We move, therefore, to our next item, which is a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance on the Wales infrastructure investment plan mid-point review 2018. I call on the Finance Secretary, Mark Drakeford.

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. At the height of the recession, and in the early years of the UK Government’s flawed and failing austerity programme, my predecessor, Jane Hutt, published the first 2012 Wales infrastructure investment plan. Ever since, this plan has been at the heart of the Welsh Government’s work to create and sustain economic growth, and to support vital public services. Its goals and priorities have guided our significant infrastructure investment right across Wales, including, in the last Assembly term alone, £1.2 billion to provide more than 11,500 affordable homes, £1.3 billion to support our twenty-first century schools and education programme, where 100 schemes have already been completed and 60 more are on their way to completion, and £1.8 billion to modernise our transport infrastructure, from the Heads of the Valleys road to the Newtown bypass.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

Dirprwy Lywydd, we have done this, and more, at a time when our conventional capital budget will be 20 per cent lower in real terms by the end of the decade than it was in 2009-10. And all of this just at the point in the economic cycle when the UK Government should have stepped up and not shied back from investing in the future. Here in Wales, in the six years since the WIIP was first published, we have invested £9 billion of Welsh Government capital funding, and developed new ways of drawing in investment from elsewhere, to deliver ambitious projects, which deliver lasting benefits for the people of Wales.

Now, Dirprwy Lywydd, a great deal has changed since that first WIIP was published in 2012. Back then, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, promised that austerity would be over by 2015. Now, it extends to 2025. We have had the European Union referendum, and the decision to leave the European Union. The impact of the uncertainty that this has created must help explain why, at a time when economies across the eurozone are growing at their fastest rate for a decade, growth across the UK is faltering, and is at its weakest since 2012.

Dirprwy Lywydd, that is the background against which our mid-point review of the Wales infrastructure investment plan is to be published today. The review reflects on the experience of the past six years, where we can see progress, and where we can draw lessons for the future. It takes account of the many changes—some of which I've just identified—that have occurred over the lifetime of the plan so far, and it sets out our investment priorities for the remaining period of the plan, aligning it with the aims and goals of 'Prosperity for All' and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and setting the Welsh Government’s spend more directly in the context of the investment that others plan to make in Wales.

Dirprwy Lywydd, we have ambitious plans to invest further in Welsh infrastructure, with plans already set out to invest an additional £6.5 billion worth of capital in our priorities between now and 2020-21. And today, I can set out a new capital funding package of £266 million to support the delivery of Government priorities over the next three years. Amongst other objectives, these investments are strongly aligned to support the work of my Cabinet colleague Lesley Griffiths in the vital field of carbon reduction.

The new funding allocations include: £60 million over three years to accelerate the creation of active travel routes to connect residential areas, work, education sites and services; over £60 million over the next three years for the NHS, for the all-Wales capital programme; £31.5 million over three years for the next generation access broadband phase 2; £25 million over three years for the new Tech Valleys programme; and £15 million over two years to fund a pilot, as part of the ministerial taskforce for the south Wales Valleys, to ensure that schools in the area become community hubs and provide community learning centres with extended services. The mid-point review also includes an up-to-date pipeline of Welsh Government, local authority and private sector investments. It provides the details of more than 350 schemes with a value of around £42 billion, including this Government’s own flagship commitments.

Llywydd, as members of the Finance Committee will know, my principle has always been to exhaust the use of the least expensive forms of capital before using other more expensive sources. The plan, therefore, relies on our efforts to begin with to commit the vast bulk of our conventional capital, well in advance of spend, then to move on to deploy every pound of capital available to us through the regional development funds from which Wales benefits as a result of our membership of the European Union—that amounts to over £720 million in additional investment—then to make full use of the £1 billion in borrowing powers now available to us, and then to go on supporting additional borrowing for investment by our local authorities and our housing associations. 

