‘GIVE US £30M TO REPAIR OUR COMMUNITIES’
WELSH POLITICIANS DEMAND TREASURY SUPPORT AFTER FLOOD:
A GROUP of Welsh politicians have come together to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for £30m to help rebuild after Storm Dennis.
In a letter addressed to Rishi Sunak, the new Chancellor, Labour MPs, AMs and a councillor in Rhondda Cynon Taf have outlined the problems caused by flooding which resulted from the recent storms, and asked for four things to help rebuild.
Over the last few weeks, the area has seen town centres submerged, landslips occur, businesses ruined and hundreds of homes evacuated.
The letter explains that more than 600 households have been affected by the floods, along with a similar number of businesses, representing nearly a quarter of all the properties hit across the United Kingdom.
The politicians who have signed the letter include MPs Chris Bryant, Chris Elmore, Alex Davies-Jones and Beth Winter; AMs Mick Antoniw, Vikki Howells and Huw Irranca-Davies; and Councillor Andrew Morgan.
First on the list of four requests is a “one-off infrastructure grant of £30m to cover necessary repair, restore and resilience work across RCT.”
They also ask for a “derogation from the DWP’s benefit rules for all emergency household payments” adding they don’t think it would be fair if money raised for restoration was taken by the DWP once it was given out to families.
Thirdly they’ve asked for a “direct fund to the Welsh Government to cover the costs of a one-year council tax and business rate exemption for all affected properties.
Finally they ask for an urgent Government-funded review of all former coal mining sites across the south Wales coal field area to ensure safety of local communities.
MP Chris Bryant, who wrote the letter, said: “We really are bearing the brunt of the problem and we’ve got probably the fewest resources compared to wealthy parts of England.
“You could wipe out the whole of RCT’s capital budget, just mending the bridges and the culverts.
“I think they will come back with something. They must come back with something.
“They’ve found resources for Northern Ireland when they’ve had to, outside the Barnett formula, so there’s no reason they couldn’t for RCT through the Welsh Government.”
Mr Bryant, who has already been raising money through crowd funding, added: “I’ve set up the Rhondda [crowdfunding page]. We’ve got £24,000 that’s been raised from individual donations, we’ve been given a £10,000 donation so we’ve got £34,000.
“I hope I’ll be writing cheques on Tuesday to those who’ve been affected, for around £200 each. But it’d be crazy if the DWP clawed that back and said it was income.”
He added: “We’ve had to bear the brunt of the pain and we haven’t got deep pockets so we really need the support.”
The Echo approached the Treasury for comment.