3. Will the First Minister make a statement on progress with local government reform in Wales? OAQ(5)0698(FM)

Yes. As I said in my statement on the legislative programme on 27 June, we will introduce a local government Bill in the second year of our programme to reform local government.

First Minister, local authorities deliver key services to our communities, so it’s vitally important that we have a thriving local democracy. A fundamental requirement of that is local authorities that reflect their local populations, but the most recent local elections delivered something like 28 per cent of our councillors across Wales in terms of women councillors, with individual local authorities ranging from something like 10 per cent to 40 per cent. So, we do need to make progress. Would you agree with me that one important aspect of making necessary progress is to have strong role models amongst our female councillors in Wales? Would you also join me in welcoming the re-election of Debbie Wilcox to lead Newport City Council, and, in a subsequent election, to lead the Welsh Local Government Association, and so to lead local government in Wales?

Yes, I do very much welcome Debbie’s election. She’s the first of many, I hope, because we can’t say that local government representatives are truly representative of the entire community in Wales. We’re a long way from being able to say that. I can say that, prior to the local elections, we ran a number of projects as part of the diversity in democracy programme; 51 individuals from under-represented groups participated in the programme, and 16 of them stood as candidates in the local government elections this May. So, some progress, but true to say much progress needs to happen yet.

First Minister, the future generations Act is referenced widely within the local government reform White Paper, and it is abundantly clear that this particular Act provides us with a superb opportunity to contribute towards successful reform of local government. Tackling poverty is also a key theme within that Act. Given the timing of the cessation of Communities First, and in line with local authority reform, what consideration have you made to include a poverty reduction stream in those changes going forward?

Well, as part of the local government Bill that we will introduce, we will of course—this is no secret—look at ensuring that local authorities work together on a regional basis in order to deliver services for the people that they represent. I’m sure local authorities will accept that poverty reduction is, of course, a hugely important role that they are able to play, and of course they will be able to do that working together across a wider area.

There’s been a great deal of emphasis on collaboration between councils at the regional level in the Welsh Government’s White Paper, ‘Resilience and renewed’. Plaid Cymru is eager to see the four western counties of Wales working strategically on issues that are unique to west Wales and arise from that unique knitting of the rural economy, housing, planning and the Welsh language. We could enhance that to create a regional assembly for the west, which would work alongside the city regions. As Eluned Morgan notes, the Government here does need to support rural Wales, but the creation of a new commissioner isn’t the most efficient way of doing that, in my view. Do you agree that encouraging collaboration between the westerly counties does provide an initial solution that is cost-effective and practical as well as being sensible?

Yes, I do, and it’s all-important that that does happen. The aim of the Bill—and we always use the word ‘Mesur’ in Welsh, Llywydd—is that that does happen, because we’ve been looking at the educational consortia model, and we’ve seen that things have improved year on year, when you see the local education authorities working together. Of course, that’s what we want to build on in looking at the legislation.