I thank Julie Morgan, Llywydd, for what she said. She’s right to point to the fact that the experience of the Cardiff capital region has been very influential in drawing up this White Paper. It’s very regularly pointed to by council leaders of different parties when I’m discussing it with them as an example of how they have been able to come together. But it’s not just Cardiff; the Swansea region and the North Wales Economic Ambition Board are two other examples of where local authorities are demonstrating the advantages that they can obtain through working in the way that the White Paper sets out. We’ve learnt a lot from them and it’s on their advice that we have identified economic development, regional transport and regional land use planning as the three key levers that they need to make a difference to the sorts of issues that Julie Morgan outlined.

Will we see 16 and 17-year-olds as councillors in the future? Well, I don’t see why not, but let’s make sure that they can participate through the actions that we can take here. There is a significant section in the White Paper about diversification of representation, and that is a real ambition, I think, that we ought to grasp here in Wales. There is a new generation of leaders emerging in local authorities, and that’s much to be welcomed, but we have only two women leaders, both of them formidable actors in the local government field, and hopefully role models to others who will want to follow them. There are a series of practical actions that we set out here, and through the different actions of our political parties, each of which has a responsibility to play their part in the diversification agenda, I am confident we can do more on that here in Wales.