Mr President, Excellencies,

The world today is experiencing greater instability and a wider range of threats to peace than we have seen for a generation.

The scale of violent conflict, and the desperate human suffering it causes, is immense. If we are to truly realise the ambition of the UN Charter, that said “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, then the need for peace, and the real motivation to prevent further conflict, is as great as ever before.

And that is why the UK very much welcomes Secretary General Guterres’ vision for peacebuilding and sustaining peace, and particularly the renewed focus on conflict prevention, that is set out in the report.

We also fully endorse the idea that sustaining peace should be a shared priority across the whole United Nations system – from peace and security to development and human rights.

We have summarised the key elements needed to successfully sustain peace into four clear and memorable pillars; the four ‘Ds’ approach. The first is diversification; diversification of the tools the UN deploys to promote and sustain peace. Secondly, development; more effective development interventions to address the drivers of conflict; Thirdly, diplomacy active diplomacy to de-escalate crises and create the political conditions for long-term peace; and finally the fourth element which is delivery, efficient delivery in partnership with others.

In this regard, the UK has identified three key priorities:

Firstly, developing a stronger partnership for peace between the UN and the World Bank. Their combined vision, expertise and global presence are essential to ensure that multilateral investments in development tackle the drivers of conflict;

Secondly, encouraging more preventive diplomacy within the UN, because we all know that political agreements are the bedrock of effective conflict prevention and peacebuilding; and,

Thirdly, we need to ensure smoother transitions to and from Peacekeeping missions in country to other UN entities, through earlier and better and more effective planning.

For the United Kingdom, these three priorities are underpinned by our wider commitment to a broader, values-driven, protection agenda.

In that context, the UN’s work to tackle Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and in preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, efforts are extremely important, indeed for me personally and for our Prime Minister Mrs. May, as her personal representative on the issue of Preventing Sexual Violence. The UK plays a leading role on these two issues.

And of course sustaining peace is part of the wider UN reform agenda that the United Kingdom also supports.

As we look to the future, we need to be more creative in finding ways to broaden the donor base for peacebuilding, and to deliver more thorough solutions and through the partnerships the UN enjoys with a wide range of organisations.

As a leading contributor to peacebuilding over many years, both politically and financially, the UK stands ready. It stands ready to support the process set out in the UNGA Resolution, so that, together, we can work effectively to sustain peace, and create a world in which future generations are saved from the scourge of war.

Ministers will today (25 April 2018) call on industry to embrace the latest innovations to make sure we are building the good quality homes that our country needs.

As part of the government’s focus on fixing the broken housing market and its ambition of delivering 300,000 new homes in England by the mid-2020s, it’s essential that the quality and design of new housing is addressed. This can help secure support from communities for new homes, and make sure we have good quality homes that people can feel proud living in and next-door to.

Recent research shows that more than 7 out of 10 people would support new residential development if buildings are well-designed and in keeping with their local area.

Action to boost innovative approaches for well-designed new homes include:

£1 billion investment through the Home Building Fund to develop new, modern approaches to design and construction

To date, 8 projects across 11 local authorities, backed by government funding, will use modern methods of construction such as modular homes to build good quality homes, using the latest techniques, whilst helping to speed up housing delivery.

Learning from other countries like Australia, Norway and Sweden where good design is embedded in decision making

For example, based on an Australian model, the government will urge councils to set their own design quality standards, giving communities the ability to better reflect their own unique character in local planning policy.

Embracing new technologies

For example using Virtual Reality (VR) technology to win the confidence of communities before a single brick is laid. By visualising proposed new housing from the neighbour or homebuyer’s perspective, communities will be able to see how development can visually contribute to the area from an early stage, even before planning permission has been granted.

Housing Secretary Sajid Javid will say:

Our homes are the making of all of us, which is why today’s event on raising the bar on the quality of new homes is so important.

This government is determined to make sure that high quality design is the norm rather than the exception.

Housing Minister Dominic Raab will say:

We are putting high-quality design on the map as never before when it comes to building better homes and stronger communities.

Today’s conference marks an important milestone in that journey.

Industry leaders, including local authority planners, developers and design professionals, attending the Design Quality Conference will share their expertise to ensure how homes look becomes just as important as the number delivered.

