There are three things that either get overlooked or are presented in a confusing manner in the way the amount that each local authority gets is presented. I can think of no other area of Government expenditure where the percentage increase rather than the actual amount is announced, so the actual amount is lost and discussion resolves around the percentage change. Ceredigion, which we heard about earlier, had one of the lowest percentage increases, but it's actually twelfth in the league table of Government funding per person. And I would urge people to look at the league table of Government funding per person. They do hide it on page 5 of the data they provide, but it is there.

The Government's local government grant is to top up council tax, hence why Blaenau Gwent has the largest aggregate external funding. It has over 50 per cent of its properties in band A, and Monmouthshire has the lowest, with over half its properties in band E and above. There is a direct correlation between council bands in an area and the aggregate external funding each council receives. That that increase is driven mainly by relative population change is well known. As I will not be able to intervene on Russell George, I want to emphasise that Powys gets £16 per head more than Swansea. While Powys had the added cost of rurality, Swansea has the cost of providing regional facilities and for things such as street homelessness. Of the four councils receiving the most aggregate external funding, two are Labour controlled. Of the four receiving the least, two are also Labour controlled. On north Wales, three of the councils are in the top half of Government support and the other three in the bottom—hardly prejudiced against north Wales.

As part of the local government settlement, local authorities are receiving nearly £4.5 billion in core revenue funding and non-domestic rates to spend on delivering key services. And that's what local authorities do: they deliver key services. The non-hypothecated general capital funding will be £198 million, an increase of £15 million over that announced in the final Welsh budget last year. The increase in capital budgets over the last three years enabled local government to invest in increasing the supply of housing, which will minimise the pressure on local authorities' budgets and the homelessness services. It will also allow councils to start to respond to the urgent need to decarbonise in light of the climate emergency declared by the Welsh Government and many councils over the past year.

Overall, the settlement represents an increase of 4.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis. No authority has an increase of less than 3 per cent, with the highest at 5.4 per cent. In terms of local government support, it's a good settlement in comparison to the 10-year average and most years during the time I've been here. I would like to compliment local authorities on keeping their basic services working and supporting local businesses during the pandemic. Local authorities have done a phenomenal job, but local authorities always do a phenomenal job. 

It is important that all parts of the Westminster and Welsh Governments have not performed as well. While I often call on organisations to help themselves rather than asking for more money, that is what councils do. Swansea Council's budget position for 2019-20 improved by £18 million compared to the estimate set out at the beginning of the financial year. The council's £445 million budget for 2019-20 has produced a better than expected position in social services, and the careful use of the council's contingency fund, amounting to just over £11 million saved between them. This has been boosted by a further £7 million of capital financing savings as part of the medium-term strategy to fund the overall capital programme and future borrowing. 

This is how Swansea Council will be spending the extra money: schools will get an extra £6.85 million directly into classrooms, with £7.1 million for new IT kit, which has been such a help to schooling at home recently. Parents will see school meal prices frozen for the year. Social services, which have borne the challenge of COVID-19 in supporting the vulnerable, will get £7.7 million more, plus there will be £5.5 million on top to absorb any further pandemic pressures. For the environment, there will be an extra £6.1 million and a new team to deal with litter, street cleaning, and extending pothole repair services. There will be a new rapid-response team to deal with flooding problems. There will be more cash for better sports parks and community facilities, including £100,000 for improved public toilets, new free public Wi-Fi services, and investing in planting thousands of new trees and developing more green spaces.

Swansea is just one of the councils that is doing a phenomenal job. It's the area that I represent, and the one that the Minister represents, but it really is: give councils the money and they will do the job. They will do it better than any other organisations. We have seen, in England, during the pandemic, that the private sector is very good at making profit but not very good at delivering things such as school meals. If councils are given the funding, they deliver for our communities. I hope that this Government will continue to fund councils fairly and well, because the money they spend benefits us all.