And because, even when we have pushed at the limits of all these possibilities, we still have vitally important public purposes that could otherwise not be afforded, we have devised our own mutual investment model, building from the Scottish Government’s not-for-profit schemes, to find a way to fund the new Velindre cancer hospital for south Wales, to complete the dualling of the A465 Heads of the Valleys road, and to enable us to accelerate band B of our twenty-first century schools and education programme. And, Dirprwy Lywydd, I can announce today the latest development in this area, because in line with the provisions in the Government of Wales Act 2006, agreement has now been secured with the UK Government that it will bring forward legislation to enable Welsh Ministers to issue bonds for capital investment expenditure, providing the Welsh Government with a further set of borrowing levers in the future.

Dirprwy Lywydd, we are in the process of establishing a national infrastructure commission for Wales, and later this afternoon the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs will make a statement about our preferred option for our new land use plan, the national development framework. Together, these will provide a strategic picture of our national and regional infrastructure needs, and help us ensure our investments are aligned and targeted to where they can have maximum impact in the face of continuing austerity.

Deputy Presiding Officer, this mid-point review of the infrastructure investment plant will help us to work in a more integrated and and collaborative way within Government and with our partners. It will ensure that our infrastructure is robust, will contribute to the growth of the Welsh economy and will help us to formulate the long-term future of our nation and its people. I commend this plan to the Assembly.  

Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement this afternoon? I think we all recognise that we do remain in a time of public spending constraints. We certainly in the Welsh Conservatives welcome proposals to invest in our economy and public services, despite those obvious challenges.

Can I just say in responding at the start to your statement, Cabinet Secretary—? On your point about UK funding, which you made at the start of your contribution and at the end, the almost obligatory comment now on funding cuts—. Yes, spending cuts, you're quite right to say have extended beyond the original cut-off of 2015 that was set out back in 2010. But if the alternative was deeper, yearly cuts, then I think I would probably stick with the Chancellor's current timescale rather than look at those cuts having been faster and deeper at the time. And we know that, yes, the deficit has taken longer to come down than was previously hoped, but the UK Government is getting there in that regard. Debt itself will soon be cut, not just the deficit, and that will, in the longer term, set the UK economy and the Welsh economy on a sounder footing, so you will have more money to invest in those important public services and infrastructure. [Interruption.] You might not agree with that, Lee Waters, but many people do agree with that.

Your statement covered a wide range of investment proposals and a wide range of spending areas. I will just touch on a few of them. I warmly welcome the proposals to continue developing the twenty-first century schools programme through the second band of funding, in partnership with local authorities across Wales. I recently visited the site of Monmouth Comprehensive School, due to open in September. It's a really impressive state-of-the-art building, which shows what can be achieved when Welsh Government works with Conservative local authorities such as Monmouthshire. It will extend opportunities for modern teaching and learning. While you've increased the funding available for twenty-first century schools, could you advise of any changes to the timescale of the next phase of the programme? Is that as was originally envisaged?

On house building, we recognise that there are growing pressures on the housing market, particularly in south-east Wales, and commentators are concerned with the removal of the Severn bridge tolls and the effect that that will have on local housing supply in Monmouthshire and other local authorities in south-east Wales. How confident are you that the funding you're providing for the development of affordable housing proposals, across certainly south Wales, will be met?

You touched on the Heads of the Valleys ongoing investment scheme. I had a tour of the new road—the Clydach gorge part of the road—a few weeks ago, and it's certainly a very impressive piece of infrastructure, which is widely welcomed, I know, by businesses and local people. However, of course, on the downside, it is coming in considerably over budget and considerably behind timescale, which is leading to delays far in advance of what was originally anticipated and were tolerable by local people. So, I think my question would be: in relation to that project and similar large infrastructure projects, what mechanisms are you putting in place to make sure that the taxpayer is getting value for money, that projects like this are delivered as efficiently as possible and that there is proper scrutiny on the public purse? I know that, in future, the Public Accounts Committee, which I chair, will look at spending like this, but I'm thinking, in the meantime, what is being done at this moment in time to make sure that that spending is efficient?

I don't think you mentioned the critical care centre—I might be wrong—currently being developed in Cwmbran. That's another project on which there has been significant delay. However, it is now going up and, again, looks like an impressive building. So, could you, just at this mid point in your infrastructure programme, guarantee that that will open on the timescale that we are now looking at?

