King’s Speech: Government outlines its to-do list

Craig Davidson, Associate Director
17/07/2024

The new Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to take the brakes off Britain. Today, it was full steam ahead as he set out 40 bills in a larger-than-usual King’s Speech with ambitious plans on rail nationalisation, planning and immigration.

Since winning the election just two weeks ago, Starmer hasn’t stopped for breath, moving from the NATO summit with other world leaders to the Euro 2024 final in Germany. Now the real work of government begins.

Back on familiar ground, Starmer’s programme for government was presented to Parliament. Policies drafted in opposition will now be tested by new realities, beginning their potentially long and fraught journey through the parliamentary process, coming under new scrutiny.

So what does this agenda tell us about Britain’s new government?

Tackling the to-do list

For the last two years, the Conservative Government sometimes looked overwhelmed by the breadth and seriousness of the challenges facing the country. It has now been replaced with an energetic, active government who wants to tackle head-on the problems we face at home. They are not shying away from the big challenges with bills on immigration, crime and energy. Today was about projecting a government rolling up its sleeves and getting on with the job.

New Government as advertised

Commentators have spent months poring over every comment from Keir Starmer and his team, looking for hints of how he will wield power. Is he really the heir to Blair? Does he have a secret Left agenda? Today, he set out a programme for government which reflects exactly how he campaigned, drawing a straight line from his manifesto commitments to his first King’s speech. It was sober, technocratic and contained few surprises. Accused of caution and timidity in the election, this agenda now looks bolder as it moves towards the statute book.

Let the planning wars begin

Labour has set significant store on planning reform to unlock much-needed economic growth and set out a first step with its Planning and Infrastructure Bill to force councils to get building more homes. Most economists agree planning is a serious impediment to economic growth yet there is a reason it has remained unaddressed. It is fiendishly complicated and will face angry opposition from communities, conservationists and environmentalists. Labour MPs with small majorities will fear the public backlash from development in their constituencies. As a consequence, the government will need all of its current political capital to push this through and it will be a real test for Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.

Gain power, give it away

Britain remains one of Europe’s most centralised states and new Prime Ministers, having fought hard to win power, are reluctant to give it away when they get in office. So it was unusually generous of this government to make devolution a major theme of this King’s Speech – with the English Devolution Bill more powers for mayors and councils on skills, energy and transport. It remains to be seen whether the requisite funding will follow to allow local representatives the ability to effectively deliver on these policy fronts, especially after a decade of capacity being hollowed out of local government.

Out with the old

For some of the peers in the audience for today’s King’s Speech, it could be their last as the government moves to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. This is an exercise in political expediency - Labour is still in the minority in the Lords, and this is the first step towards broader reform that will shore up their position and reduce barriers to push through future legislation.

What now?

While 40 bills is larger than normal, none of this is set in stone. Expect more bills to be added to the government slate as and when new issues emerge and need to be addressed.

Despite a large Labour majority, all of these bills will not sail through in their current form. Policies drafted in opposition will now be tested by new realities as they begin a potentially long journey through the parliamentary process.

There will be ample opportunities to improve them, weed out unintended consequences and reveal weakness which will do more harm than good. It will take them the best part of two years to progress all of the bills and some of the more ambitious plans will face powerful opposition, inside and outside parliament.

In opposition, Labour made a virtue of consulting business and other expert groups about policy. Now they are in power, they would do well to continue in this vein to ensure this programme does what it intends. If not, the wheels could soon come off this government.

Full list of Bills

1.    Budget Responsibility Bill

2.    National Wealth Fund Bill

3.    Pension Schemes Bill

4.    Planning and Infrastructure Bill

5.    Employment Rights Bill

6.    English Devolution Bill

7.    Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill

8.    Better Buses Bill

9.    Railways Bill

10. Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill

11. Arbitration Bill

12. Product Safety and Metrology Bill

13. Digital Information and Smart Data Bill

14. High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill

15. Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill

16. Great British Energy Bill

17. The Crown Estate Bill

18. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (Revenue Support Mechanism) Bill

19. Water (Special Measures) Bill

20. Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

21. Crime and Policing Bill

22. Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill

23. Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill

24. Children’s Wellbeing Bill

25. Skills England Bill

26. Renters’ Rights Bill

27. Football Governance Bill

28. Draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill

29. Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

30. Draft Conversion Practices Bill

31. Tobacco and Vapes Bill

32. Mental Health Bill

33. Hillsborough Law

34. Armed Forces Commissioner Bill

35. Northern Ireland Legacy Legislation

36. House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill

37. Cyber Security and Resilience Bill

38. Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and International Committee of the Red Cross (Status) Bill

39. Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill

40. Holocaust Memorial Bill