1. Will the First Minister make a statement on the projected cost of dualling the A465 between Dowlais and Hirwaun? OQ55986

Llywydd, I thank the Member for that question. The capital cost of completing the dualling of the Heads of the Valleys road through the final Dowlais to Hirwaun stretch is £590 million.

Thank you, First Minister. When the project was signed off in a stage 3 scheme assessment report in 2017, the projected construction cost was £308 million, with a total project cost approximated at £428 million. Recently, the Western Mail revealed something similar to what you just said, that the cost of construction had now increased to, as they put it, £550 million, though I take the figure that you just said as being £590 million. But, what was really shocking to learn was that in moving to the mutual investment model of financing, the Welsh Government has now also committed to paying £38 million a year for 30 years as an annual service payment. That total cost of the annual service payment for the 30-year period will be an eye-watering £1.14 billion. That brings the total cost of the project to £1.7 billion over 30 years, being a £1.3 billion increase from the initial projection of £428 million. Let's call this insanity what it is, First Minister—private finance initiative under another name. Spending £1.7 billion on infrastructure in the Valleys is a great idea, but how about spending it on community regeneration, work creation schemes, public transport, improving housing and schools rather than on what must be one of the most expensive roads per mile in history. 

Well, Llywydd, that was less a supplementary question than a farrago of misunderstandings and misrepresentations. I'm afraid the Member has no grasp whatsoever of the mutual investment model, a model, of course, adopted by the Scottish Government following the Welsh devising of it. So, her sister party in Scotland has chosen to follow our lead in this matter. She mangles together a whole series of costs and fails to make sense of any of them. The money that will be spent through revenue after the road is completed does not simply service the debt, but it pays for all the ongoing maintenance of that road throughout the whole of its life. Those costs are incurred in any scheme of road building, but they are not as transparent and available for everybody to scrutinise as they are in the mutual investment model. 

The model that we have here in Wales is very different to PFI. I've discussed it on the floor of the Senedd with the leader of her party on a number of occasions, when, for example, he asked me to explore whether or not the 15 per cent equity stake we take in the companies that will construct the road could be extended. Those, I thought, were very sensible conversations to get the most out of the model. I'm afraid the Member really does just need to go back, do her homework, and then we'll have a more sensible conversation.

I'm with Delyth Jewell on this. News that taxpayers face the extortionate amount of money that has been spend on this dualling from Hirwaun to Dowlais, after construction costs increased by 25 per cent in less than a year, is truly shocking. It's an extortionate amount of money to be spending on such a project and I completely agree with Delyth Jewell on that. This follows your breaking of a manifesto pledge to deliver an M4 relief road and the South East Wales Transport Commission being instructed not to consider another motorway to ease its proposals on the congestion on the M4. Given your Government's appalling record, what confidence can the public have in you delivering future transport infrastructure projects, such as the proposed Chepstow bypass, on time and within budget?

Well, Llywydd, the Member, as I would have expected, really, has simply failed to understand that what the mutual investment model delivers for the Dowlais to Hirwaun stretch is a fixed-price contract. So, the risks are carried by the private sector contractor—they have to deliver this road on budget and on time, otherwise there are very significant penalties that lie with them and not with the public purse. That is one of the advantages of having devised the model in the way that we have, because it does provide the public with that guarantee that the amount of money that has been agreed with the company is the amount of money that will be paid, and if further costs are incurred, the risks rest with the private contractor and not with the public purse.

Well, I have looked at the mutual investment model and I have to say that it has a number of advantages. First of all, it will help the Government to bring forward this project much faster than it might have been able to otherwise, and we have to say there is no doubt that this stretch of the A465 is a vital infrastructure project. Together with the work being done in the Clydach gorge section, it will create a quality trunk road, connecting the Heads of the Valleys towns west as far as Swansea and east as far as the midlands, and even with London via the M4. So, does the First Minister agree with me that it will provide a particularly strong tool in getting businesses to locate along the Heads of Valleys corridor and thus help to alleviate the economic underperformance of the area?

Well, Llywydd, I thank David Rowlands for those points. I am very proud of the fact that successive Labour Governments here in this Senedd have provided 13 continuous years of investment to complete the Heads of the Valleys road, for the reasons that David Rowlands has identified—that it will bring new economic opportunities to those Heads of the Valleys communities. It will link them in a way that they've never been linked before, with a modern infrastructure, both east to the midlands and west to west Wales. It is a vital part of this Government's investment in those communities, and the completion of it in the Dowlais to Hirwaun stretch delivers on our commitment to those communities.

And can I say that David Rowlands also made an important point? Were we not doing it through the mutual investment model, this road would not be going ahead. It's the only way that we are able to make that investment, and at a time when we know, from last week's comprehensive spending review and the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates of what will happen to the economy next year, we need projects ready to go now. A thousand people will be employed at the height of this road's construction, 120 apprenticeships, 60 traineeships, 320 internships, for young people in that part of Wales, where the advantages will be felt in those communities that need it the most. [Interruption.] It's no surprise to me that the Tories oppose it—of course they would; they have no interest at all in what happens in that part of Wales. But here on these benches, we are very proud indeed of our record of investment in this road, in those communities, and that's what this final stretch will deliver.

First Minister, it's no surprise, of course, to see Plaid Cymru and the Tories ganging up to condemn investment in the south Wales Valleys. I'm old enough now to remember it was a Plaid Cymru Minister, of course, who held up investment in the Heads of the Valleys road back in 2007. The road is there not simply to provide communications, but as a tool of economic development. And in supporting some of the poorest communities in the country—which we know that these people on my left here have got no interest in—it's important to ensure that we have a jobs plan for the Heads of the Valleys to maximise the value of this public investment so we can invest in people and places and the communities of the Heads of the Valleys. It's why they support us and why they will continue to support us and not the noise coming from these benches. 

Well, Llywydd, Alun Davies is absolutely right—the road is not just a road in itself; it is all the economic opportunities that it will unlock in those communities. The OBR tells us, Llywydd, that, next year, unemployment is expected to rise from 4.8 per cent today to 7.5 per cent, and that people in Wales will see a rise in unemployment from 70,000 today to 114,000 next year. I've heard the party opposite previously argue for investments that put people to work, that create opportunities for people and places. Here they have one, where the work has already begun, where construction will begin in the spring, just when it is most needed, and they can't find it in them to say a single word in support of it. Luckily, we have Members representing those communities here in the Senedd who will do that on their behalf.