4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on feedback received from local government following the publication of the Strengthening Local Government, Delivering for People green paper? OAQ52115

Local authorities clearly have their own views on the future of local government, and it is for their leaders to raise these in our ongoing discussions and debate, and through formal response to the Green Paper consultation on strengthening local government in Wales.  

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. To say that local authorities clearly have their own views on this process is probably one of the biggest understatements I've heard in this Chamber to date. But I agree with you on that.

We recently held a debate that you participated in—many AMs did—on the proposals within the Green Paper, specifically the concerns surrounding the proposed mergers of local authorities. Have you had time to reconsider the proposals in the light of that debate and in the light of feedback received from local governments across Wales? And do you think it would be an opportune time to go back to the drawing board to come forward with proposals that local authorities themselves can have some buy-in to, maybe looking at the prospect of an ever closer local government union, stronger collaboration, and to put voluntary mergers back on the agenda, as some local authorities were looking forward to going down that line?

To answer his final question, of course, option 1 was voluntary mergers. So, the Green Paper does clearly say that. And, certainly, I've said on many occasions that it is my point and purpose to seek agreement wherever that is possible rather than to impose.

I've outlined to this place and elsewhere a vision of a stronger, more empowered local government with greater powers and greater ability to shape the future of the communities that it seeks to represent. I do not wish to diminish local government in any way. My purpose is to strengthen local government, and the Government here has consistently over the last few years protected local government funding, has worked with local government in order to protect public service workers and to protect public services and the delivery of those services. What we seek to do is to seek a consensus, or to seek an agreement, on how we move forward to do that in the future.

Will the Cabinet Secretary join with me in congratulating Welsh local government on the way they have coped with reducing Welsh Government support year on year and the quality of provision that they are providing despite those reductions? And will he commit to working collaboratively with Welsh local government in the manner of his predecessor?

I would always seek to work in collaboration with local government, and I think the Welsh Government has an excellent record of doing so—let me say this. But I will also say that Welsh Government has protected local government from the worst excesses of an austerity approach taken across the border in England. I know that the Member for Swansea East takes a great interest in these matters, and he will be aware that no local authority in Wales has suffered the same level of cuts as has been seen across the border in England, and we need to recognise that. But, of course, we want to work with local authority leaders. But what I would like to be able to do is to work collaboratively to deliver the highest possible vision and not the lowest possible common denominator.

Will the Cabinet Secretary join me in praising the stalwart work of Welsh councils up and down the country, like Islwyn's own Caerphilly County Borough Council, who are continuing every day to provide strong public services in the face of dramatic cuts to their budgets, thanks to the UK Tory Government? Real cuts year on year to Wales since 2010. And with this in mind, what assurances will the Cabinet Secretary give so that the experienced voices of local government leaders, like Caerphilly's own council leader, Dave Poole, are listened to and respected in their management of service delivery, especially in such austere times, despite Welsh Government protection for local government? And will he continue to work with the leadership of the WLGA under its first ever woman, Debbie Wilcox, to continue to provide for Wales?

Absolutely. I met Debbie last week for a conversation about our vision of a future-empowered and strengthened local government, and I'm meeting her again tomorrow at the partnership council in order to continue those conversations.

I've also had some very positive, and enjoyable, can I say, conversations with Councillor Poole, the leader of Caerphilly. I think it's fair to say that he agrees with a great deal of our vision for the future and that he recognises that the current structures are not sustainable. I think most local authority leaders understand that the current structures we have of local government are simply not sustainable into the future, whatever the issues with the financial envelope available to us.

What I seek to do now is to pursue a conversation that is about how we will strengthen local government in the future. This whole Green Paper process and debate and the conversation that we're having isn't about diminishing and reducing the role of local government, but about strengthening the role of local government to be more powerful in the future than it has been in the past.