08.08.19
Thousands of new council homes part of 2040 Wales vision
A development vision for Wales by 2040 has outlined more urban living, and earmarked the building of thousands of new council homes.
As part of the vision, a new planning framework – the National Development Framework – is being created to show where new homes, jobs and services need to be over the next 20 years. Proposals also set out priority areas that had been identified for large-scale wind and solar energy projects.
Housing minister Julie James said she was committed to building new council housing “at pace and scale” and said the proposals were about bringing the places people lived and worked closer together.
According to predictions, an extra 114,000 homes are needed over the next 20 years, including 3,900 affordable or council homes per year.
There was also a need for urban development ‘clusters’ around Cardiff, Newport and the Valleys, Swansea Bay and Llanelli, and Wrexham and Deeside.
READ MORE: Up to 2,500 homes on the way as part of York Central development proposals submitted
Development were expected to still create “good quality of life” and green infrastructure, meaning that although they were high density they were not necessarily high rise buildings. Constructing the developments around public transport corridors and hubs, such as Metro stations, was also key.
There will also be an emphasis within the National Development Framework proposals for a focus on green energy production. A target of generating 70% of electricity from renewables by 2030 has been planned to be met through large on-shore wind and solar energy developments.
For national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty this was not something that was being considered, however.
There was also support in the plan to increase woodland, developing a national forest across a number of locations, in order to help achieve a target of 2,000 extra hectares a year of woodland in 2020.