£120M earmarked for Welsh capital projects
The Welsh Assembly Government has brought forward projects worth £120M to boost the economy.
The cash will go to 10 projects including a £35M scheme to build school buildings and a leisure centre on the site of the former Corus steel works in Ebbw Vale, and a £20M affordable housing project.
Work will be financed by an investment fund which has been created to build of projects of “strategic importance’ to the Labour-Plaid Cymru One Wales coalition. A total of £75M of the Government’s budget reserves will be used.
Capital spending for the 2010/11 year will be down by £360M, partly because these projects have been accelerated.
The Assembly Government has asked the Treasury to repeat the exercise with roughly the same sum of money in the next financial year to help the construction industry. Ministers will find out if they have been successful when the UK Government makes its comprehensive spending review, expected next month.
Finance minister Andrew Davies said the money would double when other budgets were added. “We are in difficult economic times, meaning that we must use our resources effectively and efficiently to ensure value for the Welsh pound,” he said.
The ten projects:
- £20M for affordable housing.
- £35M for the Ebbw Vale Learning Works including development of 3-16 school provision and a sports/leisure and arts centre.
- £12M for the Taf Ely Learning Campus
- £5.3M for school buildings in Gwynedd.
- £10M for three emergency Strategic Coordination Centres.
- £15M for an arts and science centre at Bangor University.
- £8.5M for a new Emergency Care Centre at Prince Charles Hospital.
- £8M for the Children’s Hospital for Wales.
- £3.5M for the Glyn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea.
- £975,000 for eco-lighting at 17 monuments.
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