Source
https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2018-09/tan6-sustainable-rural-communities.pdf — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Context: thesis · overseas regulatory comparator (community-scale planning pathways) · not an NI model input
Statutory guidance, not an Act
One Planet Development (OPD) is created by Technical Advice Note 6: Planning for Sustainable Rural Communities (July 2010), statutory national planning guidance issued under Planning Policy Wales - not primary legislation. PPW, TANs and Circulars “should be taken into account by planning authorities in the preparation of development plans” and “may be material to decisions on individual planning applications” (§1.1.1). The policy definition was subsequently carried into Planning Policy Wales itself (4th Edition, February 2011, paras 9.3.11-9.3.12, as quoted by the 2012 Practice Guidance). Cite it precisely as national planning policy/guidance; calling it an “Act” or “law” overstates its instrument class.
Summary
The Welsh One Planet Development policy is the most fully specified national pathway for self-sufficient communities in the open countryside held in this corpus. TAN 6 paras 4.15-4.23 (with the 2012 Practice Guidance operationalising them) allow new low-impact development on unallocated rural land, including forms that would otherwise be refused as open-countryside housing, provided the development proves quantified self-sufficiency: an initial ecological footprint of 2.4 global hectares per person or less moving toward 1.88 gha, zero carbon in both construction and use, and the inhabitants’ minimum needs for income, food, energy and waste assimilation provided from the land within no more than 5 years REG_043. Proposals “can either be single homes, co-operative communities or larger settlements”, and where more than one family is involved the development “should be managed and controlled by a trust, co-operative or other similar mechanism in which the occupiers have an interest” REG_043. The whole scheme is enforced through a mandatory management plan that becomes “the basis of a legal agreement relating to the occupation of the site” (planning condition or S106 agreement), with an annual monitoring report and enforcement on breach REG_043.
The 2012 Practice Guidance (prepared for the Welsh Government by Land Use Consultants and the Positive Development Trust) turns the policy into a measurable test: 65% of food needs grown/reared on site (or 30% grown plus the rest purchased from site-derived income), all energy needs met from renewable sources on site, water needs met from the site, and annual reporting of performance including grid import/export REG_043. It names five basic OPD types, up to “Ecovillage (larger planned community)” REG_043. Its research value is as a comparator to the central finding of regulatory_consenting_off_grid_nz: New Zealand law contains no structured community-scale residential pathway on general land, while Wales shows such a pathway operating at the policy-guidance layer, without new primary legislation, and shows a jurisdiction using quantified self-sufficiency as the currency of planning consent. Eco-community advocacy helped create the policy: Tir y Gafel/Lammas (Pembrokeshire), which the Practice Guidance itself uses as a worked illustration, is credited with driving the policy change (LIT_014).
Key claims
- claim: "INSTRUMENT STATUS - GUIDANCE UNDER PLANNING POLICY WALES, NOT AN ACT. 'This Technical Advice Note (TAN) should be read in conjunction with Planning Policy Wales (PPW), which sets out the land use planning policies of the Welsh Assembly Government (the Assembly Government). PPW, TAN's and Circulars should be taken into account by planning authorities in the preparation of development plans. They may be material to decisions on individual planning applications and will be taken into account by Welsh Ministers and Planning Inspectors in the determination of called-in planning applications and appeals.' It replaces earlier guidance: 'Planning Guidance (Wales), Technical Advice Note (Wales) 6, Agricultural and Rural Development, (National Assembly for Wales) June 2000, is hereby cancelled.'"
source_location: "TAN 6 §1.1.1 and §1.2.1, pp.5-6"
- claim: "THE OPD DEFINITION AND ITS TWO HEADLINE TESTS. §4.15.1: 'The Sustainable Development Scheme, \"One Wales: One Planet\" includes an objective that within the lifetime of a generation, Wales should use only its fair share of the earth's resources, and our ecological footprint be reduced to the global average availability of resources - 1.88 global hectares per person in 2003. One Planet Developments take forward Low Impact Development (LID) principles in the Welsh context. One Planet Development is development that through its low impact either enhances or does not significantly diminish environmental quality... One Planet Developments should initially achieve an ecological footprint of 2.4 global hectares per person or less in terms of consumption and demonstrate clear potential to move towards 1.88 global hectare target over time. They should also be zero carbon in both construction and use.'"
