Extra £20m for smaller homes to 'mitigate' benefit cuts An extra £20m will be spent on making more smaller homes available in Wales, ministers have announced. Finance Minister Jane Hutt said the money was to mitigate the impact of UK government housing benefit cuts. Social housing tenants with spare rooms face a cut in welfare payments unless they move to a smaller property. Ms Hutt also pledged £11.5m for a new Ebbw Vale railway station at the Works site and money for schools and flood protection projects. She told AMs the rail investment was "an initial element of a wider programme to create a more integrated transport network in south east Wales and support the city region strategy." "This investment will be a further boost to the regeneration of the local area," she said. The new station will be a single platform at the Works, on the redeveloped steelworks site. It will involve laying tracks for just over a mile from the existing Ebbw Vale Parkway, and will be made ready for electrification when it comes to the valleys' rail lines. Complete madness Ms Hutt said ploughing an extra £20m into social housing grants was "specifically to target investment in providing housing for individuals and families that may be adversely affected as a result of the UK government's reductions in housing benefit." Social housing grants are paid to housing associations to provide new affordable housing for rent or low-cost home ownership. A further £10m will also expand a pilot scheme to bring empty homes back into use. Welsh Housing Minister Carl Sargeant last month described the housing benefit changes as "complete madness," while giving evidence to the Commons Welsh Affairs Committee. The UK government says it wants to bring fairness back to the housing benefit system and that it does not expect many people will have to move home as a result. The Department of Work and Pensions argues it is making the changes at a time when thousands of people in Wales are on housing waiting lists or living in overcrowded homes.