Can I finally say, as well as mentioning UK spending cuts, you also mentioned the obligatory Brexit, which features in many statements and debates—we've got another one tomorrow, I think—in this Chamber? I appreciate your concerns about Brexit and that it creates some uncertainty for your Government, but I would point out that that wasn't a decision of the UK Government; that was a decision of the UK people and the decision of, actually, a majority of the Welsh people. It probably wasn't the decision of a majority of my constituents or probably yours in Cardiff West, but it certainly was a decision that the Welsh people took. Do you not agree, Cabinet Secretary, that, rather than constantly bemoaning the effects of this, it is for the UK Government and the Welsh Government to now get on with delivering a stronger economy in the light of what's happening? I think the people of Wales will be looking to you to set forward a positive vision for the future that will take Wales where we need to go at this important juncture in our history.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I thank the Member for those questions. Let me take the two general ones first. As far as public spending constraint is concerned, the choice that faced the Government ought not to have been between steeper, swifter cuts and the long, slow strangulation of the UK economy, which they have embarked upon; the choice ought to have been to use counter-cyclical investment, particularly of an infrastructure sort at a time when the costs of borrowing had never been lower. And instead, George Osborne, rather than doing what was done in the United States of America and on the continent of Europe to take that opportunity to stimulate economic growth, chose the most inopportune moment you can imagine to reduce capital investment right across the United Kingdom. Now, of course, I entirely agree with what Nick Ramsay said: the UK Government is not to blame for the Brexit decision and I didn't suggest that they were. What I am reflecting in my statement is what private sector businesses and organisations tell this Government and tell the UK Government all the time, which is that the uncertainty about Brexit is having an impact on their ability to plan investment into the future. I believe that there are steps that the UK Government could have taken to have provided greater certainty in the way that they have gone about Brexit, but it is an unavoidable fact, for the UK Government as well as ours, that a major change of this sort, whatever view you may take of it, brings huge uncertainty with it, and that is making an impact on investment decisions of private businesses not just in Wales, but across the United Kingdom.

Can I briefly deal with the more specific questions the Member raised? I appreciate very much what he says about the twenty-first century schools programme. Monmouth local authority, like all local authorities in Wales, has benefited significantly from band A. We're now moving into band B and the five-year time horizon for band B of the twenty-first century schools programme remains unchanged.

I am confident that the capital investment we are making in affordable housing—the single greatest investment we will make as a Government—in order to achieve the 20,000 affordable homes that we want to see built during this Assembly term, provides the investment necessary and that we are on track to make sure that it is changed into the provision of that badly needed housing on the ground.

The point that the Member made about the previous phases of the Heads of the Valleys road has been well rehearsed here. There are genuine topographical challenges in that part of the construction. What I've announced today are the further steps we are taking to complete the whole of the Heads of the Valleys road using our mutual investment model.

I didn't mention, he's quite right, the critical care centre, Dirprwy Lywydd, because that is already catered for in funding terms in the plans that the Government has already announced.

I welcome this mid-point review. I've not had an opportunity to read it all as of yet, of course. I assume the Cabinet Secretary has. Could he share with us—? As this is a review, of course, it will have identified certainly things that worked very well and others that may not have worked so well, and, of course, it's those that didn't work so well that are perhaps those where lessons can be learnt. So, what didn't work out quite as the Government may have hoped when the WIIP was first announced six years ago? One of the objectives set at that point was to change the process more generally for investment, for example to bring the need for far more robust business cases in order to assess projects and to use evaluation techniques of a world-class quality. Now, has that happened to the extent that the Government had hoped?

Secondly, I'd like to turn to the question that—. We've rehearsed this issue many a time, Cabinet Secretary, but it is this issue of the balance of regional infrastructure investment across Wales. You did refer to it, actually, in your remarks in relation to the strategic picture that needs to take account both of national and regional needs. We've produced figures, of course, previously that have shown certainly the kind of imbalance in terms of capital investment that typically we see across the UK, and the fear is that we are becoming potentially a microcosm, a version, of that problem in the UK of over-concentration of capital investment, actually in the corner of the country that is already relatively affluent. Of course, we can't avoid it at the moment, but we have had—. Well, all our First Ministers have come from Cardiff and the M4 corridor around it, and we may have a fourth—

It includes Carmarthen. 

