I’m not certain, Llywydd, I completely follow what I’m being asked to commit to. What I will commit to is this: that local authorities in Wales, by the nature of the services that they provide, are often the final resort of the welfare state in dealing with people whose circumstances are so difficult that they require the assistance of homelessness services, or social services departments or public health departments, too. So, there is a golden thread, it seems to me, already in what local authorities do in making sure that they provide services for those who most need them.

My approach to local government, Llywydd, is the one set out in the White Paper. My aim is to provide all local authorities in Wales with a renewed, refreshed and extended toolbox so that they have a greater set of possibilities that they can deploy in the way that best meets their local needs and circumstances. And then we must be more willing than we have been in the past to allow them to make those decisions, to be accountable for them to their local electorates, and to be able to respond to the circumstances that they face and are closest to in their own localities.