Diolch yn fawr, Lywydd. Thanks to all those who’ve taken part in the discussion. And thank you to those parties who’ve indicated their support for the motion this afternoon. I’ll take the four contributors in reverse order, if I could.

Gareth Bennett is quite right to say that, in these very difficult times, no local authorities can afford to do anything other than in the most efficient manner. We work hard with them to try and secure that, using the advice that comes from the audit office and others. In the end it is for electors to make sure that they hold local authorities to account for the way in which they discharge their responsibilities.

Mike Hedges outlined those large number of services that local authorities provide, which very rarely make the headlines, but which make such a difference to the ability of citizens to go on leading lives of the sort that they would wish to see. In my discussions about these services with local authorities over the summer and beyond, they point themselves very strongly to the way in which regional arrangements can help to pool resources, to share scarce staff, to make sure that there is expertise available. I hope to say more on that to the National Assembly as those discussions with authorities draw to a close. Mike is of course right to point to the pressures on social care. That’s why there is £25 million in the settlement for social services. That’s why we’ve added another £10 million in this final settlement, to recognise pressures on social care. That’s why the £60 million intermediate care fund has been sustained into next year as well, to help bring those services together.

Janet Finch-Saunders intervened to point to delayed transfers of care figures. It took a bit of bravery, I thought, on her part, given the headlines that we’ve read every day over the last 10 days about the utter collapse of social care in England and the impact that that’s having on social services there. And here, in Wales, we provide, from this Government, the investment that is needed to sustain our social care services. We do not invent some hokey scheme in which those most unable local authorities are asked to pick up the pieces for the failure. An autumn statement with not a penny piece for social care services in England and no consequential for us in Wales. But, working with Plaid Cymru, we were able to create—[Interruption.] Well, yes, working with Plaid Cymru, we were able to identify some common priorities, and the investment in social care reflects that.

I agreed with what Janet Finch-Saunders said about the need to make sure that we have a funding formula that is fit for the future and, next week, I will meet with the finances sub-group that involves people from local government and beyond, and independent experts, to look at ways in which we might be able to reform the formula here in Wales. Where she was quite wrong was to suggest that the information that we feed into the current formula is not up to date. It’s updated every single year to reflect population shifts, to reflect the number of children in our schools, and this year, for next year’s settlement, to implement some very important changes in relation to sparsity. The two local authorities who do best of all out of the changes for next year are Ceredigion, which sees its budget go up by 0.9 per cent, and Gwynedd, which sees its budget go up by 1.1 per cent. I don’t think either of those are run by the Labour Party, as Janet suggested.

Let me go to the points that Sian Gwenllian made in opening, because she absolutely rightly drew our attention to the ideological drive that lies behind the flawed, failed and self-defeating policy of austerity, and the real and direct impact that this has on the lives of people across Wales. Through our efforts and the discussions that went on behind the budget, we’ve managed to protect local authorities as best we can next year. But, as Sian Gwenllian said, despite those efforts, the settlement remains very challenging. What we know, sadly, because of the budgets that lie ahead of us as a National Assembly, is that the impact of austerity in the budgets that we can provide to local authorities will go on being challenging, and more challenging, over the rest of this Assembly term. In the meantime, Llywydd, I believe that the settlement in front of the Assembly this afternoon reflects a fair outcome for local government. It allows them to go on investing in vital local services. They will now have to intensify their efforts to achieve the changes needed to be able to sustain those services and deliver the best outcomes for people across Wales. The settlement in front of Members this afternoon provides a platform for that to be carried out, and I commend it to the Assembly.