Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It is my responsibility to present the 2019-20 local government settlement for the 22 unitary authorities in Wales to the Assembly. In undertaking this role, I follow a long line of local government Ministers who have addressed this Assembly. We've all the understanding that Wales and all its communities can only achieve their full potential when there is a lively local democracy engaged with local communities.

We need dynamic local authorities that can attract investment, enhance local environments and ensure the care that we all want to give to each other. In this context, I take no pleasure in proposing to this Assembly that, in 2019-20, the increase in the general revenue allocation to Welsh local authorities will be 0.2 per cent. I know this will challenge local authorities to continue to do more with less, and I applaud their record of doing just that over the past decade of austerity. I have no doubt that Assembly Members have come to this debate prepared to make the case for more resources for local authorities. Assembly Members want to allocate more money to their communities, I fully understand that, but, unfortunately, the Welsh Government cannot manufacture that resource.

We heard in the earlier debate on the final budget that, in the last decade of austerity, the Welsh budget has declined by £850 million in cash, a 7 per cent decrease in real resources. Whilst over the decade we have gone to significant lengths to protect the local government settlement, inevitably, Welsh local government suffers from the effect of a UK Tory Government with an ideological commitment to reduce the size of the state. We have a robust partnership with local government in Wales in which we work together to allocate the limited resources available. I pay tribute to those in local government and my officials in Welsh Government who have worked hard together to allow me to propose this settlement. And to my predecessor, Alun Davies, actually, who also worked very hard in getting this settlement to the point where I took it over.

Next year, local authorities in Wales will receive over £4.2 billion in general revenue allocations from core funding and non-domestic rates. This is an increase of 0.2 per cent compared with 2018-19. The distribution of this funding reflects the most up-to-date assessment of relative need based on information on the demographic, physical, economic and social characteristics of every authority in Wales. In preparing the final settlement, the Government have given careful consideration to the responses received to the consultation on the provisional settlement that closed on 20 November. We have also listened to the evidence given by the Welsh Local Government Association during budget scrutiny. The original indicative settlement for 2019-20 projected a decrease in cash of 1 per cent, a decrease of £43 million. Local authorities rightly pointed out the scale of challenge this posed and the impact on services people need and value.

We have made a range of further allocations to the local government settlement to mitigate the reduction that local government have been expecting. In the draft settlement announced on 9 October, we set out further funding of £43 million. This recognised in particular the priority we and councils give to social services and education and the specific pressures and costs these services face from increased demand and pay costs. Compared with the provisional settlement, the final settlement for 2019-20 includes an additional £23.6 million as a result of the Welsh Government's final budget allocations. This includes £13 million to support local services overall, recognising the responses to the consultation and the representations made by Assembly Members; £1.2 million to provide an improved settlement floor; £7 million a year recurrently to support the increase to the capital limit in charging for residential care to £50,000 from April 2019—this concludes the delivery of our programme for government commitment to raise the capital limit in charging for residential care to £50,000 two years ahead of schedule—and £2.4 million to provide additional discretionary rates relief for local businesses and other ratepayers to respond to specific local issues. This is in addition to the extension of the high street rates relief scheme.

The additional funding means that the Government has been able to further revise the floor arrangements so that no authority now faces a reduction of more than 0.3 per cent compared with the current year on a like-for-like basis. This £3.5 million floor is fully funded by the Welsh Government. When we have asked local authorities to operate with less real resource, we have recognised that this is best achieved by balancing the unhypothecated revenue support grant and hypothecated grants to deliver outcomes in the most effective way. We are continuing to do this, and the settlement includes £20 million to help meet the increased demands for social services, as well as the £30 million specific grant.

We are pleased that the UK Government has indicated that they will take more time to assess and evaluate their plans for the managed migration of legacy benefit claimants to universal credit. We await further details of the pilot phase. We understand, at this point in time, that the UK Government still intends to roll out universal credit by December 2023.

In line with the proposals in our recent consultation, we are making an additional £7 million available to local authorities, through the settlement, for free school meals in 2019-20. This will support local authorities in meeting the costs associated with our proposed threshold and transitional protection measures. We have also provided funding for additional costs arising from changes by the UK Government through the teachers' pay award. We are directing all of the £23.5 million announced by the UK Government on 13 September to local government. For 2018-19, £8.7 million will be made available via specific grants, £13.7 million has been included in the settlement for 2019-20 for maintained schools from nursery to year 11, and the remaining £1.1 million will continue to be delivered outside the settlement as a specific grant for teachers in school sixth forms for years 12 and 13. We're also providing £7.5 million outside the settlement to help local authorities meet additional cost pressures associated with implementing the teachers' pay award. 

Turning to general capital funding, local authorities will have an additional £100 million in general capital grant over the next three years—sorry, Mike, I didn't hear you.