2. What plans does the First Minister have to recognise the additional challenges of delivering public services in rural areas in the distribution of local government funding? OAQ(5)0697(FM)

The core funding provided to Welsh local authorities each year is distributed according to relative need. The formula is agreed with local government through the partnership council for Wales, and it takes account of a wide range of factors.

Thank you, First Minister, for that answer. As you know, a large percentage of Wales’s area is rural. I remain particularly concerned that the Welsh Government has not gone quite far enough in recognising rurality in its funding of local authorities over the last few years. Delivering services such as social care in a rural setting is always going to face additional costs when compared to an urban authority, and the same applies to other services provided by councils as well. Will you undertake to revisit the local government funding formula to see whether greater weighting can be given to rurality over the years ahead?

Well, if you look at the—if I can use the word—‘rankings’, for local authorities, Denbighshire’s allocation is the fourth highest, Gwynedd is ninth, Carmarthenshire is tenth, Ceredigion fourteenth, Powys fifteenth, Pembrokeshire seventeenth. In comparison, Swansea is sixteenth, Flintshire nineteenth, and Cardiff is twentieth. It would seem to me that rurality is taken into account. And the reality is, of course, it’s a matter for local authorities to agree amongst themselves what they wish the funding formula to look like, rather than one authority wanting to change it without the support of others.

We all know, First Minister, that the only way that you can deliver any public service is through the staff. And there’s evidence come out this week that the public sector pay cut and freeze over the past decade is such that, now, teachers’ pay has fallen by £3 an hour, police officers’ by £2 an hour, and nurses’ wages have absolutely stagnated. And the result of that at the moment, in the nursing profession particularly, is that we are now seeing 51 per cent leaving that public sector service over the last four years. So, do you agree with me, First Minister, that the Tory public sector pay freeze is now risking our public service delivery?

Absolutely, I do. The time has come to ditch the public sector pay cap. We need to make sure that public sector workers are paid properly for the job that they do. I do not accept that there is some kind of financial restraint at play here, given the fact that £1 billion was found as part of a bung for Northern Ireland. If it can be found for Northern Ireland, the money can be found for our public sector workers.

Well, one of the specific challenges in rural areas is dealing with older people, and older people with dementia—well, not just older people, but others who have dementia. That’s a challenge that became very apparent during the recent general election, of course. And this is encapsulated in the debate that is currently ongoing on the future of the Bodlondeb care home in Aberystwyth, which serves north Ceredigion, and mid Wales to an extent. I’m sure that the First Minister would join with me in saying that the consultation started on Monday, so everyone needs to express their views as part of that consultation. But will the Government, through the Minister, have discussions with Ceredigion County Council, particularly around some of the new possibilities that the Government is providing, through extra-care beds or extra-care homes, to see whether it would be possible to fit what happens with the future of Bodlondeb into the broader pattern serving mid Wales?

Well, of course, this is a matter for Ceredigion. I did allude to Bodlondeb last week in the Chamber here. But, of course, the Government is perfectly happy to collaborate with local authorities, to see what other methods of delivering a service may be available in their areas. And, of course, that is true of Ceredigion, and true of every other authority.

The First Minister will be aware that, yesterday, I published an economic development plan for rural Wales. [Assembly Members: ‘Hear, hear.’] Thank you very much. What assurances can the First Minister give me that the recommendations endorsed by a group of experts from rural Wales will be considered in the context of the new economic strategy for Wales?

Could I thank my friend, Eluned Morgan, for the work that she has done, and the deep interest she takes in rural communities across Wales? We know that rural Wales will have specific challenges particularly with regard to Brexit. We welcome, as a Government, the publication of the report, and it will form part of the strategy that we have to deliver further for rural Wales in the next few years, post Brexit.