Firstly, can I welcome the statement and most of the proposals? For the last 25 years I’ve seen proposals for local government change based on the certainty of ignorance. It’s a very welcome break from that. This is so much better than any of the previous proposals, some implemented and most not.

First, could I welcome the proposed power of general competence, something that local government has requested for decades? Secondly, can I welcome the use of the city regions as the footprints for local government? It appears that every time a new proposal for joint working in an area is proposed, a new area is created, and that causes nothing but confusion. So, I think, in answer to perhaps what Sian Gwenllian was saying, this could be better than the current system. I live in Swansea, in what they call a Janus area, because we either look east or west depending on which service it is, and it makes no sense whatsoever to me and most of my constituents.

If city regions are to mean anything, then they have to be the basis for service provision. Otherwise they’ll be seen solely as artificial constructs for economic development only. Shared back-office services will obviously save money—what some people call a ‘no-brainer’—but will mean that some highly paid jobs will move from one area to another, and that might mean moving highly paid jobs out of some of our poorer communities. So there are advantages in terms of saving money, but it’s not just about that, is it? It’s about supporting some of our poorer communities.

I’ve got three questions to the Cabinet Secretary. The first question is: whilst I feel that STV, or ‘guess how many seats you can win, but with seats for everyone’, is not a suitable electoral system, I’m sure others will disagree with me; will the Cabinet Secretary include a supermajority system, that is, that two thirds of a council must support it before a change can be made?

Second question: as I have previously argued, some would probably say ad nauseam, there are services that are best provided at a local level and those that benefit from being large organisations—I think that education and social services are two that immediately come to mind, as the two great county council services; but not only those, trading standards, again, is another service that does benefit from scale—but will the Cabinet Secretary allow councils to decide the size and membership of these joint boards?

Thirdly, while most are outside his remit, will the Cabinet Secretary work with other members of the Government to work towards moving all Welsh Government-funded public services to within the city region footprint?