tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34112832.post2781848331189695208..comments2023-11-05T09:37:36.840+01:00Comments on A View From Rural Wales: Is it ever right to sweep problems under the carpet/Glyn Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10442114752573417252noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34112832.post-32082224718820286442009-03-17T10:42:00.000+01:002009-03-17T10:42:00.000+01:00Lord Livsey not Livesey.Lord Livsey not Livesey.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34112832.post-42006920537392617572009-03-17T09:55:00.000+01:002009-03-17T09:55:00.000+01:00I know that in my part of the world thousands are ...I know that in my part of the world thousands are waiting anxiously to see how it will pan out. The issue dominates every conversation. On a more serious note all of this constitutional nonsense detracts from any discussion on whether or not the measure will achieve anything. In many ways it is a classic example of a measure to deal with an issue where the horse has clearly bolted. Thatcher's decision to introduce the right to buy was so popular that in many areas the best former council houses are now all in private hands. It might have been economically a stupid policy because local authorities were left with the debt for the money that had been raised to build the council house in the first place and of course they couldn't reinvest the capital receipts in new housing. It was,however, a no brainer for the council tenant who gained a property at a discount. Unfortuinately it harmed social housing in the UK. Many councils decided to put housing stock maintenance on the back burner. Out of a budget of £17 million Ogwr BC spent £9 million on leisure. As a result Bridgend CBC inherited a council housing estate with a backlog of repairs running of nearly £26 million. As the new Leader of Bridgend in 1995 I was ashamed of the conditions that tenants were expected to live in.Hence the decsion to becoem the first authority in Wales to stock transfer.Most Welsh authorities even with stock transfer will find it really difficult to reach the WHQS by 2012. The real issue is not giving local authorities the right to suspend the right to buy. What is required is to increase the number of houses being built both in the public as well as the private sector. The really interesting ideas to achieve this are being discussed not in Cardiff Bay but in Margaret Beckett's department in Whitehall.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34112832.post-59254479036276644732009-03-17T09:21:00.000+01:002009-03-17T09:21:00.000+01:00James - You are quite right in a legal sense. But ...James - You are quite right in a legal sense. But its a complete dog's breakfast, and it will lead to serious conflict without some common sense being applied.Glyn Davieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17344589217554138315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34112832.post-27145528188553001332009-03-16T23:39:00.000+01:002009-03-16T23:39:00.000+01:00Blame the deputy minister or blame the committee, ...Blame the deputy minister or blame the committee, they're both just doing what the GOWA allows them to. It's just not a practical or democratic way of running Wales. I am far from being a fan of the reinventing-the-wheel school of devolution (I'd far rather do the tried-and-tested Statute of Westminster with retrocessions, as happened in Newfoundland), but we need something better than this.James Dowdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058389162481491681noreply@blogger.com