Julie James AM, Minister for Housing and Local Government
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
In July 2018 my predecessor Lesley Griffiths AM, the then Minister for Energy, Environment, Planning and Rural Affairs, launched a ‘Call for Evidence’ to seek views on how to improve the delivery of the housing requirements set out in Local Development Plans (LDPs). This was in response to the housing delivery and land supply position across Wales which included concerns expressed by local planning authorities and communities regarding speculative residential planning applications.
The ‘Call for Evidence’ has highlighted that many adopted LDPs are failing to deliver the number of new homes required, with sites allocated for these homes either not being brought forward for development or being developed at a slower rate than anticipated. The ‘Call for Evidence’ also explored the related issue of the measuring of housing land supply and its interrelationship with the monitoring of LDPs.
Detailed analysis of the responses to the ‘Call for Evidence’ has confirmed that the current policy framework for ensuring housing delivery and the associated monitoring mechanism are not sufficiently aligned with the LDP process. Therefore, taking account of the changes already made to Planning Policy Wales (PPW) and proposed in the new edition of the Development Plans Manual, I propose to amend the policy for ensuring housing delivery and the guidance and advice on the associated monitoring mechanism.
Today I am commencing a consultation on proposed changes to the ‘Housing Delivery’ section of Planning Policy Wales. The changes remove the five-year housing land supply policy and replace it with a policy statement making it explicit that the housing trajectory will be the basis for monitoring the delivery of development plan housing requirements as part of AMRs. I consider that this approach would ensure that the monitoring of housing delivery, including the response to under-delivery, is an integral part of the process of development plan monitoring and review.
As a consequence of this proposed policy change, TAN 1 which provides the methodology for calculating the five-year housing land supply would be revoked. Amendments to the Development Plans Manual would also be required to provide additional guidance on the process of monitoring against the housing trajectory.
Given the proposed changes to PPW and associated guidance and advice, I would like to confirm that the dis-application of paragraph 6.2 of TAN 1 remains in place. The Welsh Ministers will continue to consider applications for residential development which are called-in or determined on appeal, in accordance with the place-making principles set out in PPW and all other material considerations.
I encourage all stakeholders with an interest in increasing housing delivery to meet the needs of communities across Wales to respond to this consultation.