Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:48 pm on 21 September 2022.
Well, that is a longer term solution to the challenge that the Member correctly describes as being imminent for schools, and I hope, as I'm sure he will, that when the statement is made on Friday, the Prime Minister will be clear in terms of the commitment that she's making to businesses and to individuals about the support for energy costs, which is certainly necessary in order for public services right across the UK not to feel the incredible pressure that otherwise they would.
On the broader point that the Member was making, in a number of ways he will know that we have a programme to ensure that the school estate, like every other part of the public estate in Wales, makes its contribution to reaching the goals, the ambitious targets that we've set for making Wales a net-zero nation. So, for new school builds, as he will know, from 1 January this year, any school seeking funding from the Welsh Government will need to be a net-zero school. But there are many schools, obviously, that are much older than that and there is a significant amount of the school estate that requires investment in order for them to be able to make that contribution as well, and there's work under way to understand the scale of that with our local authority partners and then to look at how that can be mapped out into the future.