King’s Speech 2024 – implications for charities

The last time a Labour government put forward its legislative programme for Parliament was in 2009, after Gordon Brown had taken over from Tony Blair as Prime Minister. It was the middle of the financial crisis and so-called ‘Great Recession’, and proved to be Labour’s last legislative session before the Coalition Government took power the following spring.

15 years later, Keir Starmer’s new government put forth a much more expansive legislative programme following Labour’s landslide victory in the 4 July General Election. A grand total of 40 Bills were introduced in the King’s Speech, giving a further indication of the new government’s priorities.

But which Bills would affect charities, or parts of the charity sector? Many details remain to be worked out, and there will be many legislative bun-fights to come. We also don’t yet know which Bills will have the highest priority or what order they may come in, or which are the most or least developed, with the greatest chance of being passed.

However, a quick tour through the proposed legislation illuminates some of the areas which will have a direct or indirect impact on many kinds of charities.

Tax changes for private schools

The King announced that ‘measures will be brought forward to remove the exemption from Value Added Tax for private school fees, which will enable the funding of six and a half thousand new teachers’. This would implement the Labour manifesto plan to help fund the state education system by reducing tax reliefs for independent schools (many of which are charities). There is no specific Bill listed to enact this, so it looks like it will need to be done in some other way via policy change or statutory instrument.

This might seem on the surface like it just affects well-to-do schools like Eton et al, but that’s unlikely to be the full picture. As the proposals develop, charities need to be vigilant to potential unintended consequences and new precedents which could have a knock-on effect. We’ll need to see the detail of the ‘measures’ to know the full implications.

However, the wording of the speech does suggest that it won’t include changes to business rates relief, which might have had wider unintended consequences for other types of charities apart from fee-paying charitable schools. If it is limited to removing or reducing VAT relief on fees, while that may make the cost of school fees higher for parents, it doesn’t directly remove a charitable tax relief as might have been the case with changing business rates reliefs.

‘Martyn’s Law’

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, otherwise known as ‘Martyn’s Law’, was included in the speech. This arose from the terror attacks in Manchester several years ago and would seek to ‘improve the safety and security of public venues and help keep the British public safe from terrorism’ by introducing certain requirements on public venues (including those owned or run by charities).

There will be different tiers of venue size, with the smallest venues (for example community halls) required to do ‘simple, low-cost activities’, and larger venues having to put in place more robust (and costly) ‘counter-terrorism measures’. We will need to see the detail when the full Bill is published to understand how the new government’s thinking has evolved from previous draft versions of the Bill.

Renters’ reform and anti-smoking Bills brought forward from the last session

Versions of previous legislation that didn’t make it through the last parliament will be reintroduced, probably in substantially revised form. Several of these are of interest to many charities working on for example housing and homelessness, or public health.

The Renters’ Rights Bill will ‘overhaul the private rented sector’ by abolishing no-fault evictions and strengthening other rights for tenants. Judging by the amount of detail in the summary document, and the fact that similar legislation was considered by the previous parliament, this could be early on the agenda for this session.

Similarly, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will carry on from a similar Bill in the last parliament which didn’t pass. This would introduce a progressive smoking ban to gradually end the sale of tobacco products, and would stop vapes from being branded in ways that appeal to children.

Devolutionary proposals could affect the policy environment for charities

The new government seems keen on further devolution of power, both within England and between the nations of the UK. The new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer notably visited the leaders of the devolved governments and also met with mayors in his first week.

We will have to see what form this takes and the precise details of legislation, but the message is that there will be a re-balancing of power away from Westminster, which could allow more scope for local charities to influence politicians closer to home. However, it’s important to note that this is a frequent promise from governments of all stripes which often fails to live up to expectations.

The speech announced an English Devolution Bill ‘to give new powers to metro mayors and combined authorities. This will support local growth plans that bring economic benefit to communities.’ The Bill summary states that it will give ‘local leaders the tools to kickstart their economies, as well as empowering communities to transform their neighbourhoods, high streets and important community assets.’

Of particular interest to local charities and community groups, the summary also says that the Bill will empower ‘local communities with a strong new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets, such as empty shops, pubs and community spaces.’

The King’s Speech also noted that the government ‘will establish a new Council of the Nations and Regions to renew opportunities for the Prime Minister, heads of devolved governments and mayors of combined authorities to collaborate with each other.’

Other Bills that will be of interest to charities

There were a relatively high number of Bills in this King’s Speech as well as other vague ‘measures’ to bring effect to parts of the Labour party’s manifesto. Many of these will be of interest to charities working in particular policy areas or with particular kinds of beneficiaries. The following Bills or draft Bills were included:

• Mental Health Bill to modernise the Mental Health Act 1983, and to ‘shift the balance of power from the system to the patient, putting service users at the centre of decisions about their own care’.
• Crime and Policing Bill, Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill – ‘to strengthen community policing, give the police greater powers to deal with anti-social behaviour and strengthen support for victims’, and to ‘help deliver on the Government’s mission to halve serious violence over a decade, with strong action to tackle knife crime and violence against women and girls.’
• Planning and Infrastructure Bill – ‘to speed up and streamline the planning process to build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects in alignment with our industrial, energy, and transport strategies’. This is likely to feature early on in the parliamentary session, and will have implications for meeting the government’s housebuilding targets and its ambitions for net zero and green energy.
• Employment Rights Bill – to deliver a ‘New Deal for Working People’, including measures on flexible working, protection from unfair dismissal, zero-hours contracts, and reforming trades union legislation. Many of these measures could affect charity employers.
• Water (Special Measures) Bill – to ‘put water companies under tough special measures by strengthening regulation and begin the work of cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas’.
• Armed Forces Commissioner Bill – to create a ’new Armed Forces Commissioner to act as a strong independent champion for our service personnel and their families’.
• Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill – ‘to enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people and to introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting.’
• Draft Conversion Practices Bill – ‘to bring forward a full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices’.

This list isn’t exhaustive and there are many other Bills and policy measures described in the King’s Speech document which can be found here.

DSC will be monitoring the work of the new parliament as it begins in earnest, so stay tuned to our daily bulletins, LinkedIn and X pages for updates. Also, you can learn more about the progress of the legislation in the King’s Speech and how to engage with the new government at DSC’s Engage conference in October!