6. How does the Welsh Government intend to use the mutual investment model in the future? OAQ52910

The mutual investment model will be used to boost investment in essential Welsh infrastructure. It will allow us to take forward vital plans in health, education and transport, which cuts to our conventional capital programme would otherwise put at risk.

The Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee has been informed by Capital Law that a private finance scheme like the mutual investment model only becomes effective when put to schemes costing more than £200 million. With that in mind, what are the risks of using the model to fund band B of twenty-first century schools?

I thank the Member for the question. I know that he attended a technical briefing with officials on this matter, and I'm grateful to him for doing that. The way in which band B of twenty-first century schools is brought within the mutual investment model is through aggregation. Individually, those schemes would not meet the test that he has set out, but, by bringing them all together under a single Welsh scheme, cumulatively the spending across Welsh local education authorities meets the threshold that he has identified, and thus allows us to apply the mutual investment model in that field.