8 King's Speech nasty details and bits missing with no new help for your bills
King Charles has outlined the 20 Bills the Government will prioritise in what will be the last session of Parliament before next year’s general election. The legislation unveiled included measures to boost North Sea oil and gas production, impose tougher law and order measures and create a football regulator. But some of the plans unveiled won’t be nearly as much help as the Tories would have you believe.
And what about the Bills missing from today’s King Speech? We look at some of the plans that were tipped to be in the monarch’s address or which the Conservatives had vowed to implement - but which were conspicuous by their absence from the State Opening.
North Sea fossil fuel plan won't bring down bills
Twenty-four hours before the King even arrived at Parliament to deliver his Speech, Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho admitted energy customers would not see a fall in their gas and electricity prices because of the Government’s flagship plan to extract more oil and gas, which comes in the form of the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill.
Asked if the legislation would help families, the Cabinet Minister told BBC Breakfast: "It wouldn't necessarily bring energy bills down, that's not what we're saying". Instead she suggested that handing out more oil and gas licences would increase tax revenues, which could be used to support those on low incomes.
There is plenty of small print in the Government speech read out by the King (Getty Images)Ed Matthew, campaigns director at climate change think tank E3G, said: “If Rishi Sunak was serious about cutting energy bills and boosting energy security he would be using the King’s Speech to double down on home insulation and homegrown renewables. This Bill is not only unnecessary, it is blocking the legislation needed to build a cleaner, cheaper energy system. The Prime Minister is treating UK citizens with contempt as they struggle with the cost of living as he seeks to stoke culture wars ahead of the election in his desperation for votes.”
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The Government wants to issue more licences for drilling (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Ban on leaseholds won't apply to flats
An effective ban on rip-off leaseholds - where people buy a property but don’t own the freehold - won’t apply to flats.
Householders who buy homes on a leasehold are often stung for punitive ground rents and service charges for things like cutting the grass or arranging communal bins. The Government has pledged a crackdown - but it will only apply to houses and not flats. Charities and campaigners hoped it would apply to all properties - particularly given that people living in flats are among the worst affected.
The plan will only apply to houses, not flats (Getty Images/iStockphoto)No-fault evictions delay
While the King’s Speech outlined plans to finally stop no-fault evictions for renters, it might be some time coming. The chronic backlog hampering our courts - which has been fuelled by Tory austerity and worsened when legal cases were shelved during the coronavirus pandemic - means this measure will take a while to have any benefit on the people it seeks to help.
Ministers have been accused of delaying the plan in a "grubby deal" with Conservative backbenchers, many of whom are landlords themselves. MP Nick Fletcher, who rents out six houses and four flats in South Yorkshire, told the House of Commons last month: "The simple fact of the matter is that the more bureaucratic and difficult we make renting for landlords, the more incentive they have to sell up and reduce the number of properties on the market. The fewer properties there are for rent, scarcity means the rents will increase."
Ban on gay conversion therapy
The Tories have repeatedly pledged to ban “gay conversion therapy” - sometimes called "reparative therapy" or "gay cure therapy".
But there was no mention of the move in today’s King’s Speech. Rishi Sunak has come under pressure from the LGBT community, as well as MPs and charities, to ban the controversial practice. He is likely to face a rebellion for failing to include the measure in the King’s Speech.
Stonewall’s external affairs director Robbie de Santos said: "The UK Government's failure to deliver a ban on conversion practices after five years of promises is an act of frightful negligence - in doing so, it has given the green light for the abuse against LGBTQ+ people to continue unchecked. Rather than getting mired in a cynical cultural war, the UK Government should be making decisions based on what the evidence and expertise said. England and Wales' 1.5 million LGBTQ+ people, and their families, deserve better."
Plan to target homeless people
Home Secretary Suella Braverman had demanded a crackdown on homeless people sleeping in tents as she claimed they were living on the streets as a "lifestyle choice".
The hard-line Home Secretary spoke out over the weekend about how she wanted to restrict use of tents that cause a nuisance, such as obstructing shop doorways, and to fine charities who help desperate people camp out on the streets. She warned Britain's cities risked becoming like San Francisco or Los Angeles where "weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug taking, and squalor". But, despite her hopes the measure would be included in today’s King’s Speech, there was nothing in the monarch’s address.
The Home Secretary wanted to ban rough sleepers using tents (Getty Images)Ban on trophy hunting imports
The 2019 Tory election manifesto, which delivered the Conservatives an 80-seat majority, vowed to ban imports of trophy hunting abroad.
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But despite attempts by backbenchers, supported by the Government, the move has so far failed after it was torpedoed in the Lords. Mirror-backed campaigners called on ministers to bring forward a Bill to finally outlaw sick hunters bringing their souvenirs home from shoots overseas. But there was nothing in today’s Speech.
Trophy hunters can still bring home their sick souvenirs (Shutterstock)Train tickets overhaul
The Tories have apparently again delayed a major overhaul of the way Britain's railways are managed.
Successive Transport secretaries have committed to Great British Railways - a wide-ranging shake-up of how the network is run and tickets are bought. While there is a draft Bill on railways, no concrete legislation has been included in the Speech delivered by Charles III this morning.
Zombie knives crackdown
A crackdown on “zombie knives” and machetes was expected following a string of horrific attacks. Campaigners hoped the Government would bring forward a Bill to close loopholes in law around machetes and zombie knives.
Botched legislation means that seven years after the Government first promised to ban the blades, they are still available to criminals. Suella Braverman is now the fifth Tory Home Secretary to promise a ban on the weapons used to carry out dozens of killings.
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