—well, that bit of the M4 corridor in south-east Wales—representing it. Obviously, politics does impact upon these decisions, so how can we make sure, whoever the next First Minister is, that there are structures in place, particularly looking at the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales, to ensure that we get a better spread of investment across Wales? 

And finally, on the issue of the scale of ambition, it's great, by the way, to see the power there for the Welsh Government to raise bonds; I think we've actually called for that previously. But then the next question is, of course: what is the scale of our ambition in terms of the quantum? And there, Cabinet Secretary, you're absolutely right that there has been this historic opportunity with the low interest rates et cetera, and probably, we would say, a backlog of underinvestment in the past in the Welsh infrastructure. The WIIP was there to address that and to seize that opportunity, but yet, even if we take the figures that are in your statement—the £1 billion for the mutual investment model, the £1 billion in terms of the borrowing powers—that takes us up, in terms of financing on an annual basis, to about 1 per cent of the annual budget. The Scottish Government have a target of 5 per cent. And so, if we were to match their ambition in terms of our appetite for financing a capital programme on that scale, then we would be in a totally different situation, wouldn't we, in terms of the level of capital investment that we're currently able to finance. The 350-odd projects, the £42 billion—at the current rate, it will take 20 years, a generation, for us to actually work our way through the WIIP as a whole—there or thereabouts. Shouldn't we take this opportunity as we're reviewing the WIIP also to ask ourselves, 'Is the scale of our ambition equal to the opportunity and equal to the challenge that Wales currently faces in terms of its infrastructure?'   

Dirprwy Lywydd, thank you. I'd like to thank Adam Price for his questions. 

To answer his first couple of questions first, looking back over the first period of the WIIP, what will be some of the lessons I think we would learn from it? Well, I think the first is that we are putting considerably more emphasis in the mid-point review on the way in which Welsh Government investment has to act in a complementary way with the investments that other public sector bodies make in local government, for example, but also the major investments that go into transport, energy and water, and so on, by other major investment players in Wales. I think we've learnt the need to make sure that those things are better aligned.

I think we've learnt as well of the need of public authorities to have a finer-grained grasp of infrastructure within their own localities. So, the national assets working group we've set up, which has done—as I know Adam Price knows—a mapping exercise in the Cwm Taf area, trying to make sure that all partners on the ground are aware of the infrastructure assets that are owned by others, is therefore able to make better investment decisions, sharing facilities, releasing land for housing, creating better jobs in the management side of infrastructure and making the public pound go further. And I think that's something else we have learnt in this first part, and that's why we've produced a relatively modest sum of money—around £2 million—to make sure that that mapping exercise can be replicated right across Wales. 

Adam Price asked about whether we had succeeded in strengthening the way in which business cases are brought forward for investment, and the five-stage business case model has now been adopted as standard, and that was very much driven by some of the work that went into the original WIIP.

I don't dissent from the proposition that geography has to play a part in the way in which investment decisions are made, but I've never believed myself that it ought to be a determining criterion. I think, in the end, it has to be the quality of the proposal that comes forward, the return on public investment that it provides and the impact that it will have on the future of our economy. Those have to be the things we look at first, and then, of course, we have to see how investments can help us to spread and sustain prosperity in all parts of Wales.

I didn't mention in my statement the over £600 million of capital investment that will come with the city deals that have already been announced. And, of course, the growth deal for north Wales is now making further progress. There's the metro in Swansea, mentioned by Dr Dai Lloyd earlier this afternoon; the north-east Wales metro; the major investments that are going on in Anglesey to make it an energy island and the ambitions that we have there for marine energy in the future. I think we are able to show that we are investing in all parts of Wales. It's an important criterion that we use, but it is not the decisive one.

As far as ambition is concerned, I'm grateful to Adam Price for welcoming the news on bond issues. It is a matter I know he has raised regularly in the Chamber. I can tell him as well that I have already written to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury alerting her to the fact that I intend to make a case for extending the borrowing powers available to the National Assembly as part of the forthcoming spending review.

