Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 16 October 2018.
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.