3. Will the First Minister outline how the Welsh Government monitors the effectiveness of spending by local authorities? OAQ52796

The effectiveness of its spending is, in the first instance, a matter for each authority and its elected members, including through scrutiny.

'An easy and lazy option when it comes to local government is to blame austerity and the Tories.' Gosh, First Minister, it sounds a bit like you and your Government. Let me read it again: 'an easy and lazy option when it comes to local government is to blame austerity and the Tories. It too often ignores other factors, such as poor decision making, when it comes to both budgets and service delivery.'

First Minister, these are the words of the former Labour leader of your local council, Jeff Jones. [Interruption.] The latest figures available for useable reserves over the last financial year show that four Welsh councils hold over £100 million each in reserves, and three of these are Labour-led. First Minister, is it poor decision making to cut so many services when sitting on millions and millions of pounds?

Well, there's very little upon which I'd agree with Jeff Jones, and that has not changed. The point is this: is she saying that all local authorities, regardless of which party runs them, are in some way operating badly? Because that's what she's suggesting, that somehow it's all poor decision making in all parts of Wales and that local government, in effect, is crying wolf, that, somehow, local government has lots of money and, if only for the fact that they delivered services in a different way, they would be able to access far more money. Well, no. We know how difficult it is on local authorities. We know that it is tight. We look forward to the ending of austerity and look forward to the Chancellor providing us with more resources before Christmas, which we can then help local government with. I just don't accept that the problem in local government in Wales is the fact that every local council is taking bad decisions. That clearly can't be right and we want to make sure that, if the Prime Minister is true to her word and the brakes are coming off austerity, we see further resources coming to Wales and further resources that we can then provide for our local authorities. 

Gwynedd Council is among the councils that will suffer most as a result of cuts following the local government settlement: a cut of up to £11 million, and that’s on top of years of dreadful cuts. On the other hand, the north Wales health board is operating on an annual financial deficit of around £26 million last year, despite the fact that the health board is in special measures and under your direct management as a Government. Is it fair to punish Gwynedd Council, an authority that has been praised for being robust in its financial arrangements, while rewarding a health board that is performing consistently poorly and is clearly failing at financial planning and to operate effectively for the benefit of the people of north Wales?

Well, one of the arguments that some councils put forward is that money should be transferred from health to local government because of the fact that they say more and more money is going into health. The balance is very difficult, because health does attract more and more of a demand each year. But, as I said earlier, we wish to see the Chancellor giving Wales more resources and, by doing that, we hope that there'll be more funding available for local government, because I know that they're under pressure, and I'm not saying anything different, but, of course, the root of this lies in the fact that the money that we get from London has been squeezed. And so we could help local authorities in the same way as we did last year.

First Minister, as a result of this year's local government settlement, local authorities across my region are warning that cuts to essential services are inevitable. Bridgend County Borough Council are proposing to close public toilets in Porthcawl, Swansea are closing care homes, and Neath Port Talbot are at breaking point because of the cuts. First Minister, how is your Government ensuring that local authorities eliminate wasteful spending before cutting essential services?

Well, I think local authorities take very seriously their obligations, and I know that, through contact with my own local authority, there are some very, very painful decisions that they're having to consider at the moment, which is not what people go into politics for, I understand that, which is why I have said to them and to others that any extra resources that come from the Chancellor as a result of the autumn statement—that local government will be first in the queue, given, of course, the pressures that we know will be placed on local government both this year and in the future.