Thank you, Presiding Officer. And thank you for the opportunity to make a statement today on the proposals for the reform of local government.

Local government plays a vital part in the lives of every citizen in Wales. Councils provide the services that educate our children, look after our elderly, dispose of our waste, and light our streets. They go on doing so, moreover, during a period that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has called an extraordinary 10 or more years of retrenchment in public spending.