The difference between Scotland and Wales, however, is rooted at least partly in the level of PFI debt that Scotland drew up in the first decade of devolution, which we, thankfully, decided to avoid. And there is a choice that he and I have rehearsed many times outside the Chamber and here: every time you finance borrowing, you have to eat into the revenue that is available to the Welsh Government for other purposes. And a case can be made for diverting more of our revenue to support additional capital borrowing, and it's a perfectly respectable case that can be made. But every £1 we divert in that way is £1 less for the very urgent revenue demands that the Government faces on all sides of the Chamber. We know that we don't have the money we need for our schools and our hospitals and all other great public services. So, it's a matter of judgment and there's a balance to be struck, and it's a challenging one to get right.

I wholly endorse what the finance Secretary has just said about the choices that have to be made, and the reality is, of course, that we are constrained by the Welsh block, which is out of our hands. Half of the budget goes on health, another quarter goes on education, and the remainder is split between the other heads upon which the Government spends. The amount available for capital spending is therefore limited, and the finance Secretary's hands are tied. So, we are talking here about a small part of the Welsh Government budget. The urgent need for Wales, as the poorest part of the United Kingdom, is to raise the tax base here, now that we've got limited freedom to raise future revenues from taxation. This is going to become increasingly important to make Wales a more attractive place for businesses to locate and to expand and to attract entrepreneurs into the country and to encourage those who are already here.

I know that the finance Secretary starts all these statements with the ritual trip down austerity avenue, but the fantasy that a UK Labour Government would have done anything very much different from what the Conservatives have done had they been in office after 2010 I think is nonsense. The Alistair Darling plans, on which the Brown Labour Government fought the 2010 election, was actually more restrictive than the plans that George Osborne proposed in his first financial statements. The idea that you can carry on spending money forever and have infinite deficit spending is disproved by the experience of countries as various as Venezuela and Zimbabwe. We've doubled the national debt since 2010 to nearly £2 trillion, which is now £22,000 for every single person in the United Kingdom. Yes, we've lived in an era of low interest rates, but if the Government's financial policy had been much more relaxed, then those interest rates would not have fallen as fast and as far as they did. Now, of course, there's only one way forward for interest rates, and that's up. So, we have to be ever more cautious, I think, in balancing the books, or moving towards that. George Osborne was continually pushed off to another day—Philip Hammond similarly—the day on which the budget is balanced. Now, that has implications, of course, for us here in Wales too. But for the future, looking at it in the very longer term, we want to have a tax policy in Wales that is going to encourage growth and investment. You have to create wealth before you can spend it. If you spend it before it's been created, then you end up in the same position as Mr Micawber. 

But to move to the specifics, I just want to make a couple of points. The statement says that the plan's been at the heart of the Welsh Government's work to create and sustain economic growth, but, of course, economic growth in terms of private sector businesses in Wales has been modest since the inception of the plan, and, in fact, mid and west Wales is one of the worst. I do endorse what Adam Price has said about the need to have a more equitable spread of investment throughout the country.

Wales, according to the Barclays entrepreneurs index, has the second lowest number of high-growth companies in the UK, at only 77. The number of companies receiving venture capital funding has also increased from 23 last year now to 32. The value of this investment hasn't increased; it's stable year on year at only £9 million. These are very disappointing figures.

The StatsWales figures on active business enterprises per 10,000 population show that, overall, the Wales figures have an increase of only 57 active businesses per 10,000 since 2012. And mid and west Wales figures are very much below the best areas and the Wales average overall. Mid Wales being, for these purposes, Powys and Ceredigion combined, shows an increase of only 31 active businesses per 10,000 population between 2012 and 2016. So, we need to do something to ensure, from the Welsh Government's ability to spend, that we build upon these modest successes so that we reduce the imbalances in Wales. Looking at the increases in business turnover between 2012 and 2017, again from the StatsWales figures, Wales has seen an overall increase of 13.8 per cent. Pembrokeshire has seen only a 3 per cent increase. I know you're never going to have everybody at the average throughout the whole country, obviously, and things change over time, but we should, I think, at least endeavour to ensure that there's a greater equity in the way Government is spending. I'm sure that Lee Waters will find that it grows on him the longer it gets. The other—[Interruption.]

