May I please declare I'm a Flintshire county councillor? The 9.4 per cent uplift to local authorities in Wales is welcome, as is the three-year budget, which will help with planning. I am aware the provisional settlement in England provided a lower uplift of 6.9 per cent to councils, and with the assumption that they raise their council tax by the maximum permitted without a referendum. And much of Scotland's local authority funding was hypothecated. 

During the Minister's statement on the draft budget, I raised concerns about funding for highways maintained by councils, and will continue to do so now. It's a real concern that the capital funding from UK Government to Welsh Government will reduce by 11 per cent by the 2024-25 budget, and under the UK Government's community review fund, Wales will receive only £46 million this year, compared to at least £375 million we would have received from the EU structural funds from January 2021. I am aware that the major infrastructure works on the A55 currently taking place in north-west Wales, which will also include drainage to make it more resilient to flooding, is being funded with £20 million from Europe through the Welsh Government. 

It has been highlighted in the Local Government and Housing Committee report the importance of maintaining the roads we already have, not just for motorists but for pedestrians and cyclists as well, for whom potholes pose an even bigger threat. The recent additional Welsh Government annual grant funding of £20 million has provided authorities with the opportunity to arrest some deterioration of the highways that has occurred as a direct result of years of Tory austerity. And so, I really welcome the announcement made by the Minister for Local Government and Finance last week that extra in-year capital funding would be given to councils of £70 million, including for highways, which I hope will be ring-fenced as I know the pressure various local government departments are under when setting their capital programme, competing to match fund Welsh Government's funding for commendable, important capital programme schemes, such as twenty-first century schools, childcare provision and building zero-carbon homes for rent.

Going forward, there needs to be a planned maintenance scheme and funding for highways. The Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee recommends the Welsh Government should set out how the significant backlog in road and highway maintenance can be addressed on both the local and trunk road network, and clarify the basis for the decision not to continue with the public highways refurbishment grant. This should include details of any assessment that was made of the impact of the decision on the local road network, as well as value for money in local highway maintenance, road safety, et cetera.

Over the years, there have been some good examples of joint work on the highway asset undertaken by Welsh Government and councils, such as the national highway maintenance backlog project and asset management contracts. And these projects were developed by Welsh Government and the County Surveyors' Society Wales, the body for local authority highways technical officers. One of the previous positive outcomes from these initiatives included the local government borrowing initiative, which provided much-needed financial support for enhanced maintenance regimes to improve the existing highway network across Wales for the travelling public.

It has been raised here several times that there are also a number of highways in north Wales impacted by the ever-increasing storms as a result of climate change, resulting in full or partial closure over the last two years. This has impacted on communities in Llangoed and Penmon in Anglesey, in Newbridge in Wrexham, the bridge near Tremeirchion in Denbighshire and a landslide in Ffrith, Flintshire, each costing more than the local authorities have funding for. I am aware that the one in Ffrith will cost £3.8 million to resolve. From my recent investigations, I know that there is the emergency finance assistance scheme, formerly known as the Bellwin scheme, which is available to provide emergency financial assistance to help local authorities meet unmeasurable, uninsurable costs that they incur when dealing with the aftermath of an emergency in their area. And there is the emergency resilience fund, which I will make the local authorities aware of. I hope that these important areas will fit the remit of the funding, but I do have some concerns.

I hope that the Welsh Government will continue to work with the WLGA to explore alternative ways of supporting larger capital budgets for local government in future, including the role of supported borrowing to fund the road maintenance backlog, and address roads impacted by natural disasters. Diolch.