It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Ghani. I rise to oppose Government Amendment 1 and commend amendment 3.

As we know, Government amendment 1 removes the provisions to create a community wealth fund as a means of tackling deprivation and building social infrastructure in left-behind communities. The Bill was amended in the other place to include those specific provisions. As we know, that amendment enjoyed significant cross-party support, including from Lord Hodgson from the Conservatives, Lord Bassam and Baroness Lister from Labour, Baronesses Kramer and Barker from the Liberal Democrats, Baroness Bennett from the Greens, and the Lord Bishop of Ely.

I oppose Government amendment 1 for two reasons. First, the Bill, as a piece of primary legislation, is an excellent opportunity to set out clearly not only the mechanism for the acquisition of dormant assets, but some of the priorities for their distribution. It is worth noting, as my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Withington just set out, that the clauses inserted by the other place are permissive, allowing the Minister and the Government if they so wish to enable the creation of funds to be established for community wealth funds.

That helps to set out the current thinking of this Parliament—that we recognise the importance of community wealth funds, and that we would like to see Government investment in that area. If the distribution of dormant assets is not identified with clear markers at this stage in proceedings, after so many years of discussion and debate, that would be a missed opportunity.

I do not believe that the Minister is correct in claiming that secondary legislation is the most appropriate mechanism for deciding on the distribution. We all understand that there is limited opportunity for debate on secondary legislation, and there is, of course, no opportunity to amend it. That means Parliament’s role will be limited to rubber-stamping the Government’s proposals.

With the expanded scheme expected to generate close to £1 billion of new funds for good causes, decisions about those causes are important and should be subject to proper debate and scrutiny in Parliament, rather than just introduced in secondary legislation. I know that Members across the House will want an opportunity to make the case for funding for their own constituencies and for many other good causes—of course they will; of course we all will.

I would argue that the creation of a community wealth fund is a matter of some importance to the Government themselves, with their levelling-up agenda for the most disadvantaged and left-behind areas. We hear so much about that from the Government, and it is really in their interest to have that on the face of the Bill.

There is, of course, a precedent here. It should be noted that the first causes to benefit in England—social investment, financial capability and projects for young people—were all written into the original 2008 Act. I therefore believe that it would be beneficial to keep provisions relating to the community wealth funds in this Bill to make clear what the money will be used for, and that it is the clear will of Parliament. I know the Government do not want dormant assets to be used to supplement their day-to-day spending, but without direction and clarity in the Bill, that could be one unintended side effect. We need a very clear direction of travel, which Clause 29 currently provides.

The second reason I oppose the Government’s amendment to remove the provisions for a community wealth fund is that any consultation process on how assets should be distributed could take some time. In his opening remarks, the Minister referred to the summer and talked about a 12-week consultation period, so it seems likely that the rest of 2022 will be gone before we get to the point of any secondary legislation being brought to Parliament.

If the Government really are serious about their levelling-up agenda, keeping the provision for community wealth funds in the Bill is an opportunity that helps the Government. The community wealth fund commands broad support. Polling research shows that the proposal would have support among senior leaders in the financial services industry, whose endorsement the Government have said is key. Were the fund to remain written into the Bill, the Community Wealth Fund Alliance could start the process of securing match funding and planning to get money into the most left-behind communities as soon as possible after Royal Assent.

I ask the Minister to reconsider on the basis of those arguments. I genuinely believe that this measure would assist the Government with one of their flagship policies.

I move on to amendment 3, in the name of my hon. Friend Paul Howell, my co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for “left behind” neighbourhoods. If amendment 1 is passed, amendment 3 offers an alternative approach, as it would require the Government to

“specifically consult on the merits of establishing a community wealth fund”.

As drafted, the Bill was silent on the purposes that the cash from this next wave of dormant assets would be spent on. As we know, the Government estimate it could be as much as £900 million. As I just set out, that lack of clarity contrasts very clearly with the original legislation, the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008. The causes that would be supported—social investment, financial inclusion and projects for young people—were very clear in that legislation, so it makes sense to me, given the amount of money at stake and the enormous contribution that the dormant assets scheme will make to good causes, that the matter of where the money is spent should be debated in and ultimately determined by Parliament.

