Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 14 October 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:39, 14 October 2020

Of course, we largely agree with that, which is why we're putting the provisions into the Act that allow us to put the regulations in place to do exactly that.

There is also a big issue about diversity in democracy. You cite the skills of particular councillors, and so on, but we know that there's a real lack of diversity in our democracy across local government. And so, together with my colleague the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, we have been working very hard on a programme of diversity in local democracy, hoping to encourage a much wider range of people to come forward, particularly younger aged people with more commercial skills, perhaps, who are still working, to enable us to ensure that the diversity in the decision making of local authorities, going forward, has a much wider range of voices around its table than we currently see in some local authorities.

And whilst we do that, we will also, as I say, be putting the regulations in place to encourage local authorities to use the general power of competence, but to do so in a fiduciary resilient fashion, both taking the risks that we think are acceptable and protecting the public from undue commercial risks, which, as we have seen in the past, have led to some circumstances in which local authorities have got themselves very close to being not able to carry on. So, we're very keen, Mark, to walk the tightrope between both of those things and to work very closely with Audit Wales in order to do so.