8. What discussions has the Minister had with Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council regarding the financial settlement for local government? OAQ53265

None yet. I haven't had any specific meetings with Neath Port Talbot council. I'm embarking on the usual, as I understand it, ministerial tour of Wales when you get put into this portfolio. So, over the course of the next few months, I will be having individual meetings with every local authority in Wales, and I'm attending the meeting of the WLGA on Friday, where I'll be able to speak with a group of local authority leaders. I've of course met the leadership of Neath Port Talbot council on a number of occasions, but not yet in this portfolio.

I look forward to when you do meet them and raise the issues, and look to support them as much as possible, because NPT council clearly is, like every other council in Wales, facing challenging times because of the austerity ideology that is being driven through by Westminster. But in doing so, they're obviously looking very carefully at how they manage their bank balance and their funding, particularly the budgets.

Minister, also, on top of the revenue support grant, we see grants being allocated to local authorities. Now, when I met with the local authority before Christmas, in the area at the time of the budget, we were being told that, in fact, some of those grants were way out of time being paid; they were some six months, nine months delayed in payment. That was causing difficulties for local authorities in actually delivering services. Will you ensure that any grants that are allocated—and I know some are being put into the RSG, and that's been welcomed—are paid on time so that the authorities can actually deliver and ensure they're not being caught for finances?

Well, of course we always aim to pay grants in accordance with grant conditions. If the Member wants to bring any specific instances forward, I'm happy to look at that. I will be looking to work across the Government with ministerial colleagues who have big-spending local government portfolios—they're all really obvious: the health and social services and education colleagues and so on are big spending portfolios in terms of local government—to make sure that we present as clear and open a picture to local government as is possible, given the difficulties that they are having in terms of the austerity agenda. It's obvious that they need to be able to plan their expenditure as ably as is possible for us to be able to make them do.

Thank you, Minister.