23/06/23

More than 32,000 jobs and 26,400 new homes could be delivered in Cardiff by 2036, as Cardiff Council has agreed its ‘Preferred Strategy' for the Replacement Local Development Plan (RDLP).

The Council's Cabinet has approved a report on the RDLP at its meeting on Thursday, June 22. In it, Cabinet was recommended to consult on a "Preferred Strategy" which proposed a 1% annual growth rate for housing each year up until 2036. The report will now go to Full Council on June 29 for consideration.

The report and associated documents make clear that all of the 26,400 homes required in the RDLP can be delivered through existing planning permissions, or on land which is already identified for new development in the current Local Development Plan.

This means no new land will have to be found as part of the RDLP's proposed 1% growth strategy for the city to 2036.

The RDLP could also see 6,000 affordable homes built across the city over the lifetime of the plan.

Cllr Dan De'Ath, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport said: "When deciding the growth rate for the new Replacement Development Plan, three options were put forward for discussion. A growth rate of 0.6%, 1% and 1.6% for each year of the plan. Robust analysis of the data and available evidence points towards 1% growth for each year being the most realistic projection. This could deliver 32,300 much needed new jobs and 26,400 new homes over the lifetime of the plan.

"The ‘Preferred Strategy' proposes that all the existing homes which already have planning permission or are identified in the current Adopted LDP will be built by 2036, as well making allowances for other sites to come forward within the city, known as "Windfall Sites". Now that the report has been agreed, this means that the RDLP will not need to identify any additional land for new homes. In total this 1% level of growth could deliver 6,000 new affordable homes across the city, and possibly more.

"The Preferred Strategy doesn't purely focus on housing growth, but social, economic, cultural and environmental factors to ensure we use the RDLP to control new development and develop sustainable neighbourhoods which will further enhance Cardiff as a sustainable city and help combat the ongoing threat from climate change.

"Now that theCabinet has approved the Preferred Strategy to go out to consultation, we will ensure that we engage with as many people and groups as possible this summer, with the intention of having anew Local DevelopmentPlan fully adopted by November 2025. Following the consultation on the Preferred Strategy, the feedback will be analysed and fed into the next stage of the process which is the production of the ‘Deposit Plan'. It will then go through an additional stage of formal consultation in the summer of 2024, before it is submitted to Welsh Government for examination in May 2025."

Now that Cabinet has approved the recommendation, the council will be running a 10-week consultation over the summer, four weeks longer than the legally-binding minimum required by Welsh Government guidance. This consultation will include a wide range of engagement events including face to face drop-in sessions across the city and a range of stakeholder workshops to ensure we can gather as many views as possible.

A Local Development Plan is a strategic land use document setting out detailed policies to control development, identifying areas for protection and promoting a range of "greenfield' and ‘brownfield' sites to ensure that the growth of the city can be managed in a sustainable way.

The ‘Preferred Strategy' sets out the key policies to deliver the aims and vision of the plan on a range of factors from new jobs and new homes, to sustainable neighbourhoods and transport and how the city will protect the environment while reducing our carbon impact.