Catherine May is the Senior External Affairs and Communications Manager at PolicyWISE – the Open University’s initiative to improve how governments and academics work together across nations. Here, Catherine shares her thoughts on the upcoming King’s speech:
“There is always keen interest ahead of major government legislative announcements, and this year’s Kings Speech is being anticipated even more than usual. In part this is because it is the first for both the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and King Charles, and also because it is likely to be the last before the next general election.
“While we are independent and non-partisan in our ambitions for all citizens across the nations of the UK and Ireland, we at PolicyWISE know that political statements matter because they set the tone for the legislative and policy direction.
“It is widely expected that the governing Conservative Party will use the opportunity to set some clear lines between their intentions and those of the opposition parties. While this perhaps isn’t a surprise in the context of the UK Government, the fact that, two of those are lead parties in the parliaments in other nations, makes the dynamic with the devolved administrations ever more complex.
So what does this mean for the Kings Speech 2023?
“We don’t yet know for sure what will be in the King’s Speech. Some of the bills it contains will be applicable across the four nations of the UK whereas others will have far clearer significance and difference for the devolved context.
“One area always of keen interest is health, which is a devolved function. However, following announcements at the Conservative Party conference about banning smoking, speculation is that this may be applied in all four UK-nations. Of particular interest is what will be said about the availability of vapes for young people and whether the approach will cover all of the UK.
“In relation to housing, there are two housing bills – the first including a planned phasing out of some leaseholds, which would apply to England and Wales. The second includes the Renters Reform Bill, which applies to England only and has been in the pipeline for four years with some major sections now either scrapped, or delayed. This includes the end of no-fault evictions, with the Housing Minister recently announcing this part of the Act was on hold.
“When (if) this passes into law, landlords will need to provide a specific reason for reclaiming possession from their tenant. These sorts of evictions still exist in Wales, although the notice period is now longer than it used to be (from two to six months), while in Scotland there is a temporary eviction ban, which means some evictions can be delayed for up to six months.
“Another area of potential divergence between governments is around regulations relating to environmental impacts, with hints about legislation that will make it harder for local authorities to introduce 20mph speed limits and ultra-low emission zones. This is in direct contrast to the approach of the Welsh Labour Party.
“As for PolicyWISE, we will be poring over the details of the King’s Speech to find out what made the cut. We will be applying our unique four-nation comparative policy analysis to see the implications for devolution and making the connections with the relevant research of The Open University and our academic partners.”
Those who would like to hear more can contact Catherine directly on: catherine.may@open.ac.uk
