Realism or getting their excuses in early?

Labour are still basking in their election success today as First Minister Carwyn Jones targets more success at Welsh Assembly levels as every party leader in his position would.

But for all the warm glow there are tough times ahead for Local Authorities and Labour’s new intake, (if they are anything like Labour Councillors of old we should expect very little), so with that in mind I came across this post form TenantsUniteWales blog

'Everyone I speak to has been immensely encouraged by the stunning victory by Welsh Labour. While the victory on the 3^rd of May was indeed stunning, for those that have been around a bit, we should not take for granted that victory and particularly those supporters that have put their faith back into the party politic system.

Given the turnout, which was quite low considering the opportunity for citizens to send a message to the coalition government, what was apparent, was that while labour put a great deal of effort into election campaigning, other parties did not! Was this intentional? Certainly the conservatives Eric Pickles predicted 450 loss.

Those of us that have been around for some time are aware that victories such as these mid-term, matter very little once Britain votes in national elections, just look at Kinnocks success in local elections, yet he failed to turn over Thatcher (1992), and the stunning conservative results in the previous set of local elections (June, 2009) did not return a majority in Parliament for the conservatives forcing them into coalition with the Liberal Democrats (2010).

The problems for Welsh labour, and the labour party across the county, is that they have not seen all the austerity measures come through yet, apparently just 10-15%? This year’s budget announced a further £10billion of welfare cuts for example.

Soon local councils will have to decide on who gets council tax benefit (if at all) when it’s devolved to local councils, and whether to seek to recover the 10% cut in subsidy from central government by increasing council tax when universal credit comes.

Housing is another issue, while we have a devolved system in Wales, capital markets in London will be relied upon to deliver or not, the fight back to building confidence in construction and the availability of mortgages.   

Labour councillors will have to deliver on these austerity measures for a full three years with widespread capital and revenue cuts, systematic changes to welfare and taxation and more critically the impact these will have on family and support networks across Wales.

Local support, which can be the scaffold for national parliamentary elections, will be difficult to sustain when labour councillors have to make tough decisions on service delivery to those very members, particularly women, and those requiring disability support who will be disproportionately impacted by the Welfare Reform Act, groups that the Welsh Government has sought to empower. Huge revenue and capital cuts from the Welsh Government to public services will also put them at odds with unions and their members.

With the next few years being significantly tougher, it is the parties in control locally that will have to deliver on this difficult agenda. For me, one has to wonder whether Welsh labour has been intentionally delivered a false dawn. With both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats smarting at a strategy to put Labour in the front line of a service deliver cuts.

Undoubtedly, with three years to collect evidence of labour’s failure to deliver locally, the coalition will have gathered a narrative of how Labour’s failures going into the election in 2015.  I therefore urge Welsh Labour to consider the headlines not of the 4^th of May 2012, but those of May 2015, assuming the coalition lasts that long.'

So there may be hope for the Tories, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru who are still reeling after Thursday’s results if they can capitalise on Labour’s failures, but with the political and media  climate in Wales it’s still a big ask.

Labour wins big in Wales

In other news

The Vatican confirms the Pope is Catholic

And scientists reveal bears shit in the woods

On a more serious note the big worry for the all the opposition parties after a drubbing and excellent results for Labour in Wales, is with overall turnout declining and Labour winning a bigger share of the smaller turnout each time, how competitive will the Tories, Plaid Cymru, Lib Dems and Independents be in the future?

‘Assembly Committee calls for action on affordable housing’

A new report by the cross party Assembly Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee has finished its inquiry into affordable and concluded that a ‘whole system’ approach to the issues ahead of the Welsh Government’s planned Housing Bill is needed from the Welsh Government from planning and building to mortgages and housing and welfare reforms.

There were 14 recommendations for action which are below and the full report is HERE

Recommendation 1. The Welsh Government should conduct an evaluation of its national housing strategy, to ensure that it is still fit for purpose, given the significant changes in the political, economic and financial climate since it was first published.

Recommendation 2. The Welsh Government should develop targets across the whole housing system, including an overall house building target. This Committee should be provided with an annual update on progress towards achieving those targets.

Recommendation 3. The Welsh Government should ensure existing working groups and networks are used to improve strategic co-ordination and partnership working on housing matters.

Recommendation 4. The Minister should provide an update on progress on fulfilling the recommendations of the 2011 report ―Making the most of the private rented housing sector‖ and ensure the recommendations are reflected in the forthcoming Housing Bill.

Recommendation 5. The Welsh Government should work with local planning authorities, developers and lenders to explore ways in which sites with planning permission in place for affordable housing can deliver new homes.

Recommendation 6. The Welsh Government should progress the development of the database of publicly owned land as a matter of urgency.

Recommendation 7. The Welsh Government should continue to work closely with stakeholders and partners to develop guidance on Section 106 agreements for affordable housing that is acceptable to all parties to allow development to take place.

Recommendation 8. The Welsh Government should explore the possibility of allowing local authorities to charge more than 100 per cent council tax on long term empty properties.  

Recommendation 9. The Welsh Government should outline its strategy for dealing with empty homes and update the Assembly regularly on progress in addressing this issue.

Recommendation 10. The Welsh Government should work with Local Authorities, Registered Social Landlords and mortgage lenders to identify best value from scarce public subsidy and ensure that all options for alternative sources of public funding are explored.

Recommendation 11. The Welsh Government should closely monitor its intermediate rent model, to ensure that it is fit for purpose

Recommendation 12. The Welsh Government should explore the introduction of a Wales-wide mortgage indemnity scheme, and should report back to the Assembly on its conclusions at the earliest opportunity.  

Recommendation 13. The Welsh Government should continue its work around co-operatives and land trusts, and report back to the Assembly on progress.  

Recommendation 14. The Welsh Government should continue to monitor the impact of welfare reforms and ensure that the Ministerial task and finish group fully considers the impact of these changes upon housing in Wales.