JOCELYN Davies, AM for South Wales East has announced she will be stepping down from the National Assembly at the 2016 elections.

The Plaid Cymru AM and former Caerphilly councillor, who was one of the original members of the Assembly in 1999, served as a deputy minister for housing and regeneration in the Plaid/Labour government between 2007 and 2011 and was the party’s business manager for more than 13 years.

Born in 1959 and educated at Newbridge Grammar School, Ms Davies read law at Oxford University's Harris-Manchester College was one of the first lay inspectors of schools in 1993.

She currently leads the Assembly’s finance committee.

In a message to party members, Jocelyn Davies said: “I have been an Assembly Member since the Assembly began in 1999 and have enjoyed contributing to the continued growth in both the functions and powers of the Assembly and its acceptance by the majority of the people of Wales.

“The next Assembly will lay the foundations for a further increase in the powers of the Assembly, with the powers to increase borrowing being one of the first steps on this path.

“It will be a new and exciting period and I feel that with these new powers and with the increasing prominence that the Assembly will play in the lives of the people of Wales, it is time for a new generation of Plaid Cymru politicians, with a fresh outlook, to take the party and the Assembly forward to the next stage of the devolution journey.”