Thank you. Last year, the former finance Minister published a written statement about the development of the mutual investment model to help us realise our ambitious plans for public infrastructure.

Both the First Minister and I have described many times in this Chamber how our capital budgets have shrunk as a result of the UK Government’s relentless pursuit of austerity. Our capital budget has been cut by 10 per cent in real terms as a result of these austerity policies. In 2019-20, this means we will have £200 million less to spend than we did in 2010-11, but our plans and demand for capital investment in Wales have continued to grow.

Just a few months ago, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was proclaiming that austerity was over and that he was publishing a budget to unleash investment to drive future prosperity. He proceeded then to give this Assembly just £2.6 million extra capital to address every unmet investment need that we have in the coming year. It's against this backdrop that this Government has looked to make full use of all sources of capital funding available to us, and to develop new and innovative sources of funding, including the power to issue bonds and the Welsh mutual investment model.

Whilst I want to focus my time this afternoon on the mutual investment model and the latest developments, I also want to say a few words about access to funding from the European Investment Bank and our future relationship after Brexit.