1. Will the First Minister make a statement on local development plans? OAQ(5)0054(FM)[R]

Up-to-date adopted local development plans are an essential part of an effective planning system.

Thank you. First Minister, the integrity of, and the people of Wales’s confidence in this Assembly are based on being able to believe what is said in this Chamber. In April 2012, you stated in public that Labour would implement its local development plan. Labour’s plans included allowing big business to concrete huge swathes of greenfield sites and, as a result, I published that you had announced plans to concrete Cardiff by stating your party would implement its LDP. You said in this Chamber on 24 April 2012 that my publications were wholly untrue and a blatant lie—your words, not mine. Last week—

Can you bring yourself to a question now please?

Last week, you stated that you did not say what you have already said on the record.

Can you bring this to a question?

Do you think that it is at all acceptable for Wales’s First Minister to come here and deny what you’ve already said? Will you set the record straight?

The Member lives in a land of fantasy. He’s been living in it for the past three years and he didn’t even ask a proper question.

Point of order.

There is no point of order. Hefin David.

Diolch, Lywydd. I’ve absolutely no idea what that was all about. This isn’t Cardiff council chamber—this is the National Assembly for Wales. What we are talking about is the issue of 22 local development plans across south-east Wales, which don’t connect very well, and the Welsh Government has already introduced, last year, the Planning Act 2015 to resolve those issues. A south-east Wales strategic development plan could involve all 10 local authorities, and it is certainly the case that with the Cardiff city region, the 10 local authority leaders are already on board, involved and supportive. Does the First Minister agree with me for the need to take such an approach into serious consideration, and does he also agree this can only be achieved by working together, not being party political and tribal, as Neil McEvoy is so intent on being?

There are real challenges of course for the entire area of the south-east of Wales. Cardiff can’t be expected on its own, nor any other local authority, to provide housing for the entire region. That’s why it makes perfect sense, as my colleague, the Member for Caerphilly, says, that the 10 local authorities should work together in order to have a strategic plan that goes beyond the local development plans, which, of themselves, can never be enough to satisfy the demand that the success of the economy of south-east Wales will place on the local area.

Mark Isherwood.

Presiding Officer, am I right in—

Mark Isherwood.

Am I right in—

No, you’re not. You are not being heard. Mark Isherwood.

Diolch. Well, of course, local development plans don’t build any houses. Given that, in England, local plans produced in consultation with the community have been the cornerstone of planning reforms, how will your Government engage with the Homebuilders Federation regarding the statement in its Welsh election paper, ‘Building Communities, Boosting Investment’, that, because of the many improvements in England, in terms of reduced regulation and greater land availability, the relative attraction of investing in the requisite land and skills in Wales has reduced over recent years? The results can be seen in the most recently published data on planning permissions, which show that, since the start of 2013, the number of private units granted planning permission in Wales has decreased by 4 per cent, whilst increasing by 49 per cent in England.

Well, we have seen significant increases in the number of houses being built in Wales over the past two years. It seems to me that, in England, the plans there are designed to block housing development and not to encourage housing development. What there needs to be, of course, is a properly regulated development plan so that people are able to see where development will take place. I don’t believe that local development plans, of themselves, are sufficient over a wider economic area, which is why strategic plans, to my mind, have a great deal of force and are a great deal of help when it comes to planning for the future.