Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 27 April 2022.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 1:40, 27 April 2022

Yes, thank you absolutely for giving me that opportunity to put on record my thanks, and Welsh Government's thanks, to councillors of all political parties and none, who have served their communities over the past years, and especially to those who are choosing to stand down this time. I think that I want to put particular thanks on record to those, and also, just from a personal perspective, a huge thank you to those local government leaders who we've been working so closely with over the period that I've been in post, but certainly long before that as well, because they've done an incredible job. I think you referred to the work that's been done over the past five years, and, if anybody needs to know the value of local government, you only have to look at the response that local councillors made over the course of the pandemic, going above and beyond every day to meet the needs of people in their communities. There's no party politics in that. It is absolutely about putting on record our thanks for that. 

I think that Welsh Government has tried to work constructively and collaboratively with local government over the past five years, and I think that we've developed excellent relationships with local government. We've sought to have discussions early on so that we can bottom out problems before they become real issues, and I do think that we have that mature relationship with them now, and there's a keenness on our part to support local government to realise their ambitions. And you can see some of that through the support that we've been giving through the city regions approaches, but also through the work that we've been doing with the corporate joint committees and trying to support them to become successful, although we are still at an early stage with that work, as you appreciate.