PDR Consultation in Wales

The Welsh Government’s recent consultation on permitted development rights (PDRs) proposed changes intended to make the planning system more efficient and responsive. CLA Cymru has submitted a formal response, calling for greater rural flexibility, less red tape, and meaningful reform that reflects the needs of landowners and businesses in the countryside.

The consultation, launched earlier this summer, proposes changes across a number of areas to make the planning system more efficient, effective and responsive to future needs.

We welcomed the opportunity to contribute, as PDRs are a vital tool for enabling small, low-impact development, yet many of our members find the current system too costly, complex or slow to navigate. Too often, good rural projects are abandoned before reaching decision stage. Many of our members report abandoning projects before or during the planning process, a sign that the current system is not working for rural Wales.

Key areas of the consultation included:

• Domestic air source heat pumps (ASHPs)
• Off-street EV charging infrastructure
• Temporary campsites
• Reverse vending machines
• Development by statutory undertakers (electricity)
• Emergency affordable housing and meanwhile uses
• Definition of ‘Major Development’

Our Position and Recommendations:

• Air Source Heat Pumps: We support expanding the definition of ASHPs under PDRs and removing the current 3-metre height restriction. However, we have opposed the proposed limit of just two units. Larger, older homes in rural areas often require more than two pumps to meet heating needs efficiently.
• EV Charging Infrastructure: We back proposals to ease restrictions on wall-mounted EV chargers facing highways and to raise the height limit for non-domestic charging upstands from 1.6m to 2.7m. These are necessary upgrades if Wales is to meet its decarbonisation ambitions.
• Temporary Campsites: We support extending the use of land for temporary campsites to 60 days per year, with a light-touch prior notification process. We caution, however, that the current 14-day limits for potentially disruptive uses (e.g. motor racing) should remain.
• Affordable Housing and LDP Allocations: We support a new PDR class for temporary affordable housing and welcome changes to support allocations under local development plans. We referenced our ‘Planning Passport’ model developed by CLA nationally, which proposes a two-stage permission route for rural exception sites.
• Definition of Major Development: We support changing the threshold from 10 to 25 dwellings, which will unlock more viable small-to-medium rural housing schemes currently burdened by excessive process.

Overall, our submission argues that a more generous and clearly defined PDR framework can ease pressure on local planning authorities, reduce costs for landowners, and help meet climate, housing and tourism goals across rural Wales.