2. How is the Welsh Government working with Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council to improve the lives of people in Rhondda? OQ57967

Llywydd, we work closely with the borough council in a range of different ways to improve the lives of people in Rhondda. To provide just one example, over 600 children in the borough now take advantage of the Welsh Government's childcare offer, leaving more money in the pockets of those hard-working families.

Thank you, First Minister. Never has the contrast between the actions of a Tory Westminster Government and a Welsh Labour-led Welsh Government been so clear. The Prime Minister has broken the law, has flouted COVID rules and has wasted billions on contracts for his mates. His Government isn't willing to support coal tip remediation efforts in Wales, and has short-changed us by £1 billion, and after that car-crash Good Morning Britain interview this morning, I wonder what comes next. In contrast, the Welsh Labour Government in partnership with the Welsh Labour-led RCT council are well under way with remediation to Tylerstown and Wattstown coal tips, have delivered record flood prevention and defence investment, and will deliver 20 fully costed pledges, including funding 10 police community support officers, a cost-of-living payment, free school meals for primary school children, and will continue to increase the number of extra-care facilities for older people. Does the First Minister agree with me that Welsh Labour-led councils working in partnership with the Welsh Labour Government is the most effective way of making a positive difference to the lives of people in Rhondda and across Wales?

Well, Llywydd, I thank Buffy Williams for those very important points, and I commend RCT council for everything that it has done to support its residents in recent times and now again with the cost-of-living crisis. I read with interest the manifesto on which the Labour group in that council will fight this election: 10 more PCSOs paid for out of the council's own resources, over and above the 100 extra PCSOs that we have provided as a Welsh Government; 10 more community wardens; expanding detached youth work; new actions to prosecute fly-tippers in the council area. It's a council that absolutely understands the things that matter most to people from their own front doors. And when it comes to the cost-of-living crisis, I think the way in which the council has decided to use the £2.3 million in discretionary funding that the Welsh Government has provided is designed directly to put money—not warm words, not expressions of concern, but money in the pockets of people who need it the most. So, RCT today, Llywydd, is the local authority in Wales that has distributed more of the £150 payments that we are providing to families than any other council in Wales—£8,241,750 has left the coffers of the council and is now in the hands of RCT residents, and that's more than any council in Wales. Nine councils in Wales have started to provide that money directly to their residents and, not surprising to me and not surprising to Buffy Williams, I'm sure, eight of those nine are Labour-controlled authorities, doing the things that matter the most. RCT will provide £100 to every householder in council tax bands E to F, it will provide £50 to every family in the borough with a school-aged child within that family. These things do not wipe away all the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, and they cannot be expected to make good the failure of the UK Government to take similar action, but, within the scope that the council itself has, it demonstrates, as do Labour councils across Wales every single day, both an insight into the issues facing people across Wales and a determination to respond positively to them.

First Minister, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council sits on one of the largest—if not the largest—bank balances of any local authority in Wales, with a staggering £171.3 million in useable reserves, down marginally from the £208 million it had previously. Despite these vast reserves, RCT council continually pleads poverty, and I can attest to this from a position of some authority having served as a county borough councillor on it for almost the last 15 years. Llywydd, for the record, I am still a councillor there for at least a few more days. RCT has one of the highest council tax rates of any local authority in the entire United Kingdom, which is, and I'm sure you agree, First Minister, a slap in the face to all council tax payers in the Rhondda. RCT council even has the audacity to raise council tax again this year, asking residents to pay more and more, even when the council has such vast reserves—[Interruption.] First Minister, how is—

I need to have some quiet so that we can all hear the question. Please carry on with the question.

Thank you, Llywydd. First Minister, how is this Welsh Government helping the lives of some of Wales's poorest people by allowing Labour-run RCT council to squeeze more and more council tax from them when they can ill afford it and when the council can seemingly sit on such substantial reserves? Thank you.

Llywydd, let's offer a few facts. RCT council has £8.5 million in its general reserve. That's 1 per cent of its GRE outturn last year. As I explained on the floor of the Senedd last week, local authorities hold capital in reserve because they have a pipeline of projects, whether that is in school building, whether it's in highway restoration, and, in RCT's case, in order to deal with the impact of climate change on coal tip safety in that area. It may not be of any concern to Conservatives in this Chamber—it's certainly no concern to Conservatives in Westminster, because they failed to provide any help with it—but coal tip safety actually matters to the local authority in RCT, because it has to deal day in, day out with the anxieties that people in the local authority face when they see the impact of extreme weather events in their localities.

So, I commend the council for what it does. I commend it for the way in which it looks after its finances, the way in which it's prepared to plan for the future, the way in which it looks to the long term. None of those will be characteristics shared by any administration likely ever to be formed by the party that is in opposition, yet again, in the Chamber here.

I think I'll call Heledd Fychan now, probably for the third and final pitch in the Rhondda Cynon Taf election campaign. [Laughter.] Heledd Fychan.

Thank you, Llywydd. Just in case you hadn't noticed that there was an election, I'd like to declare that I am, until the election, a councillor on Rhondda Cynon Taf council.

First Minister, the truth is that the situation of many residents of RCT is deteriorating rather than improving. More people have to turn to foodbanks for support, more children are living in poverty and the COVID deaths have been among the highest in Britain. A number of reports on the 2020 floods still haven't been published. It's clear, therefore, that what the Government and the council have been doing is not sufficient. We have a whole host of voluntary and third sector organisations that are active across the county, that do important work and have all sorts of ideas in terms of how to improve the lives of the residents of RCT, but tell us time and time again that they aren't included when plans are drawn up. How is the Welsh Government going to ensure that their expertise and their voices are heard and help to steer the changes that are so desperately needed?

We've heard a very traditional Plaid Cymru slogan here this afternoon. Their message on the doorstep in RCT appears to be, 'Vote Plaid Cymru in RCT. Isn't it awful?' They don't have a good word to say for the places that they seek to represent, and they're at it again here this afternoon. It's just a run-down of the places where they seek to persuade to vote for them. They tried it last year, and they surely have seen the result, and I fully expect that people in RCT will deliver the same verdict on that sort of campaigning again this year.

Before we move on to the questions by the leaders of the opposition, I'd like to take the opportunity to welcome to our public gallery and our Chamber here in the Welsh Parliament, the Speaker of South Africa's Western Cape Provincial Parliament and delegation, led by him. I know that Members will want to join me in welcoming Speaker Mngasela and his delegation to the Senedd. [Applause.] Croeso ichi, and I hope you have an informative and interesting time here in the Welsh Parliament and in Wales. I suspect you've learned quite a bit that you were not expecting to learn about the Rhondda Cynon Taf election in that last contribution. [Laughter.]