Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:33 pm on 17 January 2018.
I agree with the Plaid Cymru spokesperson in her analysis—perhaps not every single word of it, but certainly the main thrust of her message. I understand that. May I say this? I think it's important that we find a balance. This is a discussion I had this morning, as it happens, not just with the leader of Torfaen, who's already been mentioned, but also the leader of Caerphilly, about the tension that exists between ensuring that services are provided at a strategic level, but also ensuring that the way that we deliver services acknowledges the importance of place, and the importance of collaboration with those people who are in receipt of the services. So, there is a tension there on occasion, and we must ensure that we do have services that are delivered at a level that is strategic, robust and that will maintain services of the highest possible quality, but are also accountable and can respond to very localised needs. At the moment, I'm considering where we are in terms of our policy. We know that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance has worked very hard to put in place a new and different vision for local government. I will now be using or drawing upon the work done by the Cabinet Secretary as a foundation to moving forward in ensuring that we can deliver the kind of high-quality services that we all want to see, and in ensuring that that is sustainable for the longer term.