Turning to general capital funding, local authorities will have an additional £100 million in general capital grant over the next three years: £50 million in 2018-19, £30 million in 2019-20 and £20 million in 2020-21. The general capital funding for 2019-20 is therefore increased to £173 million. This provides clarity and certainty on future funding for authorities' own capital spending priorities for the medium term. In addition, we are providing £60 million over three years for a local authority public highways refurbishment scheme. This is to help repair the damage caused by a series of hard winters and this summer's heat wave.

On 3 October, we announced that we are amalgamating a number of grants and we will be establishing a children and communities grant and a single housing support grant from 1 April 2019. This brings together 10 specific grants into just two schemes, introducing flexibilities for local authorities and helping to reduce the administrative burden associated with grant funding. By balancing increases to the unhypothecated and hypothecated grants to deliver outcomes in the most effective way and simplifying the specific grants, we are allowing local authorities to manage their limited resources in the most flexible way.

Sorry, I've just realised, Mike, that I was thinking of covering off the point that you raised in my closing remarks, but just to say that we will be covering it there if it's not raised in questions.

In conclusion, I am not claiming that this is a good settlement for local government; I'm claiming that it is the best possible in the circumstances of the continuing decline in the Welsh budget. The distribution and the priorities in the settlement reflect the hard work that goes into our partnership with local government and the scrutiny provided by the Assembly. I therefore ask Assembly Members to support the motion. Diolch.