source_location: "TAN 6 §4.15.1, p.24"
- claim: "COMMUNITY FORMS ARE EXPRESSLY IN SCOPE, WITH MANDATED COLLECTIVE GOVERNANCE AND A 5-YEAR SELF-SUFFICIENCY PROOF. §4.15.2: 'One Planet Developments may take a number of forms. They can either be single homes, co-operative communities or larger settlements. They may be located within or adjacent to existing settlements, or be situated in the open countryside. Where One Planet Developments involve members of more than one family, the proposal should be managed and controlled by a trust, co-operative or other similar mechanism in which the occupiers have an interest. Land based One Planet Developments located in the open countryside should, over a reasonable length of time (no more than 5 years), provide for the minimum needs of the inhabitants' [sic] in terms of income, food, energy and waste assimilation. Where this cannot be demonstrated, they should be considered against policies which seek to control development in the open countryside.'"
source_location: "TAN 6 §4.15.2, p.24"
- claim: "THE MANAGEMENT PLAN IS MANDATORY AND BECOMES A LEGAL AGREEMENT. §4.16.1: 'A management plan, produced by a competent person(s), must accompany planning applications for this type of development... It should be used as the basis of a legal agreement relating to the occupation of the site, should planning consent be granted.' Required content: business and improvement plan, ecological footprint analysis, carbon analysis, biodiversity and landscape assessment, community impact assessment, and transport assessment/travel plan. §4.16.2: without this information the authority 'would be entitled to refuse the application on the grounds of lack of proper justification for the scheme.'"
source_location: "TAN 6 §4.16.1-4.16.2, p.25"
- claim: "THE BUSINESS PLAN MUST QUANTIFY SITE-DERIVED NEEDS AND COMMIT TO SOLE RESIDENCE. §4.17.1: applications 'must justify the need to live on the site and quantify how the inhabitants' requirements in terms of income, food, energy and waste assimilation can be obtained directly from the site. The land use activities proposed must be capable of supporting the needs of the occupants, even on a low income or subsistence basis, within a reasonable period of time (no more than 5 years)... The business plan should include a statement that the development will be the sole residence for the proposed occupants.'"
source_location: "TAN 6 §4.17.1, p.25"
- claim: "ENFORCEMENT: S106 TIE PLUS ANNUAL MONITORING. §4.23.1: 'it will be necessary to tie the management plan directly to a planning condition or S106 agreement... A S106 agreement should also be used to tie the dwellings to the land which justified the grant of planning consent. Where there is a change in ownership of the One Planet Development or any individual holding within larger schemes, a new management plan should be submitted to the planning authority for approval.' §4.23.2: 'An annual monitoring report should be submitted to the planning authority to evidence compliance with the management plan... Failure to meet the terms of the management plan could result in enforcement proceedings in respect of a breach of condition subject to which planning permission was granted.'"
source_location: "TAN 6 §4.23.1-4.23.2, p.27"
- claim: "THE 2012 PRACTICE GUIDANCE IS THE OFFICIAL COMPANION, AND SHOWS THE POLICY CARRIED INTO PPW ITSELF. Title page: 'Practice Guidance - One Planet Development - Technical Advice Note 6, Planning for Sustainable Rural Communities, October 2012', 'Prepared for the Welsh Government by: Land Use Consultants and the Positive Development Trust' (ISBN 978 0 7504 8242 4, WG17037). It quotes Planning Policy Wales (4th Edition, February 2011, paras 9.3.11-9.3.12) as the policy home: One Planet Development 'should initially achieve an ecological footprint of 2.4 global hectares per person or less in terms of consumption and demonstrate clear potential to move towards 1.88 global hectares over time' and the management plan 'should be used as the basis of a legal agreement relating to the occupation of the site, should planning permission be granted.'"
