1. A wnaiff Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet ddatganiad am ddyraniad Llywodraeth Cymru o arian cyfalaf? OAQ51619

Diolch, Llywydd. Despite the pressures on our capital budgets, the Welsh Government will deploy almost £5 billion in support of infrastructure priorities across the whole of Wales, including, for example, building 20,000 affordable homes, delivering twenty-first century schools and protecting the future of our environment.

Cabinet Secretary, Coleg Gwent plans to relocate its Newport campus to the city-centre riverfront, which could be transformative for further education in Newport, would involve collaboration with the University of South Wales and their city-centre campus in Newport, and is also very much backed by Newport City Council in terms of wider regeneration plans. In general terms, I wonder whether you could tell me what sort of Welsh Government capital funding is available for that sort of project, in terms of direct Welsh Government capital funding and also, perhaps, in terms of alternative, not-for-profit models of providing necessary finance.

I thank the Member for that supplementary question. I'm very familiar with the University of South Wales's riverfront presence at the city-centre campus in Newport, which is highly successful, and I'm aware of the other plans to which the Member has made reference. The Welsh Government has a strong record of investing in education in Newport, alongside the city council. We are investing over £50 million in the twenty-first century schools programme in the Newport area, and the Welsh Government is funding £25.5 million of that. And all of that, as the Member will know, is against a background in which our capital budgets are £400 million lower in the coming financial year than they were in 2009-10, with all the impact that that has on our ability to fund important schemes. We are pressing ahead with the mutual investment model in Wales. That will make a contribution to the twenty-first century schools band B programme, and I've no doubt that, as the scheme that the Member refers to moves forward, we will look to see whether there is anything we can do, through conventional capital or through innovative ways of funding, should that scheme come to our attention.

You would have heard me yesterday asking the First Minister about the M4 relief road around Newport, Cabinet Secretary. Obviously, in the committee's inquiry last week, there was indication there was substantial cost increases to this particular project. As the Finance Secretary, and having responsibility for capital budgets, where do you believe the tipping point for this scheme is, with the cost overruns that are currently projected? Because the Cabinet Secretary for economic development did indicate, when questioned by the Member for Llanelli, that there was a tipping point. So, what assessment have you made of this scheme and the ability for this scheme to actually go forward?

Well, Llywydd, a decision of that sort would be a policy decision; it would be for my colleague Ken Skates to take the responsibility for that. As the finance Minister, my approach to the M4 relief road has always been to respect the independence of the local public inquiry, not to make allocations directly to the department for the M4 relief road until the outcome of that local public inquiry is known. I do hold money in central reserves, sufficient to go ahead with the project, but until we know what the local public inquiry will say, I think it is a more sensible course of action to hold that money centrally and to make allocation decisions in the light of the inquiry's report.

Of course, the cost increases are mainly due to the fact that £136 million extra has been allocated to meet the concerns of the port in Newport, and that presumably, as Cabinet Secretary, is something that you have approved of, or at least signed off. Now, you've mentioned the money that you have in the budget next year. As I understand it, you have £150 million in capital reserves and the ability to borrow another £125 million, so that makes a total of £275 million that could potentially be used next year as capital money towards the new M4, as we should call it. Can you confirm that you are not able, and will not seek, to spend that money, yes, until the public inquiry has reported, but also until there's been a vote on a supplementary budget in this Assembly? 

Wel, Llywydd, as the Member heard me say, I intend to allow the public inquiry to report before I make allocation decisions. Those allocation decisions would have to be reported to the National Assembly in the normal way and, where they need the approval of the National Assembly, that approval would have to be sought.