Monday, August 03, 2009
A lack of imagination?
There is an old political trick of pulling out a long-standing policy which most people have forgotten about, repackaging it and then announcing it as a new and innovative way forward as part of an agenda for change that allegedly offers radical solutions for modern times.
Labour leadership contender Huw Lewis has got that trick down to a fine art and, in today's offering he is ably assisted by former First Secretary, Aun Michael, who believes that the Welsh Government's record on housing is too 'conservative'. That is an interesting judgement from a man whose innate conservatism and bureaucratic tendencies nearly smothered devolution at birth when he was in charge between May 1999 and February 2000.
Huw and Alun have proposed in a new pamphlet that inagination and innovation is needed to solve the affordable housing crisis. Their solution is that public land is given to Community Land Trusts so that people can form co-operatives to build their own homes. It is a worthwhile and noble idea, except that it is already being done.
Community Land Trusts of course featured in the 2007 Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly manifesto. I am almost certain that other parties advocated them too. The idea appeared in the All-Wales Accord and also the One Wales Agreement. What is more the Minister is actively delivering on that commitment.
A look at the website Land for People reveals that Community Land Trusts are active in Wales in Aberystwyth, Castle Caereinion, Ceinws and Pantydwr. These are actively supported by the Government and in the case of the Montgomeryshire ones, my colleague Mick Bates has taken a key role in helping to get them off the ground. Still, it is the summer and papers are looking for copy.
Labour leadership contender Huw Lewis has got that trick down to a fine art and, in today's offering he is ably assisted by former First Secretary, Aun Michael, who believes that the Welsh Government's record on housing is too 'conservative'. That is an interesting judgement from a man whose innate conservatism and bureaucratic tendencies nearly smothered devolution at birth when he was in charge between May 1999 and February 2000.
Huw and Alun have proposed in a new pamphlet that inagination and innovation is needed to solve the affordable housing crisis. Their solution is that public land is given to Community Land Trusts so that people can form co-operatives to build their own homes. It is a worthwhile and noble idea, except that it is already being done.
Community Land Trusts of course featured in the 2007 Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly manifesto. I am almost certain that other parties advocated them too. The idea appeared in the All-Wales Accord and also the One Wales Agreement. What is more the Minister is actively delivering on that commitment.
A look at the website Land for People reveals that Community Land Trusts are active in Wales in Aberystwyth, Castle Caereinion, Ceinws and Pantydwr. These are actively supported by the Government and in the case of the Montgomeryshire ones, my colleague Mick Bates has taken a key role in helping to get them off the ground. Still, it is the summer and papers are looking for copy.
