Can I thank the Minister for her statement this afternoon and for the annual update—the latest, as you say, in a sequence of updates? As you said, local services are vital in giving children the best start in life, helping give us a greener, more responsible environment and lead more responsible lives—I think we could all agree with that phrase that you use. And, yes, I would agree with you that we do need a stable and effective local government funding system. Some of us think that we are still some way off that today. I appreciate that, over recent years, funding has been tighter than in the past, but the Minister will be aware of my repeated calls for a review of the local government funding formula—well-worn calls now. I know that Mike Hedges has some different views on this, but I would like to hear from the Minister on whether there is any intention to look again at the current formula or current formulas that make it up—I know it's complex—particularly factoring in issues such as sparsity and rurality and the costs of delivering services over larger rural areas, such as we have in my part of Wales and particularly up towards mid Wales. So, I'd be interested to hear an update on that.

You moved on to discuss council tax and business rates, and we know that council tax has increased by around 6.6 per cent in 2019-20, or £99 for an average band 2 property. So, I would ask you, Minister, is it really fair and progressive or is council tax actually being used as a tool to make local people in local authority areas actually shoulder more of the burden over time, thereby freeing up money centrally? If that is what the Welsh Government aims to do, then that's a policy objective that you should be clear about, because it was only in your statement last year that you said you wanted to explore the balance between locally raised and centrally provided funding. So, are you still looking at that, because it does seem to be that, over time, the burden is shifting from central Government to local government, which I don't think the Labour Party of the past would have supported?

In terms of council tax arrears, which you mentioned, you say that the level of arrears has stabilised over the period since before council tax was localised in 2013-14. This may well be the case, but I would also remind the Minister that the Wales Centre for Public Policy has criticised the Welsh Government approach to handling council tax arrears. In fact, it says that, despite Welsh Government producing guidance on this, the extent to which Welsh Government is achieving its aim is being questioned, and there is a potential postcode lottery in place when it comes to people in debt. So, could you update us on the work of the working group that you established to look at this? I'm sure you'd agree that it's vitally important that some of the most vulnerable people in society, some of those at risk of the most severe debt, are being treated equitably and having access to that support that they so desperately need.

Moving on to non-domestic rates, I'm pleased that you recognise the struggles of our high streets and town centres. Those are well documented, and we welcome additional support for our high streets, because they are really suffering at the moment. The retail rates relief scheme needs to be more generous, because businesses need as much support as they possibly can get at this time. Will you look again at targeting support to those businesses in those areas that have been worst hit—in some cases, pockets of areas within otherwise more successful areas in terms of our high streets? I know that, when this was looked at a few years ago by the Enterprise and Business Committee, we exposed some of the issues affecting our high streets. Since then, of course, we have the issues with the rate revaluation, and pockets in my constituency, like Chepstow, were particularly affected.

We look forward to the introduction of the local government and elections Bill that you mentioned. I hope that it does provide a better framework for supporting collaboration between local authorities and also underpinning the city region model, such as that that is operating in south-east Wales. I think there are opportunities here to provide better support in the future.

Finally, Dirprwy Lywydd, on the council tax reduction scheme, you mentioned uptake. Current uptake is between 55 per cent and 66 per cent, I believe, so I welcome your relaunching of the campaign today to try to raise the profile of that reduction scheme. I think that certainly has to happen. I'd be interested to know more the reasons why you think that uptake is below what it has been in the past and some of the policies that you propose bringing forward to make sure that people who do need that support, who deserve that support and are most in need of that support, are going to be able to know it exists and access it when they need it.