Plaid Cymru’s Finance spokesperson, Chris Franks AM, said he was disappointed with the evidence session provided by Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP. The South Wales Central AM said he wanted to hold the government to account on the Housing Revenue Account Scheme, the CSR strategy and reduction in capital projects for Wales.
However Mr Alexander failed to justify the Westminster government’s position on a whole range of issues, most notably its insistence on linking fair funding for Wales and a YES vote at the referendum.
Mr Franks said that he would be writing to Mr Alexander following the meeting to pursue any further queries that were not dealt with in the session, particularly highlighting the Treasury Minister’s inability to defend cuts to the capital budget.
Chris Franks AM said:
“The Chief Secretary of the Treasury failed time and again during the session to justify his government’s refusal to address fair funding for Wales, its attack on capital expenditure for Wales or the unfair settlement that Wales has been left with following the UK funding review.
It appeared to me as if the Minister came to Wales without any real appreciation for the unique financial concerns we have here. It was completely staggering that the scandalous way in which Wales has been underfunded over the years was not even something that Mr Alexander was willing to really put on the agenda of the UK government.
There were a number of issues that I wanted to highlight with the Minister. There is little doubt that the people of Wales have been dealt a poor hand from the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition in regards to the Comprehensive Spending Review. I was particularly keen to highlight the damaging impact Westminster’s cuts to the capital budget in Wales will have on the economic recovery and public and private sector employment.
There are a range of major projects that have been scrapped which are going to lead to thousands of job losses here. We are still yet to hear what the future holds for the electrification of Welsh rail lines. There were specific capital spending commitments for areas such as London but Wales has simply been overlooked. Both revenue and capital expenditure are set to be cut more deeply in Wales than in either Scotland or Northern Ireland and when challenged I am not sure Danny Alexander could justify that.”
