Agenda item

To receive a report on the opportunities and constraints present in current planning policy in relation to incorporation of carbon reduction methods.

(a)      That Members note the content of this report and the planning framework available to facilitate renewable energy development and carbon reduction via the planning system.

(b)      That a letter be sent to the Minister for Climate Change to outline the committee’s frustrations  in terms of Planning legislation around how far this could be pushed as far as solar panels and minimum standard of energy security. 

            Adrian Walters, Team Leader, Planning Policy, introduced the report which set out the national and local policy context and identified the relevant policies within the Local Development Plan (LDP) in terms of sustainable development and Climate Change considerations.

            In terms of Passivhaus he reported that there was no legislation or national planning guidance which required new housing to be of Passivhaus design. He provided information on how these properties were built and the high costs involved in comparison to traditional housing building and felt that developers would be reluctant to take this on as it was a relatively new concept. This could also influence buyers because of the higher purchase price and lack of understanding of what was involved in building these homes which was why these tended to be single developments. He commented on examples of public bodies or councils who had made available land for house building which was sold at a reduced or token rate to a housing association and had resulted in opportunities for Passivhaus type developments. At present these were very rare in terms of volume.

            Referring to solar panels it was explained that there was no requirement under legislation or national guidance for solar panels to be incorporated within new housing developments. This was included within the Building Regulations under Part L with Planning previously having an input on renewable energy as part of housing development, code for sustainable homes, and information on this was included in the report. This slowed down the planning system so Welsh Government (WG) moved this into Building Regulations where it felt it sat more comfortably. The LDP had looked at renewable energy by undertaking a Renewable Energy Assessment following guidance from WG using the Renewable Energy Toolkit. This had identified scope across the county for solar farms and thirteen areas had been identified together with proposals for energy from waste developments. The Plan had a criteria-based policy which would allow it to assess any renewable energy type proposal which came before Council.

            Referring to Electric Vehicle Charging (EV) points he said that WG required as part of commercial developments that 10% of car park spaces were reserved for EV charging. There were no requirement for housing developments and this was reflected in the LDP. Referring to the electricity grid capacity and connection points he said there would be issues if every house on a housing development at scale had vehicle charging points which would have implications on the sub stations and upgrades for the Grid.

            WG had set an aim that new developments were carbon neutral by 2050 and it had identified the scope for council, public buildings and social housing to lead the way. The LDP had only recently been examined by the Independent Planning Inspectors and no recommendations were made by WG that the Plan was out of alignment with National Guidance. The LDP provided certainty to all concerned on what was required for new developments and to introduce new guidance now which was not backed up by National Guidance or Legislation would have implications and would result in objections from house builders with implications for affordable housing, education etc. He said National Guidance did not go far enough to give local planning authorities the tools to go further in terms of what was required for new housing developments. There was a lot of scope for the Council, as a landowner, to look at these measures as part of its own buildings and stock and where it acted as facilitator of new development working with land holders, new homes and housing associations setting those higher standards for renewable energy and energy efficiency

            The Team Leader did not wish to appear negative in his responses it was just frustration with the system currently, but there were some positive messages.

            The Chair referred to the formation of the next LDP and asked a number of questions around the introduction of policies for solar capacity on new developments. In response the Team Leader felt it had to be borne in mind that it was four years before the plan review was required and that changes could be made to the National Guidance by Welsh Government regarding some of these issues. Any changes would be robustly challenged by the house building industry in terms of viability if the council required a policy that solar energy was included on new developments. Any changes would have to be evaluated in terms of soundness with one of the tests being was it consistent with existing guidance which was what the Inspector would look at.

            Councillor Rose referred to Passivhaus which had been in existence since 1988 with 30 years of international evidence supporting this and wondered if contact could be made with the Passivhaus Trust to provide more information to the Planning team. Referring to expectation of the energy assessment required for more than one hundred homes he felt this should be an expectation for all properties and that energy waste should not be allowed. He felt the objections from developers for profits should not rise above the impact on climate. He wondered if a letter could be sent to the Minister for Climate Change to outline the committee’s frustrations in terms of Planning legislation around how far this could be pushed as far as solar panels and minimum standard of energy security were concerned. Not only for the climate but for people living in these properties and future generations.

            The Team Leader accepted that Passivhaus had been around for a long time but the house building industry had developed its way of thinking over the decades and were resistant to change. It was going to take time to turn things around, unfortunately.

            Councillor Sam Swash referred to a petition currently with Welsh Government (WG) asking them to legislate that all new developments in Wales came with solar panels, which the Minister had rejected. He did not envisage any progress any time soon which was concerning for the next LDP in four years’ time. This highlighted the importance of this Council being bold in putting these requirements forward and that if developers wanted to challenge those requirements and the Welsh Government were to agree to those challenges, which would make the developers and the Welsh Government look bad, not the Council.

            The Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) said looking ahead to the future the Council could refuse a planning application because it did not include solar panels which would inevitably lead to an appeal against that decision. The Council did not have the Planning Policy status to support that refusal which would mean the Council would have to pick up the costs of the appeal having acted unreasonably. He felt the biggest driver in this was demand and if there was energy efficiency in solar panels then the customer of the housing companies would demand it. This was happening with some developers starting to include this within their pattern book houses in Chester with solar panels built into the roof. Hopefully, consumer demand would drive behaviour change from developers.

            The Chair said it was all well and good when discussing customer demand to housebuilders but with the market as broken as it was there would be asituation where supply and demand was so out of balance that consumers still had very little power this area and it was up to the state, National or Welsh Government to take the lead and move on this.

            The Chair commented that Councillor Rose had proposed an amendment to the recommendation to include writing to the Minister for Climate Change which was seconded by Cllr Swash

            Councillor Marshall as the original mover of the recommendation accepted the change and this was also accepted by his seconder Councillor Eastwood

On being put to the vote, the recommendation was carried.

RESOLVED:

(a)      That Members note the content of this report and the planning framework available to facilitate renewable energy development and carbon reduction via the planning system.

(b)      That a letter be sent to the Minister for Climate Change to outline the committee’s frustrations  in terms of Planning legislation around how far this could be pushed as far as solar panels and minimum standard of energy security.