NIA GRIFFITH MP has described as ‘breath-taking hypocrisy’ the response she has had from Damian Hinds MP, the UK Government’s employment minister on the proposed closure of the DWP Offices in Crown Buildings, Llanelli.
The MP explained
“It is sheer breathtaking hypocrisy for the Minister to claim in the last sentence of his letter that the closure is still under consultation when he has already let the cat out of the bag two paragraphs earlier where he makes it clear that he wants to get rid of the jobs in Llanelli. In his rejection of Carmarthenshire’s offer to help the DWP cut costs, by securing alternative quality office space of appropriate size for the current workforce, it is obvious that the Minister does not want a rational discussion about saving office costs and that he has already made his mind up on closure. I strongly suspect that this is just a ploy to shed staff who cannot commute and outsource the jobs to companies who want to rip off the public purse for profit. We now need to redouble our efforts to make the business case for Llanelli and demonstrate plainly that office space here will cost the taxpayer a lot less that a new building in central Cardiff. ”
Llanelli’s AM Lee Waters added
“The Tories said they’d listen to areas who voted for Brexit and spread wealth around the UK. This Tory Minister shows that’s a lie. This is dinosaur thinking. There is no need in the internet age to concentrate staff in huge central offices, with all the attendant traffic congestion and parking problems that will generate. By the time you take into account the cost of new office space in central Cardiff, there will be no saving to the taxpayer”
