2. What discussions has the Minister had with the newly elected leadership at Monmouthshire County Council? OQ58622

I held an introductory meeting with the new leader in August. And I also meet all leaders regularly through our fortnightly meetings at the Welsh Local Government Association executive board and separately on issues such as taxation reform. I have also discussed local government financial challenges with Monmouthshire’s deputy leader through the finance sub-group.

Minister, you'll be aware that Newport East includes the Severnside area, which comes under Monmouthshire County Council. I was very pleased in May to see Labour take control of the council there, for the first time since the mid 1990s. I know the new leader, Mary Ann Brocklesby, and her cabinet have ambitious plans to tackle the affordability gap in housing in Monmouthshire. The area has suffered from historic underinvestment in affordable housing and has had an over-reliance on private landlords. Recently, the new Labour council approved plans for 100 per cent affordable housing on the former Caldicot school site, with Monmouthshire Housing Association being the preferred bidder. This illustrates the ambition and the work of the new Monmouthshire County Council, Minister. But I just wonder how you, as finance Minister, working with the Minister for Climate Change, can work closely with the new leadership to support them in their ambitions for more affordable housing in this area.

I'm grateful to John Griffiths for raising this issue, and I do recognise what he says in terms of property prices being higher than average in Monmouthshire, and there obviously are links between job opportunities and higher house prices. But property prices can be skewed, of course, by second home ownership and also by a significant number of short-term holiday lets in an area, which is why the work that we're doing in partnership with Plaid Cymru to address the second home challenges is really important, and will have an impact, I think, in Monmouthshire.

But, of course, it's important that there is good-quality social housing and affordable private rental sector housing available in these areas, and schemes such as that which you've described, which I know has now been confirmed by Monmouthshire County Council's new administration, are exactly the sort of ambition that this Welsh Government wants to see in terms of fulfilling our citizens' needs. So, I can reassure John Griffiths that I and my colleague the Minister for Climate Change will absolutely be keen to support Monmouthshire in their ambitions. 

I thank John Griffiths for raising this, and I very much welcome the renewed focus of the Welsh Government on Monmouthshire; it was sadly lacking for 13 years when I was a leader. And I'm also very pleased that the new Labour administration is taking forward the plans we put in place, so I do thank them. 

Minister, you will know that I've consistently pushed, throughout my time in local government, and since I've been here, the importance of fair funding, and I've challenged the current funding formula several times. And I know the First Minister said only yesterday that if local government wants a change in the formula, if they ask for it, you'll do it. Now, we know turkeys won't vote for Christmas, and there are several leaders who are accruing up to £208 million of reserves while some only have £30 million of reserves. They're not going to vote for something that dismantles that. Can I ask you, Minister, if you will take the initiative to invoke an independent commission on the funding formula? We know there's only one pie and it's unlikely to get any bigger, but some people have huge slices and others have crumbs. That is not fair, and it's the responsibility of this Government, working with local authorities, to change that. Can you do that? Can you invoke that commission?

Well, Llywydd, the core revenue funding that we provide to local authorities every year is distributed according to relative need, and that uses a formula that takes into account a wealth of information, including the demographic, physical, economic and social characteristics of authorities. And there is no evidence whatsoever that any authority, or a group of authorities, with any particular geographical or social characteristics, are being disadvantaged through that local government funding formula. It is free from political agenda, it's free from political influence and it's driven by data. And, in fact, the formula is set by 70 different indicators of the need to spend, and the majority of that, representing 72 per cent of the funding, is updated annually. And, of course, to ensure that level of independence, we do have independent members on the distribution sub-group to ensure that there's no bias in favour or against the interests of any individual authority.