source_location: "Practice Guidance title page + §§1.5-1.7 with footnote 1, pp.1-2"
- claim: "SIX ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS. Practice Guidance §1.9: all OPD in the open countryside must 'Have a light touch on the environment'; 'Be land based - the development must provide for the minimum needs of residents in terms of food, income, energy and waste assimilation in no more than five years'; 'Have a low ecological footprint... an initial ecological footprint of 2.4 global hectares per person or less with a clear potential to move to 1.88 global hectares per person over time'; 'Have very low carbon buildings... low in carbon in both construction and use'; 'Be defined and controlled by a binding management plan which is reviewed and updated every five years'; and 'Be bound by a clear statement that the development will be the sole residence for the proposed occupants.'"
source_location: "Practice Guidance §1.9, p.2"
- claim: "FIVE BASIC TYPES, UP TO ECOVILLAGE SCALE. Practice Guidance §1.16 + table: 'They can be single homes, co-operative communities or small settlements in their own right. Nevertheless, there are five basic types of One Planet Development in the open countryside': 'Single dwelling' (single household, self-sufficiency based); 'Land based enterprise' (producing agricultural holding, strong self-sufficiency and market-facing); 'Small group of dwellings' (small group of households, limited shared facilities/activities); 'Small planned community' (organised around shared facilities/activities, economies of scale and cooperation); 'Ecovillage (larger planned community)' (larger group of households, strong self-sufficiency, planned around shared facilities/activities, economies of scale and cooperation, greater diversity of residents). §1.19 restates the TAN 6 4.15.2 requirement that multi-family proposals 'be managed and controlled by a Trust, co-operative or other similar mechanism in which the occupiers have an interest.'"
source_location: "Practice Guidance §1.16 + 'Basic types of One Planet Development' table + §1.19, pp.4-5"
- claim: "MINIMUM NEEDS ARE QUANTIFIED - THE 65% FOOD RULE AND THE INCOME LIST. Practice Guidance §3.24: 'Realistically, an OPD site should be able to produce at least 65% of basic food needs.' §3.25: the expectation is that either '65% of all food needs of all occupants of the site are grown and/or reared on the site' or 'A minimum of 30% of basic food needs of all occupants are grown and/or reared on the site, with the remaining 35% of food needs purchased or bartered using the income or surplus produce from other produce grown and/or reared on the site (such as timber or biomass or a surplus of particular products).' §3.27: the minimum needs requiring monetary income are 'clothes', 'travel', 'IT / communications', 'Council Tax', and 'the remaining 35% of food needs (or less) that cannot be grown/reared on the site or gained through bartering.'"
source_location: "Practice Guidance §§3.24-3.25 and §3.27, pp.19-20"
- claim: "ENERGY AND WATER ESSENTIAL CRITERIA, WITH GRID FLOWS MONITORED. Practice Guidance §3.62 essential criteria: 'All of the energy needs of all activities shall be met from sources of renewable energy on site, with the exception of small amounts of non-renewable fuel for particular uses for which they are best suited and justifiable'; water needs 'minimised through suitable design and use of technology', 'Rainwater harvesting from buildings and structures must be maximised', and 'All of the water needs of all activities should be met from water available on site, unless there is a more environmentally sustainable alternative.' §3.64 monitoring: 'Target: That all of the energy needs shall be met from sources of renewable energy on site', with indicators including 'Annual reporting on use of renewable energys [sic] generated on site (as percentage of energy needs)' and 'Annual reporting on quantity of electricity exported to the grid and imported from the grid.'"
source_location: "Practice Guidance §3.62, p.34; §3.64, p.35"Relevance
The second overseas existence proof, and a different mechanism than NSW. The central finding of regulatory_consenting_off_grid_nz is that NZ law provides no structured community-scale residential pathway on general land. NSW answers with a legislated consent scheme (density formula, hard caps). Wales answers at the policy layer: OPD was created by national planning guidance under Planning Policy Wales, then absorbed into PPW itself, with no new Act required REG_043. For a recommendation about NZ, that is the more transferable precedent: NZ’s closest instrument class is national direction (NPS/NES) under the RMA, and Wales demonstrates a community-enabling pathway can be delivered through that layer rather than through primary legislation.
