And I think that you would agree with me that, when we do publish our annual report of local government reserves, it is just a snapshot in time, and that many councils do have plans, and they have earmarked money within reserves for plans. So, it does only reflect a snapshot at that point in time. And, of course, we have seen a couple of extraordinary years, so local government reserves I don't think this year are necessarily going to be reflective of what you would see in normal years. I know we'll go on to discuss reserves, but I do want to continue to talk about the formula and say that it isn't fixed.

It is under constant review, through the work of the distribution sub-group, overseen by the finance sub-group. I did discuss the formula's suitability in distributing funding to local government with local government leaders just last week, at the finance sub-group, and we did, at that meeting, consider the impact of changes to welfare benefits and we talked about the census and the timeliness of some data within the formula.

So, as agreed with local government leaders, the DSG is about to embark upon a programme of work to consider potential updates to the formula, using outputs from the latest census, which will provide us with much more up-to-date and relevant information. And I think that this is really important, and it's also one of the reasons why I was only able to provide Wales-level settlement allocations for years 2 and 3 of the multi-year settlement, and that was to ensure that we are using the most accurate and up-to-date data.

Interestingly, the majority of data in the formula, relating to 72 per cent of the funding, is actually updated annually. In recent years, the DSG has recommended changes to the treatment of a number of data sets, as a result of the reforms to the welfare system and also the impact of the pandemic. And then, that separate issue that was raised this afternoon, which was also raised in the Local Government and Housing Committee with me last month, relating to the weightings applied to different age cohorts within the formula, I just want to confirm that officials will be discussing this particular issue with the distribution sub-group at their next meeting on 22 March.

As colleagues have recognised, we have committed to making council tax fairer in Wales and, as part of this work, we will need to consider how the funding formula needs to respond to this, and other change of circumstances, whilst also continuing to provide authorities with stability and certainty. Of course, as we've heard, any change to the formula inevitably results in winners and losers, and these could be substantial. And that's why we've said previously that, if there is a collective appetite from local government to carry out a fundamental review of the local government settlement funding formula, we will act on it, and we'll do that together.

But while there are always improvements to be planned and made, I can't agree that the current formula is unfit for purpose. It does provides transparency and stability, while responding to changing needs and circumstances, and our continuing support for local government, demonstrated throughout the pandemic and with the latest three-year funding proposals, enables local authorities to deliver high-class local services right across Wales. Diolch.