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Consultation opens in Wales on heat pumps and charging electric vehicles
The Welsh government is seeking views on changes to planning laws to make it easier for residents to install air-source heat pumps and to charge electric vehicles.
The Welsh government is seeking views on changes to planning laws to make it easier for residents to install air-source heat pumps and to charge electric vehicles #UKhousingA consultation, which opened this week and ends in July, could change Welsh permitted development rights (PDR) to make the installation of heat pumps easier, including in blocks of flats.
PDR allow specific building works and changes of use to be carried out without a full planning application.
Current PDR allow for the installation of air to water heat pumps. However, air-source heat pumps are not permitted under existing rules.
The consultation follows tenant organisation TPAS Cymru’s claim last December that “outdated” red tape was preventing tenants from accessing affordable, energy-efficient heating and delaying the nation’s net-zero plans.
The Welsh government is proposing to include both air to water, and air to air heat pumps in the plans.
Another change would be to allow heat pumps to be installed “within the curtilage of a dwelling house” rather than at three metres from the boundary.
The three-metre distance rule was initially included to mitigate concerns about noise impacts to neighbouring property, but the consultation says this rule has posed “significant challenges to widespread adoption of” heat pumps.
It points out that while noise is still a factor in the installation of heat pumps, “technology has improved, leading to quieter and more efficient products”.
The Welsh government believes removing the three-metre rule completely is “an approach which is consistent with revisions currently being implemented in England”, but the noise heat pumps make should fall within certain acoustic limits.
Echoing TPAS Cymru’s remarks last year, the consultation proposes allowing the installation of heat pumps within the curtilage of a block of free-standing flats.
David Wilton, chief executive of TPAS Cymru, said: “Planning barriers are not just an inconvenience – they are stopping tenants from living in warm, affordable and energy-efficient homes.
“We have heard from landlords who have had to file dozens of costly and time-consuming planning applications for heat-pump installations, further delaying the decarbonisation of homes.”
The consultation proposals also include making the installation of electric-vehicle chargers permissible anywhere within an area used for off-street parking, thereby removing the requirement preventing the location of an outlet facing on to and within two metres of a highway.
Currently, electric-vehicle charging points fall under PDR so long as they are outside the curtilage of a property, usually on a private driveway.
Alongside PDR, the consultation proposes changes to temporary camp sites, reverse vending machines, development by statutory undertakers (electricity), and affordable housing sites and meanwhile uses.
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