2020 has set unprecedented challenges for countries across the globe. But more importantly, it has emphasised the importance of global partnerships to tackle this pandemic. Against the challenges of COVID-19, the UK has pooled its existing assets, expertise and resources to contribute to a massive, collective effort against this pandemic. More importantly, we have championed a multilateral approach to develop vaccines and treatments while promoting transparent development and equitable access. This ‘vaccine multilateralism’ means we will need to reach across borders and recognise that a global pandemic calls for global cooperation.

Contributing to the global effort against COVID-19

The UK has actively engaged with an unparalleled alliance of countries to accelerate vaccine development through the UN-led COVAX facility, where we have committed £571 million to support equitable access to a vaccine, especially for developing countries. We are pleased to note that the Philippines has partnered with COVAX as a beneficiary of the Advanced Market Commitment. Great progress has been made by clinical trials being undertaken by the University of Oxford and Imperial College London, supported by £130m of UK government funding. These scientific and academic innovators are complemented by British firms providing significant private sector contributions.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has several scientific collaborations globally, providing innovative vaccine adjuvant technology.

AstraZeneca has partnered with the University of Oxford, and while they await phase 3 trials within the year, their initial data showed encouraging results. They have committed to broadly and equitably supplying their vaccine candidate at no profit to make it more affordable.  And the anticipated storage temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius are similar to those you would see in domestic refrigerators.

In ASEAN, £6.3million of additional UK funding has been announced to tackle the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 across Southeast Asia. Cooperation with the Asian Development Bank and ASEAN bodies will support economic recovery, health education and training, and the development of a regional pandemic alert system to communicate real-time COVID-19 risks in the region.

UK-Philippines enhanced partnership as a force for good

Ahead of marking 75 years of diplomatic engagement next year, bilateral cooperation between the UK and the Philippines remains a force for good.

COVID-19 shaped the discussion of the second UK-Philippines Economic Dialogue in August, where both countries set an ambitious agenda towards an inclusive, green and sustainable economic recovery. Since then, we have mobilised our partnerships to contribute to local pandemic response.

The British Embassy is working with the UP College of Public Health to pool technical expertise from the UK and the Philippines for a COVID-19 learning series supporting public health workers and local governments, including the Doctors to the Barrios Programme. Strategic learning exchanges supported by the Prosperity Fund Better Health Programme (BHP) have enabled Pasig City, Iloilo City, the University of the Philippines and the Department of Health to engage with public health bodies in the UK part of BHP’s Strategic Partner network including the NHS, Public Health England and NICE International. Re-adapted elements of the Prosperity Fund and the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund will continue to contribute to local health responses, including in the Bangsamoro region. 

Looking ahead: the case for a multilateral response

Our work to respond to COVID-19, including our on-going discussions with the Philippines on vaccines, remains an important priority – which Nigel Adams, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Minister for Asia, will take forward in his visit to Manila later this week.

The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to test our resolve for international cooperation to save lives and build back better. But there is hope – unparalleled breakthroughs in vaccine research and development at a record pace have been made possible because of global cooperation and strengthens the case for such a collective, multilateral approach to combat this pandemic.

As Ambassador, I consider it my personal duty to do all I can to ensure fair and equitable access to a safe and effective vaccine, that has been developed transparently.

This is not a race which pits country against country, or company against company.  We are all racing against the virus. And only by working together can we bring an end to the pandemic for everyone, everywhere.

Major reforms to support housing tenants in England and ensure landlords raise standards where needed have been announced today (17 November 2020) by the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.

The social housing white paper – ‘The Charter for Social Housing Residents’, sets out reforms that will speed up the complaints procedure for residents by improving access to the Housing Ombudsman, reducing decision times and ensuring effective resolution.

The Charter will also make landlords more accountable for the services they deliver, including access to a new information scheme for tenants of housing associations and introducing a set of tenant satisfaction measures that landlords will have to report against.

The social housing white paper delivers on the government’s manifesto pledge to provide greater redress, better regulation and improve the quality of social housing.

Shaped by the views of residents across England, including the survivors and bereaved family members of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, it also includes a new Charter setting out what every social housing resident should expect from their landlord:

1. To be safe in your home. We will work with industry and landlords to ensure every home is safe and secure.

2. To know how your landlord is performing, including on repairs, complaints and safety, and how it spends its money, so you can hold it to account.

3. To have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly, with access to a strong Ombudsman who will give you swift and fair redress when needed.

4. To be treated with respect, backed by a strong consumer regulator and improved consumer standards for tenants.

5. To have your voice heard by your landlord, for example through regular meetings, scrutiny panels or being on its Board. The government will provide help, if you want it, to give you the tools to ensure your landlord listens.

