SVP response to the King's Speech

Source: SVP

The St Vincent de Paul Society has issued the following statement in response to today's King's Speech (17 July 2024) marking the opening of Parliament and the start of a new Government led by Sir Keir Starmer:

Following today's speech, we are encouraged to see the announcement of legislation which can address some of the most pressing issues facing our country, including homelessness, secure work, and regional inequalities.

We welcome the commitment to ending no-fault evictions. This is an important step to provide more protection for renters, and address growing rates of homelessness across the country.

At the SVP we have long called for measures to tackle in-work poverty. We are therefore happy to see the Government's proposal to enhance employment rights and ban exploitative practices, including zero-hours contracts, by bringing forward the Employment Right's Bill. It is vital that this bill leads to real change that will improve the security of work and address the rise of in-work poverty.

Through our work in some of the most deprived communities across England we know that poverty does not affect everyone equally, with geography playing a key role. That is why we have supported the devolution of more power and funding to local decision makers. In line with this we welcome the announcement today of new powers to metro mayors and combined authorities. We hope this will be an important step in addressing regional inequalities.

While we welcome these measures announced in today's King's Speech, we would also like to see action to improve our social security system. We continue to call for an increase of the basic rate of Universal Credit and the removal of the two-child benefit cap.

With our understanding of the real issues that people in some of the most deprived communities in the UK face from our work on the ground, we hope there will be many opportunities to work with the new Government to tackle poverty and help our communities thrive.