No, you don't get much longer because you've had far more time than the other two spokespeople. So, if you could come to some questions, thank you.

Right, of course. I defer always to your authority, Deputy Presiding Officer.

I would just like to make a further plea, lastly, in relation to broadband access because, again, for mid and west Wales, of the 10 constituencies with the slowest broadband connection, seven out of 10 were in mid and west Wales. In Carmarthen East and Dinefwr and Montgomeryshire, Ceredigion and Dwyfor Meirionnydd, over 50 per cent of broadband connections are slower than 10 MB per second in 2016. I do applaud what the Welsh Government has done in this respect to improve connectivity, but I think there is a lot more that still needs to be done, and it can only be done if we can provide greater finance for it. So, I wonder if the finance Secretary could give us his reflections on those few points that I've made.

Thank you very much. Let me first of all identify a small number of points where I would not agree with what the Member has said. He said that the Welsh Government's hands are tied. Our hands are not as completely tied as they once were, very largely due to the work carried out by my predecessor, Jane Hutt, in setting off down the road of innovative ways of adding to the conventional capital that is available to us. And I tried to set some of those out in the way that we have supported borrowing that was capable of being undertaken by housing associations and local councils and in the way that we have used sources of funding outside the Welsh block. Of course, the big context is set by the block in the way that Neil Hamilton said. Let me say to him: austerity isn't an avenue, it's a dead end. That's what the continual pushing into the distance of the day when we will finally see it come to a conclusion demonstrates.

I've not argued at all, Dirprwy Lywydd, this afternoon, for infinite spending, but the clue is in the term, isn't it—'capital' investment? Capital spending is not just money poured down the drain, it is the money that we use to create the conditions in which we get a greater return as a result of the investment than we would have if we hadn't made it. And that's how we manage—and I agree with what he said here—to try and raise the tax base in Wales, to try and make sure that our economy is able to do better. What do businesses coming into Wales expect to see? They expect to see the sort of infrastructure that they know public spending will support the investment that they are willing to make. And so I don't agree with him that capital investment is somehow something that we should be sceptical about. We invest today in order to succeed tomorrow, and the success we have tomorrow more than pays back the investment that we make in order to get there.

I thank him for what he said at the end about broadband access. He's seen that there's over £30 million in today's announcement of additional investment over the next three years in broadband access. My understanding, but you'd hear much more of it from my colleague who has responsibility for it, is that that money will, in part at least, be spent in those parts of Wales where the broadband challenge is at its greatest and to enable us to accelerate the infrastructure that we need in digital technologies, again because businesses in that part of Wales—their future and their growth depends on it.

I very much welcome the statement by the Cabinet Secretary, who I'm sure agrees with me that the choice is often between austerity or growth and what austerity is doing is strangling growth in the British economy and the Welsh economy. Could I also say that it wasn't serendipity that Wales has got low PFI? It was good decisions taken by the Welsh Government at the time. They could've followed Scotland and England and built up that debt.

I'd like to put on record my personal congratulations to Jane Hutt, the person who started off this 10-year programme. I just look at the benefits it has given to my constituency: the new secondary schools, the new primary schools, the improved transport infrastructure, the new homes. That's what we try to get elected for—to improve the lives of the constituents we represent. Capital expenditure is incredibly important, not just to provide the buildings, but very much to reflate the Welsh economy. You put money in—capital expenditure—and you buy goods and you employ people and the money gets circulated inside the economy. This is something that doesn't seem to have crossed Philip Hammond's mind, because it probably doesn't appear on his spreadsheet.

It's a very important point that Adam Price raised about bonds, but the important thing about bonds is not to use them, but to have the capacity to use them to keep the Public Works Loan Board honest. Very few people—. You'll see them used—bonds—by local government bodies. Transport for London took out a very substantial bond, but very few other people have. When the Public Works Loan Board started looking at increasing interest rates, people started looking to bonds in order to push their rates down. I think it's important that we have the ability to use bonds, not necessarily because we want to use them, but because they give us power over the Public Works Loan Board, which, if we didn't have that, would be the only lender we could go to.

