Can I thank the Member for his comments, and put on record my thanks to both Adam Price and to Dai Lloyd for the very constructive discussions that we’ve had? I’d like to thank the Members and their party for the advance notice that I was given as well of the proposals for the Plaid Cymru infrastructure commission for Wales. I do think discussions and the document that you have produced have been invaluable in pressing forward deliberations that we’ve had to date, and, as I set out in my statement, this, I believe, is the first step in establishing an infrastructure commission for Wales.

In terms of what’s happened at a UK Government level, I recognise that it was something of a surprise that the UK Government did not proceed with making their commission statutory. We have asked for detailed reasoning in this regard, because we had been developing our model on the basis that they were going to be making theirs statutory, and therefore the natural next step based on evidence gathered in the years to come would be that we could also then transform ours into a statutory body. I’ve pledged to ensure that, by the end of this Assembly, there will be a review of the remit, efficacy and operations of the national infrastructure commission for Wales, so that we can fully assess whether it should be statutory. And then, if so, it will enable us to propose legislation when possible.

In terms of the financing of work, of course, it’s essential that I work very closely with colleagues across Government, but in particular with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, but the Member is also right insofar as innovative financing is concerned. I think membership of the infrastructure commission will be absolutely essential in this regard. It will be very important that we have the appropriate expertise that perhaps has not been available until recent times to enable us to deliberate over what sort of innovative finance can actually support the major infrastructure projects that Wales very much needs.

If I can just review some of the considerations that we’ve been giving to raising additional funding, we do share the aim of raising additional moneys for public infrastructure investment by developing models that retain most of the attractive features of the non-profit distributing model, but which reflect the current classification regime, which can inhibit some of the developments that are being proposed by Plaid Cymru. We have engaged legal and financial advisers to assist with developing a model that allows for the public sector to capture some of the returns to equity, which, of course, the Scots have been particularly successful with through hub, and which we are also proposing to do.

We’ve extensively consulted with colleagues from Scottish Futures Trust and also with Her Majesty’s Treasury, with the Office for National Statistics, Eurostat and the European Public-private Partnership Expertise Centre of the European Investment Bank, and we’re developing our model in consultation with experts, including a peer review with the European expertise centre.

In terms of the historic levels of underinvestment in much of our infrastructure, I think during questions earlier, and during the urgent question, I mentioned that, historically, we’ve seen underinvestment in our rail network. It’s fair to say that we need to significantly increase the level of investment right across our physical and digital infrastructure to ensure that we have a country that is well connected and united, and one in which people are able to live within their communities without concern over how they will access places of employment. For that reason, it’s essential that we proceed with what is one of the most ambitious infrastructure programmes that a Government has introduced since the dawn of devolution, which includes proposals for an M4 relief road, a Menai third crossing, and upgrades to the A494, A55, A40, Newtown bypass and Caernarfon bypass, in addition to the next phases of superfast broadband connectivity, and which also captures social programmes, such as new health centres and hospitals, and, of course, twenty-first century schools, higher education and further education.

The Member is absolutely right in asserting that capital programmes can dramatically increase the degree of economic growth in a country, and, for that reason, we wish also to accelerate the programme of building so that we actually then fuel the economy of the future of Wales.