Ministers will focus on how developers can use better quality design in order to win over both communities and new generations of first-time buyers, who expect the highest quality homes before parting with their hard-earned deposits.

When things go wrong, the government has also proposed strengthening ways for homebuyers to complain when their home hasn’t been built satisfactorily – with these new measures recently being subject to a consultation.

The event will build on previous government action to ensure new homes are built using quality materials and design methods, as set out in the recently published draft National Planning Policy Framework.

The document, which is currently out to consultation, outlines requirements for design guides and codes to feature prominently in new Local Plans, significant consideration to be given to existing local character as well as setting out the density of developments that meet the needs and expectations of the community.

The conference will also include speakers from the Royal Institute of British Architects, Stephen Lawrence Trust, The Princes Foundation, Historic England and Homes England as well as other experts with experience in delivering excellent build quality for new and existing communities.

A series of exhibitions and seminar workshops will be held during the day, focusing on a range of issues such as:

• How to use quality methods and materials to create supportive communities.
• New approaches that lead to quality design in practice.
• Using new technologies that support greater community engagement in design, approaches to measuring quality and presentation.
• Training, skills development and latest innovation to ensure the use of good design principals spread across the industry.
• The expectations of consultee organisations such as Historic England, Homes England and the National Infrastructure Commission in designing homes that fit in with their wider setting.

National Planning Policy Framework

In the revised National Planning Policy Framework it is made clear that the government is committed to ensuring the planning system can deliver high quality buildings and places.

The document sets out that permission should be refused for a development of poor design that fails to take the opportunities for improving the character and quality of an area and the way it functions. Conversely, where the design of a development accords with clear expectations in local policies, design should not be used by the decision-maker as a valid reason to object to development.

Housing white paper

The housing white paper published in February 2017 also set out the government’s ambition to give communities a stronger voice in the design of new housing, and to drive up the quality and character of new development, building on the success of neighbourhood planning.

Home Building Fund

The £3 billion Home Building Fund provides support for builders using modern methods of construction, custom builders, and new entrants to the market. An additional £1.5 million announced in the Autumn Budget will help small and medium-sized builders who cannot access the finance they need.

Eight projects employing modern methods of construction have been awarded almost £1 billion through the Home Building Fund to date.

Women and children are evacuated from eastern Ghouta, Syria, March 2018. Picture: UNICEF/Omar Sanadiki

Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, today announced a coalition of government ministers, cross-party MPs, police leaders, local government and the voluntary sector will make up the Serious Violence Taskforce – which will ensure sustained, swift and decisive action against violent crime.

Together with the government, the taskforce will help design and deliver the key commitments of the Serious Violence Strategy, working with affected communities to ensure immediate and real action is taken.

The taskforce’s aim is to stop the recent increases in serious violence and see levels of violent crime reduce. It will hold the government and others to account, evaluate the strategy’s impact and commission further work as commitments are delivered.

Chaired by the Home Secretary, the taskforce – which will meet for the first time on 26 April, when the frequency of future meetings will also be decided – will have the vital job of ensuring the strategy is effectively delivered.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said:

I am determined that the Serious Violence Strategy will have an immediate impact on tackling the scourge of serious violence.

I am absolutely clear that the taskforce must work with the government to deliver the strategy’s commitments. Together, we will seek to prevent serious violence from happening in the first place and ensure the measures that I set out when I launched the strategy are delivered.

Everyone joining the taskforce is committed to ending the serious violence blighting our communities and I look forward to working together in the weeks and months ahead.

The taskforce’s members include Home Office ministers Nick Hurd and Victoria Atkins; London MPs Chuka Umunna and David Lammy; Mayor of London Sadiq Khan; Met Commissioner Cressida Dick; National Crime Agency Director-General Lynne Owens; and Chingford and Woodford Green MP Iain Duncan Smith, who founded the Centre for Social Justice and has a long-standing interest in issues around serious violence.

Its membership reflects the Home Secretary’s words when launching the strategy last week when she spoke of the importance of the taskforce’s cross-party dimension.

