Today is likely to see the rejection of the Welsh Assembly’s latest attempt to draw down powers to legislate on affordable housing. Despite having three years, the Labour-Plaid Cymru Government have not been able to get their act together sufficiently to deliver a coherent and legally sound order, and when they did it was too late. The Legislative Competence Order will fall foul of Tory opportunism.
The behaviour of the Welsh Conservatives on this matter has been wholly disreputable. They have indulged in scaremongering, misleading the public as to the powers that would be made available to Welsh Ministers if the LCO is approved by Westminster.
The Tories have been putting it about that “the LCO in its present form could potentially give the Welsh Assembly Government the right to impose the location of Gypsy and traveller sites upon local communities contrary to the wishes of local authorities.” That is not supported by the facts.
The Conservatives say that they believe such decisions should be taken locally and I agree with them. There is nothing in the powers being given to the Assembly by this Order that would prevent that happening. What is being sought is the power to compel local planning authorities to make an assessment as to need and to make provision in their overall plan. Where sites are located and the process for approving them remains entirely with the planning authority and cannot be dictated to by the Welsh Government.
Indeed as planning is a quasi-judicial process I would argue that any attempt to impose planning permission by statute would prove to be sub-judice and subject to challenge in the courts. No government would seek to attempt such a thing.
The Tories are playing politics with this issue in the hope of winning a few votes. In doing so they are preventing a vital piece of legislation reaching the statute book. Their reasons for playing games with people’s homes in this way appear to be clouded in misunderstanding and prejudice. I regret very much that they feel the need to add to that by misleading people as to the way that these powers can and will be used.
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