Consent priced in measured self-sufficiency. OPD is, in effect, a regulatory operationalisation of self-sufficiency assessment: a footprint benchmark (2.4 gha/person, trending to 1.88), zero-carbon construction and use, 65% of food from the site, all energy from on-site renewables, water from the site, needs met from the land within 5 years, and annual measurement against a binding management plan REG_043. A jurisdiction already uses quantified self-sufficiency as the currency of planning consent, and enforces it through a legal agreement and monitoring. That directly informs the argument that self-sufficiency is measurable enough to regulate on, while also showing the obverse: the test is demanding, and failure carries enforcement.
Legal recognition of the community form and its governance. The instrument explicitly contemplates “co-operative communities or larger settlements” up to the Practice Guidance’s “Ecovillage (larger planned community)” type, and requires multi-family proposals to be “managed and controlled by a trust, co-operative or other similar mechanism in which the occupiers have an interest” REG_043. Where NZ communities assemble governance ad hoc inside generic property law (see earthsong_ranui’s body-corporate scaffolding, OT_138), Wales writes the collective-governance requirement into the planning pathway itself.
Advocacy made the policy. Tir y Gafel/Lammas (Pembrokeshire) is credited with changing regional planning policy through advocacy, producing the OPD policy (LIT_014); the Practice Guidance itself uses Lammas as a worked illustration of a planned OPD community REG_043. This closes a loop for the eco-community strategies argument: communities as policy-makers, not only policy-takers.
Not an NI input. This is comparator evidence about planning policy in another jurisdiction; no engine cell draws a number from it. The 2.4 gha and 65% figures are Welsh regulatory thresholds, not NZ calibration data.
Research targets
None new. This source supplies the overseas-comparator limb contemplated by the closed general-community-pathway question (RT_346) and opens nothing.
Notes
- Two raws in the source subfolder:
wales_tan6_2010.pdf(TAN 6, July 2010, 43 pp; sha25696212766…in frontmatter; public home https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2018-09/tan6-sustainable-rural-communities.pdf) andwales_opd_practice_guidance.pdf(One Planet Development Practice Guidance, October 2012, 77 pp; sha25658f0864c90401593631d0970b79cc6e57eaddc9558179880b8537187b35155f6; public home https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-06/planning-permission-one-planet-developments-in-open-countryside.pdf). The TAN is the operative instrument; the Practice Guidance is non-statutory application guidance for it. data_quality: verified: both documents are Crown-copyright Welsh Government publications read verbatim viapdftotext -layout, every key claim carries its paragraph and printed-page location, and the two documents corroborate each other on every headline test (2.4 gha, zero carbon, 5 years, trust/co-operative control). The copies were obtained from an archive mirror of the gov.wales originals rather than a direct download; a reviewer preferring live-source confirmation could preferhigh.- Currency caveat: these are the 2010/2012 originals. The OPD policy definition moved into Planning Policy Wales (4th Edition, February 2011, paras 9.3.11-9.3.12, quoted in the Practice Guidance), and PPW has been re-issued repeatedly since. Verify against the live PPW/TAN 6 before any currency-sensitive citation of Welsh policy.
- Internal discrepancy in the raws, quoted verbatim on purpose: TAN 6 §4.15.1 dates the 1.88 gha global-average figure to 2003; Practice Guidance §1.5 calls 1.88 gha ‘the global availability of resources in 2007’. Both statements are reproduced exactly; do not silently harmonise.
- Verbatim typos preserved: ‘the inhabitants’ in terms of income’ (stray possessive, TAN 6 §4.15.2) and ‘renewable energys’ (Practice Guidance §3.64) are as printed, marked [sic] in the claims.
Connections
Links to
Cases (1): Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood
Concepts (1): Regulatory Consenting for Off-Grid Communities…
Referenced by
Concepts (1): Regulatory Consenting for Off-Grid Communities…