Since I’ve been elected to the National Assembly for Wales, I’ve been heartened to see the increased appreciation from this place of the integral role that local government plays in Welsh public life. When I sat as a councillor for nearly three terms, it did not always seem that this Chamber understood the complexities of life on the ground in an era of huge public spending cuts inflicted by a UK Tory Government.

It is, indeed, a great privilege to serve as a county councillor or a community councillor. It is an invigorating responsibility to be charged with making a difference to people’s lives—indeed, it can be hard to give up, as ordinarily I am sat next to a county councillor during each Plenary.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, Mark Drakeford, is to be applauded for dramatically changing the relationship between Welsh Government and Welsh local authorities. All healthy relationships are founded on mutual respect, an ability to listen to one another and partnership working, but the vision of strong resilient delivery partners in local government is of equal import and merit today and every day, making a real difference to people’s lives and often the most vulnerable in our society.

Llywydd, four weeks tomorrow, the Welsh people will go to the polls to elect their local councillors across Wales’s 22 local authorities. So, if my fellow Assembly Members forgive my indulgence for being partisan, as you know, if you were to cut me, I would bleed Welsh Labour red blood. But, it remains true: in the storm of austerity, self-inflicted and caused by the Tory Government in London, Welsh Labour councils have still been delivering for our people and not just the privileged few.

In my own Assembly constituency within Caerphilly County Borough Council, the Welsh Labour-led council has invested over £210 million in the Welsh housing quality standard, providing real warm and safe homes for thousands of local people most in need. Let me use this opportunity to place on record my appreciation for the dedicated service of council leader, Keith Reynolds, and his predecessor, former councillor Harry Andrews. They and their Labour colleagues across Wales have done everything they can to improve the lives of their constituents, even as budgets have been squeezed beyond all recognition as a direct result of continuing Welsh block grant cuts from Westminster. Despite this, Caerphilly County Borough Council have made record investments in modern library services, meeting the demand from citizens, with Welsh Labour council tax in Wales remaining lower than under the Tories in England—indeed, in Caerphilly the council tax rise this year is a mere 1 per cent.

In education, across local government, we have seen how the partnership between the Welsh Labour Government and Welsh local authorities has delivered new school buildings across Wales through the twenty-first century schools programme, none more magnificent than Islwyn High School. Wales has seen the best ever GCSE results and we have closed the gap with England, with our disadvantaged pupils now catching up with their peers. As such, I welcome strongly the White Paper that is out for consultation until 11 April—a direct result of discussions between the Welsh Government, local authorities and other stakeholders—co-constructed, co-determined and constructive for a resilient future. I would caution that, for Islwyn, a priority must be to improve voter registration and turnout at elections over a headline-grabbing proposal to change voting systems for local authority elections.

Equally, I am proud of our record in Wales around recycling services—ambitious targets set by the Welsh Labour Government for local government achieving a real difference. Today in Wales, thanks to an accountable local government, we are now on course to become the highest recycling nation in Europe, and I could go on and on.

But, the people of Wales want to see their standard of living improve. On 4 May, the only way to ensure strong and effective local government is to simply vote Welsh Labour.