from the Lyons review, and I ask the Government to be cautious: do not tax a successful industry; liberate it to do even better in the future. There are also pockets of difficulty. Blackpool, which is an important element of the tourist industry for us in the
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Tourism is also important for local government. I will not illustrate all the ways in which it is, but it is evident that what is good for local government is also good for tourism. I refer to the regeneration of our towns. I have in mind Chester and the improvements to the waterfronts of both the river Dee and the Shropshire Union Canal. I have to say that when I first came to Chester 30 years ago, it was a mess. It is now part and parcel of welcoming tourists to the county and enhancing their enjoyment in the city—not least in our revived waterfronts.
There are threats to tourism in the form of climate change, but we need a mature attitude to be able to understand and adapt to changing conditions in which tourism can play its role. Ecotourism is marking the way. Some 5 per cent of tourists now travel with environmental concerns at heart. I give as an example not the bed tax, but the eco charge made in Cumbria. The sum of £1 is added to bills and each £1 is used to upgrade footpaths used regularly by hikers and walkers in the fells. Visitors and tourists can see an immediate change and the benefits of that hypothecated tax are usefully shown.
Tourism is also important in saving our churches from extinction. The congregations of worshippers who used to praise God are now being replaced by congregations of visitors who worship the beauty of the architecture of our parish churches and cathedrals and the local and national history that they contain. The meeting places of the past are now the meeting places of the present and the future, again binding into that role of strengthening our communities.
I, as an atheist committed to the well-being of churches and church buildings, regret the unwelcome words of the Archbishop of York recently attacking atheists for the diminishing rolls of those attending churches to worship. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, who is no longer in his place, spoke interestingly about the shrinking footprints of the efforts being made by the churches; perhaps he should attend to the shrinking footfall of fewer people attending our churches and the need to do something positive if we are to retain these homes of the community within our communities.
I shall not touch on transport and its effect on tourism, which has been mentioned. I hope that one of these days it will be my pleasure to speak in support of the Government who bring back a revived and refreshed tourism Act that places tourism in its proper role in the 21st century, linking-in as it does to so many environmental, local authority and transport issues and policy areas for which the Government have real responsibility.
2.42 pm
Lord Inglewood: My Lords, I echo the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, in welcoming our maiden speakers. I extend the ambit of his remarks to those on the Benches on which I sit. I must confess that I was not in the Chamber when the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, was speaking, but I was watching the
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I should like to address a few comments to the House about farming. I declare an interest in that I am a dairy farmer in Cumbria, which now has more dairy cows than any other county in Britain. I am also the chairman of Carr’s Milling Industries, which is one of the biggest agricultural supply companies, animal feed compounders and flour millers and is based in the north of England. I have not participated in a number of the more recent debates about agriculture in your Lordships’ House because I felt that I had too great a personal interest in the problems of the single farm payment. I have been materially economically damaged by what has happened but, if I refer to anything from my own experience, I hope it will be understood that I am trying to draw some generalised conclusions for the benefit of the House.
We have heard already about the problems facing dairy farming. The good news in the agricultural sector as a whole, which was first mentioned in the debate by the Minister, actually increases the problems of the dairy sector because the high price of grain leads to a high price of animal feed in precisely the same way that the higher price of wheat that Carr’s Milling turns into flour puts up the price of bread.
In thinking about the problems facing the dairy sector we should be clear in our mind about what has happened over the past few years and I should like to put in front of the House what I think has occurred. There has been a glut of milk in the European Union. Where you have a glut of milk, the base of the price that is paid is the price for milk in the processing because that is the cheapest part of the market. Over the same period, the pound has been very strong against the euro and, in a single market, that inexorably will have the effect that surplus production, wherever it is, will be drawn to the country with the strong currency. Therefore, rather like a vortex, surplus milk has a tendency to move towards the United Kingdom.
At the same time, processors of milk on the Continent invested in improving and enlarging their processing plants, a great deal of it with the help of public money. This has meant that milk products processed on the Continent have been able to compete probably more keenly in the UK market than their UK equivalents because, in a number of cases, the plants from which they are working are more up to date, more specialised and larger.
