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Pressure is growing for a wider investigation into the scandal of how publicly owned land was sold in Wales for millions of pounds less than its true value.

The former head of the Land Authority and the Welsh Development Agency’s land division has revealed that the most valuable of the 15 plots controversially sold in March 2012 had been identified as having the potential to soar in value two decades earlier.

Now retired Nicholas Neal said officials had bought the land between Lisvane and Pontprennau for the taxpayer in the early 90s and nurtured its potential value for years.

He said that its sale at farmland prices by an arms-length body of the Welsh Government, Regeneration Investment Fund Wales (Rifw), was the result of a catastrophic loss of expertise and knowledge when the Welsh Government abolished the Welsh Development Agency in 2006.

He insisted that First Minister Carwyn Jones’ apology must not be the “end of the matter”.

Mr Jones apologised during First Minister's Questions after the Assembly’s public accounts committee issued a damning report condemning the sale.

'Land was deliberately bought where housing would be needed'

Mr Neal said: “The land was bought by the former Land Authority of Wales in the 1990s with its expertise of identifying where there would be housing land needed in the future.

"In 1998 the Land Authority was merged with WDA as the Land Division, retaining the expertise and knowledge of land requirements and the planning process.

“As a consequence of the abolition of the WDA and its Land Division in 2006, the Assembly took charge of all its land, but lacked the expertise to manage it, and to achieve its full value.”

AMs must 'not let matters rest '

Mr Neal argues the “lack of professional property and valuation experience” led to its sale at a “ridiculously low price”.

He added: “The scandal here is that the land, the potential value of which had been nurtured for many years, was not advertised publicly, and the Welsh Government had lost the expertise to evaluate the issues in-house.

"I hope that the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee will not let matters rest here.

“Much has been made about so-called overage clauses to reflect increases in the values of the land, but the detail, percentages, and timing of these clauses need to be investigated further.

“So far as I am concerned, the First Minister’s apology should not be the end of the matter, but the beginning of the end of this inept administration which has lost millions of pounds on land deals which could have been of help to our hard-pressed NHS.”

Welsh Government considering its position

A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: “It is clear the portfolio was not marketed in the way we would expect by the appointed investment manager, Lambert Smith Hampton.

"We have set out our criticism of the professional advice given to the RIFW board in our evidence to the Public Accounts Committee and are now considering our position.”

Gower Conservative MP Byron Davies – who referred the transfer of the Welsh Government’s land and property assets to Rifw in March 2012 – said it would be “wonderful” if an independent inquiry was launched to investigate the sales.

He said: “It would be quite nice in an ideal world to have a senior figure from the legal world who might chair an inquiry into it. I think that would be a very good idea, without the pressures of politics around it.”

Welsh Government Communities Minister Lesley Griffiths responded to the publication of the report this week by saying it marked the “final chapter in the investigations around RIFW”.

But Mr Davies said: “It’s by no means the final chapter... That is supreme arrogance.”

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'Somebody has to carry the can for this'

He added: “I just want transparency around it. I think somebody should be held responsible for it.”

Making the case for resignations, he said: “Somebody has to carry the can for this. Somebody made an awful mistake here...

“I’m very surprised there have been no resignations.”

Mr Davies said he would explore the potential for Westminster’s Welsh Affairs committee to investigate the land sales.

'A shocking chain of events'

The MP asked Leader of the Commons Chris Grayling for a debate to be held on the sales.

Mr Grayling said: “This has been a shocking chain of events. I know just how strongly [Mr Davies] and others feel about the criticism that has rightly been levelled at the Welsh Government...

“This situation should never have arisen, and lessons need to be learned.”

Paul Hopkins, a retired chartered surveyor who worked with Swansea Council, described how the sales could have been handled to ensure better value.

He said: “If a commonly used practice had been adopted so that a legal agreement was entered into conditional on obtaining planning permission the land would not have been sold for less than its true value. It may also have been beneficial if the plots were offered for sale individually following a tender process.”