Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Thank you for the chance to take part in a well-timed debate, as others have said, with people across Wales going to the polls tomorrow. This has been a very proper opportunity for parties here to put forward policies on which electorates will make their decisions. Maybe I’ll begin by agreeing with the last speaker in the debate, Dawn Bowden, as I agreed with Simon Thomas earlier this afternoon, in saying that it is one of the great advantages of political parties that there are manifestos that people can see and that informed decisions can be made. Where people belong to political parties, I think it’s right and proper that that should be known to electors under whatever flag people then choose to put themselves up for election.

The Government amendment this afternoon seeks to align the National Assembly with a proposition on which all parties here, from what I’ve heard this afternoon, can agree—the importance of quality local services to the population, served by local authorities right across Wales.

Llywydd, I first came to work in the National Assembly in the year 2000. I thought then and I continue to think now that it’s been one of the strengths of the National Assembly that it’s had people represented here who know local government, having cut their own political teeth through election to local authorities. It’s partly why I think that I’ve always said, since I became Minister with responsibility for local government, that my approach to the sector is one that’s based on its importance—its importance as a provider of key services, as a key player in creating local economies and as an essential link in the democratic chain.

The decisions that local authorities take reach deep into the lives of their citizens and throughout those lives too, from the earliest days in education to the care of older people in their own homes and communities. The range of things that local authorities do go from those very significant services from the parking, the pubs and the pay, which Gareth Bennett mentioned, to the arts, the sports and the trading standards, mentioned by Mike Hedges. Every day, hundreds of services, provided by thousands of organisations—and over a year, reaching into the lives of millions of people—are provided by local authorities here in Wales. The elections to them tomorrow are a sign of their significance.

Of course, the impact of the failed, self-defeating policies of austerity have made an impact on local government here in Wales, as Hefin David so vividly illustrated. But ever since the year 2008, a sustained effort has been made to protect those services wherever possible here in Wales. That’s why, since the year 2000, while spending on local authority services in England has seen a cash fall of 11 per cent, spending on local services in Wales has seen a cash rise of 3 per cent. Or, to put it in a different way, the National Audit Office reported recently that in the five years after 2010, the real-term spending power of local authorities in Wales has fallen by 4 per cent. In England, it has fallen by 25 per cent—six times the level of cuts that have had to have been accommodated here by local authorities in Wales.

We heard from Janet Finch-Saunders, with the Conservative manifesto for local authorities—I think a crocodile would have been ashamed to have shed the sort of tears we’ve heard from the Conservatives this afternoon. The effect on local authorities in Wales is a real result of the cuts that have been made by their party at national level, which you see their party having to impose in England and which we are determined not to see happen here in Wales.

Now, as well as the cash that local authorities have available to them, there is the question of how that cash should be spent. And the Institute for Fiscal Studies reported last month that local authority spending on social care in Wales is 20 per cent higher than it is in England, with average spend in Wales higher than in any English region.

A gaf i ddweud gair o ddiolch i Dai Lloyd am beth ddywedodd yn ei gyfraniad e y prynhawn yma, yn canolbwyntio ar bwysigrwydd gwasanaethau cymdeithasol ond yn enwedig pobl sy’n gweithio yn y maes gofal? Un o’r pethau y mae awdurdodau lleol yng Nghymru wedi llwyddo i’w wneud dros y degawd diwethaf yw dod lawr, bob blwyddyn, â nifer y bobl sy’n byw mewn cartrefi preswyl yng Nghymru. Maen nhw wedi gwneud hynny achos maen nhw’n rhoi gofal yn y gymuned i bobl fregus, pobl sy’n dibynnu ar y gofal y maen nhw’n ei gael yn y gymuned. Ac roedd Dai Lloyd yn tynnu sylw at y ffaith mai’r bobl sy’n rhoi gofal ac ansawdd y gofal sydd mor bwysig i bobl sy’n dibynnu ar y gwasanaethau yna.

The choices that local authorities make in Wales in putting that extra proportion of their spend into social care is a sign, not only that Welsh Government has made choices in funding the sector, but that choices have been made by local authorities themselves in Wales in protecting the most vulnerable.

Now, we know that if the present Government is returned in June's general election, the outlook for all our public services is bleak. It's why change is not a choice but a necessity if we are to achieve additional resilience in local government here in Wales. The Government’s proposals have been set out in the White Paper we published in January. I'm very grateful to the 164 individuals and organisations from all parts of Wales who have responded to that consultation, and for the constructive spirit in which those responses have been formulated. We will, as a result, move to greater regional working in Wales. We will have more shared services, we will have greater openness and accountability, and we will provide the local authority system in Wales with the tools it needs to respond to local needs and circumstances. Because, Llywydd, for all the partisan claims that have absolutely understandably been made here this afternoon, the real action is about to move beyond this Chamber, beyond those who are elected to this Chamber, to those thousands of candidates, from all political parties and none, who put themselves forward for election and, most importantly of all, to those hundreds of thousands of Welsh residents who tomorrow will play their part at the ballot box.

Whatever differences we may have, I think most people in this Chamber would come together to agree on the contribution that every candidate makes to our democracy, to the contribution that every elector makes when she or he casts their vote, and that it is the combined effort that is worth while, because without it, there would be no local democracy capable of making its contribution to what the motion rightly identifies as the key to the prosperity and well-being of our nation. Sian Gwenllian began, Llywydd, by saying that strong local authorities bring together strong communities and make a strong Wales. I entirely agree with that, and I think it's not a bad message for us to send to all those people who will be engaging in the practical business of democracy right across Wales tomorrow.