Can I just say I very much welcome the £60 million over three years to accelerate the creation of active travel routes to connect residential areas with key employment and educational sites and services? I'm sure that my colleague Lee Waters is going to say more about that later on. When will the split by region or local authority be available, or will local authorities have to bid, and how will those bids be decided?

Inside this money, will there be extra money available for the Swansea bay city region for transport within that region? I know we use the word 'metro' because that's the word we've got used to, but improved bus and rail links, opening additional railway stations, making it easier for people to cycle and walk within that area is really what I'm talking about in that. For relatively small sums, huge improvements can be made in terms of ensuring that cycle routes are completed, that buses and trains actually meet each other so you can get off a bus and catch a train or get off a train and catch a bus, rather than being unco-ordinated, and that buses get close to the railway stations, rather than making people walk 200 yards, or 200m in modern parlance, when it's raining.

My final question is: waste recycling collaboration, will there be money available for that, and how will that be distributed?

Well, let me begin by agreeing, as Mike Hedges predicted I would, with a point he made at the outset: the problem with austerity is that it is self-defeating. It creates the problem it claims to address, and that's why we find ourselves in the position that we do. He's absolutely right to say, of course, not using PFI was a deliberate decision by Welsh Governments in the first decade of devolution, and I well remember the criticisms that were levelled at the Welsh Government at the time for making just that decision. I think we now see the wisdom of it. Every one of us, Dirprwy Lywydd, I think, can point to the impact of capital investment during the first period of the WIIP in our own constituencies, whether that is in health or in education or in transport or in housing and the other key purposes that were identified for it.

Can I thank Mike Hedges for reminding us of the multiplier effect of capital investment? It isn't just the building that you see, or the transport link that is created, it's the supply chains that it supports, it's the jobs that are created there, it's the spending in local economies, it's that benign economic cycle that capital expenditure brings.

Dirprwy Lywydd, Mike Hedges was also right to remind us that the issuing of bonds does not extend the capital limit of the Welsh Government. It doesn't give us more money to invest, but what it does is it gives us more choices in the way that we can get to that capital limit, and were the day to come where the interest rate in the Public Works Loan Board were to rise—and the UK Government were tempted to do that, as Mike said, not that long ago—we would have somewhere else to go. That's an important lever in our hands.

I'd like to be able to answer the more detailed questions that Mike raised in relation to active travel, to the Swansea area, to waste recycling and so on, but those are things that fall to my Cabinet colleagues. They will provide the detail to Members in a series of announcements that I'm sure they will be making over the coming days.

Cabinet Secretary, can I also welcome the midpoint review of the Wales infrastructure investment plan, which I did launch, as you stated, in 2012? We developed the plan to ensure that Welsh Government decisions on capital investment are made in accordance with agreed Wales-wide strategic Welsh Government priorities. Can I welcome the £9 billion invested as a result of the WIIP, including that pipeline of the wider public sector and private sector investment in terms of profiles and planning, and welcome the fact that that has been in accordance with the five-case business model that has underpinned the efficiency, maintenance and management of the plan?

Thus, two questions from me: in terms of the innovative finance schemes you are progressing, can you update us on the current and post-Brexit access to loans from the European Investment Bank? The bank has played a key role in infrastructure investment in Wales, including the private as well as the public sector, with the landmark Swansea University second campus as a clear example—of course, also backed by Welsh Government and European regional development funding. Will we be able to continue to access European Investment Bank funding? Can you also confirm that the European structural funds—and you highlight the £720 million that is being used for capital investment in Wales in this programme—will be fully drawn down in this programme timeline, and for what key purposes? Can I thank you for opening the Llantwit Major Comprehensive School learning campus, which, of course, was as a result of the twenty-first century schools investment programme, funded in partnership with the Vale of Glamorgan Council?

