Party of Wales Gwynedd Councillors' Group

Consultation 1: Planning legislation and policy for second homes and short-term holiday lets

Closing date: 22.2.22

Link to the survey / consultation: Planning legislation and policy for second homes and short-term holiday lets | GOV.WALES

Guidance template below (scroll down past this planning template for information on the other consultations)

Template:

CONSULTATION QUESTIONS

Proposed amendments to the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (UCO)

Q1

Do you agree or disagree that amending secondary legislation in the way proposed would be an effective way of helping to address the identified effects of second homes and short-term holiday accommodation in some communities?

Agree.

Concern that the proposed changes would be difficult to enforce.

Q2

Do you agree that class C3 should be amended to create class C5 (Secondary homes) and use class C6 (Short-term let accommodation)? If not, please explain why.

Agree.

Q3

Do you agree with the descriptions of the new and revised use classes? If not, please explain why.

Disagree.

A 'second home' should be defined in accordance with section 12B of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, which is "a dwelling which is not the sole or main residence of a person and which is substantially furnished." Aligning the local taxation procedure with the Planning procedure would make monitoring and enforcement more straightforward.

Q4

Are there any situations where use as a dwelling house under C3 use class might be unclear? Give examples.

-

Q5

Would you support amending primary legislation (ie the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) to control second homes and short-term let accommodation?

Yes

Proposed amendments to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 (GPDO)

Q6

Do you agree that the General Permitted Development Order should be amended to allow for the types of change of use shown in Table 2 if the proposed changes to the use classes order are to be taken forward? If not, please explain why.

Agree, but the definitions proposed should be reconsidered, taking into account the use of tax definitions for planning as well.

Q7

Do you agree that the use of Article 4 Directions by local planning authorities is an appropriate and targeted way of responding to a location-specific issue? If not, please explain why and / or suggest another way of responding.

If this is the only option, then I agree that it is appropriate. However other options should be considered e.g. amending primary legislation.

Q8

In relation to the change of use to a second home or short-term holiday accommodation, if an Article 4 Direction is made, should applicants be entitled to claim compensation if a local planning authority refuses permission, or imposes conditions on permission other than the conditions n be imposed by the General Permitted Development Order, in the first 12 months?

No, they certainly should not.

Proposed Amendments to Planning Policy Wales

Q9

Do the proposed amendments to Planning Policy Wales make it clear that local planning authorities must take into account the number of second homes and short-term holiday accommodation when developing the requirement for open market and affordable housing in a particular area and does local policy need to be adopted in a Local Development Plan (LDP)?

Yes.

Q10

Do the proposed amendments to Planning Policy Wales support the proposed amendments to:

• The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987; a
• The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995

Yes, in part.

Consequences of the proposed changes

Q11

Do you think the potential positive consequences of the proposed planning measures to manage second homes and short-term holiday accommodation outweigh the potential negative consequences (or vice versa) of house prices and the impact on the housing market local? Explain your response, referring to evidence where appropriate.

Yes. The changes are likely to have a positive impact on the housing market, by releasing units from the 'second homes' stock, leading to increased provision of affordable housing for local communities.

Q12

Do you have any comments or evidence on the potential positive and / or negative consequences for local economies of the proposed planning measures to manage second homes and short-term holiday accommodation?

Limiting the number of 'second homes' and having full control of 'holiday accommodation' units would stimulate local communities and have a positive impact on the local economy.

Q13

Local authorities only:

Do you think that local planning authorities have enough resources to be able to undertake an appropriate level of evidence gathering and monitoring and enforcement action to enable the proposed planning measures to be implemented effectively? Explain your response, referring to evidence if appropriate.

n/a

Q14

Applicable to local planning authorities only:

• What IT (back office) system is currently used (including version number)?
• What are your contractual arrangements (ie costs) for making changes as a result of legislative change by the Welsh Government?
• How long would it take to make changes to your IT system?
• On what date will your current contract with your IT system supplier end?
• How much staff time is needed (per application) to manually enter applications into your back office system if the system cannot receive them automatically

n/a

Welsh language considerations

Q15

We would like to know your views on the effects that the proposals would have on the Welsh language, specifically on opportunities for people to use Welsh and in terms of treating the Welsh language no less favorably than the English language.

What do you think the effects would be? How could the positive effects be increased, or the negative effects mitigated?

Proposals, while restricting second homes, would clearly enliven local communities and thus have a positive impact on the Welsh language over time.

General considerations

Q16

We have asked a number of specific consultation questions. If you have any related issues that we have not specifically addressed, please use the space below to raise those issues.

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Consultation 2: Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan

Closing date 22.2.22

Link to survey / consultation: Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan | GOV.WALES

Guidance template below:

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Consultation 3: Second homes: local variation to land transaction tax rates

Closing date: 28.3.22

Link to the survey/consultation: Second homes: local variation to land transaction tax rates | GOV.WALES

Guidance template below: