Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 10 March 2021.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:32, 10 March 2021

I'm very happy to reassure Laura Jones on the LDP position. We have, as she will know, just issued 'Future Wales', the national development framework, and the reissued 'Planning Policy Wales' to go alongside it. That means that, actually, all local authorities need to review their LDP in the light of those documents—those going through the process of setting their LDP, and those who have got an existing LDP in place. I've written out to local authorities to highlight the need to do this, and they need to factor that now into their planning process. Those documents, of course, reference all of the things that she just mentioned. It's very much the centre of our placemaking approach to planning that those things are taken into account.

Of course, the planning process itself, as she has just mentioned, takes you through an examination in public, which is there precisely for the reason that she outlined—in order to enable the public to be able to probe or question or make sure that the evidence is available, to make the plan as robust as it can be. That's the whole point of a plan-led process—to democratise the process, to allow local people to have their say about it, and for others to make sure that the council is indeed doing what it should do, which is to take into account all of the various things that make a place the community that we want it to be. So, the very fact that you know about it, and that people are able to challenge it, shows me that the position is working. Of course, that's the whole purpose of the entire process of the plan, which can be frustrating, of course, because it takes quite a long time to go through, and people get frustrated the other way. But I think it's worth it in the end, because you do get a plan that the local community owns, and we don't get a one-size-fits-all approach everywhere in Wales.

Can I also say, Laura, that it's been a pleasure to work with you, and with Mark as well? I know we have our spats in public, but we've had many opportunities to work constructively as well, behind the scenes, and I'm grateful for it.