Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 27 September 2022.
Thank you, Minister. I think a lot of people in this Chamber would be interested to know that 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 that 30 properties were bought, at a cost to the taxpayer of over £15 million. It is now more than three years since the M4 relief road project was scrapped. Since then, seven of those properties have been sold—three at a profit of £334,000. The other four were sold at a loss of a staggering £925,765. This is in addition to the £157 million spent by your Government on the project before it was cancelled, to the anger and dismay of motorists and businesses across Wales.FootnoteLink So, Minister, how do you explain the huge loss from the sale of these properties, and do you agree this is a clear demonstration of the scandalous disregard for obtaining the best value for taxpayers' money, as exhibited by your Government on numerous previous projects and occasions, such as the Circuit of Wales, Pinewood, Natural Resources Wales timber contracts, the overspend on the Head of the Valleys roads and the propping-up of Cardiff Airport?