News from Welsh Labour

Welsh Tories’ failure in Monmouthshire exposed

Welsh Conservative-controlled Monmouthshire Council has been exposed as being the worst performing local authority in Wales for making payments within the 30 day target, Welsh Labour revealed today.

The failure was uncovered by Welsh Labour Assembly Member Joyce Watson, a member of the National Assembly’s Finance Committee, who revealed figures – published by the Local Government Data Unit – showing that Monmouthshire Council pay only 40% of its undisputed bills within the 30 day target, against a Welsh average of 87%.

This comes on the back of the Welsh Conservatives’ ten point economic plan, published by the party last week, which calls on the Labour-led Assembly Government to “work with the CBI to cut the amount of time government spends settling its bills with private sector suppliers.”

Welsh Labour AM Joyce Watson, who is a member of the Assembly’s Finance Committee, said:

“It’s all very well for the Tories in the Assembly to call for swift and immediate action to ensure that bills are paid to small businesses on time, but in Monmouthsire, where they are in control, they preside over the worst performing local authority in Wales in terms of the amount of time it takes to pay their own bills – paying only 40% of bills on time within the previous 30 day target.

“Not only are the Tories exposing their hypocrisy and their inability to govern at every level, but they are being very unfair on small businesses in Monmouthshire.

“This proves, yet again, that the Conservatives cannot be trusted to deliver on the promises they make nationally, that they are disingenuous in the extreme and that they are led by a novice who cannot be trusted.”

The Labour-led Assembly Government have confirmed they are committed to paying bills within 15 days.

Welsh Labour’s Finance Minister, Andrew Davies AM, added:

“The Welsh Conservative Party’s new Local Government spokesman, Alun Cairns, has a lot of explaining to do about why his party in local government is letting small businesses down.

“The public sector has an important role to play in ensuring the sustainability of small business’s cash flow.

“The Labour-led Assembly Government is committed to making sure we do all that we possibly can to help small and medium size businesses by making sure payments are made on time, and that we speed up the time it takes to make these payments.

“That is the fair and right thing to do during these tough economic times.

“Yet again, this Conservative failure shows that in these tough economic times, this is not the time for a novice to be in charge.”

Other news from Welsh Labour

• Carwyn Jones sends congratulations to new President of Ireland - 1 November 2011
• Decision day dash to save Wales from savage cuts - 5 May 2010
• Almost half Welsh Labour MPs come out for Carwyn Jones - 21 October 2009