Local Government Reorganisation

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 23 January 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:50, 23 January 2019

No, I don’t, and I think I said very clearly that I didn’t. I think no one size fits all at all. What we need to do is work closely with local government to agree a shared vision for the future in which we make sure that the expertise available to it is deployed to the best effect for the people of Wales. Sometimes, that expertise will sit in one authority and it needs to be shared with another. At other times, it might be spread out. As I say, no one size fits all. What we need to do is get a shared vision together on the table, agree the working arrangements and stick to them. What isn’t helpful is where we do have regional arrangements and people seek to undermine them constantly, and so they can't be relied upon. Reliability and certainty, as Dai Lloyd pointed out, is one of the absolute maxims of good local administration, and I plan to make sure that we can go forward together with local government to ensure that we have that.