Diolch yn fawr. Thank you to colleagues for their comments in this debate. I'll just respond to some of the specific issues that were raised. Of course, the interest in reserves was raised this afternoon, and of course, the level of local authority reserves are a matter for those local elected members. They will of course reflect those longer term plans as well as their efforts to manage short-term pressures. Every local authority has reported increased useable reserves as at March 2022 compared to the previous March, but local authorities have now been drawing on those reserves within this financial year to try and respond to some of the pressures of inflation. I know that some are also planning to use some in the coming year as part of their medium-term financial planning.

There might be a range of reasons for the increases that we've seen; for example, local authorities have faced many challenges with capital programmes as a result of the interruptions and delays perpetuated by COVID. That means that some capital grants may be held in reserves, or self-generated funding earmarked for a specific project in the year not used in that particular year. Of course, grant terms and conditions were also loosened in 2020-21 and in 2021-22 for authorities to enable them to manage the uncertainty in the delivery of service-provision programmes because of lockdowns, and, also, because of the reallocation of staff to COVID support work. Of course, that means that some funding, again, was held in reserve to deliver on projects at a later date. Authorities' reserves might also be the result of a number of decisions that have been taken over a period of years around service delivery, council tax levels and, also, their appetite for risk. I don't think that it's fair to say that the level of reserves suggests that the formula is in any way unfair or broken.

I will respond as well on the point of housing support grants—I know that that came up quite a bit in our previous debate on the budget. I think it's important that we do recognise that in the difficult financial situation we've found ourselves in, we did, actually, increase the housing support grant by 30 per cent, or £40 million, in the first year of our three-year spending review. That funding was protected by the Minister in the budget round this year, so it wasn't subject to any of the reprioritisation that some of our other funding was subject to, to try to provide further funding for local government and for the NHS as a result of the pressures that they're facing at the moment. 

Whilst this settlement does build on improved allocations in recent years, I do recognise that it doesn't undo the years of austerity and the impact that that's had on public finances, nor does it match the impact of inflation on local authority costs that we've seen over recent months, and with those effects also still to come. Local authorities have had to make some really difficult decisions in setting their budgets and their council tax levels over recent weeks, and they will have taken into account the differing needs of their communities and worked to balance providing efficient services with, also, the impact of council tax rises on households. This would be a point at which I would ask colleagues to remind their local communities of our council tax reduction scheme, because we know that there are households that are eligible for that but are not yet making the most of that support that is available.

Authorities in Wales, of course, by setting their council tax levels, are responsible to their local electorate for their decisions. Unlike in England, we continue to respect their autonomy; we don't impose blanket limits or require costly local referenda. The flexibility to set their budgets and determine council tax levels to respond to local priorities is a really important feature of local democracy.

As is usual in these debates, and, indeed, in the discussions that I have with local authority leaders, the local government distribution formula has been raised. The core funding that we provide to local government is distributed through a well-established formula; it's created and developed in collaboration with local government and agreed annually with local government through the finance sub-group of the partnership council for Wales. That formula—[Interruption.] Mike, sorry, I didn't see you.