Just finally, Mike Hedges and you in your response to him, talked about the wider impact on the economy. The impact today on the construction sector is crucial, and it would be helpful to know if you can identify the jobs that will be created. We have shown in Wales that we can be innovative and we can, in fact, challenge austerity through innovation and careful management and prioritisation of our resources.

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. First of all, can I say to Jane Hutt that the Llantwit Major learning campus is an absolutely excellent example of what I said about how all our constituencies have flagship places that we can point to that are there because of the work that the WIIP set in motion?

The Member made a very important point about the construction sector. I attended an event at Coleg y Cymoedd yesterday, in which I was able to meet several groups of young people—I was very pleased to see a number of young women amongst them—who are following courses in engineering and in the railway industry, making sure that they have the skills that are needed for the construction sector in the future, and to hear from the Institution of Civil Engineers, for example, just how important the WIIP has been to them in allowing them and their Members to plan ahead for capital investment that they know is here in Wales.

Two specific questions from Jane. Firstly, in relation to the European Investment Bank, we have argued from the beginning that the UK should aim to remain a subscribing partner of the bank. We are a major capital holder within the bank, and of course Wales has benefited from it. The European Union UK phase 1 report on the negotiations says that there is a prospect of what is called a 'continuing arrangement' between the UK and the EIB. I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the basis of that report, to press on him the point that we clearly see merit in a mutually beneficial relationship with the bank, and making a number of technical suggestions to him, based on our experience as to how an ongoing relationship with the EIB could be secured.

As to structural funds, we continue to operate within the Chancellor's guarantee, which sets a limit of 2019 for us to commit all structural funds available to us during the current round. I remain hopeful, Dirprwy Lywydd, if not optimistic, that that transition arrangement, which is part of the first phase 1 deal, once it is confirmed, that that will mean we are able to use structural funds in the current round on the basis of business as usual. That is to say that they will go to the end of the seven-year period, and two years beyond that, so that we are able to make even better use of the resources that are available to us.

Thank you. Finally, Lee Waters.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Cabinet Secretary, I rise to praise the Government. I warmly welcome the announcement of £20 million a year for active travel investment. Having been the first Government in the world to set out a statutory requirement for long-term planning to get walking and cycling to be a more commonly used, everyday option, I think it's right that the resource is now beginning to be put in place—not least because this is a cross-cutting benefit, not only tackling public health but climate change and congestion too.

There are a number of questions I have, but as you rightly remind us, the details are for the relevant Cabinet Secretaries. A question for you, perhaps, is if you can help point us, in the future, to the total amount of investment the Government now makes in walking and cycling schemes. It is quite difficult to disentangle the various different funding streams, and I think it would be helpful, given the scale of this announcement, to have a global figure, which would allow us to compare our spending with other countries. And also, you mentioned that the £60 million is to connect residential areas. As the Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for planning is also present, I thought I'd take the opportunity just to underline the importance of getting the maximum benefit from this investment. It can't be just a matter of Welsh Government giving grants for new infrastructure. We must ensure that when new developments take place, that is hardwired into the design. So, the new 'Planning Policy Wales' iteration that's out to consultation must include, not as desirable but as an essential requirement, that active travel routes are included within planning policy. So, I would encourage you to have conversations with your Cabinet colleagues to make sure that we get the most out of the investment that you've announced, which I very warmly welcome.

Dirprwy Lywydd, thank you to Lee Waters for those points. I said, in my statement, that one of the key principles that links nearly all of the investments I've announced today is the contribution that I want to see them making to the efforts being made by Lesley Griffiths to reduce carbon emissions right across the Welsh Government. The money going to active travel will certainly help to do that. It will improve air quality, it will build physical activity into people's daily lives, it will provide those wider health benefits, and it is designed, as I said, to connect residential areas with key employment, educational sites and other places where people have to go in order to carry out their daily lives. So, other Government Members will have heard what Lee Waters has said about making the very most of the additional investment and, of course, I agree with him there. I don't have a figure immediately in front of me that would draw together the total amount of investment that the Welsh Government is now making in walking and cycling and other active travel initiatives, but I'm very happy to commission that, and I'll write to the Member with a figure that he can then rely upon.

Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary.