I declare an interest as a member of Caerphilly County Borough Council, although until tomorrow—I’ll be standing down. My dad is standing again, Councillor Wynne David in St Cattwg ward in Caerphilly. Indeed, he bumped into Steffan Lewis on the campaign trail—how dare Steffan Lewis campaign in Gelligaer—and my father said, ‘What a nice guy that Steffan Lewis is’, and I said, ‘Well, he’s campaigning for the opposition’. He said, ‘Ah, yes, but speak as you find’. So, there we are.

I’ve seen first hand the challenges as a councillor, and I’ve said in this Chamber before that you don’t get elected to make cuts. You don’t get elected to find savings, and it has been very difficult in the past 10 years that I’ve served as a county borough councillor. I’ve found the meetings where you go through the budget and look for discretionary savings incredibly difficult meetings, and they’ve been as a result—as Sian Gwenllian and Neil McEvoy have noted—of UK Government policy. The Welsh Government has protected funding for local government and the first few years were not anywhere near as bad as they could have been, as they were in England. Indeed, this year, spending on local government has been better than in England. We’ve seen the settlement—more than half of the 22 local authorities received an increase in core funding compared to 2016-17, and this is better than local government expected. And, as a councillor, I have to say it was good news.

Personally, I feel a degree of regret, though, in spite of the things I’ve said, that I will be leaving local government. I’m not going to make any judgment about Neil McEvoy or other Members of this Chamber who are also councillors, but I feel that it is very difficult to do the job of the Assembly Member and as a local councillor, and therefore I feel I have to stand down. Incidentally, I’ve been the cheapest local councillor in Wales, claiming £0 allowance and zero expenses. So, this cheap councillor now is standing down.

In Caerphilly we’ve managed to make the most of our situation, though—we’ve managed to keep our housing stock and spent £210 million on the Welsh housing quality standard. We’ve used, as far as we can, local suppliers to do that work. We’ve also invested in library services, and, in spite of those pressures, we’ve worked in areas of greatest need.

One of the things I’d say to Neil McEvoy is it is this Welsh Government, this Welsh Parliament, that has passed the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 that has introduced strategic development plans, and, whatever happens after the election, if housing need is going to be met, then parties of all persuasions need to work together to agree strategic plans if they’re going to be successful. I think the rhetoric of the campaign, whatever happens after the election, whatever parties win, must be put aside and parties must work together—work together in a way that didn’t happen, by the way, in 2013. In 2013, I put forward a motion to Caerphilly council to cut the pay. Bearing in mind the wording of Plaid Cymru’s motion today,

‘that the average salary for Chief Executives running Plaid Cymru-led Councils is nearly £22,000 less than those run by Labour Councils’, well, I put a motion to Caerphilly council to cut the chief executive’s pay by £21,000 and the motion was successful, but every Plaid Cymru member on the council—or 14 members voted against and two abstained. It was Labour members who passed that motion.

If we look at authorities across Wales, if we look at the level of pay, the only way you can deal with senior pay in my view is to look at multipliers—what is the level of senior pay compared to the lowest paid in the organisation? If you’re going to tackle the issue of senior pay—as I’ve said before in this Chamber, if you’re going to tackle the issue of senior pay, you’ve got to consider how the chief executive is paid both in relation to other local authorities, because you’re fishing in the same pool for talent, but also compared to the lowest paid, and I’m delighted to say Caerphilly was the first local authority in Wales after the 2012 elections to introduce the living wage.

With regard to zero-hours contracts, we want to see an end to them. However, I feel that the motion today is designed for Twitter rather than designed to produce a legally defendable position that protects family-friendly working. I feel that the Welsh Government has consistently acted to deter the unfair and inappropriate use of zero-hours contracts in the public sector in Wales and has made it a priority to ensure staff are treated in a fair and equitable way, consistent with our Labour values. Whatever the positioning of Plaid Cymru in the light of the election, I will continue to believe that. Therefore, I feel that we have good Labour local authorities in Wales and I hope that we will see more Labour local authorities in Wales after this election.