Can I say to the Minister that, after a cheap date, there often comes the morning after? The Minister seems to have woken up in Plaid Cymru’s clothes, but based on the statement he’s made so far they suit him very well.

There are a couple of things that I’d like to ask him, following his response to the statement so far. One is: he’s touched on accountability by referencing back to old police authorities and so forth, but I’d like to hear a little bit more about how accountability can be built into this new system. The other side of it, as well, is leadership. Plaid Cymru’s proposals, he will remember, mentioned the possibility of elected mayors, for example. We weren’t necessarily wedded to that, but that was something that we put forward as an idea. If we’re not going to have something like that, how will leadership be taken forward in these new combined authorities—let me just call them that for the time being—particularly, perhaps, when you come to city regions, which will also have a leadership need as well?

He hasn’t mentioned one of the big topics of local government reform, I still feel, which is the introduction of a better voting system. I think the single transferrable vote has to be, surely, on the agenda for local government, as it has been introduced in Northern Ireland and Scotland, as the real way that reinvigorates and brings in new blood and new people into local government. I’d like to hear whether that is still something that he is prepared to consider, going forward.

He mentioned town and community councils. I’m not sure we need another review. They were looked at in the ‘Reforming Local Government’ White Paper. They were looked at tangentially, at least, in Williams. What do we need to understand about local government that needs another taskforce or review? Surely we have the information and the evidence now to move ahead with that very local level of local government and empowering them, to a certain extent, to do more for their local communities as well. He did mention elections in that regard around principal authorities—about five-year terms to 2022—but his predecessor talked about delaying the town and community council elections for another year. Is that still the case, or are these all now to be aligned?

I very much welcome what he said. I think this is the basis for far more co-operative working, not only at a local government level, but perhaps at a national government level as well. I look forward to some real ideas coming forward about how we can build on the 22 building blocks for genuine local service delivery and proper regional collaboration.