I'm afraid, Llywydd, that the answer is very simple: the justification lies in the impact of eight years of austerity on public service budgets here in Wales—eight years in which, year on year on year, there is less money available to this Government and to local authorities to do the vital work that the Member pointed to. I know that local authorities of all persuasions across Wales think very hard about the impact that their decisions have on their local population. At least here in Wales, the least well-off households have the comfort of knowing that they do not pay council tax, whereas across the border in England over 2 million of the poorest households in the land are now having to make substantial contributions, not out of their not-rising incomes, but their frozen benefit incomes for local public services.