Welsh Conservative Shadow Rural Affairs Minister Andrew RT Davies has warned changes to planning policy are required in rural areas to prevent the concreting over of green spaces.
Mr Davies said there should be a move away from granting permissions for large scale developments in rural areas, which result in a sudden change in an area’s character.
Instead, he said the focus should move towards single dwellings and repurposing redundant buildings.
Speaking at the Senedd’s Rural Affairs Committee, Mr Davies pointed to the difference between the system in Wales and England.
Mr Davies said the UK Government had changed the planning system in England to have a presumption on permitted development rights for redundant buildings to be converted into housing or office space.
He called on Plaid Cymru ministers to implement the policy change in Wales to help the rural economy.
Mr Davies said:
“To protect the character of our rural communities, we must prioritise putting disused buildings back into use over creating new large-scale developments.
“Policy changes to make it easier to repurpose redundant buildings were implemented in England some time ago, but the change has still not happened in Wales.
“Plaid Cymru must introduce it here too.”
ENDS
NOTE: Please find below the Record of Proceedings from the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee from Wednesday 23rd September
https://record.senedd.wales/Committee/16233#C771790
Andrew R.T. Davies
10:52:07
You said you’re meeting the planning Minister next week. In the UK, the UK Government some years ago changed the planning system in England to have a presumption on permitted development rights for redundant buildings to be converted into housing, or office space, as such, to create economic activity and to meet some of that pent-up housing demand in rural areas. Are you supportive of such a change here in Wales? I appreciate it’s not your portfolio—
Llyr Gruffydd
10:52:33
No, it’s not—
Andrew R.T. Davies
10:52:34
—but your voice in lobbying the planning Minister to make that change would be a considerable voice, and it’s a good way of introducing new capital into the rural economy.
Llyr Gruffydd
10:52:45
I said next week, but it could well be the week after. It is soon. [Interruption.] It is next week. Thank you. There we are. Okay, right. I didn’t wish to mislead the committee so early in my tenure. But those are the kinds of things that we need to look at, because where there is learning that we can take from other parts of the UK and beyond, we need to. And also, we don’t want to be left behind. If there are opportunities that we can grasp, then we should do.
Now, I’m not going to say definitively that this is absolutely what I’m pushing for, but we are starting that discussion about how we can look at this anew, afresh, in light of much of what we’ve discussed already today in terms of some of the challenges that we face around climate and nature, but also some of the economic challenges that we face. Because we have to have living, breathing communities, which are as much a part of the ecosystem in which we exist as nature is as well. So, it’s about, again, striking that balance, but there’s no harm at all in taking a step back and looking at it to see whether there is more that we can do, and I’m keen for us to do that.
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