8. What consideration did the Minister give to funding interventions that enable Welsh councils to tackle the impact of poverty in preparing the Government's budget for 2023-24?  OQ59287

Supporting vital public services through these hard times was a key priority in the 2023-24 budget. I have provided an additional £227 million for local government, including funding for schools and social care, which sits alongside other directly funded cost-of-living support interventions, including £18.8 million for the discretionary assistance fund.

Thank you, Minister. I was really pleased to see that the budget for the discretionary assistance fund would be increasing by nearly £19 million, and that the cash value of payments would rise in line with inflation by 11 per cent. This news has been very warmly welcomed by, for example, the Bevan Foundation, as we know that the DAF is used by councils as a lifeline for families facing crisis. With our principal authorities being at the coalface during the cost-of-living crisis, how else is Welsh Government supporting councils so that they in turn can support their local communities?

Welsh Government sees the most important thing that we can do in terms of helping local authorities support their communities through this difficult time as providing as much support as we possibly can through the revenue support grant. Our settlement for 2023-24 is an increase of £227 million to the indicative allocations that were published at the last budget. That, in part, is due to the fact that we provided over and above the consequential funding that we received for both education and social care in the previous statement from the UK Government. And, as a result of the reprioritisation exercise that we undertook across Government, we were able to provide that more generous settlement. We think that prioritising local government and ensuring the best possible settlement is the absolutely best way to help local authorities help their local communities.

Question 9 [OQ59298] has been withdrawn, and Jayne Bryant isn't here to ask question 10 [OQ59321], so we'll move on to question 11 from Mike Hedges.