7MONMOUTH residents have been stung by the Welsh Government, selling off land on Wonastow Road at a fraction of the market value, according to Nick Ramsay AM.

The Assembly Member for Monmouth has accused the Welsh Government of selling the land, including fields along Wonastow Road in Monmouth, at well below the price they could have received for it after a Wales Audit Office report was published last week (Wednesday 15th July).

The report on the Regeneration Investment Fund for Wales (RIFW) looked into the largest sale of publicly owned land in Wales in recent years and found it should have generated at least £15 million more to the taxpayer.

It states that a number of sites were sold as one portfolio by RIFW for £21 million three years ago, but the District Valuer valued them at £36 million if they had been sold separately.

Monmouth's Wonastow Road site was valued at £990,000 as part of the £21 million portfolio bought by South Wales Land Developments, based in Guernsey, in March 2012 but has now been judged by the District Valuer as worth £3,850,000 at the time of the sale.

Asking an urgent question in the Assembly on Wednesday 15th July Mr Ramsay said: "The public are getting the impression that this Welsh Government doesn't do finance.

"At the end of the day this wasn't the Welsh Government's land to undersell – it was public land and the public trusted the politicians to look after their interests, something which clearly did not happen.

"I'm particularly concerned to see the former Welsh Development Agency land at Wonastow in Monmouth on this list.

"That land was converted from industrial to housing use in order to satisfy the Welsh Government's unreasonable demands on Monmouthshire Council to build ever more houses.

"It now transpires the Welsh Government sold off land at a fraction of its value and then made it available for development to satisfy its own housing demands. It's all too cosy and suggests something rotten at the heart of the way the Welsh Government works.

"The public has the right to ask what on earth is going on and what the Welsh Government is doing to ensure this sort of debacle doesn't happen in the future."

The land has since been sold for £12 million to a developer though it has been included as part of Monmouthshire County Council's Local Development Plan and had planning consent granted for a mixed use development.

The onward sale will allow the Welsh Government to claw back a "significant proportion" of the increased value according to a South Wales Land Developments spokesperson, though there is no information available as to how much that might be.

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government has said: "We accept the Wales Audit Office findings that while adequate arrangements were not put in place during 2010 to provide accountability and oversight of the fund to Ministers, subsequent actions taken by Welsh Government Ministers were appropriate."