Rebecca Evans: Llywydd, again I have to answer a straight question with a straight answer, and I think that the leader of Swansea Council absolutely puts first the people of Swansea in the work that he does. I think that he is ambitious for the people of Swansea and he has a strong vision for Swansea, as we saw that at the opening of the new arena. I will leave it there before I go further than the Llywydd...
Rebecca Evans: I prioritised funding for local government when setting the Welsh budget. In 2022-23, the Isle of Anglesey will receive £114.6 million through the local government settlement, an increase of 9.2 per cent. This good settlement allows the council to set a budget to maintain and invest in services.
Rebecca Evans: Local authorities are independent, democratically accountable bodies that are responsible for scrutinising their own decisions. From May, each principal council will have a duty to encourage local people to participate in their decision making. This will provide councils with a fuller understanding of the public interest in their area.
Rebecca Evans: Absolutely, I would give your constituents that reassurance that Welsh Government will always seek to work very closely with local authorities on our areas of shared responsibility and shared interest, and particularly now to work together to support people through that cost-of-living crisis. I think that we've developed, through the crisis of COVID, excellent mechanisms, excellent...
Rebecca Evans: I prioritised funding for local government when setting the Welsh budget. In 2022-23, Wrexham County Borough Council will receive a 9.4 per cent increase in its core settlement allocation.
Rebecca Evans: Well, the proposals were subject to a 12-week consultation. So, there was, I would argue, ample opportunity for businesses and representative bodies to engage with that consultation, and, indeed, they did. We had over 1,000 responses to that consultation, many of which supported the increase in the number of nights that a property must be offered for or actually let. So, we did have strong...
Rebecca Evans: I regularly engage with the Minister for Economy on a range of issues, including tourism. We have delivered a budget allocation of over £16.9 million per year to support tourism throughout Wales over the next three-year period, including eight projects in north Wales through the brilliant basics 2020-21 fund.
Rebecca Evans: Our package of support that we're able to offer people living in Wales is almost double that which we've received in consequentials from the UK Government. So, you will get the £150 payment in households in bands A to D in Wales, but you'll also get it in all of the other remaining bands if you are somebody who is in receipt of the council tax reduction scheme, recognising that there will be...
Rebecca Evans: Rhianon Passmore is absolutely right that the recent spring statement was an absolute scandal in terms of not being able to address the cost-of-living crisis that is now facing individuals and families right across Wales. It's only now that families will start seeing their fuel bills go up. We know that energy company chief executive officers predict that, without UK Government intervention,...
Rebecca Evans: I have raised the cost-of-living crisis with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury several times, however, the UK Government support still does not go far enough. We will continue to assist those most vulnerable through this crisis and push the UK Government to recognise the impacts facing Wales.
Rebecca Evans: I'd absolutely like to join Jane Dodds in recognising the important role of town and community councillors in serving and shaping their local communities, and I've had some really good meetings with One Voice Wales to understand what the sector believes that its potential is. And I know that we have town and community councils of all shapes and sizes and of all kinds of experience and levels...
Rebecca Evans: Absolutely. We do all have a personal responsibility to show leadership in this area and to undertake constructive and robust debate. You can have a robust debate without resorting to those personal attacks, and I do think that it puts off people from politics when they're observing these kinds of things happening. That's one of the reasons I'm so pleased to see that the Welsh Local...
Rebecca Evans: Absolutely. I think that anybody who puts themselves forward for public service through election is doing something incredibly brave, and it is important that people have that opportunity to make that contribution to their communities and are able to do so in a way that doesn't subject them or find them subjected to abuse. The abuse that people in public life receive is appalling. I think...
Rebecca Evans: While we don't centrally collect information on the number of uncontested seats in Welsh local government elections, I'm aware the Electoral Reform Society states that there are 74 uncontested seats across Wales.
Rebecca Evans: So, just to be clear, the £1,000 payment that we're talking about here is not a bonus payment. We were able to pay two bonus payments to people working in the social care sector during the course of the pandemic. The first was a £500 payment and then a second payment of £735. We were clear that those were bonus payments, they were thank you payments for the work that had been undertaken by...
Rebecca Evans: Well, Welsh Government was very pleased to deliver very early on our manifesto commitment to deliver a real living wage for people working in the social care sector, and, of course, that work is being led by the Minister with responsibility for social services, but we were very pleased to be able to deliver that. But to bridge workers in that sector to that, of course, we did announce the...
Rebecca Evans: I always like to answer a direct question with a direct answer. So, no, I do not agree with the Member on that. I am surprised that, in the week of local government elections, or just before that week of local government elections, the Conservative Member would want to raise what he describes as historic underfunding of local government in Wales, because, of course, this is nothing if it's...
Rebecca Evans: I think we've all got a shared interest in ensuring that the strategic partnership landscape across Wales is fit for purpose and is enabling rather than hindering delivery for communities. I think regional partnership boards in particular do have a special focus, but there's nothing to stop members of PSBs choosing to merge to match the local health board and, therefore, the RPB footprint,...
Rebecca Evans: Yes, thank you absolutely for giving me that opportunity to put on record my thanks, and Welsh Government's thanks, to councillors of all political parties and none, who have served their communities over the past years, and especially to those who are choosing to stand down this time. I think that I want to put particular thanks on record to those, and also, just from a personal perspective,...
Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful to Altaf Hussain for raising the Preston model—it's something that Welsh Government has been very interested in as we've been developing our own work on the foundational economy. And it's certainly a model that we did explore in terms of those anchor institutions—the role that the NHS has to play, the role that local authorities have to play, higher education...
