Cardiff council has been warned not to repeat the "mistakes" of its last Local Development Plan as it agreed the housebuilding targets it wants to set for the next 13 years. The council presented its preferred strategy for the plan in a meeting on Thursday, June 29.
The version approved by the council would see 26,400 new homes built by 2036, with housing in the city growing by 1% each year. The council says these homes can be built using existing planning permissions and land already identified in the current LDP, which was adopted in 2016.
Councillor Dan De'Ath, cabinet member for strategic planning and transport, said the plan represented a "positive, important step forward" and a "crucial document" in achieving a "deliverable yet ambitious level of growth to help tackle some of the most pressing issues in the city over the coming years."
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But opposition councillors claim the council earmarked too many greenfield sites for housing last time around, and risks doing the same now. Conservative group leader Adrian Robson said: "Cardiff has been badly served by the current Local Development Plan due to anticipated growth figures being wildly inaccurate. It has led to some greenfield sites being lost to housing which, as was said at the time, was unnecessary."
The Conservative group proposed that a different option, which would see 19,000 houses built rather than 26,400, be taken forward. It was one of three options which included a growth rate of 0.6% (20,900 new homes by 2036), 1% (26,400) or 1.6% (33,500).
The council's figures when the last LDP was passed predicted the population of Cardiff would grow from 364,248 in 2018 to 403,684 in 2026. These predictions were decreased to 372,944 in 2021, and as of the 2021 census the city's population was approximately 362,300, having grown at a rate of 4.7% since 2011.
Cllr Robson warned: "This replacement potentially faces the same fate which is why Cardiff Conservatives feel that the lower growth figure is right and directs development towards brownfield sites. Once a greenfield site has planning permission it is lost forever."
He continued: "Infrastructure is also vital to ensure the city’s success. Although the replacement plan is in early stages, infrastructure for new Cardiff residents must be at the forefront.
"Whether it is transport links, schools, doctors or parks, new infrastructure has not been delivered quickly in Cardiff’s new developments such as Plasdwr or St Edeyrns. These are mistakes Cardiff cannot afford to repeat."
In the debate on Thursday, he added: "You can always increase the number of sites if the demand is there... you can't go backwards. Once you've allocated big sites and the planning permission is granted, you can't give it back - that's it, gone."
But Cllr De'Ath said "robust analysis" of data and evidence shows 1% yearly growth is "the most realistic projection" and could deliver 32,300 jobs. He added that the preferred strategy "doesn't purely focus on housing growth, but social, economic, cultural and environmental factors to ensure we use the RLDP to control new development and develop sustainable neighbourhoods which will further enhance Cardiff as a sustainable city and help combat the ongoing threat from climate change."
The report was carried in the meeting on Thursday by a vote of 59 for, two against, and 10 abstentions after a Conservative attempt to reference it back was lost. It will now go to a 10-week consultation and be considered by the Welsh Government before the council takes it further.
Nerys Lloyd-Pierce, chair of Cardiff Civic Society, said the recent census figures "do not support the need to build more houses," instead saying: "The gap in the city is in affordable housing, and developers express little interest in providing this. Furthermore, current building projects, for example, in Plasdwr are already way behind schedule, therefore there can be no plausible reason to destroy more green space, river corridors and woodland in our city."
Peter Fortune, a member of the local development group formed in Radyr and Morganstown to scrutinise the LDP, said the preferred strategy was "probably a fair balance in many ways", adding: "The council isn't proposing to allocate even more land and in reality would find it very difficult to un-earmark land now - most of what's been assigned has got planning permission of one form or another.
"I think the real housing problem in Cardiff is a lack of cheap, rented houses - what used to be called council houses. The building of houses in Lisvane isn't going to solve that problem in any sense."
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