6. To have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in, with your landlord keeping your home in good repair.

7. To be supported to take your first step to ownership, so it is a ladder to other opportunities, should your circumstances allow.

The white paper sets out what the government will do to ensure landlords deliver this change. Most significantly, the government is reforming the Regulator of Social Housing and Housing Ombudsman service to drive the culture change required, backed by legislation where needed.

Alongside publishing the white paper, the Housing Secretary also announced a consultation on mandating smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in all rental homes.

The social housing green paper consultation response and response to the call for evidence on the review of regulation is also published today.

Housing Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:

We are delivering on the commitment we made to the Grenfell community that, never again, would the voices of residents go unheard. This white paper will bring transformational change for social housing residents, giving them a much stronger voice and, in doing so, re-focusing the sector on its social mission.

I want to see social housing tenants empowered by a regulatory regime and a culture of transparency, accountability, decency and service befitting of the best intentions and deep roots of social housing in this country.

The new approach and regulatory changes we set out in this white paper will make a measurable difference to the lived experiences of those living in England’s 4 million social homes in the years ahead.

Carol Matthews, Riverside Group Chief Executive said:

The white paper contains a number of very sensible proposals around consumer regulation, complaint handling, sector accountability and buildings. The review of the decent homes standard is most welcome.

I am relieved that the existing social housing regulator will be expanded to fulfil the responsibilities of a proactive consumer regulator. It is right and proper that landlords should be accountable to and transparent with their customers and stakeholders.

I am certain that housing associations who have signed up to the National Houisng Federation (NHF) ‘Together with Tenants’ programme are progressing culture change and customer experience improvements where necessary

Today’s announcement will see a transformation of consumer regulation, ensuring tenants are at the heart of social housing delivery. Tenants will get access to quicker and fairer redress so that they are not waiting long months to resolve complaints.

It underlines our commitment to safer homes, with a consultation seeking the same legal protections on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms for social tenants as private renters. And this will encourage improvements to the quality of green spaces for social housing residents

The white paper also reaffirms the government’s ambition to provide social housing residents with more opportunities to own their home via Right to Buy and a new Right to Shared Ownership for housing association tenants in new grant funded homes.

Today’s measures follow extensive engagement and consultation with residents’ and landlord groups as well as hearing directly from those most affected by the Grenfell tragedy.

They also reflect responses to the social housing green paper published in 2018, in which residents from across the country were asked for their views on social housing. Almost 1,000 tenants shared their views with ministers at 14 events across the country, with over 7,000 submitting their opinions, issues and concerns online.

Alongside publishing the white paper, the government is also announcing:

The measures contained in the social housing white paper will deliver the following:

• Ensure that homes are safe. We will reinforce the Regulator of Social Housing’s consumer regulation objective to explicitly include safety and legislate to place an obligation on landlords to identify a nominated person responsible for ensuring compliance with health and safety requirements.
• Increase transparency allowing residents greater visibility of how well their landlord is performing and the decisions it is making. We will deliver a set of tenant satisfaction measures for social landlords to report against on issues that matter to tenants.
• Ensure swift and effective resolution of complaints by speeding up decisions. We will build on the changes already agreed with the Housing Ombudsman Service to improve its performance and reduce its decision times.
• Transform social housing regulation by creating a new, proactive consumer regulation regime for social housing, delivering robust oversight of all social landlords. We will establish a new arm of the Regulator of Social Housing to proactively regulate on consumer standards including quality of homes, repairs, meaningful engagement with tenants and complaints handling.
• Empower residents by requiring landlords to improve tenant engagement. We will deliver new opportunities and empowerment programme for social housing residents, to support them in engaging with and holding their landlords to account.
• Encourage investment in neighbourhood, place and decency. We will review the Decent Homes Standard and support the quality of and access to green spaces. We will tackle anti-social behaviour by enabling tenants to know who is responsible for action and who can support and assist them.

The Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grants scheme invited established community groups and civil society organisations across England to apply for funding for projects that champion the government’s commitment to building a diverse and tolerant society for all faiths and races.

Today (17 November 2020) Faith Minister Lord Greenhalgh has announced the projects which will receive funding.

The 9 projects receiving funding are:

• Communities United
• Unified Action
• The R project
• It’s Not as Simple as Black and White
• Back Together, Stronger Together
• The Faith and Belief Forum
• Building Bridges Bradford
• United As One
• Pathway of Understanding

Anne Frank Trust UK will receive a grant of £204,000 to run ‘Back Together, Stronger Together’ projects in the North West and the East of England.

School workshops, peer education and in-school ambassadors will directly address antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred, enabling young people to discover shared values across different communities of faith, race, and social groups.

Another grant of £287,000 will be given to ‘Communities United’ and will be delivered by 6 English Football League Trust Club Community organisations in the North West.