At home, the dairy farmer is faced by oligopoly buyers—the hard men who have made money out of the supermarket wars. Noble Lords may say, “Well, that is market forces”. Of course, in one sense, it is market forces—but for a market to be proper it must be free and fair. After all, that is why we have a competition policy and a trust policy. It is the basis behind the politics of international trade and fair
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The conventional wisdom is that the effect of this will be the growth of a large number of industrial farm enterprises. I am not sure, at these prices, that if I was an investor looking at this I would consider the return to be adequate enough. If nothing happens along those lines—and I suspect that if prices remain at the levels they are now it may not—in a world where you can fly flowers in from Kenya and green beans in from Chile, it will be possible for milk to be supplied in this country. This will be achieved at huge expense and the use of enormous quantities of energy in clocking up huge numbers of food miles, thus ensuring a significant price rise to the consumer and an undermining of our national security. If that were to occur, the effect of distortions in the marketplace would lead to the siting of Europe’s—and possibly the world’s—dairy industry in economically, environmentally and sustainably sub-optimal locations. I do not think that is a sensible way for the world to organise its affairs.
I should like to touch briefly on hill farming. I had thought about making a few comments based on statistics but on my way down here this week I thought not. On the station platform at home, as I was getting on to the train, I ran into a friend who has been a senior figure in the National Farmers’ Union and a very senior figure in the hill farming world. He simply said, “If things go on as they are, there will not be any more hill farming in the centre of the Lake District”. The arithmetic that currently applies to the economics of hill farming simply does not make it sensible if present trends are exacerbated. I do not want to elaborate on it any more than that. I put it on the record for the benefit of those who take decisions about these matters.
The crucial thing to remember about hill farming is that sheep are the only form of lawnmower that works in the high fells. This House and the other place have invested a great deal of time and the Government have invested an enormous amount of effort in legislation such as the CROW Act and the recent commons legislation. If the fells go back, all that work will have been wasted. I am president of the Cumbria tourist board. Our tourism industry is enormously dependent upon access to the fells and the condition in which they are kept. Many, many more jobs depend on that than on the details of husbanding sheep.
There is a strong move afoot, which I endorse most strongly although it is controversial in some circles, for the Lake District to apply for and become a world heritage site. The noble Lord, Lord Clark, is doing a lot of work on this. It is inconceivable that that could happen if the high fells are not properly looked after.
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On the single farm payment system, I entirely agree with the noble Lord, Lord Bach. The intellectual basis of the system we have in England seems superior to those in the other home countries. But, crucially, can it be delivered? I did not agree with the noble Lord quite so much when he said that my party, when in government, had not been sufficiently robust in trying to reform the common agricultural policy, not least because I do not have the slightest doubt that he will agree with me that Mrs Beckett is no Lady Thatcher.
The key thing about these policies is whether they can work. We have seen appalling problems with the single farm payment scheme. I believe that it goes wider and that there are huge problems with the administration of the flanking measures. The entry level scheme does not seem to be functioning in England. I have the right number of points and wanted to go into the scheme. You first need a map. We started the process 20 months ago; maps have been lost, letters have been lost and telephone calls have not been replied to. We are no further forward than we were 20 months ago. When we get there, the Government’s great promise is that we will be offered a five-year contract. That is of any value only if it is government policy that there should be no agri-environmental schemes at the end of the five-year period, and I do not believe that to be the case.
A large number of Defra employees are in Cumbria, where I live, and it is apparent that most of them—almost all of them—are good people. Sometimes in debates about the shortcomings of the system, we have not put on record the fact that a lot of people have been working very hard to try to administer something that has got completely out of control. Sometimes I am reminded about the troops in the First World War being “lions led by donkeys”.
A number of people have said that we are caught in the common agricultural policy. I think that we would all agree that nobody devising an agricultural policy now would come up with anything that looks particularly like the present one. But it is part of something bigger and it does not do any good, in the real world, to fantasise about how things could be done differently on a tabula rasa.
