Proposals in the White Paper ‘Reforming Local Government: Resilient and Renewed’ put elected members at the heart of collaborative decision making. Elected members are then directly accountable to local people through the ballot box.

As the United Kingdom leaves the EU we will further align public sector procurement to priorities of job creation, simplification, community benefits and value for money for the public pound in Wales.

Bydd pencadlys Awdurdod Cyllid Cymru yn Nhrefforest. Bydd gan yr awdurdod bresenoldeb yn Aberystwyth ac yn Llandudno hefyd er mwyn i’r staff gael cysylltiad uniongyrchol gyda rhanddeiliaid, trethdalwyr a’u hasiantwyr.

The majority of local authorities in Wales have adopted the model concerns and complaints policy for public services providers in Wales. The model was introduced in 2011 and was endorsed by Welsh Ministers. Local authorities nevertheless remain responsible for their own complaints handling process.

I am currently consulting on proposals for reform as set out in the ‘Reforming Local Government’ White Paper. These proposals were developed with local government to ensure they are fit for our shared purpose of resilient and renewed local government that is able to deliver better outcomes for the people of Wales.

The local government White Paper emphasises the importance of citizens being active partners in the delivery of services and of local authorities using a range of methods, including digital tools, to enable participation. This includes proposals around electronic voting as part of wider efforts to modernise elections.

I intend to explore, in an applied and practical way, whether changes to local taxation in Wales could make our systems fairer. The options include land value tax. It will be important to assess what information would be needed to operate any new tax effectively.