In the next financial year, the South Wales West region of the Member will receive £945 million in settlement funding, and Wales as a whole sees an increase of 7.9 per cent in settlement funding over last year on a like-for-like basis. These increases are higher than the vast majority of increases for local authorities over recent years, which shows the continuing priority that we as a Government attach to making sure that local authority budgets, and in my case, of course, the budgets available to schools, are as high as they can be, despite the very, very real pressures that I know the Member appreciates the Welsh Government's budget is also under. Obviously, how those budgets are allocated is a matter for local authorities, but he will also know that authorities have given assurances, in particular, for example, in the context of the recent discussions with teaching unions in relation to industrial action, and there has been a transparent process that has sought to provide as much information as possible about how schools will be funded.

He mentioned the point about reserves. It is an important part of the funding landscape in the short term. Typically, no Government would be encouraging authorities to explore the use of reserves, because they're there for particular purposes. I think, in the particular circumstances that we're in, which is that over the COVID period the profile of funding and expenditure in schools was very, very different, and that has built up a historically high level of reserves—. But I want to be very clear that I do not regard that as part of the long-term solution, because those funds, once used, are used. So, they are there to alleviate pressure in the short term rather than the long term, but they're still important in playing that role.