Wayne David, Labour MP for Caerphilly, has accused the Westminster Conservative Government of political bias against the Caerphilly Borough in the way grants for economic regeneration are being allocated.

In the UK Government’s recently published list of priority areas for its new UK Community Renewal Fund, Caerphilly is not listed. This is despite it being one of the less prosperous parts of Britain.

The UK Community Renewal Fund will provide access to £220 million of additional funding in response to the tailing-off of European Union funding, now that Britain has left the EU.  Currently, Caerphilly is eligible for funds from Europe.

While Caerphilly is being discriminated against, relatively prosperous areas in England, like the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s own constituency of Richmond, are included.

Wayne David said, “This is disgraceful.  The Conservative Government in Westminster is giving resources to well-off areas, like where Rishi Sunak just happens to be the MP, and deliberately excluding needy areas like the Caerphilly Borough.  This is political bias at its very worse.

“This new fund is supposed to be compensating places like Caerphilly that are losing European funding.  Despite its promises, the Tory Government is helping areas which are clearly already well-off, at the expense of areas like the Caerphilly Borough, which are in much greater need of support.”