Wales planning news, February 2022

 

The UK Government has published its long-anticipated Levelling Up White Paper. The White Paper is structured around 12 objectives including living standards, transport infrastructure, research and development, housing (with a focus on the rental sector), skills and pride in place.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up has written to the First Minister of Wales and the leaders of the other devolved administrations regarding working collaboratively towards the White Paper’s objectives, including using the new structures created in the Intergovernmental Relations Review announced on 13 January.

The White Paper refers to the Review in the context of regeneration policy and building partnerships: 

A new Islands Forum, to empower island communities to inform future policy, was also announced. Representatives from Island communities from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be invited to join the Forum, with a view to collaborating together to tackle common challenges and engage with the UK Government.

Prior to the publication of the White Paper, the Welsh Government’s Economy Minister raised concerns at the level of post EU funding being received by Wales so far. Vaughan Gething said:

While the Secretary of State has disputed Mr Gething's calculations, there are no new funding announcements for Wales within the White Paper. This is acknowledged by the White Paper itself, which outlines the funding that Wales is already benefiting from.

 

Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) Plc has failed to convince the High Court that its development consent order (DCO) had begun in time and was therefore extant. The company argued that work undertaken in 2016 had commenced the Swansea Bay Tidal Generating Station Order 2015 (the DCO), but the UK Government, Welsh Government and Swansea City Council disputed this.

Consent for the tidal lagoon was granted in June 2015 with a period of five years to start work on the project. The proposal was to build a 9.5km seawall from the seabed adjacent to Swansea Docks to form a lagoon extending around 3km into the Bay between the Rivers Tawe and Neath, in order to harness tidal energy.

The DCO included a definition of the term “commence”:

“Commence" means begin to carry out any material operation (as defined in section 56(4) of the 1990 Act) forming part of the authorised development other than operations consisting of site clearance, demolition work, investigations for the purpose of assessing ground conditions, the diversion and laying of services, the erection of any temporary means of enclosure and the temporary display of site notices or advertisements; and commencement" must be construed accordingly."

One of the main issues in the case was the difference between the words “begin” and “commence”. Tidal Lagoon claimed that demolition and site clearing work had taken place which demonstrates that development had begun within five years of the permission. They claimed that this constituted material operations within section 155 of the Planning Act 2008. Section 155 of the 2008 Act says that development is taken to begin on the earliest date on which any material operation comprised in, or carried out for the purposes of, the development begins to be carried out. His Honour Judge Jarman QC concluded:

He concluded that there was a more acceptable alternative and therefore the DCO was not commenced in time.

As reported in Lichfields November Planning News for Wales, new proposals for a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay have been developed which include a manufacturing plant, battery facility, 5000 waterfront homes, a solar farm and a data centre. The scheme is known as Blue Eden and construction is due to commence in 2023.

 

The Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee has published their priorities for the Sixth Senedd. The Committee has identified three priority areas which are climate change and net zero, protecting and enhancing the natural environment and sustainable communities. Creating sustainable communities will include enhancing planning and transport infrastructure so that policy in these areas can contribute to achieving sustainable communities.

The first priority of climate change outlines how Wales needs to make more progress in reducing carbon emissions with the overall aim of the country achieving net zero by 2050. Within the next six months, the Committee has pledged to begin a multi-phase inquiry into decarbonising Wales’ housing sector, building on the recommendations of the Decarbonisation of Homes in Wales Advisory Group, and the Future Generation Commissioner for Wales and New Economics Foundation’s report, Homes Fit for the Future: The Retrofit Challenge.

To build sustainable communities, the Committee will focus on planning, infrastructure and transport. For transport governance, current delivery structures will be considered and the new five-year National Transport Delivery Plan and Regional Transport Plans, which are intended to be developed by Corporate Joint Committees, will be reviewed. The planning sector will also be examined, with focus on whether there is enough resources and capacity within local planning authorities. The Committee will also continue to work on placemaking in Wales. The Welsh Government’s electric vehicle charging strategy and action plan will also be assessed. The Committee has also targeted a review of the planning framework, including consideration of Future Wales and post-legislative scrutiny of the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 within 3-5 years.

The priority of protecting and enhancing the natural environment will focus on the marine environment, including spatial planning and renewable energy development. The progress of forestry policies will also be assessed including the National Forest and consider progress towards delivery of the Trees and Timber Task Force’s recommendations (July 2021) and the new Woodlands for Wales Action Plan.

Another public consultation on the Senedd priorities will take place halfway through this Senedd term to ensure they continue to be relevant.

 

The Welsh Government has announced that delays are to be expected in starting new appeals and issuing decisions. Operations had been closed down for a period to facilitate the transfer of staff and functions from the Planning Inspectorate to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW). The move, which happened on the 1 October, included the transfer of existing cases to a new casework processing system and the transfer of data.  Cases involving Developments of National Significance (DNS) will transfer to the new service but Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) that includes locations in Wales under the Planning Act 2008 will not be affected by the change and will continue to be decided under the Planning Inspectorate (England). PEDW currently estimates that it will take up to nine weeks from the receipt of a new appeal to its start and appellants should expect a nine week delay compared with published Ministerial targets for determination.

 

The Welsh Government is set to introduce new rental reforms in July this year which the Climate Change Minister Julie James has branded the “biggest change to housing law in Wales for decades”. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 will come into force on 15 July 2022, five years after it was first passed. Some of the main changes being introduced by the Act include:
 

• All landlords will be required to provide a written copy of the new ‘occupation contract’ to the tenant or ‘contract holder’, which sets out the rights and responsibilities of both parties. This will include new succession rights that set out who has a right to continue to live in a dwelling;
   
• ‘No-fault’ notice periods are being increased from two months to six months. It will also not be possible to issue a notice in the first six months of the tenancy, resulting in contract holders having a minimum of 12 months security at the start of the tenancy;
   
• The responsibility of landlords has increased so that the property they rent is fit for human habitation, requiring the installation of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and regular electrical safety testing;
   
• Making it easier for abandoned homes to be repossessed without a court order; and,
   
• The Act addresses the practice of ‘retaliatory eviction’ which is the practice landlords serving notice on a tenant due to complaints made by the tenant about the property or landlord.

 

Minister for Climate Change, Julie James, said, ‘The Act will make it simpler and easier to rent a home in Wales, replacing various, complex pieces of existing legislation and case law with one clear legal framework’.