Rebecca Evans: I held an introductory meeting with the new leader in August. And I also meet all leaders regularly through our fortnightly meetings at the Welsh Local Government Association executive board and separately on issues such as taxation reform. I have also discussed local government financial challenges with Monmouthshire’s deputy leader through the finance sub-group.
Rebecca Evans: I'm grateful to John Griffiths for raising this issue, and I do recognise what he says in terms of property prices being higher than average in Monmouthshire, and there obviously are links between job opportunities and higher house prices. But property prices can be skewed, of course, by second home ownership and also by a significant number of short-term holiday lets in an area, which is why...
Rebecca Evans: Well, Llywydd, the core revenue funding that we provide to local authorities every year is distributed according to relative need, and that uses a formula that takes into account a wealth of information, including the demographic, physical, economic and social characteristics of authorities. And there is no evidence whatsoever that any authority, or a group of authorities, with any particular...
Rebecca Evans: First of all, I would just like to say—and I know that Sam Rowlands agrees with me on this—that we have to give respect to anybody who puts themselves forward as a candidate for a community council, town council or county council election, because it does take an element of bravery to do that. And the abuse of any candidate is absolutely unacceptable and we have to do everything that we...
Rebecca Evans: I think one of the important things that we have to do as well is to help councillors understand that this kind of behaviour isn't acceptable, because there's often an inclination on the part of elected representatives to think that abuse just comes with the job, and it absolutely shouldn't, and I know that we all appreciate that in this Chamber. And that's one of the reasons, again, why...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you again for that important question. Like you, I was disappointed at the level of uncontested seats. I think that having contested seats and giving local people a choice is a really positive thing, which is why the work that we're doing through our diversity and democracy programme is so important in terms of widening up access to elected office by all people in our community. We've...
Rebecca Evans: Well, I've had the opportunity to discuss these issues in depth with the local authority leaders very recently. So, as you've heard, we have now fortnightly meetings with local authority leaders. In last week's meeting, actually, one of the substantive items was budgetary pressures, and they were able to give those figures to me at that meeting. We also had, last week or the week before, a...
Rebecca Evans: I can see that the Plaid Cymru spokesperson and I have been having the same conversations with local government leaders in recent times, and that you're hearing very much the same message as I am, which I think is a positive thing. Again, that's one of the other things that we're looking at in terms of what we can practically do to support local government around the additional expectations...
Rebecca Evans: Rising energy costs are significantly worrying for local communities and we call for the UK Government to take action to stem the increases. Welsh Government delivers support across the public sector through investing in skills, energy efficiency, research, innovation, decarbonisation and a renewable energy future for Wales.
Rebecca Evans: I join you in also thanking Mike Hedges for facilitating the discussion. I can tell that it was a very impactful discussion, based not only on the order paper for questions today; I see that those discussions that you've had with local government have really had an impact in terms of giving you a real idea of the kinds of pressures that they're under and the holes in their budgets that they...
Rebecca Evans: Well, of course, the best thing that could happen to keep schools warm would be for the UK Government to step into this space. [Interruption.] I hear the Conservatives groaning out loud, but that is going to be the real answer in terms of ensuring that there is an affordable price for energy within schools. That's not the Welsh Government abdicating its responsibility. It's not the Welsh...
Rebecca Evans: This year, the Welsh Government is providing unhypothecated revenue funding of over £5.1 billion, and over £1 billion in specific grant funding in support of local authority statutory and non-statutory services.
Rebecca Evans: I know that the Minister for social services was at the recent meeting regarding budget pressures that local authority leaders were at, and they were able to have at least some starting of the discussions in terms of the specific concerns and pressures around social care. But I think the point that you make really does speak to the 'Claim what's yours' campaign that we're undertaking at the...
Rebecca Evans: I heard the—
Rebecca Evans: I did. I understood 90 per cent—
Rebecca Evans: —so I think we're okay.
Rebecca Evans: Okay. So, to answer the question on reserves: I think it is a positive thing that local government has significant reserves when we move into a cost-of-living crisis. And let's remember, when we were discussing the budget last year, we were talking about that improved settlement in this first year of the three-year spending review, which gave local authorities over 9 per cent of an increase...
Rebecca Evans: I will continue to prioritise funding for all local authorities in Wales through a transparent, equitable and jointly produced distribution formula for the local government settlement with our local government partners.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for the question, and I do recognise that similarity in terms of the crisis of the pandemic and the crisis of the cost-of-living crisis. What's different, of course, is that the pandemic attracted significant additional funding in terms of helping us to manage that, whereas the cost-of-living crisis has not provided us with significant additional funding to help us manage...
Rebecca Evans: The Welsh Government is committed to supporting the most vulnerable through this cost-of-living crisis using our fiscal and policy levers. As part of the budget process, I will consider how we can continue to support our most vulnerable people through the cost-of-living crisis.
