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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Climb down in housing powers row | Climb down in housing powers row |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The assembly government has backed down in a dispute with Westminster over further powers it is seeking to provide a bigger stock of affordable homes. | |
| The power to end tenants' right to buy council homes will be devolved but the Welsh secretary will have a veto on the matter, which is unprecedented. | |
| The assembly government wants the flexibility to suspend the right to buy in areas of acute housing shortage. | |
| But MPs were worried a future assembly could abolish the whole scheme. | |
| Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams said it was an "embarrassing climb down" for Plaid Cymru, Labour's coalition partners, and set "a very dangerous precedent for our future Welsh laws". | Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams said it was an "embarrassing climb down" for Plaid Cymru, Labour's coalition partners, and set "a very dangerous precedent for our future Welsh laws". |
| The assembly government had put forward a request to Westminster to give Cardiff Bay full powers over the right to buy scheme. | |
| Why give us the full powers and then dictate from London what we can and cannot do with them? Kirsty Williams, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader | |
| The Legislative Competence Order (LCO), which would transfer the powers, was approved by Whitehall departments, a committee of AMs and publicly endorsed by Plaid Cymru housing minister Jocelyn Davies. | |
| But MPs on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee then issued a report saying the assembly should not get the powers because they were much wider than were required. | |
| AMs, including Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas, said the LCO should not be redrafted as the MPs do not have the formal right to insist that orders are rewritten. | |
| This put Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy in a difficult position, as he has to agree LCOs with the assembly government before they can be formally laid and passed by the assembly and parliament. | |
| Welsh language | |
| BBC Wales revealed late last year that First Minister Rhodri Morgan had agreed with Mr Murphy that the LCO should be redrawn to be narrower in scope. | |
| But now, rather than narrowing the order, a clause has been inserted meaning that any future assembly government wanting to abolish the right to buy could not do so without the agreement of the Welsh secretary of the day. | |
| Until now, when powers have been devolved, the assembly has been able to use them as it wishes. | |
| This announcement sets a precedent for Westminster to be given vetoes in policy areas AMs are responsible for. | |
| It could mean, for example, that MPs might argue that if powers over the Welsh language were devolved to Cardiff Bay, the secretary of state for Wales should retain a veto to prevent a future assembly government legislating to make businesses treat Welsh and English equally. | |
| Ms Williams described the move as "totally unacceptable". | |
| "Clearly, this is not about looking out for the people of Wales and the 87,000 households on housing waiting lists, this is Labour looking after their own interests and putting the brakes on devolution," she said. | |
| "Why give us the full powers and then dictate from London what we can and cannot do with them?" |