Thanks, Minister. And just to be clear, I wasn't quoting Julie James there; it was the previous Minister to Julie, whose quote came through the local government committee. But thank you for your answer.

A huge concern that I have with corporate joint committees, and one that seems to be shared by many councillors and council leaders across the country, is their democratic nature, or perhaps lack of, and the potential impact of powers being taken away from councils and those democratically elected to make decisions and representations on behalf of their communities. In your letter to the Local Government and Housing Committee on 29 October, you stated that CJCs aim to bring more coherence to and strip out some of the complexity of regional governance arrangements, strengthening local democratic accountability. But that does seem at odds to the chief executive of Cardiff Council, who stated that they could, and I'll quote,

'diminish democratic accountability'.

Indeed, a councillor on Swansea Council stated that,

'If you want to be a turkey, vote for these new committees'.

So, Minister, what assurances can you give to councils across Wales that these corporate joint committees won't take powers and democracy away from councils and those locally elected to represent their communities?