Wel, diolch yn fawr, Llywydd, a diolch i bob Aelod sydd wedi cyfrannu at y ddadl y prynhawn yma.

As we move towards local government elections on 4 May and our Easter recess, in an ecumenical spirit of inclusivity, the Government will support the motion this afternoon.

Of course, political parties here will have sharply different ideas to put before the electorate, but our shared understanding of the significance of local councils as providers of key services, key players in creating local economies and essential links in the democratic chain, is not a bad place to start. Having said that, Llywydd, I have looked several times this afternoon at the motion, trying to find a reference in it to a funding formula, let alone a call in it for the funding formula to be reformed, to move funding away from areas represented by many of the movers’ colleagues.

So, let me just be clear. Successive Welsh Governments, including this Government, have acted to protect local authorities and their services here in Wales from the cuts imposed upon us and from the treatment that has been provided to local authorities across our border in England. The funding formula we use in Wales is an objective formula. It is driven primarily by numbers of people who live in an area, the number of pupils in schools, and by expert advice in relation to the costs of meeting deprivation, rurality and particular services. It is why Labour leaders on the finance sub-group voted this year to implement changes to the social services formula, which has moved money out of urban areas and into rural areas in Wales, because they recognise that if you rely on objective advice, you have to take that advice whether it happens to advantage your own area or not. In that way, we have a formula that, year in and year out, we review, we revise and it stands up to scrutiny.

For this Welsh Government, Llywydd, local authorities are there to support individuals, families and communities when they need help, but also to deliver services that make it possible for people to live their own lives in the way that they would wish to live them—families who look to schools to provide the best start in life for children, the safe collection and disposal of waste, the maintenance of pavements and roads and the provision of services to elderly people in their own homes in some of the most vulnerable circumstances in our communities. Local authorities across Wales sustain hundreds of services through thousands of organisations, to millions of Welsh people by the investment of billions of pounds. The motion is absolutely right to begin by recognising their significance.

Despite very real challenges, local government in Wales has been improving and it has been improving even in a period of very real austerity. But real challenges remain in and for local government. There is more to be done in achieving greater consistency and excellence while, at the same time, we know that there is going to be less money for public services. Reform is essential if local authorities are to be financially resilient and able to maintain and improve the quality of services during this extraordinary period of retrenchment. And while reform of the way we do things is a necessity, at the heart of the White Paper published on 31 January is a new relationship between the citizen and the local services, in which those who use those services are treated as equal partners in the business of improvement.

Of course, Llywydd, I didn’t agree with everything that Paul Davies had to suggest, but he will know that I did spend a whole afternoon out with front-line workers running the Raglan project, and a very good afternoon it was, seeing an innovative project shifting power to those front-line workers in genuinely trust-based relationships with their users. The public participation strategies, which the White Paper proposes, are designed to be a dialogue in which strengths and assets are identified, and collective action taken to solve common problems. As the second part of the motion puts it: a strong local government sharing power and responsibility with its local population. And local government does depend crucially on the calibre of the people who are elected to represent others. Suzy Davies pointed to the need to continue to drive up the calibre of people who come into local government, to make that job worth while for them to do, to make sure that they discharge those responsibilities in a way that matches the obligations that have been put on them. The detail of the White Paper makes it clear that creating a strong local government depends upon active, engaged and accessible local councillors, and strengthens both the significance of the local representatives, and the obligations placed upon them.

Llywydd, could I for a moment pick up a point that Rhianon Passmore made, where she paid tribute to Keith Reynolds, the retiring leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council? Right across Wales there are leaders from different political parties who have decided that they will not seek leadership of their councils after the election, and I want to pay tribute to them all. To be a leader of a council at any time, but particularly at this time, takes political courage and it takes personal resilience and resolve, and right form the very far north-west to the very south-east corner of Wales we have people who have discharged those responsibilities, who have provided a service to their local communities, who won’t be there after 4 May, and I don’t think it’s a bad idea for us today to recognise the contribution that they have made. [Assembly Members: ‘Hear, hear.’]

Llywydd, let me say something now about the third aspect of today’s motion. The Government recognises the role of small businesses and business support, to make it available to entrepreneurs, micro, small and medium-sized businesses across Wales, and we do so through our Business Wales service. Conservative-controlled Monmouthshire, independent-led Powys, and Plaid Cymru-controlled Ceredigion all use Business Wales as their full service, while Labour-controlled Neath Port Talbot are working with Business Wales to provide a collaborative response to the Tata supply chain. I recognised in the last debate that there is variation in procurement performance across different local authorities, but it’s been heartening this afternoon to hear a range of real, live examples where local authorities are using the powers and the resources that they have to engage with local businesses to create the economies of the future. Sian Gwenllian provided a direct example of successful action in the north-west of Wales; Dawn Bowden told us that Merthyr is the growth capital of Wales; and Darren Millar set out the early signs of renaissance in Colwyn Bay—all places where local authorities are aligned with their local populations to bring about improvement.

Llywydd, we don’t underestimate the steps that need to be taken so that local authorities right across Wales are able to go on providing services, working with local populations, working with local businesses, to create the services that we need. But as we go into the election, I’m sure that we will wish all those people who have put themselves forward for election a successful engagement in the democratic process so that we have vibrant, vital, successful local authorities able to go on doing those very important jobs here in Wales.