6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the provision of local public services in Pembrokeshire? OAQ51534

Public services deliver vital services to people in Pembrokeshire and across Wales. Their ability and resilience to deliver positive outcomes in challenging times is a priority for me and this Government.

Of course, one way of ensuring that the provision of local public services is truly local is to ensure that services are not centralised and that local authorities remain truly local. Does the Cabinet Secretary therefore agree with me that merging local authorities like Pembrokeshire should not take place, as local public services are best delivered by individual local authorities accountable to local people, and what the Welsh Government should be concentrating on is ensuring that we see real and meaningful collaboration between local authorities?

I hope that we will see real and meaningful collaboration amongst authorities in the future. We need to be able to deliver services at a scale that is both robust and delivers excellence in terms of delivery of the services and for the people delivering those services. How we deliver services will be different in a rural part of west Wales, which the Member represents, in north Pembrokeshire than it will be in the centre of Cardiff. What I'm anxious to do is to ensure that we're able to consider how we structure local government in the future to best enable us to deliver the services that the Member has described but also the accountability that we've already debated this afternoon. I want to see both effective services and a rooted democracy in different parts of the country that is a rich democratic debate about the future of our vital public services. I will be making statements on this in the next few weeks.

I hope shortly to be meeting with Pembrokeshire officials and cabinet members to discuss the budget for next year. You will know that Pembrokeshire has had a public debate around increases in council tax way above the 5 per cent guidance that has been issued. What message would you have for Pembrokeshire County Council and also for the taxpayers there if there is a rate set that is way above the 5 per cent guidance that has been used in the past? 

I'm not sure that it helps the local democratic debate that Siân Gwenllian was championing earlier in this session for Ministers to be passing observations and comments on the decisions of local authorities. I believe in local government. I believe in local decision making. I believe in local democracy. And that means that local democratically accountable political leaders should have the right to take decisions that I may disagree with, that other Members here may disagree with, that Members who live in that area may disagree with, but it is their right to take those decisions and they then must argue their case to the local electorate, who will hold them to account for those decisions.  

Council tax in Pembrokeshire has consistently been amongst the lowest in Wales. Council tax is set by all councillors, not only by the executive, in the same way as the amount of money spent here and the amount of money raised here is set by all Assembly Members. Does the Cabinet Secretary agree that council tax rises is a matter for elected councillors, who will answer to local electors for their decisions? 

I'm absolutely delighted to be in complete agreement with the Member for Swansea East. I once disagreed with him on local government matters, I'll never do so again, and I'm delighted that I don't have to do so this afternoon.