JANET Finch-Saunders MS for Aberconwy has called for amendments to planning policy so that children of farmers can more easily gain planning permission to build homes on family land.

The current ‘Technical advice note (TAN) 6: planning for sustainable rural communities’, which acts as guidance for local planning authorities to support sustainable rural communities, allows for new isolated residential development in the open countryside for rural enterprise workers.

However, Mrs Finch-Saunders believes the scope of the policy should be widened, to cater for children of farmers who live at home but work elsewhere to more easily gain planning permission to build homes on family land.

The MS for Aberconwy urged greater cooperation between Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles MS, and Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, and said: “With the Welsh Government only delivering 4,616 of the 12,000 new homes required annually in Wales, there is a huge shortage of houses for our youngest generations to remain in their home towns or villages.

“A cumulative total of 14,240 young people in the 20-29 age group left four Welsh counties between 2012 and 2016.

“Whilst the Welsh Government has recently undertaken a consultation on a Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan which aims to help local people to access affordable housing, I am clear that we should empower young people who are struggling to get on the ladder in their home town or village to build a home on family-owned land.”