THE Welsh government has hit back at claims that it made "scandalous" losses on the now-scrapped M4 releif road project.

Conservative MS Natasha Asghar, who made the claims, said: "I recently asked for a list of the land and properties bought by the Welsh Government to facilitate the building of the M4 relief road.

“In reply, I was told 30 properties were bought at a cost to the taxpayers of over £15 million.

“It is now more than three years since the M4 relief road project was scrapped.

“Since then, only seven of those properties acquired have been sold - three at a profit of £334,000. The other four were sold at a loss of a staggering £925,765."

The Conservative MS for South Wales East said the government had shown "scandalous disregard for obtaining the best value for taxpayers' money".

However, since the publication of Ms Asghar's claims, the Welsh government have set the record straight, with the deputy minister for climate change, Lee Waters, accusing her of getting "her sums completely wrong".

They contend that the seven properties were actually sold for an overall total profit of £83,235, not a £925,765 loss

The table below show the bought price and sale price of the properties acquired by the Welsh government during the project.

South Wales Argus:

Explaining their workings, an area which they claim Ms Asghar's team made errors, the Welsh government said:

  • The total cost of buying the seven properties is £2,057,500
  • The total cost of the sale of the seven  properties is £2,140,735 which is an overall profit of £83,235.
  • The figure of loss quoted by Natasha Asghar of £925,765 (incorrect) is arrived at by taking the total bought price of the seven properties -£2,057,500 - and subtracting just the four properties which were sold at a loss – those figures are in brackets in the above table. 
  • The total sale price of the four properties which were sold at a loss is £1,151,735. 
  • This figure has been subtracted from the full bought cost of the seven properties - £2,057,500 - giving a loss of £905,765 – not £925,765

In short, they said, ​the loss on the four properties is £250,765, while the profit on the three properties is £334,000.

Deputy minister for climate change Lee Waters said: “Ms Asghar – like her prime minister and chancellor – has got her sums completely wrong.

“I look forward to her correcting the record and retracting these statements.”