Environment and Sustainability Sub-Committee

Date:              23 October

Time:             12:45 – 14:45

Title:               Evidence paper – Draft Budget 2015-16

                        Additional Information - Planning Budget and Planning Bill

Minister for Natural Resources;

1. This paper provides information on the Planning proposed budget for 2015/16, and implications for the Planning (Wales) Bill. The Planning budget for 2015/16 is £6,421k which is a decrease of £385k from the 2014/15 Supplementary budget.

2. The budget includes funding for building regulations, reflecting the transfer of responsibility for building regulations to the Chief Planner in Spring 2013.

3. The land use planning system has a vital role in shaping Wales’s future by helping to deliver the jobs, homes and infrastructure that we need, while protecting and enhancing our built and natural environment. Similarly, the building control system is about securing the health, safety and sustainability in buildings. Both are key tools for delivery of the Welsh Government’s commitment to sustainable development and the low carbon agenda.

4. The Welsh Government provides the legislative, policy and guidance framework needed to deliver both the planning and building control systems, which are delivered on a day to day basis by local planning authorities, private sector and local authority building control bodies.

5. The Planning programme budget funds key elements of the planning and building control systems, ranging from evaluation and development of policies and procedures to inform primary and secondary legislation, Planning Policy Wales, technical advice notes and transposing European legislation, through to funding delivery by the Planning Inspectorate Wales,  Design Commission for Wales and Construction Excellence Wales, for example. The budget also includes some funding streams tangential to planning and building control.

2015/16 Budget for Planning

6.  The programme budget for Planning Division is at BEL 2250 and is as outlined below.

2014/15                                  2015/16

                        Supplementary                     Draft budget

                        Budget

                        £000                                       £000

Planning       6,806                                      6,421

7. The reduction will not impact on Programme for Government commitments, including the Planning (Wales) Bill, but  largely reflect the declining demand for certain programmes, primarily the Aggregates Levy Fund.

8. The financial implications of the Planning (Wales) Bill, including for the Welsh Government, will be detailed in the regulatory impact assessment to accompany the Bill.

Carl Sergeant AM                                                   Rebecca Evans AM

Minister for Natural Resources                          Deputy Minister for Farming and Food