Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 14 October 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 2:37, 14 October 2020

In reference to the early part of your response—and I acknowledge what you say—nonetheless, Audit Wales highlighted the need to change the culture of organisations and the key challenge for them to become more entrepreneurial. And they found that the skills of elected members themselves was a barrier to councils taking advantage of commercial opportunities and greater entrepreneurship, with almost two thirds of elected members themselves who'd responded to their survey saying that elected members' ability to effectively decide on options was a barrier to their council pursuing commercial ventures. And these responses were echoed by corporate management teams, who said that only 19 per cent believed that elected members are sufficiently trained and skilled to be able to consider and approve new commercial ventures. How, therefore, do you respond to the report's argument that the best approaches involve elected members early, and have specific, well-defined and regularly updated policies appropriate to local circumstances and which support councillors to discharge their governance, decision-making and oversight responsibilities?