Diolch. On behalf of the Welsh Government, I would like to thank everyone involved in the smooth operation of the local government elections in Wales last week, and every person who stood to represent their community. I'd also like to update the Senedd on the elections and how we will take forward our relationship with local authorities in the coming months.

These were the first local government elections since we extended the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds and qualifying foreign nationals, sharing the opportunity to participate in Welsh democracy and civic life. This represents an important milestone in our ambition for more accessible elections. We also supported pilots for flexible voting at last week's elections, hosted by four local authorities. I am very grateful to the four authorities who stepped forward and agreed to work with us on these pilots: Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Torfaen and Bridgend. This has been a model of co-production. While the authorities were responsible for delivering the pilots, they were supported by the whole electoral community in designing the pilot models and with delivery planning. Early indications show that these have worked well, and we look forward to the Electoral Commission's independent evaluation in the coming months. This will help identify where we can further reduce barriers to participation in elections. Reducing the voting age and extending the franchise to everyone who lives in Wales sends a strong message that we are a Government that supports and encourages diversity in our local democracy. Diversity amongst our local elected representatives is essential to ensuring that everyone's views and needs are represented, and to enriching local decision making.

Increasing diversity in local democracy was a core theme of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. Provisions including job sharing for executive members and assistants to the executive will come into force for the new local government administrations. We have already enacted the permanent provision in the 2021 Act enabling principal and town and community councils to meet remotely, which supports members who are in full-time employment, have caring responsibilities, or find travelling difficult. And these provisions have been widely used and welcomed.

For the first time for local elections in Wales, we opened an access to elected office fund to support disabled candidates. I am very pleased to say that around 20 candidates have been supported through this fund. We are now exploring how we can extend the fund to support people with other protected characteristics. We have also taken steps to ensure that candidates' and elected members' addresses do not have to be in the public domain. This has been widely welcomed to ensure that candidates, members and their families have some protection from the terrible abuse that has become, unfortunately, too common.

We have worked with and will continue to work closely with the Welsh Local Government Association and One Voice Wales to promote the importance and benefits of being a local councillor. Together we produced a range of materials to support and inform potential candidates. This is another example of how we've worked with local government and is testament to the strong and positive working relationship between Welsh Government and local government. During the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently as a nation of sanctuary in response to the terrible events in Ukraine, we have seen the importance of that relationship in action, and the strength of jointly developing solutions.

I'm committed to continuing to build on this relationship, and to continuing to work together to face the challenges of the future for the benefit of people in Wales. As testament to this partnership, our newly elected councils turn to their new duties supported by the strongest local government settlement for many years. Because we chose to prioritise local government and health services in the Welsh budget, local authorities were provided £5.1 billion this year in core revenue funding and non-domestic rates to deliver key services—an increase of 9.4 per cent. We're also providing over £1 billion in specific revenue grants and nearly £0.75 billion pounds in specific capital funding.

I know that the risks and impacts of inflation and a stalling economy mean that there are still challenges for our councils, but they can meet those challenges with a firmer financial base, increased certainty from an indicative three-year budget, and the backing of a Government that values and supports public services and local government in particular. I look forward to speaking at the WLGA annual general meeting on 24 June and the WLGA conference in September to discuss our joint priorities for the remainder of this Senedd term. Diolch.