4. Will the Minister make a statement on whether the Welsh Government's rural housing policies are fit for purpose? OAQ53844

The Welsh Government continues to make funding available across all parts of Wales to support our housing objectives. In addition, we recognise that there are some different challenges in rural areas, which is why we have continued our long-standing commitment to funding rural housing enablers.

I'm grateful to the Minister for that response. Now, the Minister will be aware of concerns in Pembrokeshire regarding the Welsh Government planning policy around One Planet developments, as she's received correspondence from me and, indeed, constituents on this particular matter. Some of my constituents, and indeed Pembrokeshire County Council, have expressed concerns on a number of fronts, but they predominantly relate to the monitoring of the business plans and the pressure this is putting on local planning authorities to ensure that buildings are actually developed in an appropriate way. Would the Minister agree with me that, in light of the immense burden on local planning authorities, and indeed concerns from my constituents, it is time to review the One Planet development policy?  

Well, as he I'm sure knows, the One Planet development guidance is set out in 'Technical Advice Note (Wales) 6: Planning for Sustainable Rural Communities' and the One Planet development practice guide—that's surprisingly difficult to say: One Planet development practice guide. The planning applications are determined in accordance with the approved adopted development plan for the area, unless material considerations indicate otherwise, and obviously the planning system itself isn't designed to stop people making planning applications; it's designed to deal with them once they've been made. 'Planning Policy Wales' encourages local planning authorities and applicants to discuss proposals through the pre-application discussion prior to the formal submission of the planning application, and, as he knows, as I think he set out in his question, there are strict planning criteria applying to OPDs, and planning applicants must provide robust evidence in the form of that management plan, including the business and improvement plan, the ecological footprint analysis, carbon analysis, biodiversity and landscape assessment, community impact assessment and transport and travel assessments.

What I would say is that, if Pembrokeshire is having a spike of these or is struggling with particular expertise, then I'm more than happy to work with Pembrokeshire to ensure they have the expertise to be able to deal with it, and I'll happily make contact with the chief executive there to ensure that they feel that they do have the right skill set to be able to manage that. I understand the Member's concern here, but, of course, we do want to encourage passive, eco-friendly houses and innovative development across Wales, but I take the point he's making, and I'm more than happy to contact the local authority to ensure they have the skill set that they need.FootnoteLink

Information further to Plenary

A shortage of affordable housing is a particular problem in rural areas, but where there are affordable homes built—and I can show you examples in my own region in north Wales—even those, although they are built with the best of intentions, remain vacant for a number of reasons, including, of course, the need for a deposit, which is too great for local people to afford very often. So, as one practical solution in providing assistance to rural communities in this context, may I ask the Minister whether she'd be willing to consider creating a particular capital fund for rural areas in order to assist local people, particularly young people, to afford to buy or rent homes in those rural areas?

Yes, it's certainly an interesting point. I've just received—in fact, I was holding it in my hand—the Help to Buy Wales evaluation report, and one of the things we are looking at is what we will replace that scheme with or whether we renew it and what we do with the renewals. One of the things I'm very interested in doing is seeing what we can do to bring empty properties back into use and to encourage development outside of the conurbation areas to support the needs of local people. We're also working very hard with the registered social landlord providers and councils, depending on which is the housing authority in your area, to make sure that they're bringing forward the social housing plans necessary to enable local people to stay in their local communities. I'm very keen to work with local authorities and RSLs in this regard. We are particularly looking to have development suitable for local people to stay in the communities they want to live and work in and make sure that we build those communities as sustainable communities inside the community envelope.

So, I'm very happy to say that I'm happy to look at anything in that regard. I have the report, and you can see I was just starting to read through the meat of the report to see what's being recommended there. I've had meetings already with several local authorities in north Wales around the need to get social housing and affordable housing in its wider sense into those committees as well. So, I'm very happy to look at it, and I'd be happy to have the Member involved in that as we take it forward.