The next item on the agenda is the business statement and announcement, and I call on the leader of the house, Jane Hutt.

Diolch, Llywydd. There’s one change to today’s agenda—the time allocated to the draft budget has been extended to 90 minutes. Business for the next three weeks is as shown on the business statement and announcement found among the agenda papers, which are available to Members electronically.

Leader of the house, could we have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for health, please, in relation to a report about the realignment of district general hospitals in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board area and the Cwm Taf Local Health Board area? To date, I do not believe a statement has been forthcoming. This does have quite large implications for people in the west of the Vale of Glamorgan who use the Princess of Wales Hospital as their main district general hospital, and GP surgeries in particular in the western Vale who refer to the Princess of Wales Hospital. To give security of understanding of how these proposals might or might not progress, a Government statement would be welcome to actually see what the thinking is on the rationale behind any proposed changes in the current configuration of the health boards that run the Princess of Wales Hospital and the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, i.e. Cwm Taf health board and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg.

Well, of course, these are matters that are out for consideration in terms of consultation, and those options and suggestions were made clear in the recent statement and White Paper. So, clearly, there is an opportunity to consider this in terms of the importance, which is delivering a service to the local people.

Can we have a statement from the Welsh Government on the planning crisis in the county borough of Caerphilly? There is no active local development plan at the moment and, as a result, the planning system is heavily skewed in favour of developers and, indeed, inappropriate unsustainable development. Recent adjudications by the planning inspector have highlighted the fact that the five-year land supply requirement trumps all other considerations, including the much celebrated well-being of future generations Act. So, can we have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary in order to suspend the need for Caerphilly to demonstrate the five-year land supply until a sustainable local development plan is in place in that county borough?

Well, of course, this is a matter for Caerphilly County Borough Council. Clearly, they are aware and are engaged in this issue and, of course, there’s a robust discussion and debate locally about it. And, of course, that is what we’ll take forward in terms of the Cabinet Secretary’s engagement with it.

Can I ask for two Government statements? The first from the Cabinet Secretary for Education in relation to the steps taken by the Welsh Government to tackle lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender bullying in schools. I acknowledge the readiness of the Cabinet Secretary to meet with myself and Hannah Blythyn to discuss this issue. She’ll be aware of the report published in the last week by Stonewall Cymru, which discloses that more than half of LGBT young people in Wales, and 73 per cent of trans young people in Wales, still face bullying at school, with very serious consequences in many examples. The report calls on a number of recommendations on the part of Welsh Government and local authorities, and I’d welcome a statement in relation to what steps the Government is taking on an issue the Government acknowledges is significant.

And a second statement, please, in relation to what support the Welsh Government is giving to the Swansea city of culture bid, which we hope will benefit the broader Swansea bay region. The current UK City of Culture, Hull, has seen significant investment in its region as a consequence. Our region has suffered a Conservative betrayal in relation to electrification, and we fear that will happen in relation to the lagoon, so we’d welcome a statement on Government support for that bid.

I thank Jeremy Miles for both those questions. I think Members will be aware of the latest ‘School Report’ 2017 by Stonewall Cymru, and it is encouraging to note that, in fact, that report shows that the number of lesbian, gay and bi pupils bullied because of their sexual orientation has fallen by almost a third. But we obviously recognise there’s much more we have to do to prevent potentially long-term educational and emotional damage that bullying can cause. The Cabinet Secretary for Education’s been very clear that she expects schools to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of bullying, including homophobic, biphobic or transphobic bullying, and we recognise, of course, in terms of that school report, and the existing anti-bullying guidance, that that requires us to take into account the latest report and whether updating is required.

On your second point, of course the Welsh Government fully supports the city and county of Swansea’s bid to become UK City of Culture for 2021. It would, obviously if successful, provide Swansea with significant funds. We’ve already provided additional in-kind support to help Swansea with the practical challenges of delivering the year, for example in tourism and marketing expertise, and of course it complements the city deal and accelerates the city’s regeneration. And, of course, post Brexit, it will show the world that Wales remains outward-facing and open for business. So, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure will join Swansea council, and senior officials, when the City of Culture assessment panel visits the city on 23 October. I was very pleased to be in Swansea last week, last Thursday, when the bid was formally put in by the leader of the council, with his cabinet and partners, when I visited the Tabernacle in Morriston in Mike Hedges’s constituency to celebrate the fact that they’ve been awarded the Sacred Wales honour.

