The 60-day period comes to an end tomorrow. This debate is the second we will have had on the draft NDF, following a Welsh Government debate very early in the 60-day period. The purpose of today’s debate is to give the Senedd and Members a final opportunity to consider the draft NDF. This is not a debate on the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee's report, although I hope it will be informed by our recommendations. As Chair of the Committee, I will not be addressing the amendments tabled by Members. It is more appropriate for the Minister to do so.

The committee published our report on Monday. In it, we made 26 recommendations across several policy areas. Before I go any further, I would like to thank everyone who gave their time to contribute to the committee’s work, either through written submissions or appearing before us virtually. I would also like to thank the committee’s expert adviser, Graeme Purves, for his assistance during the scrutiny process.

'Future Wales' is an important document; it sets out a 20-year framework for planning and development in Wales. If done right, it has the potential to articulate a bold, long-term vision for this country. As a committee, we are generally content with 'Future Wales'. All members of the committee can point to elements that they would wish to strengthen, or even remove, but overall, we were content. However, one Member of the committee expressed opposition to some policies in 'Future Wales' and, as a consequence, to aspects of the committee's conclusions and recommendations. I'm sure the Member will explain his reasons in full shortly.   

The overarching challenge the Welsh Government faces is to ensure that this 40-year planning framework is resilient enough to be able to respond to the three biggest challenges we currently face: COVID and any future viruses, Brexit, and the effects of climate change. The Minister has assured the committee that 'Future Wales' is sufficiently flexible and resilient to respond to societal changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But we believe it is too early to judge the medium and long-term impacts of decisions that are being made in light of the pandemic. For example, Welsh Ministers have talked about up to 30 per cent of Welsh workers working from home. This has the potential to fundamentally change the way areas such as town and city centres operate. And this will affect infrastructure, housing and connectivity, and very much those businesses that are based on providing services to those working in offices within city centres. 'Future Wales' needs to be able to reflect all of these changes. We've recommended that 'Future Wales' should include a clear statement to reflect the lessons learned from COVID-19 and explain how it will support post-COVID-19 recovery.  

One of our key concerns was around strategic development plans. 'Future Wales' will be the highest level of strategic plan, providing a national planning framework. Strategic development plans will fit between the national development plan and the local development plan. In terms of a hierarchy of strategic planning documents, this makes sense. But the approach is hamstrung by the absence of the middle tier of strategic development plans. Frankly, local authorities haven't shown much of an interest in developing these plans as yet. But for the Welsh Government's approach to work, they need to come on-stream as soon as possible. 

There is an added complication. Local authorities will need to come together to develop these plans under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill, which was passed by this Senedd last week. The Bill provides for corporate joint committees to be established, which will consist of representatives of more than one local authority to develop SDPs. Of course, more co-operation between local authorities is a good thing in principle, but what we don’t want is an unintended reduction in accountability to local communities. One criticism we heard about 'Future Wales' was that, in places, it seems to extend into territory you would expect to be covered by strategic development plans. We hope this will be rebalanced over time, as SDPs come forward.

I will now turn briefly to some of the other key areas we have covered in our report. Energy: we have made several detailed recommendations in our report, but the main point I want to make is a strategic one. We believe that the shortcomings of the grid are impeding strategic development in Wales. We know that if you want to build a windfarm or you want to put in a solar farm, then you need to do it where there used to be a power station, so that you get access to the grid. That causes huge problems in lots of areas.

The Minister has said that 'Future Wales' will provide a basis for further discussions with National Grid and distribution companies. These discussions must happen as a matter of urgency, otherwise 'Future Wales' is hamstrung from the start when it comes to energy. There needs to be a strategy to improve electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure, including any new infrastructure required in mid Wales. We have recommended that the Welsh Government should work with National Grid, electricity distribution companies and the renewable energy industry to take this forward with urgency.

On housing, we were generally content with the policies set out in 'Future Wales', but we want to place on record our disappointment that amendments to Part L of building regulations have been delayed yet again. These amendments are necessary, but continuing to delay the inevitable changes is a cause of concern. We have recommended that the Welsh Government should progress the development of an amended Part L of building regulations so that the next Welsh Government, whoever it is, can introduce subordinate legislation as soon as possible following the 2021 election.

'Future Wales' talks a lot about connectivity. In our report published in November 2019, we said that 'Future Wales' needed to address the poor connectivity between north and south Wales. Despite being accepted by the Welsh Government, it doesn't go far enough. We also have concerns about connectivity to west Wales, which quite often gets forgotten, except by those who have to travel from Pembrokeshire towards the south-east of Wales. We believe that transport connectivity is an ongoing strategic problem across parts of Wales. 'Future Wales' places too much of the onus for promoting improved inter-regional linkages on the regions themselves. This must be addressed by the new national transport strategy that the Welsh Government is currently consulting on.

Finally, we made several detailed recommendations about biodiversity and green infrastructure, the national forest and the national parks. On the subject of green belts, contributors told us that local authorities should have more discretion than is set out in 'Future Wales' when it comes to determining the location and extent of green belts in their regions. As a committee, I’m afraid we could not agree. We believe that green belts are an essential tool in constraining urban sprawl. We have recommended that their function should be strengthened, and their benefits should be emphasised in 'Future Wales'.

In conclusion, I would like to end by thanking the Minister for the constructive way that she and her officials have engaged with the committee and the helpful way that the many documents related to 'Future Wales' have been presented and explained. When the committee published its report on 'Future Wales' in November 2019, we set out 50 conclusions with the aim of improving the NDF. Most of our recommendations were accepted. In this report, we have made a further 26 recommendations. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response. Thank you.