South East Wales at risk of missing its 5,300 new homes target

South East Wales risks missing its new homes target unless a Strategic Development Plan (SDP) for the region is developed urgently, a new report by planning consultancy Turley and the Home Builders Federation has claimed.

The report, Strategic Development Plans: What Could They Mean for Wales, showsthat eight out of the 10 local authorities in the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) don’t have a planned pipeline of land to meetpredicted five-year housing delivery requirements.

According to the Welsh Government’s own estimates, 4,000 to 5,300 new units are required annually from now until 2023 in the South East Wales region. While all 10 councils have adopted a Local Development Plan, the report says these alone won’t be enough to meet the ambitious £1.2 billion Cardiff City Deal agreed by the UK Government.

Turley and the Home Builders Federation are now calling on councils to prioritise developing an SDP to ensure homes can be delivered in future.

Owen Francis, director, planning at Turley said:

“An effective SDP will help South East Wales realise its ambitions and provide long-term certainty for local communities and industry. The Cardiff City Deal provides a framework for ambitious growth and its aspirations for sustainable development are clear.

“We have seen the regional planning agenda develop in England.  A number of important lessons can be learned to ensure the deliveryof successful SDPs in Wales. Effective collaboration between the development industry and Welsh Government is required to ensure that we realise the opportunities presented by SDPs and the vital delivery of housing, employment and infrastructure is not stymied.”

The report also highlights the Welsh Government’s National Development Framework (NDF), which will set the direction for development in Wales from 2020 to 2040, as a high-level framework that placed significant plan making responsibility on SDPs. However, the report claims that it does not provide either an evidence base or strategy to show how an SDP will be delivered.

Mark Harris, planning and policy advisor Wales at the Home Builders Federation, said:

“As a result of the current Welsh Government consultation on the NDF the importance of and need for a SDP has significantly increased.

“The draft NDF introduces a number of polices which are likely to affect the ability to deliver new homes in Wales, however these polices lack details, instead requiring the detail is provided in an SDP. In order to make future investment decisionshome builders require certainty and in the current plan-led system it is the SDP that can provide this.”

The full report, Strategic Development Plans: What Could They Mean For Wales, can be found here: https://static.turley.co.uk/media/pdf/2019-10/gds0474_-_sdp_wales_final_1.pdf