PLAID Cymru politicians Adam Price and Jonathan Edwards have repeated their calls for the Cantref housing association takeover process to be stopped because they say a Wales and West board member was part of independent statutory inquiry into the company it is now taking over.

They maintain that the role of the Wales and West Housing board member, acting as a consultant for Campbell Tickell – the London-based consultancy firm which conducted the statutory inquiry into Cantref  - has raised questions over the legitimacy of the statutory inquiry and the resulting merger. 

Documentation is said to show that a board member working for Campbell Tickell in April/May 2015 joined the Wales and West Housing board in June 2015. 

Information provided to the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr representatives indicates that the same board member was part of the Cantref statutory inquiry team engaged by the Welsh Government in July 2015 whose report recommended a merger.

AM Mr Price and MP Mr Edwards called for a National Assembly committee inquiry into the whole process, having already said there is a strong case for the merger to face a judicial review.

“Without any suggestion of impropriety, there is a serious conflict of interest in this process which undermines the very legitimacy of the Welsh Government’s statutory inquiry, the findings of which the Government still refuses to publish,” said Mr Price.

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