Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 27 April 2022.
Diolch, Weinidog. Our communities have all suffered due to the economic effects of COVID, and this has been compounded of course by the cost-of-living crisis, which is hitting our most disadvantaged areas the hardest. As well as mitigating these crises now, we also need to be ensuring that our communities are resilient enough to be able to weather any future economic storms. So now more than ever our local authorities should prioritise ambitious community wealth-building strategies, utilising procurement spend by local anchors for community benefit. Promises have been made by local authorities, such as by Neath Port Talbot in my region to regenerate its Valleys communities, but the reality on the ground shows those strategies have simply failed to deliver. Gwynedd Council's Keeping the Benefit Local strategy, which considers how best to keep money spent by the council in the local area, is certainly a model to be encouraged in South Wales West. Over the past four years, the amount of council spending staying inside the county increased from £56 million to £78 million, a rise of 39 per cent. Does the Minister agree that the Welsh Government needs to show more leadership on this, and ensure that funding and support are available to local authorities to devise and implement effective community wealth-building strategies, which will create sustainable, resilient communities, to achieve much-needed social and economic transformation?