I fought an election last year in which my Plaid opponent campaigned on one simple message, which was: Labour wants to build houses on your greenfields. That I won this election demonstrates that people saw through this rather dishonest strategy. [Interruption.] Indeed, I’d say to Nick Ramsay that I’m told the Conservatives, locally, are also given to such tactics on occasion as well, in spite of their motion today.

There is, however, a clear set of problems with planning policy in the Caerphilly borough area. As a councillor, I voted against the proposed Caerphilly local development plan, which was designed to offer a specific area of land for housing on limited greenfield sites in the south of my constituency in order to meet housing demand to protect other green areas. The compromise approach to local development planning is an approach on which not everyone agrees and in which no-one believes, and it demonstrates the flaws of the LDP system and why it will not, ultimately, deliver the houses we need in the areas we need them.

In my view, local development plans should act as a market intervention tool. The current emphasis in development plans on only allocating land in areas that are viable—in other words, profitable—does not allow LDPs to act as that policy intervention tool and will not stimulate the economy in weaker market areas. Indeed, it could be argued that the current market-led strategy effectively speeds up the decline of more deprived areas in the northern Valleys, by actively diverting any growth to stronger market areas such as the Caerphilly basin, which is gridlocked due to transport issues with people trying to get into Cardiff. Further, it undermines the local development plan system as plans can only allocate land in viable market areas, and thus cannot act as a clear policy intervention in those areas where the market is failing. If an LDP is intervening in the market as intended, why go through the time and expense of preparing one at all?

Where the market determines the location of new housing developments, then it will generally not invest in weak housing market areas like the northern Valleys. These weaker housing market areas tend to correlate with areas of deprivation, which are in need of regeneration, and/or areas where the housing stock is in need of diversification. From the Welsh Government’s perspective, a market-led strategy is likely to deliver market housing in areas of high demand, like the Caerphilly basin, which also facilitate higher levels of affordable homes in those areas, and, perhaps from David Melding’s point of view, target met. But in some cases, this is too simplistic a view that seems purely to be based on the number of houses that need to be built and focuses too much on where there is already existing demand. From Caerphilly County Borough Council’s perspective, a market-led strategy places undue pressure on the south of my constituency. It does nothing to aid the regeneration of deprived areas in the northern Valleys, and it does not facilitate development in weaker market areas where viability and profitability is challenging. We therefore need a planning policy that stimulates demands in areas of challenging viability, and to make sure that the infrastructure and jobs are there to make these people want to live in the areas of the northern Valleys. Therefore, it’s not just about existing demand.

With the Valleys taskforce and the forthcoming economic strategy, the Welsh Government has recognised this, but our approach to planning lags behind these excellent economic policy developments. Our planning policy should link directly to the Welsh Government’s forthcoming regional approach to economic strategy and to regional growth deals. The Government has introduced, in the previous Assembly, regional, or what they called ‘strategic development’ plans, which can serve exactly that purpose, yet they are yet to be activated. I see the city deal as an opportunity to activate strategic development plans.

Caerphilly county borough has the second highest out-migration level in Wales, with over 15,000 net outbound commutes by car each day. The majority of these commutes are south to Cardiff and Newport, and anyone who travels here from Caerphilly in the morning, as I do, will know that if you travel by car, then you have to, really, leave the house before 7 o’clock to get here at a reasonable time without spending an hour, at least, on the road. This trend will almost certainly increase over time as Cardiff is seeking to create many new jobs. This level of job provision, combined with the proximity of Cardiff to Caerphilly, will undoubtedly mean many more of my constituents commuting to Cardiff. I therefore welcome the measures that the Welsh Government is taking to provide further employment opportunities in areas like the northern Valleys, and I ask that planning policy keeps up with these changes.