To illustrate how engagement has improved the plan, I will highlight some of the main proposed changes. The rules dictate that the version laid with the Senedd is the published draft but, in reality, the changes proposed as a consequence of the consultation responses and the committee's recommendations are more important at this stage. To show how these changes will be integrated, we have published an updated working version of the plan. This has no formal status, but it does clearly show how the plan is evolving. The working version is more obviously a spatial plan than the draft. It contains more maps, more data and more graphics. It tries to convey just how varied and unique places in Wales are. This is a plan that encourages and enables creative planning, not a series of clone towns and unremarkable suburbs. 

In an ideal world, the national plan should have been the first plan written. This would have allowed local development plans to focus on creative placemaking at the local scale. Instead, LDPs have for 10 years had to carry the burden of providing all development plan policies. There will be significant benefits to LDPs from having a national plan in place: no more policies duplicated across all authorities, and the time and space to focus on proactively identifying development sites and regeneration opportunities. 

The middle tier of the development plan will be the strategic development plans. This national plan offers a clear steer on the spatial priorities for each region. Taken together with the regional economic frameworks and city deals, each region will have a full suite of strategies to help them confidently plan their region. 

A major proposed change is to switch from three regions to a four-region footprint. This involves separating mid Wales and the south-west. The feedback from within this Chamber and from stakeholders in mid Wales, in particular, was that they wanted to be recognised as a region in their own right. This brings expectations that the strategic development plan will now be prepared jointly by Ceredigion and Powys councils on the planning matters that transcend the area. 

The criticism of the regional footprint was linked to a concern that the overall strategy focused too heavily on urban areas, with not enough for rural areas. This has presented us with a challenge, because a national plan must be strategic and leave detailed matters to regional and local plans, but it must also speak to the whole of Wales. Therefore, we have developed further policies for the rural economy, as well as new spatial policies for mid Wales. We must recognise, however, that the degree and scale of change over 20 years will inevitably be different in rural areas compared to urban places. We want to support and encourage rural economies and we want good public services and a range of amenities, but we don't want development at any cost. I hope that people will recognise the balance this plan is trying to achieve.

To ensure growth is sustainable, we have added new policies on transport. The link between land-use planning and transport planning is a crucial one, and too often in the past the thought process focused on how to enable cars to get around easily and quickly. We need to promote places that are walkable, and we need to connect places by active travel in an integrated way. The transport policies are really important in helping us deliver the urban growth that the spatial strategy promotes in a sustainable way. 

The final change I want to address in detail is the policy on renewable energy. Clean green energy is vital to our sustainability as a country, as communities and as individual households. We have the raw ingredients in our landscape and climate to lead the way, and this plan reflects that ambition. The spatial policy for renewable energy has been amended. Some areas have been changed, and two have been removed altogether, but, crucially, I think we are communicating our intentions better in the revised policy. This is, again, a product of extensive engagement, and I'm confident that the revised plan will really help to energise the renewable sector here in Wales.

No debate or discussion this year is complete without, unfortunately, mentioning COVID-19. To a large degree, the make-up of where we live determined how we felt during lockdown. If you had good access to green open spaces, if there were shops nearby and if you lived in a place with community spirit, the lockdown was less stressful than it could have been. This is where this plan can help us—to make places that are resilient and better prepared for sudden health crises, and to be more enjoyable places to live during normal times.

In my foreword to the draft plan, I wrote:

'The challenge for a plan like the NDF is not necessarily to predict how Wales might change over the next 20 years, but to make sure we can build a society and an economy that is flexible and resilient, to enable all of us to benefit from the changes in a sustainable way.'

The scale of change that has come about almost overnight is remarkable, but I do truly believe this plan is fundamentally equipped to help the recovery from COVID-19. I am confident it can help with the recovery because the plan has enabling a healthy and active society as an engrained priority throughout. It strongly promotes building new places around active travel infrastructure. It has the ambition and policies to deliver world-class digital infrastructure everywhere in Wales. It contains policies that, even before COVID emerged, sought to diversify and revitalise town centres and local high streets. It says new public services like schools, colleges and hospitals should be accessible in town centres, not out of town, where you need a car to reach them. It emphasises the importance of maintaining and developing natural ecosystems.

The main strength of this plan and the changes we're proposing to it are the big priorities of this Government, and the key changes facing us all are built into the strategy and the policies. Issues like health, decarbonisation, climate change, the Welsh language, and a fair, prosperous society are woven through all parts of the document. 'Future Wales' is an important plan, and it is ambitious about the change we can achieve in Wales. The changes we have laid through the Senedd will strengthen it. I hope this debate can highlight the importance of the plan and build support for it across all parts of the Chamber. Diolch, Llywydd.