The project will bring families from different backgrounds together, increasing understanding and awareness of social and cultural differences, challenging stereotypes and uniting them through common interests and social action.

The grants will address existing community issues, as well as pressures increased by the pandemic, such as isolation.

Faith Minister Lord Greenhalgh said:

In this country we believe in freedom within the rule of law. We are all free to love and not to hate. This government will not tolerate hate towards anyone because of who they are.

We stand full square in support of all communities that suffer from prejudice and discrimination and we must build a shared future in this country.

The pandemic has hit faith communities hard with the closure of communal worship during the two lockdowns. This funding is part of our comprehensive support for them. Our faith communities instinctively love their neighbours.

Chief Executive of the Anne Frank Trust, Tim Robertson said:

We are delighted with the support from MHCLG, which will enable young people to lead the change in pushing back on prejudiced discriminatory ideologies based on race and faith. This will be a real step forward in building community cohesion, especially during the disruption and uncertainties of the Covid pandemic.

In Anne Frank we have a unique and powerful role model young people find easy to connect with which can help them explore themes such as stereotyping and hate speech.

Our school workshops and peer education project will equip and empower thousands of young people to speak out against prejudice. They will inspire their communities to reject hateful narratives and instead welcome and celebrate diversity – creating a safer, fairer society for everyone.

Head of Community and Participation at EFL Trust, Loo Brackpool said:

It is of great importance for the EFL Trust and our Club Community Organisations to be part of this vital project and use the power of the club badge to unite people by demonstrating common interests, increasing understanding and bridging differences.

We will be working with family groups to help facilitate understanding across generations, as well between those from different backgrounds, cultures and faith groups. Despite the current Covid restrictions, we will find ways to deliver this project and use the learning to inform other areas of our existing community activities nationwide.

Organisations will receive funding to deliver a suite of interventions to encourage greater integration in their local communities and to tackle discriminatory behaviour.

Some organisations will deliver COVID-19 related projects whilst the remaining will continue to work to address existing community issues.

All grant recipients have been required to provide details of how they will adapt their delivery under Covid restrictions.

We will ensure that grant recipients continue to work to deliver interventions that take account of the coronavirus restrictions and the safety of those participating in the scheme.

The final portfolio includes a diverse set of projects – including community engagement and support, performing arts, sports, training and awareness raising – across a range of ages, communities and geographical locations.

The following organisations have been awarded funding under the scheme:

See further information on the Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant scheme

Mr President,

At the outset, let me congratulate Ambassador Joanna Wronecka of Poland and Ambassador Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani on their recent appointment as Co-Facilitators of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council reform. We are grateful to them for taking up this important responsibility and look forward to working with them closely this session.

The United Kingdom’s strong support for Security Council reform is long-standing and our position is well-known.

The United Kingdom supports modest expansion of the Security Council in both permanent and non-permanent categories.

We support the creation of new permanent seats for India, Germany, Japan and Brazil, as well as permanent African representation on the Council.

We also support a modest expansion of the non-permanent category of membership, taking the Security Council’s total membership to somewhere in the mid-twenties.

These changes, we believe, would enable the Security Council to better reflect the twenty-first century and the world as it is today, 75 years on from the United Nations’ founding.

It would make for a more representative Security Council, better able to address challenges to international peace and security by drawing on the perspectives and the expertise of a wider range of the UN membership.

And it is a model for reform that would preserve for the Council its ability to respond nimbly and decisively to threats around the globe.

Mr President,

On the question of the veto, the United Kingdom has long maintained that disagreement in this area should not prevent progress in other areas where reform is possible.

For our own part, it is well-known that the United Kingdom has refrained from using the veto since 1989 – over three decades ago. As supporters of the Accountability Coherence and Transparency group Code of Conduct, we remain committed never to vetoing a credible draft resolution preventing or ending a mass atrocity, and encourage all States, including other permanent members of the Security Council, to join with us in this regard.

Mr President,

Before concluding, I will turn briefly to the upcoming Intergovernmental Negotiations of this session.

We continue to believe that the Intergovernmental Negotiations process is a valuable mechanism for Member States to take the discussion on Security Council reform forwards.

Nevertheless, as we set out in this debate last year, we continue to sympathise with those Member States that express concern and frustration over the lack of progress that has been made to date.

We remain open, as before, to all ideas for moving the process forward at an accelerated rate, including by formalising and recording the Intergovernmental Negotiations or by moving to text-based negotiations.

Finally, Mr President, as you noted in your letter of 30 October the last session’s meetings were unexpectedly curtailed because of measures put in place to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic.

During this session, we are open to all options that would allow us to work around the pandemic, including by participating in virtual meetings if that is required.

Mr President,

In the Declaration on the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, we committed to “instil new life” into our efforts to reform the Security Council. We look forward to working this year to fulfilling that commitment.

Thank you.