I suspect Welsh Planners attending the Wales Planning Conference were still taking in the content of early Keynote speech by Julie James, Planning Minister in Wales ( or rather the Minister for Housing and Local Government to give the official title) recently when a man from the Wales Audit Office set about presenting its report on the Effectiveness of Local Planning Authorities in Wales. The Headline points emerging:

• Reduced resources across Welsh Local Planning Authorities. (budgets reduced by 50% since 2008/9.

• Planning Services struggling to deliver an increasingly complex system. Poor communication.

• Increased planning application processing times.

• Lack of resilience in services.

• The 2016 pre-application front-loading process isn’t delivering hoped-for outcomes.

• Recommendation that Planning fees better reflect the cost of delivering the service.

As they struggle to cope with that, Welsh Government issued for consultation, its updated Draft Development Plans Manual (Edition 3) reflecting changing legislation and PPW10. Particular matters include guidance on viability (assumption of viability at the point of site allocation in an adopted plan), the front-loading of LDP work and evidence base, high level viability testing at Candidate site stage and detailed testing of strategic sites plus a duty on developers and landowners to engage fully and meaningfully in the process of promoting sites in the Plan. The way WG sees public involvement in the preparation of Development Plans and how that subsequently feeds into the development management process (such that communities should not get any surprises when a planning application comes forward), suggest to me an awful lot of work on communication by both WG and Councils still needs to be done.

Flood risk never far from our minds . Hot off the press is a consultation on the draft National Strategy for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management setting out WG objectives for that. It was expected that a new draft TAN 15 (development and flood risk) would emerge alongside for consultation given the obvious links. It hasn’t yet, but my spies indicate this will emerge before the summer recess in Cardiff.

HBF Wales and others have drawn attention a long awaited appeal decision issued for up to 189 houses made by the Minister in Wrexham. The key issues concerned housing land supply (nil given its expired UDP) , Green Barrier location (and intended re-designation as such in emerging LDP), housing need, uncertainty despite emerging LDP and totality of other other matters (including national place-making outcomes and contribution to sustainable development). These amounted to Very Exceptional Circumstances to set aside the PPW presumption against inappropriate development in the Green Barrier. The case is all the more interesting because the dis-application of para 6.2 of TAN 1 was highly material and the Minister sought to hear further evidence on the issue.

The Minister accepted the Inspectors report and as decision maker allowed the appeal. It is helpful not least in that it provides clarity, as I have been advising clients since last July, that the Minister’s letter of 18 July 2018 does not say that no weight should be given to the need to increase housing supply. The decision confirms that a decision maker has the discretion on the evidence and facts of any particular case, (in spite of the dis-application of para 6.2) when engaging the presumption in favour of sustainable development to conclude that the need to provide or increase housing land supply remains a significant material consideration.