Home » Cardiff development plan aims for sustainable growth and net zero goals

Cardiff development plan aims for sustainable growth and net zero goals

A picture of County Hall at Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff (Pic: Ted Peskett)

A BLUEPRINT for the future of Cardiff which could see tens of thousands of homes developed in the city in the next 10 years is set to move forward.

Cardiff Council’s cabinet members will meet on Thursday, January 23, to discuss the full plan for the local authority’s replacement local development plan (RLDP).

If cabinet members agree to the full plan, which also proposes to create more than 32,000 jobs, it will be debated and voted on by full council on Thursday, January 30.

Local development plans (LDPs) are used by councils to determine which areas of land should be used for developing housing and which areas should be developed for industrial use.

They also determine which areas of land should be protected from development.

In June 2023, Cardiff Council announced it would choose a 1% growth rate for housing for the duration of the plan, which could mean the construction of 26,400 new homes by 2036.

Cllr Dan De’Ath, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Strategic Planning and Transport said: “The new ‘deposit plan’ will act as a blueprint for development in Cardiff up until 2036 setting out a plan-led strategy that will control development in the city, ensuring that investors and developers know and understand how we want the city to develop.

“Without an up-to-date LDP, development in the city would happen in a haphazard way, allowing developers to put forward proposals that do not align with our aspirations on how Cardiff should grow, so this is why this process is so important.”

Cardiff Council already has an LDP, which was signed off by the local authority in 2016 and proposed to deliver more than 13,000 homes.

The local authority said under the RLDP, there will be a 50:50 split between the use of brownfield and greenfield sites for the development of housing and 25% of all new homes built under the plan will be affordable.

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Under the full plan, also called the ‘deposit plan’, existing employment sites in the current LDP will be protected and new sites will be brought forward, including Cardiff Central Zone, Roath Basin and land north of Junction 33 of the M4.

Cardiff Council also mentions Cardiff Parkway as employment land proposed to be brought forward as part of the RLDP.

A level of uncertainty lies over the plans for the railway station and business park, proposed for land south of St Mellons Business Park, with the First Minister yet to make a final call on whether or not it can go ahead.

Councillors have called on the Welsh Government to make a decision before they next convene for a full council meeting on January 30.

The full plan proposes to align with a number of the council’s policies on transport, and the environment.

This includes encouraging sustainable transport through investments promoting travel by walking, cycling or public transport; increasing the supply of renewable energy to new developments and preventing developments in flood risk areas; and ensuring development maintains and achieves a net gain in biodiversity.

The deposit plan also proposes to protect greenfield sites north of the M4 and other areas of countryside across Cardiff.

Cllr De’Ath added: “This is an LDP for growth, but not unregulated growth.

“A plan which will use 50/50 brownfield and greenfield sites, an LDP which will deliver jobs, affordable homes, and help us on the way to net zero so we can strive towards our One Planet Cardiff targets.”

If the ‘deposit plan’ is approved by both cabinet and full council, a formal eight-week consultation will follow between February 18 and April 15.

All comments received through the consultation will be submitted with the deposit plan, along with any proposed changes, in autumn 2025 to the Welsh Government for examination by an independent inspector.

Prior to the upcoming cabinet meeting, the report with be scrutinised by a joint policy review and performance and environmental scrutiny committee on Thursday, January 16.

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