The Welsh Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson, Peter Black, has criticised the actions of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Welsh Office, David Jones in insisting on changes to the Welsh Government’s Housing Legislative Competence Order before he is prepared to allow it to proceed.
Mr. Black argued that this insistence on changes is contrary to the UK coalition agreement which guarantees the passage of this order unchanged.
The Housing LCO is a key piece of legislation seeking to transfer powers to the Welsh Government that will enable them to legislate to suspend the right to buy in areas of high demand, reduce Council tax bills for serving members of the armed forces, make changes to the regulatory regime for housing associations and create a single set of tenancy conditions for those renting their homes from Councils and housing associations. It also contains powers to legislate so as to insist on provision for gypsies and travellers.
Mr. Jones has now said that before the Government is prepared to allow this Order to proceed he wants it amended so that it prevents the Assembly abolishing the right to buy at all and limits any suspension to ten years.
Commenting on the changes Mr. Black said: “In themselves these changes do not cause problems in the short term as there was never any intention to abolish the right to buy and any suspension would be for a much shorter period than ten years. However, the principle here is that the UK Government should not be limiting the Welsh Government’s freedom for manoeuvre in this way in contravention of the agreement in the UK coalition document.
“I am very disappointed that as one of his first acts the Under-Secretary of State should break the agreement his party had with the Liberal Democrats in this way and without any consultation with us.”
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