Cabinet Secretary, thank you for your statement. Now, from the start, we as Welsh Conservatives did raise initial concerns about the Green Paper proposals. You and your predecessors, for the past three or four years, have been playing with the hearts, minds and lives of many working within our local government organisation. The aim of your Green Paper in March was supposedly to invigorate the debate on local government in Wales, and you mentioned at the time your vision for stronger, more empowered local authorities, focusing on local leadership. Yet, in reality, you pushed the button of turmoil, demoralisation and destabilisation once again within offices and council chambers across Wales.
You might see this as flexing your muscles of power, but, frankly, many, including members of your own party, thought that your actions were insensitive and calculating. You undermined the intelligence and dedicated commitment of our council group leaders, our councillors and our officers in their rejection of your preposterous proposals. You boast about 177 responses to the Green Paper consultation, in a population size of over 3 million people, it's not a lot, and, to be honest, I take credit for some of those, because we were actually writing it up in our news column in the local papers and making people across Wales aware of this consultation, because, too often, these go above the heads of the very people whose lives they affect.
You also know that the local authorities were sending copies of their responses to me at my request, so we were ahead of the game in analysing these responses, and we've challenged and scrutinised you since March, all the while, whilst people were very worried in local government about what you were moving towards. This clearly proved that you were going off on a mission well above the heads of these good people who work in local government, delivering vital services.
There are other ways of going about achieving some of the fundamentals that you are aiming for. You mention that no-one is bringing forward alternative proposals, yet I would beg to differ. Local authorities and the WLGA broadly noted the ongoing success of collaborative and regional partnership working, and they want longer for these principles to enable and to bed in. Of concern, though, is that you did not actually ask for any alternative suggestions, but merely offered these three possible routes towards forced mergers. You speak of empowerment for local authorities, but your Green Paper gave them very little. Would you not agree with me that expecting responses to a question you did not ask is a very poor way to undertake consultation?
Moving on to voluntary mergers, in reviewing the responses of local authorities, I must admit that I did not note the appetite that you describe, still, for voluntary mergers amongst local authorities. Denbighshire stated,
'The past experience of some authorities with regard to voluntary mergers and Government’s response to them is hardly encouraging.'
Conwy noted that,
We do not agree now that merging local authorities is appropriate.
That opportunity was lost when Leighton Andrews rejected them offhandedly at the time. The Vale of Glamorgan said that it was,
'taking the position that a merger with any other local authority is an untenable prospect in securing the quality of services rightly expected by our citizens.'
Now, given that sections 3 to 10 of the Local Government (Wales) Act 2015 already provide local authorities with the opportunity to voluntarily merge, can you advise as to why, if such an appetite exists, that you are not pushing that model forward? This, what you're bringing forward now, appears to be just another recycling of Leighton Andrews's plans. Why do you not consider amending the Act rather than bringing forward another raft of costly new legislation?
I also note your proposal to establish a new working group with the WLGA. As a result of all this local government reorganisation over the years, we've seen a Public Services Staff Commission set up, and there's now been a workforce partnership council. So, what is the point of setting up another costly group for local authorities to feed into? Why not consider streamlining these structures? You say that finding more money is not an option. However, we now know that local government, housing, education, social services and health are all intrinsically linked. Why, oh why, will you not seek to work with your other Cabinet Members around the table and seek a wholesale reform of all our public services across Wales, removing the numerous and costly tiers of bureaucracy and waste that exist within all five areas of this service delivery, and which have actually grown in 20 years of devolution in Wales?
The Williams commission gave us 62 recommendations, yet your Government and your predecessors have only ever taken four forward—all relating to local government reform. Is it not time now to get that report out again, blow the dust off it, and work with the panel, who were very good cross-party individuals, to revisit those proposals, and work with key stakeholders towards a wholesale reform of our public service delivery in Wales? Until you grasp that nettle, we are just going to carry on and on on this magic roundabout.
Presiding Officer, I'm afraid I'm going to start my response this afternoon by breaking Janet's heart. I'm sure she didn't intend this, but I actually think her remarks are very helpful, and I actually agree with much of what she said. I know this is somewhat unusual; I can see the Presiding Officer looks quite surprised as well.
No, I'm merely smiling. It's the end of term; I'm smiling.
We can agree on some things. Much of what has been said by the Conservative spokesperson, I think, makes a great deal of sense, and this is why I hope that the way in which we work with the WLGA and take forward a reform programme won't simply look at the structures, but it will look at how we work together as a Government and systems of governance within this country. I agree that there is a great deal of complexity, and I agree, and I know my colleagues in Government agree, that one of the objectives that we need in taking these matters forward is to streamline existing structures, and to streamline existing processes, to make Government appropriate and not as large as perhaps we're able to do so. The way in which we're going to take this forward will clearly look at the sorts of structures we have in place, but I hope that it will not be limited to a dry and sterile debate about either the number of local authorities we have in this country or the boundaries of those local authorities. I hope that we will be able to have a much more stimulating conversation about where services are best delivered and how services are best delivered for the citizen.
And I think, if I may say this, where I do disagree with the Conservative spokesperson, it was her lack of emphasis on the citizen and the place and the rights of the citizen. We all exist to serve the people of this country. Local authorities and this Government and this place exist to serve people, and it is the people that we serve that should be at the centre of our thoughts, and not simply the structures that exist in order to provide those services.
So, let me say this: it is not right to suggest that this process has either created turmoil, destabilisation or is insensitive, which are the words the Conservatives used. In fact, one of the issues that is constantly brought up to me, and brought up with me, by people like public service workers and by elected leaders up and down the country is the impacts of austerity on their budgets and their ability to deliver services. In all the debates that we've had here—and I've told her this before, and I will tell her again, I'm afraid—there isn't a single local authority leader, not one, across Wales who is saying what we need in Wales is the sort of Conservative policies that are being delivered in England. Nobody says that—nobody at all. I think it's fair to say that she can read the consultations throughout her summer break, but she will find very little evidence of that in any of the responses that we received. What we want to be able to do, though, is to do something that is very different. We want to take the best from the collaborative and regional working that she's described, and I accept that that is an important and central part of how we take these forward. We want to empower local authorities, but we want to empower local people as well. What we want to be able to do is to ensure now that we deliver the sorts of structures in Wales that are appropriate to a country with a devolved Government, and that are appropriate to a country of 3 million people. I hope that we will be able to do that in consultation with each other, and that we will see a far greater and far-reaching and far-sighted reform programme that goes beyond a dry and sterile conversation about the number of local authorities in Wales.