Strengthening the Planning Process

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 3:04 pm on 20 February 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 3:04, 20 February 2019

Thank you, Deputy Minister. And you've anticipated my question by mentioning the LDP process. I recently held a supermarket surgery in Morrisons in Abergavenny—always a popular model. I can see Lynne Neagle agrees and holds them as well. [Laughter.] One issue that keeps coming up in my surgeries at the moment is planning and, in particular, the number of planning applications that are coming forward outside of local authorities' local development plans. What guidance are you giving or has the Minister given to local authorities when it comes to dealing with these applications? I get the sense that my constituents accept that there must be more housing and there must be more building but they are concerned about the robustness of the process and, if you're going to have a local development plan process, would you agree with me that it's better that applications go through that process rather than being seen to be rushed and possibly inappropriate in the longer term?