1. Will the Minister make a statement on additional funding allocated to the education portfolio to support the twenty-first century schools programme in Rhondda Cynon Taf? OQ56450

We are providing an additional £70 million to support delivery of the band B programme next year. This money will bring the total invested over the life of the twenty-first century schools programme to £3.7 billion, of which nearly £400 million will be invested in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Minister, by the end of this year, and over the past 10 years, Rhondda Cynon Taf Labour council, with support from a Welsh Labour Government, has invested or committed nearly £0.75 billion in our local education infrastructure, building new schools, renovating buildings, providing our children with the most modern facilities anywhere in Wales and the UK. And what we can see developing is quite remarkable: a new £23 million school at Y Pant in Pontyclun; a new £43 million three to 19 community school in Tonyrefail; new schools at Penrhiwfer—£7.4 million; Llwyncrwn at Beddau—£3.5 million; investment in Coleg y Cymoedd; and new schools planned at Pontypridd High, Hawthorn; Bryn Celynnog 3G and running track—£1.3 million; and much, much more. Minister, already I can see the impact of these investments on our students, their morale, their confidence, and pride in their schools. Can you confirm that, in the next Senedd, a Welsh Labour Government will continue to invest in education and provide our students with the world-class educational facilities they deserve?

Yes, I will absolutely provide that reassurance and confidence to Mick Antoniw this afternoon. And just listing the investment that's gone into Rhondda Cynon Taf, I think, really shows the scale of the ambition that we've shown so far, but also gives an indication of the kind of investment that we would want to make in future. So, Welsh Government will continue to invest in the school estate through the twenty-first century schools and colleges programme. Of the £3.7 billion lifetime investment, £2.3 billion of this will be invested in band B over the coming years. And band B of the programme was, of course, launched in April 2019, with an indicative five-year delivery reporting period. And the investment of £2.3 billion is a combination of traditional capital and revenue under the mutual investment model. Its aim, of course, is to deliver 200 new build and major refurbishments across Wales, which I think sets out the level of ambition for the future and a really exciting period continuing in the years ahead.

Minister, I'm sure you'll be relieved to hear I'm not a candidate for the election, so I'll not read out my election address; I'll just move to an appropriate question. When large sums of money are given for public use, I think we need the maximum value for the Welsh pound. And here, I do commend RCT council for the way they've used some of these moneys to promote, through the schools programme, ecological habitat, the imaginative use of technologies, connectedness to other priorities like Welsh-language childcare settings in Welsh-medium primary schools, and also dual use of sports facilities so that they're also available to the community. And we do need to use our public expenditure in this way, to get the maximum value from them.

I absolutely couldn't agree more with David Melding on that point, because, of course, when we're investing in our school estate and our college estate, we're investing in the futures of those young people, which is absolutely the priority. But there are so many more benefits that we enjoy as well—for example, the investment that we're making in decarbonisation, in terms of supporting biodiversity, and all of that is very central to our approach. And the mutual investment model will be very important in the next steps of our school building programme here in Wales. And that model is very much focused on delivering those additional benefits—those community benefits—be they ambitious decarbonisation or biodiversity targets, or those other benefits, including ensuring that local communities are able to benefit from apprenticeship opportunities and learning opportunities. So, absolutely, this isn't just about the bricks and mortar; it's about everything that goes around that.