Aidan Van de Weyer says Mayor Palmer is a national embarrassment after £45 million funding loss

Aidan Van de Weyer says Mayor Palmer is a "national embarrassment" after he loses £45 million of funding for affordable housing in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Aidan, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, has condemned Conservative Mayor James Palmer for having £45 million of funding for affordable housing taken away from the Combined Authority by central government.

Aidan said, “This is disastrous news for the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

“As a result of Palmer’s incompetence and arrogance, hundreds of desperately needed affordable houses will now not get built. The housing programme is now at an end and several schemes that had been approved - and that residents were looking forward to - will have the rug pulled from under them.

“The housing money devolved to the Mayor was not new money, but was going to be invested by the government through Homes England into the area. So we are now actually worse off under Palmer’s tenure than if he had never been elected.

“Palmer should have been focussing on getting the maximum benefit for our residents, not spending time on pet projects like '£100,000 houses', which were never going to contribute to solving the housing crisis.

“It is clear that the government simply does not trust Palmer to deliver on his promises or to spend tax payers’ money wisely.

“Palmer is the only Metro Mayor in the country who has had money removed from him by government. He is a national embarrassment. He is dragging the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough down with him. He needs to be replaced.”