House Building in South Wales West

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 3 October 2018.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 2:10, 3 October 2018

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.