Former Plaid Cymru Assembly Member, Cynog Dafis has a letter in this morning’s Western Mail in which he expresses his annoyance at the decision to give the Secretary of State for Wales a veto over the Government of Wales’ power to suspend the Right to Buy:
As a member of Tomorrow’s Wales, which campaigns for primary legislative powers for the National Assembly, and a person active in the Housing Association movement, I am doubly annoyed by the decision to give the Secretary of State a veto over the Government of Wales’ power to suspend the Right to Buy.
This illustrates perfectly what is wrong with the current arrangements for Welsh legislation under Part 3 of the Government of Wales Act 2006. Not only are those arrangements inefficient in terms of time and resources, but they also enable the UK Government to block policy proposals aimed at solving practical problems in Wales.
This latest decision will make it more difficult to provide affordable housing in Wales at a time of urgent need. It will also, by introducing the Secretary of State’s veto, make an already complex system even more convoluted and is a direct challenge to the democratic legitimacy of our National Assembly.
Although Mr. Dafis concludes by present system under which the Assembly has to go cap in hand to Westminster for the powers it needs to do its job, there is implied criticism of his former colleagues there as well.
It may be the system that is at fault but there is nothing in the Government of Wales Act that Mr. Dafis attacks so trenchantly which says that a veto is an option. That was a mechanism introduced and agreed to by the two governments, including a Plaid Cymru Deputy Minister.
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