Bills delayed 'to make room for Lords reform'

The government is putting promised legislation on hold to make room for House of Lords reform, MPs say.

A bill to reform higher education has been put on the back burner and is not expected to be in the Queen's Speech.

A promised shake-up of the water industry will be downgraded to just a draft bill and electricity reforms will be delayed.

Some MPs and officials say measures are not yet ready or there is no political agreement between coalition parties.

But others claim some of the plans have been squeezed out because the plans to reform the Lords will take up so much time.

It comes after it emerged that plans to enshrine Britain's aid spending levels in law have also fallen down the legislative timetable, as have proposals to overhaul social care for the elderly and disabled.

Ministers fear the proposals for a largely elected second chamber could clog up the parliamentary time table for years.

This is not just because the plans will face huge opposition and will be subject to more detailed line-by-line scrutiny and votes than more straightforward legislation.

It is also because constitutional reforms have to be considered on the floor of the House of Commons and cannot be sent off to a separate committee like most bills.

The key measures put on hold include:

Eleanor Laing, Conservative MP for Epping Forest and chair of the backbench 1922 sub-committee on constitutional affairs, said: "The government has so many pieces of legislation that are needed to help put the economy back on its feet and that is what people on the doorstep are telling me they want. We should not be wasting our time on constitutional reform that is not going to improve the life of a single person in the UK."

Simon Hart, Conservative MP for Carmarthen West and Pembrokeshire South, said: "It is difficult to look voters in the eye and explain why a time-consuming expensive and divisive measure like Lords' reform is needed now.

"The Queen's speech should demonstrate clear direction and what we stand for - jobs and growth."

A Lib Dem spokesman said that it was entirely possible for the government to reform the House of Lords as well as doing other things.

"This was something that was in both our parties' manifestos and some people would rather blame their lack of a bill on Lords' reform than on other reasons," he said.