Savills : Trio of consultations mark regime change to development in Wales

These proposals could have far-reaching consequences that should not be overlooked by those involved in the development industry.

Delivery of housing through the planning system

Perhaps the most significant of the proposals is to remove the requirement for local planning authorities to demonstrate a five year housing land supply in national policy and to delete the associated Technical Advice Note (TAN) 1 'Joint Housing Land Availability Studies'(JHLAS) which sets out guidance on what is, at the moment, a key planning policy requirement of the WG.

The consultation details plans to replace the monitoring of housing land supply (i.e. five year housing land supply requirement) by the monitoring of housing delivery based on the Local Development Plan (LDP) housing trajectory. This would be reported through the Annual Monitoring Reports (AMR) that local planning authorities are obliged to produce each year.

To give effect to the proposal, changes are proposed to the 'Housing Delivery' section of Planning Policy Wales 10 (PPW10), with the five year housing land supply policy being replaced by an explicit statement that the LDP housing trajectory will be the basis for monitoring the delivery of LDP housing requirements as part of AMRs until it is revised as part of an LDP review.

WG considers that this approach would ensure that housing delivery is an integral part of the process of LDP monitoring and review.

The proposed changes are born from a perception that developers are exploiting the system by suppressing supply figures through the JHLAS process and thereby obtaining planning permission for sites which are not compliant with LDPs. However, this process is administered through WG Inspectors who are, in our experience, more optimistic than pessimistic when assessing supply.

We know that there are structural problems with housing allocations within some of the first LDPs to be adopted, and, along with those local planning authorities which have been slow to produce LDPs, we have seen increased activity through applications. Some authorities are taking a pragmatic approach to improving the supply of housing, others are not. Nevertheless, there is no published evidence that the appeal system is giving rise to permissions for inappropriate development because of a lack of five year housing land supply overriding sustainable development principles in the planning balance.

The vast majority of local planning authorities in Wales cannot evidence a five year supply of housing. In many cases, the only way to address short and medium term undersupply is through authorities or Inspectors taking a balanced decision to approve suitable schemes that might not otherwise comply with the development plan.

The proposed replacement system would rely on a notoriously cumbersome mechanism to respond to a pressing problem when under-provision is identified. Furthermore, the proposed changes offer no comfort that an underperforming planning authority will be required to address failures. At the very least, the changes would result in a shift from a prospective assessment of supply to a retrospective assessment of delivery. Ultimately, the changes proposed are more likely to harm the supply of new housing than improve it.

Development, flooding and coastal erosion

WG is consulting on a replacement of TAN 15 'Development, Flooding and Coastal Erosion' and its supporting Development Advice Map. Coastal erosion will also be integrated, allowing TAN 14 'Coastal planning' to be cancelled.

References are made to the Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) approval regime following its introduction in January, whilst 'water compatible developments', a term used to describe those uses that inherently require a waterside location, are introduced. The idea of 'placemaking' is also included in the justification test reflecting an agenda that materialised through the publication of PPW10 in December last year.

The complete overhaul of the flood zones, with the current lettered 'zones' being replaced a new three tiered zone numbering system, represents a further change to TAN 15. A risk-based approach is taken with three zones based on their likelihood of flooding - Zone 1 (very low risk), Zone 2 (low risk) and Zone 3 (medium and high risk) - replacing the current five. Linked to this, changes are proposed to the justification tests required to be undertaken within each zone.

Ultimately, until the new Wales Flood Map is prepared by Natural Resources Wales to replace the Development Advice Map, the implications of zoning is unlikely to be fully understood.

Compulsory Purchase Orders

A number of major reforms have been made to the compulsory purchase regime in Wales since the existing WG guidance on compulsory purchase was published in 2004.

The WG has openly declared a commitment to improve the compulsory purchase regime - by making it 'fairer, more efficient and intelligible'. Now it is consulting on changes to deliver a new planning circular, updated guidance and revised text within PPW10.

The proposals aim to strengthen support for the use of compulsory purchase powers by LPAs in an effort to help facilitate the redevelopment of land and buildings where it is in the 'public interest'.

The consultation on delivering housing ends on 20 November 2019 while the consultations on TAN 15 and compulsory purchase end on 17 January 2020. At the same time, WG consultation on the draft National Development Framework runs until 1 November 2019.