9. What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had with the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services regarding the impact of the planning system on house building in South Wales West? OAQ52695

I have frequent discussions with my Cabinet colleagues regarding how the planning system can support Government priorities, including the delivery of housing. The planning system plays an important role supporting the delivery of new, affordable and market homes to meet the housing requirements of communities across Wales.

Thank you for that answer. The requirements of the communities in Wales, I think, is a critical part of your answer. You wrote to Bridgend County Borough Council making it clear that, in your view, they should be looking to look at their local development plan in conjunction with that of Rhondda Cynon Taf and Caerphilly. Bridgend has already planned its housing building stock for the next five years, it's already in train, whereas RCT and Caerphilly are nowhere near reaching the targets that they have. Now, I think collaborative working is one thing, but this instruction is going to skew the planning system to divert the building of thousands of houses that are needed in RCT and Caerphilly, potentially into the BCBC area where they're not needed. So, as well as the social effects of that, is it right that the council tax payers in Bridgend will also then have to not just go through the disturbance of building, but support the infrastructure that's going to be needed for those houses? In particular, GP surgeries are already stuffed to the gills. 

Thank you. Well, provisions in the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 do enable local planning authorities to bring forward strategic development plans, and I know there are several local authorities looking at that—you've just mentioned a few of them—and it could be an important mechanism at a regional level, but if they don't want to do that, then, certainly, they can just continue with their local development plans. 

That's great, thank you.

Something that animates quite a lot of local people is the fact that there's no mandate within the planning system for facilities for many of those new estates. So, sometimes you have housing estates that are well-kept and they have provision in that regard, but they don't have parks, they don't have any surgeries, they don't have those things that would create a community. The system, therefore, alienates a lot of people who may not mind having those new houses in their local community, but would welcome some investment in the infrastructure around that. So, what more can you do as a Government to look at how we can build in these facilities to the local planning systems, so that we can be assured that when we're creating homes we're creating communities as well?

I think the Member raises a very important point. I was talking to the chief planning officer this morning, for instance, around health boards giving evidence when there are new planning developments. They're not mandatory consultees at the moment, and I'm wondering whether they should be because, clearly, primary care provision is very important. So, it's something we're looking at, and, obviously, I'll be very happy to update Members.