Welsh Government says developers won’t be able to exploit coronavirus crisis – virtual meetings for councils to be approved soon

The Welsh Government has provided reassurance that housing developers won’t be able to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis.

It follows concerns in some quarters about how the pandemic has impacted the ability of councils to deal with planning applications within the normal timescales.

House builders are usually able to appeal on the basis of non-determination if a local authority fails to decide on an application within eight weeks.

North.Wales today asked Local Government Minister Julie James whether there was a possibility developers could exploit this situation with planning functions understandably falling by the wayside in the current climate.

She said: “We’ve also been asked are there changes being made to the planning system in light of some councils having no capacity to process applications, and concern that developers can take advantage of that too.

“The answer to that is we’ve already sent out instructions and changed the rules about the processing of planning applications in order to take the current crisis into account.”

We also raised what we thought was a fair question on why councils in Wales have yet to be given powers to hold meetings virtually.

This is despite local authorities in England being enabled to use video or telephone conferencing technology last week.

The Senedd itself has also been holding digital meetings recently with one taking place earlier today.

Ms James appeared to take issue with the query though. She said: “From my point of view, that’s quite a frustrating question, because we had a bill going through the Senedd to do just that.

“Obviously, this has slightly delayed its passage and I am hoping that stage one of that bill will pass this afternoon.

“The legislation will be in place by the middle of April and that will be in good time for councils to be able to sort themselves out in terms of the their AGM and other annual things that they have to do.”

You can watch the full Welsh Government press conference, including the Q&A session below.

🎥 Yn fyw nawr | 🎥 Live now: https://t.co/GyMqZoCljI

— Welsh Government (@WelshGovernment) April 8, 2020