9. Short Debate: Regenerating town and city centres in Wales: More of the same will simply not work

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:03 pm on 16 February 2022.

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Photo of Janet Finch-Saunders Janet Finch-Saunders Conservative 6:03, 16 February 2022

I'd like to thank Laura Anne Jones for her excellent contribution, and I don't think that we do talk about this enough. She recognised the value of our high streets, and how the initiatives—. We could look at business rates, car parking charges, new initiatives. It's a fact that—. Oh, I must declare an interest as a commercial properties owner. I beg your pardon, Llywydd. I had it written down here that I must declare an interest, and I went off on one.

So, the high street is changing, but we must embrace those changes. Now, I'm very pleased to represent the beautiful constituency of Aberconwy, where we have fabulous high streets. But, we have a problem, Deputy Minister, and that is the length of time that it takes for change of occupier, in terms of shop units. I have many letting agents who come to me, I have many tenants wanting to move into premises, and I have many landlords. If you want to change from class A1 to class A3—if you want to change a particular business—and you require planning permission, it can take up to nine or even 12 months to get that planning permission. So, my simple plea to you is: can you do something in our overstretched planning departments to ensure that they have the capacity to turn around planning applications very quickly, so that those properties are not lying empty in the high street, making our high streets look, as you rightly pointed out, Peter, more like ghost towns? It's crucial that we have a really speedy and fast-tracking planning process. Diolch, Llywydd.