The Heads of the Valleys Road Enlargement Scheme

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 22 November 2017.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:50, 22 November 2017

First of all, Llywydd, let me say that I don't recognise the figures that were quoted in the original question. I don't think they are—they barely amount to speculation let alone anything that anybody should seek to rely on.

The mutual investment model, which the Member welcomed when I made a statement on it on 28 February, is a made-in-Wales model. It does retain some core elements of Scotland's non-profit distributing model, but it has a series of other innovations in it to make sure that it protects the Welsh public interest.

I look at every scheme that the Welsh Government proposes to see if there would be any more financially efficient way of financing that necessary investment, and we have certainly looked at the idea of bond issue. To date, I've not seen any convincing evidence that would suggest to me that bond financing would be a more effective way of securing the necessary investment to complete the dualling of the Heads of the Valleys road, but I can certainly assure the Member that the range of possibilities available to us is always under consideration and, if there were a way of doing this that provided better value to the Welsh taxpayer, we would not in any way be averse to considering it.