Lords reform Bill to be tabled

A Lords reform Bill that is set to strain the Coalition to its limits is due to be tabled amid threats of a Tory rebellion and a Labour attempt to derail the timetable for pushing it through.

Labour wants more days allotted to debating the legislation, which would introduce an 80% elected Upper House and slim membership down from 800 to 450, and confirmed it will join with Conservative rebels to vote down a motion setting out its passage through parliament.

Ministers aim to make the Bill law by the spring but a defeat on the timetable would pave the way for as much as four or five weeks of debate in the autumn, which would swallow up time needed by for other business.

Conservative opponents of reform - of whom there are thought to be as many as 100 in the Commons - would also seek to use the opportunity to "talk out" the legislation.

Labour leader Ed Miliband announced his party will back the reforms in the Commons but is expected to table an amendment demanding that any change is subject to a national referendum - something which the Government has firmly ruled out.

The Bill, approved by Cabinet with "strong support" from ministers on Tuesday, is being driven by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and forms the remaining centrepiece of Liberal Democrat constitutional reform plans, following defeat in last year's referendum on voting reform.

It would finally complete the removal of hereditary peers from the Second Chamber and introduce the first elected members in tranches of 120 at each of the next three general elections, with the process of change completed by 2025. Elected members would serve for a single 15-year term.

In a concession to critics, ministers have scrapped plans for a salary of about £60,000 for members of the new Upper House. Members will instead receive £300 for each day they attend - a maximum of about £45,000 a year - and this sum will be taxed, unlike the attendance allowances currently paid to peers.

Ministers insist that the reforms will maintain the primacy of the House of Commons within Parliament. But critics warn that this will be under threat once the Upper House has the added clout of democratic legitimacy.

After publication, the Bill will have its second reading in the Commons, followed by the crucial vote on the timetable motion before Parliament rises for its summer break on July 17.

©Press Association

New welfare clampdown could axe housing benefit from under-25s

Hundreds of thousands of young people could be stripped of housing benefit and forced to live with their parents as part of a new welfare crackdown signalled by David Cameron.

The Prime Minister insisted the system was giving the wrong incentives as he urged more action to prevent feckless families relying on state handouts.

The comments, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, come ahead of a keynote speech on welfare Mr Cameron is due to deliver next week.

The measures said to be under consideration include scrapping most of the £1.8 billion in housing benefits paid to 380,000 under 25s, worth an average £90 a week, forcing them to support themselves or live with mum and dad instead.

It could also mean stopping the £70-a-week dole payment for individuals who do not try hard enough to get work and forcing a hard core of unemployed to do community work after two years - or lose all their benefits.

According to the newspaper, ministers are also looking again at plans to limit child benefit to a couple's first three children - although Mr Cameron will stop short of raising the idea.

Mr Cameron said the existing benefits system was "sending out strange signals on working, housing and families".

He went on: "A couple will say, 'We are engaged, we are both living with our parents, we are trying to save before we get married and have children and be good parents.'

"'But how does it make us feel, Mr Cameron, when we see someone who goes ahead, has the child, gets the council home, gets the help that isn't available to us?' One is trapped in a welfare system that discourages them from working, the other is doing the right thing and getting no help."

Asked if he would take action against large families who were paid large sums in benefits, the premier replied: "This is a difficult area but it is right to pose questions about it. At the moment the system encourages people not to work and have children, but we should help people to work and have children."

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No plan for Lords reform referendum

The coalition has decided against holding a referendum on reforming the House of Lords, it has been revealed.

The outcome will be seen as a victory for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, after David Cameron hinted that he could back a national poll.

Historic plans for introducing a largely elected second chamber are due to be published next week. It could begin operating in 2015, but the legislation is facing fierce resistance from Tories and Labour peers.

Critics have argued that the changes should not be a priority at a time of economic crisis, and said such a major constitutional reform requires a referendum.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has also suggested a vote will be needed, while the Prime Minister signalled he could back asking the public.

However, Mr Clegg has insisted that a referendum is unnecessary because Lords reform featured in the election manifestos of all three main parties.

Government sources have now confirmed that a national poll - which could have cost more than £100 million - will not feature in the plans.

Mr Cameron is said to have secured concessions in return, including making it clear that the new-look chamber cannot block legislation passed by the House of Commons.

The legislation is expected to propose cutting the number of Lords from around 900 to 300, with at least 80% of peers being elected.

Elections would be held every five years and appointed or hereditary peers will progressively be replaced by the new elected "senators". Each senator will serve for a single term of 15 years and will represent a region rather than a traditional constituency, similar to the European Parliament system.

GPs 'losing faith' in NHS reforms

Confidence among GPs that the Government's NHS reforms will improve patient care has almost halved since they were first proposed, an opinion poll has shown.

Only around one in eight (12%) now expects health service users to be better off as a result compared with nearly a quarter (23%) two months after the blueprint was published in July 2010.

More than half (55%) said care would not improve, with 33% not expressing an opinion either way in the survey by ComRes by the BBC.

Just 12 per cent of GPs expect health
service users to be better off as a result of
NHS reforms proposed by Andrew Lansley, says poll

Legislation putting the shake-up into effect finally became law last week after a turbulent passage through parliament that saw it significantly rewritten amid hostility from many health professionals.

But ministers are braced for a continued battle as the measures - which include putting control of up to £80 billion of commissioning into the hands of local consortia of GPs from April 2013 - are put into effect.

The poll of 814 GPs showed 83% also feared financial pressures will lead to more rationing of care.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs committee, said: "If those who will have to deliver the latest health reforms are unconvinced and reluctant, the Government should take notice of what they say," he said.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "Any hopes he had that the concerns of NHS professionals would now subside are blown out of the water by this. Instead, GPs are clearly worried about the future of the NHS, warning of longer waits, service rationing and creeping privatisation.

"Many will lay responsibility for these things directly at the Prime Minister's door."

The poll interviews were carried out between March 21-30.

©Press Assosiation