Establishing the taskforce was one of 60 measures announced in the Serious Violence Strategy. Commissioned by the Home Secretary and backed with £40 million of Home Office funding, the strategy marks a major shift in the government’s response to serious violence.

It strikes a balance between prevention and robust law enforcement with a new £11 million Early Intervention Youth Fund for community projects to help young people live lives free from violence.

The strategy identifies the changing drugs market – in particular the devastating impact of crack cocaine – as a key driver of the violence harming our communities, and announces a range of powerful actions to tackle the issue of ‘county lines’ and its implications for drugs, violence and exploitation of vulnerable people. That includes £3.6 million to establish a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre.

The membership of the taskforce will be:

• Home Secretary, Amber Rudd
• Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability, Victoria Atkins
• Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, Nick Hurd
• Minister for Children and Families, Nadhim Zahawi
• Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Margot James
• Member of Parliament for Tottenham, Rt Hon David Lammy MP
• Member of Parliament for Streatham, Chuka Umunna MP
• Member of Parliament for Chingford and Woodford Green, Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP
• Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick
• National Police Chiefs Council Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Duncan Ball
• Director-General of the National Crime Agency, Lynne Owens
• Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan
• Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, David Lloyd
• Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund, Dawn Austwick
• Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield
• Chief Executive of Public Health Wales, Dr Tracey Cooper
• Chief Executive of Public Health England, Duncan Selbie
• Local Government Association, Councillor, Simon Blackburn
• CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust, Patrick Green
• CEO of Redthread, John Poyton
• Head of Gangs SOS project for St Giles Trust, Junior Smart
• CEO of Onside Youth Zones, Kathryn Morley
• Chief Operating Officer of Catch 22, Naomi Hulston
• Knife crime campaigner and Member of Parliament for Enfield North (2010-2015), Nick de Bois

Britain bites back in the fight against loan sharks

Loan sharks face a fresh crackdown today (25 April), with more funding to tackle unlawful lending, and an increase in the amount of money seized from loan sharks to support those most vulnerable to their nasty tactics.

• over £5.5 million will be spent to fund the fight against loan sharks, helping to investigate and prosecute illegal lenders, and support their victims
• £100,000 of money already seized from loan sharks will also be spent to encourage people in England at risk of being targeted by loan sharks to join a credit union, helping them to access a safer form of finance and get their lives back on track
• and for the first time in Northern Ireland a new education project will be created to raise awareness of the dangers of loan sharks and to support vulnerable communities

John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury said:

These nasty lenders are nothing more than lowlife crooks taking hard-earned cash from the pockets of the most vulnerable. Over 300,000 people are in debt to illegal money lenders in the Britain and they need to know that we’re on their side. That’s why we’re taking the fight to the loan sharks and spending more than ever to support their victims.

In total, £5.67 million of funding will be provided to Britain’s Illegal Money Lending Teams (IMLT) and bodies in Northern Ireland to tackle illegal lending – a 16% increase compared to the previous year. The money will be used to investigate and prosecute illegal lenders, and to support those who have been the victim of a loan shark.

Since the Illegal Money Lending Team was established in England in 2004, they’ve made over 380 prosecutions, leading to 328 years’ worth of sentences, and have written off over £73 million of illegal debt, helping over 28,000 people to escape the jaws of the loan sharks. Similar teams operate in Scotland and Wales.

In Northern Ireland, the Consumer Council will lead its first ever education and awareness campaign to help prevent the most vulnerable from being bitten by loan sharks, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will get funding for a specialised officer who will lead on illegal lending within the Paramilitary Crime Task Force.

Tony Quigley, Head of the England Illegal Money Lending Team, said:

Loan sharks are a blight on society and prey on vulnerable people who struggle to make ends meet. These criminals use callous methods to enforce repayment and victims are often subjected to threats, intimidation and violence. We will not tolerate this sort of criminal activity in our country and loan sharks who are caught flouting the law will be pursued and prosecuted.

It is important for people to realise that alternatives to borrowing from loan sharks are available if you are in financial difficulty. Loan sharks are never the answer and we strongly support credit unions who can provide a safe and legal alternative. If you have been affected by illegal money lending, please call our confidential hotline on 0300 555 2222.