Advisory group calls for significant reforms to planning system in Wales

An independent advisory group has made nearly 100 recommendations on how to improve the planning system in Wales, including a call for the introduction of a statutory framework for strategic planning at a level above individual local planning authorities.

The group’s report – which was commissioned by Wales’ Environment Minister, John Griffiths – said this could accommodate a city region approach to spatial planning.

The IAG concluded as well that there was a need for leadership and, where necessary, intervention by government. This would include Welsh Ministers taking decisions on nationally significant devolved infrastructure schemes.

The report – Towards a Welsh Planning Act: ensuring the Planning System Delivers – also called for:

• Preparation of a national framework within which local planning authorities deliver local development plans; and
• The establishment of a planning advisory and improvement body.

Griffiths said: “Whilst the report finds that the system is conceptually sound and not in need of root and branch reform, it sets out 97 recommendations which comprise an ambitious but deliverable programme of change.”

The minister said the Welsh Government would provide information later this month about how it would take the reforms agenda forward.

John Davies, who chaired the advisory group, said: “The report stresses the importance of the planning system as a central delivery mechanism; it is the means by which land can be provided to meet society’s needs in a sustainable manner.

“It is arguably more important today than in 1947, when comprehensive control of development was first introduced in Britain. Our recommendations amount to a significant reform of the 1947 system, preserving its principles of a democratic, plan-led system whilst seeking to improve and adapt it so that it delivers better.”

The Welsh Government has also published two related reports: Public attitudes towards the planning system in Wales; and A new approach to managing development in Wales.