In response to efforts to assist the Government by putting in the Bill powers to establish pilot community wealth funds, the Minister is arguing that the Bill should not cover the specifics and set out the purposes that the funding should be directed to, and that such important detail should be left to the secondary legislation, albeit informed by public consultation. I note what the Minister has committed to do. He said that the community wealth fund would be a part of the first round of consultation, but I would like to push him a little further. Will he meet me and the others who are advocating the establishment of a community wealth fund halfway? Amendment 3 is probing at this stage. I am not going to force the issue to a vote today, but I want to test the Minister further on whether he might be minded to include the community wealth fund as a named and clearly identified object category in that first consultation by putting it in the Bill, if not at this stage, perhaps on Report.

The noble Lord Parkinson, the Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media And Sport in the other place, said

“the Government will consider including community wealth funds in the first consultation launched under Clause 29.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 16 November 2021; Vol. 816, c. 192.]

The Minister has reiterated that commitment today, but I would like a bit more reassurance from him. I hope we might be able to persuade him to go one small step further and to confirm that it would be written into the Bill, which would be really helpful. That would give those of us in the House who have advocated for this proposal a great deal of comfort, and I think it would be a really popular measure for the Government. It is clearly established as a principle that dormant assets should be used for good causes—in other words, for voluntary and community action, independent of the state—and the voluntary and community sector has already signalled its support for the community wealth fund.

Over 400 charities and community groups are part of the alliance co-founded by Local Trust that advocates for this proposal. Many of those 400 civil society organisations are part of the alliance not because they believe that their charity or cause will benefit but because they are concerned to see greater equity in the way that charitable and other resources are allocated, and they want to ensure that the most deprived communities—those that persistently lose out—have the opportunity to improve the areas in which they live and their own quality of life.

The organisations supporting the community wealth fund proposal are also often advocates for community control of resources, because it builds community confidence and capacity and seeds civic institutions. Such institutions leave a lasting legacy in neighbourhoods that previously lacked them and that, as a result, often missed out on earlier funding and other opportunities. Research by the all-party parliamentary group for “left behind” neighbourhoods found that there are almost three times fewer registered charities per 100,000 population in such neighbourhoods than there are across England as a whole, and just over half the number found in other equally deprived neighbourhoods. These communities also receive fewer grants than other deprived areas and England as a whole, despite higher levels of deprivation and need.

As I am sure the Minister is aware, the community wealth fund proposal also has the support of over 40 local or combined authorities and mayors, including Durham County Council, Birmingham, Newcastle, Peterborough, Kingston upon Hull, Thanet, Pendle, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the Mayor of Greater Manchester. That illustrates its salience and the belief that these tiers of government have in the potential of the proposal to turn around the most deprived wards within them.

Furthermore, the views of the financial services industry are important in determining which causes benefit. After all, the industry is providing access to the cash, and the scheme is voluntary. Financial institutions can choose to participate or not, as the Minister said. Happily, we know from polling research commissioned by Local Trust that community wealth fund investment has the support of senior leaders from across the financial services industry. Some 78% said that new causes, or a mix of new and existing causes, should benefit from the expanded scheme, and 93% of those who said that held that cash should be invested in the country’s most deprived neighbourhoods to enable communities to develop the services and facilities that would make them better places to live.

Finally, I want to point out the support that the proposal has from my colleagues in the all-party parliamentary group for “left behind” neighbourhoods, and the cross-party support for amendment 3. Based on their experience and knowledge of their constituencies, as well as the group’s own research and testimony from local residents, the members of the all-party parliamentary group are confident that a community wealth fund or funds is exactly what is required to turn around the most left-behind neighbourhoods and to improve the prospects of some of the people across the country who feel most cut off and forgotten. That is of course a priority for the Minister’s Government, because it is what levelling up, as I understand it, has to be about.

I look forward to hearing whether I have been able to persuade the Minister to accept amendment 3. That would give great reassurance to those of us who care about this matter that the Government are serious about committing to community wealth funds.