By Richard Johnstone | 4 June 2014
Plans to limit pay-offs to senior public service managers and moves to increase the amount of public sector land available for development were among the measures confirmed in today’s Queen’s Speech.
A total of 11 bills and three draft bills were laid out by the monarch at the start of the last parliamentary session before next year’s general election. They included a commitment to take action to tackle abuse of controversial zero-hour contracts.
Addressing MPs and peers in the House of Lords, the Queen stated that the government would continue to focus on cutting the public sector deficit, with both a total cap on benefit spending and an updated charter for budget responsibility being introduced to parliament. The charter is expected to commit the next government to run a surplus by the end of the next parliament in 2020.
Among the legislation announced, an Infrastructure Bill will make changes to the planning system in an attempt to boost the supply of homes.
This will include reforms to quicken the sale of government land for development, with measures to allow assets to be transferred directly from arms-length public bodies to the Homes and Communities Agency in an attempt to reduce bureaucracy.
The legislation will also support the creation of new garden cities, including the project announced in this year’s Budget for Ebbsfleet in Kent.
It was also confirmed that legislation would be brought forward to limit what the government called ‘the revolving door of big redundancy pay-outs for highly paid public servants’.
As part of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, ministers will be able to reclaim some redundancy payments from public sector employees if they return to work in the same part of the public sector, such as the NHS, within a year. Part of this Bill will also introduce new protections for workers with controversial zero-hour employment contracts, including ending restrictions on working for more than one employer.
Other measures set out include continuing legislation to give new fiscal powers for the Scottish Parliament ahead of the independence referendum on September 18, and introduction of new borrowing powers for the Welsh Assembly.
In a statement, Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg said the legislative programme ‘builds on what we have achieved as a coalition’.
They added: ‘It is easy to forget when we first came together in the national interest just how sceptical people were about how long the coalition could last and how much change we could effect.
‘Four years on, no one can deny the progress we have made. The deficit down by a third; our economy one of the fastest-growing in the developed world; more than 1.5 million more people in work – and more people in work than ever before; a welfare system that ensures work pays; more than 1 million new apprentices; taxes cut; inequality declining and fewer children attending failing schools.’
Responding to the speech, CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman said that while many of the measures announced were sensible, much of the legislation was focused on short-term issues rather than on tackling the UK's big challenges.
‘It is disappointing that the speech didn’t come forward with any measures to tackle long term fiscal challenges such as the condition of local government finance, a sustainable future for health and social care, detail on how the government plans to enact the cap on welfare that is central its fiscal plans, or achieve value for money and proper stewardship of funds in the school sector,’ he said.
‘Whilst there is often a real degree of consensus across private and public sectors about unlocking growth and jobs, our parties appear stuck on how to bring forward the radical broad based reform needed to make this happen.
‘As such the Queen’s Speech seems another missed opportunity for reform of government that seems unlikely to change after next year's election.’