The urgent need for the National Assembly to get proper, primary, law-making powers has been dramatically illustrated by the potential collapse of the Housing Legislative Competence Order (LCO) in the face of Conservative opposition at Westminster. After four years’ work by civil servants and legal experts in both Cardiff and London, at goodness knows what cost, the net result could be – nothing. The LCO could give the Assembly power, in areas of acute shortage of social housing, to limit the right to buy, and is supported by housing organisations such as Shelter and Community Housing Cymru.

It is the opposition of Conservative MPs that might sink the attempt in this case. However just blaming the Tories misses the point. It is the system that needs to be changed. Trying to draw down law-making powers bit by bit, with MPs having the means to say No or impose conditions, is bound to lead to outcomes like this. Inevitably MPs will confuse the question of whether we in Wales should have law-making powers in certain matters with the issue of what the Assembly Government intends to do with those powers. Conflict is in-built in the system. And of course with the imminent possibility of governments of different colours in Westminster and Cardiff Bay the situation is sure to get worse.

Fortunately the forthcoming referendum will give us the chance to sort out the mess. The saga of the Affordable Housing LCO shows how important it is that we get it right.        

This entry was posted on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 at 3:23 pm and is filed under LCOs, Refferendwm / Referendum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.