A £500m part of the programme to modernise over 100 crumbling schools will be funded using the Welsh Government’s Mutual Investment Model plan, designed to finance major capital projects due to a scarcity of capital funding.

As technical adviser Gleeds will now work with specialist legal and financial advisers to draw up details of the MIM building programme.

This will involve production of standard documents for the construction of schools and colleges, including specifications, bid documents, and business case support for tranches of projects.

Band B of the 21st Century Schools programme will run from 2019-20 to 2023-24

MIM borrows heavily from the NPD model in Scotland and crucially has been judged as off-balance sheet.

Unlike historic PFI deals, the Welsh model allows the public sector to share in any profits with a 20% equity stake, excludes the provision of services such as cleaning and catering from the contract, excludes low-level value maintenance work and ensures transparency about costs and performance.

Planned schemes will see private partners build and maintain public assets. In return, the Welsh Government will pay a fee to the private partner, which will cover the cost of construction, maintenance and financing the project.

At the end of the contract the asset will be transferred into public ownership.

During the construction phases of the projects, contractors will create apprenticeships and traineeships to benefit local communities.