Thank you to Rhun ap Iorwerth for raising the importance of certainty for local authorities, but also for Welsh Government, in terms of managing its budget over a period of years. I'm sure that he will share my disappointment at the news today that there will not be a longer term comprehensive spending review and instead we'll have a one-year spending round—a one-year spending review. 

The UK Government has said it will look to give greater certainty to health in England, to schools in England and also to large infrastructure projects. But that is of no use to the Welsh Government at all, because we need to know the total quantum of our funding to understand where, if anywhere, the additional funding, should there be some for hospitals in England, for example, is coming from. So, it's a really disappointing result, I think, for Welsh Government and also then for local authorities, because we simply can't pass on that certainty if we don't have it ourselves. 

We're working very hard at the moment in preparing our budget for next year. I've already had a series of bilaterals with my colleagues and just recently one with my colleague, the Minister for Local Government and Housing, who was very keen to press the case for support for local authorities. And in terms of the overall Government's strategic approach, we've agreed again this year, obviously, that health will remain a priority, our priority, unsurprisingly, given the situation we're in, but also, again, we will want to give local authorities the best possible settlement for the next financial year.