The common agricultural policy is part of an interdependent web of political relationships which go right up to the European Commission at one end and drop right down to the individual farmer at the other. In the workings of this interdependent system, it is terribly important that there is mutual confidence, legal certainty and equivalence in dealing with the various aspects of the way it works. Those who are affected by a system of this kind need to be confident that things will occur which were promised. That is as true of the European Commission as it is of the farmer. After all, the way in which these agricultural policies are being implemented in the UK is part of a wider set of policies put in place at European level, where each member state has given commitments to do certain things as part of the mid-term review change in the way in which agricultural policy is implemented. The Commission
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The crucial lesson to be drawn is that delivery is at least as important as clever conception. Justice delayed is known to be justice denied. Equally, payment delayed is the same as payment denied. This is as true for those on social benefits as it is for those who have an agricultural entitlement. The Government know this only too well. If I responded to a letter from the Inland Revenue and said I was sorry but my computer system was down and if you are lucky you might get some money before next Christmas it would, quite properly, show me the door—metaphorically. We need to concentrate more on clever delivery and less on clever thinking and concepts.
In the gracious Speech, we have seen flagged up many pieces of proposed legislation, almost every one of which has the potential for Byzantine complexity. Let us learn a wider lesson from the débâcle of the single farm payment. Let us—legislators and the Administration—remember that the best can be the enemy of the good, and let us try to keep it simple.
2.55 pm
Baroness Hamwee: My Lords, to follow my noble friend Lord Bradshaw, I wondered what, if this debate were “Gardeners’ Question Time”, the questions might be. Perhaps there would be something along the lines of, “I planted some seeds a couple of years ago. There are signs of growth and I gather from the local garden centre that other places report growth but say it is a bit early to tell. Should I dig up my new little plants to check on them? Should I replace them? I have a lot of extra seeds. Are there dangers in overworking the ground and having too many plants close together?”. Perhaps it would be stretching the analogy a little far to ask about fertiliser as well.
Legislation is not a cure for everything. Indeed, it is a problem when its provisions are not allowed to take root, to grow and to be assessed. In planning, it seems no time at all since we finished the last planning Bill. I will be one among many who will be happy to see local councillors able to act as local champions and play their full part in difficult applications in their own community. We are promised this—I hope it is this—in the local government White Paper. I would be even happier were I to think that this might come as a separate piece of legislation, even sooner than the Local Government Bill. But what about further reform, and how many new acronyms will there be?
The previous round of legislation was originally to have included very dramatic changes in major infrastructure projects. The Green Paper proposed having decisions made by Parliament. Public inquiries were to be held through a parliamentary committee but after a short time it was pointed out, I think by a Select Committee, that parliamentarians were not keen on having to undertake this duty. Then we heard that the votes on the committee were to be Whipped and that, I hope, was the end of that.
We talk of planning as quasi-judicial, but let us not forget that it is founded on the democratic process. We
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I am not suggesting that infrastructure is, of itself, an evil. Indeed it is not. Transport infrastructure for public transport is necessary, and the planning system needs to deliver regeneration and growth without being a barrier to them. It is not the planning system but the need for investment which is the greatest problem.
In opening the debate, the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, mentioned Crossrail. I was interested that his estimates for job creation mentioned 2016, which suggests that the funding, as well as the legislation, is on its way to being sorted out. Perhaps the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, will be able to confirm that. Given the focus, rightly, on climate change, are we to see its effect become a material consideration in planning applications? Will the Minister comment on whether there will be joining up in this area?
One could spend longer on planning, and we will. However, it appears that we will not spend very long on housing—the supply of affordable housing, the encouragement of the private rented sector or other housing issues. I am sad to say that I feel no sense that the Government are on top of these.
With the Greater London Authority Bill, I shall have to declare an interest as a member of the London Assembly. These Benches have always supported the capital having its own strategic government and it will be very welcome when the Bill transfers powers from central government. To describe London as a city region may be controversial—but I am intrigued that city regions, which were much vaunted by No. 10 not so long ago, now seem to be a matter for study by No. 11 or the Treasury. I wonder what criteria there are for this study. At any rate, the issue of London will be debated in this House soon.
The continued expansion of the Government Office for London makes no sense now that we have a GLA. The Government Office’s staffing levels are higher than in 1998, its budget has more than doubled, and it is no answer to say that it passes money on to the boroughs, since should that not be the job of the democratically elected Government? When the strengthening of the Mayor’s powers is at the expense of the boroughs, it is generally another matter—but we welcome much of what is proposed, with the heavy caveat that checks and balances need to be in place.
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