Amendment 2—Siân Gwenllian

Add as new points at end of motion:

Notes that Dr Neil Harris of Cardiff University, in evidence to the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, summarised the approach underpinning Future Wales: the national plan 2040 as one which is based on urban-focused growth and stability elsewhere.

Believes that the approach underpinning Future Wales: the national plan 2040:

a) threatens to entrench the failure to distribute wealth, growth and development equally across Wales as a permanent feature of Wales’s governance in this long-term plan; and

b) will lead to overdevelopment in the areas already prioritised as preferred locations for substantial residential and other development, whilst doing little to address the need for sustainable development in other areas including the need for social and affordable housing to meet the housing crisis.

Believes that the planning system in Wales must reflect the need for suitable development in the right places according to local need; give communities a greater say in developments in their areas and that the planning system must permit holistic planning at the appropriate level, but believes that the transfer of power and accountability over planning from local authorities to corporate joint committees through strategic development plans is likely to further limit the local voice in planning.

Calls on the Welsh Government to replace the approach which currently underpins Future Wales: the national plan 2040 with an alternative approach focused on distributing wealth, power and investment equitably across the whole of Wales by targeting intervention and growth to the areas in most need.