Planning Applications for Housing Developments

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 29 November 2017.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 2:08, 29 November 2017

Thank you. Well, commenting in June in our mutual local paper, after the First Minister had approved a planning application in Llay on the basis of a recommendation by an independent inspector, you said that controversial issues such as this will continue until a council adopts a local development plan. I recently, at the request of residents, attended a public inquiry in Penyffordd, Flintshire. I know you can't comment on that, but the concern was expressed to me that, because their local development plan had not been concluded, quote, developers were taking advantage of the situation by citing five years' supply and loopholes in TAN 1 to get the planning through.

In October the leader of Conwy County Borough Council wrote to you saying that the calculation methodology of five-year land supply within TAN 1, revised by the Welsh Government in January 2015, is undermining local development plans across Wales. And in your response, which was actually quite helpful, you said that the lack of a five-year housing land supply may be one of the considerations—one of the considerations—determining a planning application; however, applications that do not meet the relevant policy requirements may be refused by the authority and planning inspector. Could you expand on that? How should a local authority, an applicant, and particularly a planning inspector, interpret that statement in this context?