May I ask for a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for economy on support for businesses in Newport? In March this year it was revealed that Newsquest was closing its sub-editing hub in Newport with the loss of 14 jobs, in spite of receiving more than £340,000 in grant aid from the Welsh Government. Then, in July, Essentra announced plans to close its packaging factory, putting hundreds of jobs at risk. They had previously received more than £0.5 million pounds from the Welsh Government. Leader of the house, can we have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary on the terms and conditions on which Welsh Government grants are made to companies and whether he believes they need to be reviewed to ensure their objectives are achieved and the maximum benefits for the taxpayer is obtained? Thank you.

I know the Cabinet Secretary would want to update not only on the investment in Newport and support for business, but also on the good news that has been announced recently in terms of development, which will benefit the local economy. Of course, his officials are closely engaged, when businesses have difficulties, particularly those businesses where we have already supported them in terms of their development.

In September, I attended the Fair Funding Wales anti-austerity rally at city hall in Cardiff, along with other Members from this Assembly, and more recently leaders and mayors throughout the UK went up to Westminster in order to have a meeting, they hoped, with the Government about the issue of fair funding, which did not take place, and of course today we have a statement on the draft budget by the Cabinet Secretary after nine years of austerity, of continuous cuts. And so, given the fact that, by 2019-20, the Welsh Government’s revenue budget is due to be down by £1.2 billion, can the leader of the house suggest any way forward, through the business of this house, that we can bring this issue further to the front?

I thank Julie Morgan for that question. And, of course, immediately after our business statement, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, as you said, will be publishing the Welsh Government’s outline draft budget for 2018-19, making an oral statement. We’ve repeatedly called—certainly led by the Cabinet Secretary—on the UK Government to end its damaging and flawed policy of austerity. And it was good to see partners coming together—leaders and mayors, and, indeed, Assembly Members, certainly—supporting that call, that anti-austerity rally, at city hall in Cardiff. But we do have the first opportunity this afternoon to debate the draft budget, on the day it’s published. And there will be a further opportunity to repeat our call to the UK Government to choose a different path, to end austerity.

The Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee visited the SOLCER house in Bridgend last week. Not only did we learn the results of the performance of this fantastic house as a power station, which is now generating more electricity than it’s using for nine months of the year, we also learnt about five different retrofits that Cardiff University and the other partners had undertaken, in five very different types of housing. And, certainly for affordable sums, they were able to completely transform these otherwise very-difficult-to-heat homes, including one that was a void—had been void for many years—and is now attracting a premium rent because of the quality of the housing it offers.

So, I’m fully aware that Arbed has done a great job—over £70 million over several years, and some 20,000 homes, I think, have been improved—but I wondered if we could have a statement from the Government on how the Warm Homes programme of the Welsh Government is going to tackle or accelerate the strategy, now that we know how we can retrofit existing homes, given that 80 per cent of the houses that are going to be lived in in 2030 have already been built. Not only do we need to build energy-efficient homes, but we need to, obviously, tackle the fuel poverty that many of our communities are suffering. So, I wondered if we could have a statement on how we can accelerate that programme, in the light of new understanding of how we can go about it.

The second point I wondered if we could have a statement on is that there was, last week, a report on the take-up in different local authorities of council tax discounts for carers of disabled and very sick people by local authority. And there was a huge differential between one local authority and another—in some cases, up to 77 times the take-up. So, I wondered if it’s possible to have a statement on the take-up in Wales, by local authority, of the council tax discount for carers, so that we can see which local authorities are properly promoting it.

Thank you, Jenny Rathbone. I think you’ll be very pleased to hear, following your committee visit to the SOLCER house, learning about those different types of retrofitting, in line with local vernacular, that we are investing £104 million in Welsh Government Warm Homes over the next four years, to improve a further 25,000 homes. And we’ll continue to look at options to increase the scale of our own energy-efficiency programmes. And, of course, recognising our decarbonisation ambitions can’t be achieved through Government funding alone. This requires collaboration across all sectors, to increase the uptake of energy-efficiency measures, particularly amongst those able-to-pay households. So, that’s something that the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs is looking at carefully, in terms of how to best drive this change, and increase activity in this area.

On your second point, I think the report you referred to was the MoneySavingExpert report. It does provide additional insight into how council tax is managed across local authorities, and the Cabinet Secretary will be outlining his plans for local government finance next week, because we’ve just published research into the approaches that local authorities are taking in handling council tax debt, and the Cabinet Secretary is considering the range of evidence in this field, and we’ll be taking a number of steps to make our commitment to council tax fairer.

Thank you, leader of the house.