Sir Keir Starmer set out his government’s legislative agenda for the coming year in the state opening of parliament on Wednesday.
With 411 Labour MPs and a working majority of 180, the new prime minister has free rein to push through measures in his manifesto, and he intends to legislate at breakneck speed while he still has political momentum.
A total of 35 bills were included in the King’s Speech, including several holdovers from the previous government. Here are the highlights.
Budget Responsibility Bill
Measures in this bill are described by the government as delivering a “fiscal lock” by ensuring the Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, assesses all tax and spending announcements.
The legislation is partly a political move designed to highlight Labour’s respect for the OBR in contrast with Liz Truss, former Tory prime minister, who refused to get an assessment from the body before her disastrous “mini” Budget in 2022.
National Wealth Fund Bill
This will put the new £7.3bn “national wealth fund” on a permanent statutory footing to deliver state funding to the decarbonisation of heavy industry such as steel, ports and the car industry.
However, the NWF will not be a new standalone body. Instead the money will be initially spent through the UK Infrastructure Bank with “closer alignment” with another existing state lender called the British Business Bank.
Pension Schemes Bill
Legislation will place an emphasis on preventing people losing track of various small pension pots by consolidating them. This move will help tackle a problem affecting some 2.8mn pots, according to the Pensions Policy Institute, a think-tank. An accompanying value for money framework is aimed at encouraging better pension fund performance in the interest of economic growth.
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
Planning reform is at the centre of Labour’s ambitions to build houses and deliver renewable energy infrastructure, for example accelerating upgrades to the national grid. Reform of local planning committees is aimed at streamlining processes, while attempts to increase planning authorities’ capacity is aimed at boosting developer and investor confidence.
Employment Rights Bill
An employment rights bill will enshrine in law a package of measures previously known as Labour’s “New Deal For Working People”. The bill will ban zero-hours contracts, end “fire and rehire” practices, and give immediate access to parental leave and sick pay. It will also make it easier for unions to take strike action by reversing recent Tory legislation.
English Devolution Bill
The government has promised to make the devolution of powers a default setting for England’s regions. Legislation will establish a new framework to move power out of Westminster, with the aim of empowering local leaders to make decisions over infrastructure planning, transport, skills and employment support.
Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill & Railways Bill
The government will bring rail services back into public ownership and amend legislation so a public-sector operator is the default position when current franchise contracts conclude. A new public body, Great British Railways, will also be created alongside measures to combine infrastructure and services under one roof.
Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill
Measures will empower the Bank of England to use funds drawn from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to deal with the administration and sale of any failed bank, particularly smaller institutions. The FSCS’s funds would also be used to meet a failing bank’s recapitalisation costs.
Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill
The Financial Reporting Council will be replaced with a new Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority in a move designed to “tackle bad financial reporting”. This follows large corporate failures including BHS and Carillion. The authority will be empowered to investigate and impose sanctions on directors for printing dodgy accounts.
Great British Energy Bill
This will set up a new publicly-owned “energy production company” to own and operate clean power projects such as solar and wind in partnership with the private sector. The new group, headquartered in Scotland, will have £8.3bn of new money over the five-year parliament.
The Crown Estate Bill
This will end “outdated restrictions” on the activities of the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed around England and Wales — where the government wants to build a new generation of offshore wind turbines. The estate will get the power to borrow and its powers to invest will be widened.
Water (Special Measures) Bill
Britain’s struggling water industry will be subjected to new “tough special measures” designed to clean up dirty rivers, lakes and seas. Water bosses will face personal criminal liability for lawbreaking if their companies repeatedly flout sewage regulations. Water regulator Ofwat will get powers to ban executive bonuses if environmental standards are not met.
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
This legislation sets up the new Border Security Command to crack down on criminal gangs bringing asylum seekers across the English Channel. It will also ensure stronger penalties against a range of organised immigration crimes.
Crime and Policing Bill
This will expand the powers of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to intervene in failing police forces and will introduce higher mandatory national vetting standards across policing.
Skills England Bill
This sets up a new quango called Skills England to oversee skills training, initially transferring functions from an existing body called the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.
Renters’ Rights Bill
This will end Section 21 “no fault” evictions for tenants, removing the threat of arbitrary evictions to increase tenant security. The Tories promised this in 2019 but failed to get similar legislation through Parliament before they lost the general election in early July.
Football Governance Bill
The government will establish a new independent regulator to address financial sustainability of the soccer industry and ensure fans’ voices are heard. This regulator would operate a licensing system and would have to make sure clubs are financially sound.
Draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill
This draft bill would allow leaseholders to extend their lease and buy their freehold and take over the freeholder’s building management function. There will also be restriction on the sale of new leasehold flats. It also proposes tighter regulation of ground rents for existing leaseholders.
Arbitration Bill
The bill will deliver on recommendations set out by the Law Commission in 2022, after the previous government failed to enact legislation before leaving office. Measures to strengthen arbitrator immunity and revise the framework for challenge is meant to make a sector worth £2.5bn to the UK economy more robust.
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
Labour is rolling over a previous Conservative bill that will gradually introduce a smoking ban for people born after January 2009. It will also crack down on child-friendly marketing of vapes.
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