Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Congratulations on your re-election, Minister, and also on the appointment.

2. Will the Minister set out the Welsh Government’s approach to planning policy in Wales? OQ56589

Thank you very much for those congratulations, and congratulations to you too. The Welsh Government’s approach to planning policy is set out in 'Planning Policy Wales' and in 'Future Wales: the national plan 2040'. Both of those documents seek to promote the sustainable development of places throughout Wales.

Thank you. Minister, for too many decades, our planning system was based on the notion of building as many homes as possible for people to merely occupy, but without considering what people would need to fully live. 'Planning Policy Wales 10' aims to ensure that planning decisions improve the lives of current and future generations, while the concept of placemaking adds social, economic, environmental and cultural value to developments. The future generations commissioner, in her 'Manifesto for the Future' published ahead of the Senedd elections, called for developments of community services to mirror the placemaking approach in the delivery of community-based services. To what extent are public services being challenged by you as to the location of key services, such as the NHS, where more can be done to improve the well-being of people who can access services more easily near where they live? Thank you, Minister.

Yes, thank you very much. So, it's a development of what I was saying in answer to the previous question. So, national planning policy, as I've already said, places a strong emphasis on placemaking and the steps we need to take to create places that meet everyone's well-being. The national planning policy also ensures that we think about how our places make us both healthier and improve our well-being. I'm very confident that planning policy will help us create the places that COVID has highlighted we need and that provide good-quality housing for all, support local services, shops, jobs and facilities, and reduce the need to travel.

But, of course, we also have a climate emergency, so this comes together very much with the learning that we've had during the pandemic about the importance of place. We need to encourage people to find new ways of working, including some home working or remote hub working, to provide opportunities for active travel in your daily life, to create healthy, accessible green spaces, and they are all supported by both strong local and regional planning that gives the tools and the power to local places to help shape their own future. So, the whole essence of this is very much to put communities at the heart of what they would like their community to look like, and, as I said, to build the right houses in the right places, to build the right infrastructure in the right places, and to make sure that our communities can access the services and support that they need within a reasonable distance of their place of—you know, where they live, so that their community feels like a well-being-of-future-generations community should. Through the suite of documents we've put in place, we are confident that we can achieve the Wales that we would all like to see.

I was very pleased to see the Minister continue with the responsibility for planning in her new, very important portfolio now, and along with the Deputy Minister; I was pleased to see the establishment of that important ministry.

Minister, for a variety of reasons, it's taking councils longer than they'd hoped to finalise an LDP. This often leaves communities and residents without the planning protections they would want. It is planning by appeal to the inspectorate, with less local influence than if an LDP were agreed. Now, this has left communities like Penyffordd frustrated, and, as you know, I work closely with the Penyffordd Community Council, and they would like to see the voices of residents amplified if an LDP was delayed. Can I ask what consideration has the Welsh Government given to upgrading the status of the place plan to allow its official recognition in the planning process, to allow local communities like Penyffordd official input without relying directly on the inclusion via an LDP?

Thank you, Jack, and I'm really delighted to be in this portfolio. It was good to work closely with you in the last Senedd, and I'm looking forward to doing that again. It's really nice to see people in person, I have to say.

So, yes, we're very—. Obviously, the first thing to say is we're very keen to make sure that each local authority does have an up-to-date LDP, that it goes through the process efficiently and effectively and it makes sure that that has as wide a community consultation as is necessary, and that the communities feel very strongly that they have had their say in how their communities should be shaped in the LDP process. That's the whole purpose of the process. And as you know, we're also putting the strategic regional plans in place so that the LDP can concentrate on those local issues. And we'll know what the regional infrastructure plans already look like and, of course, the national plan, 'Planning Policy Wales', 'Future Wales', has made some of the choices nationally for us after an extensive consultation process that will allow those processes to take place.

But I'm very interested in making sure that, for each local area, the local area has a say in what its place plan might look like—we don't call them that in Wales. So, it's perfectly possible to put a strategic plan in place that covers a particular area, a subset, if you like, of the LDP. At the moment, the LDP is required for that to have force, but I'm more than happy to explore what we can do in the interim periods. It is a very difficult position where the LDP has been delayed, as it has in your area, and then you're right, we have speculative planning developments and we don't have an LDP with which to put them in context. So, I'm very happy to work with you on that, but I'd be much happier to see the local council sort out its LDP as soon as possible, in the light of the new planning policy document, so that we can actually get the process under way.