2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the initial response from local authorities to the white paper on Welsh local government reform? OAQ(5)0111(FLG)[W]

To date, only one local authority, Caerphilly, has responded formally to the White Paper consultation on local government reform, which closes on 11 April. The Welsh Local Government Association, on behalf of local authorities in Wales, welcomed the White Paper, noting it had been formed by dialogue and engagement with local authorities.

Thank you. The initial response that I’ve received from councillors mainly, from all parts of Wales, does note a number of grave concerns. While supporting the efforts to make public services in Wales more effective, many are concerned that the proposals outlined in the White Paper put at risk the core principles of local government—principles related to being responsive and being accountable at a local level. Your proposals could put at risk the role of local authorities as a crucial part of democracy in Wales. Others ask whether the creation of these regional strata will lead to a more effective and efficient system. So, how do you intend to maintain this important accountability in that regional system, and will there be an analysis of the cost of the proposals contained within the White Paper?

Llywydd, as I said, we’ve received only one formal response to date, and that was a very constructive response, which, of course, raised questions and gave us new comments about trying to strengthen the White Paper. That is what I’m looking for from the respondents to the White Paper. If people ask questions, that does help, but it’s better still if they offer solutions and make representations on how we can strengthen our proposals in the White Paper, and to assist us in answering questions such as those raised by Sian Gwenllian this afternoon.

On a visit to Milford Haven recently with the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, I was surprised to hear one senior officer of one of the public bodies in the meeting, saying that, at a senior level, surprise had been expressed that money was being paid to another organisation to carry out a function that was going to collectively benefit the community. How well do you think local authority and other public bodies are grasping the opportunities of public service boards as a new way of working and a new way of thinking about how we deliver the benefits for our communities?

I’ve been pleased with the progress that PSBs have made to date on their first core task, and that is the assessment of local well-being. I believe now, as a Government, we’ve received drafts of those assessments from all local authorities in Wales, and they’re being reviewed by my officials. I’ve had an opportunity to read parts of those assessments from different parts of Wales and I think that they demonstrate a genuinely engaged attempt to try and provide an asset-based approach to the assessment of well-being in their areas, looking at the strengths that their local populations have and how we can build on those better in the future. What they won’t be able to do is to succeed to the extent we would like them to succeed if they reflect the attitude that Jenny Rathbone expressed in the first part of her supplementary question. The whole thrust of PSBs and the White Paper on local government reform is to bring people together in new collaborative and co-operative relationships in which people will recognise that some things will be done by other organisations on behalf of a wider population, and that will be the right and proper way to do things.

Cabinet Secretary, I was going to raise the question of responses coming in with regard to voluntary mergers, and whether any local authorities had actually responded and wanted to come forward with voluntary mergers, which are a large part of your forthcoming local government reform in terms of looking for efficiency savings. Having only received one response—just one out of 22 local authorities—how do you intend to actually get stuck in now? We’ve been in disarray over the last three years in terms of local government reform. It doesn’t look to me that there’s an appetite to engage with you, having had only the one response. Therefore, how do you intend now to actually go forward and work with our local authorities to ensure that we’re not keeping our front-line workers and our elected members in a vague situation where no one knows what’s happening? I’m really disappointed to learn that we’ve only had one response.

I’m not disappointed, Llywydd, in the sense that the closing date for the consultation isn’t until 11 April. I’m absolutely confident that we will have a large number of responses from right across Wales by the closing date. There were two specific questions that the Member raised. We’ve received no formal request on the voluntary mergers front as yet. Frankly, with local government elections on the horizon, I wouldn’t have anticipated that any local authority would have made such a proposal with only a few weeks still to go. I will repeat what I’ve said in the White Paper—that where local authorities do come forward with proposals for voluntary merger, the Welsh Government wouldn’t look to be neutral on that but would look to support them where we could to try to bring those proposals to fruition. As to the Member’s final point, which I’ve now managed to forget in my answer—.

It was about engagement really.

Apologies. We were engaged very much with local authorities to encourage them to make sure that they do make those submissions, but it will be in their own best interests to do so, and that’s why I feel confident we will see a far larger number over the next few weeks.