Policy, advice and guidance
Planning Policy Wales
Planning Policy Wales sets out the Welsh Government’s land use planning policies. Its primary objective is to ensure that the planning system contributes towards the delivery of sustainable development and improves the social, economic, environmental and cultural well‑being of Wales, as required by the Planning (Wales) Act 2015, the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and other key legislation.
Chapter 6, ‘Distinctive and Natural Places’, explains how planning system must take into account the Welsh Government’s objectives to protect, conserve, promote and enhance the historic environment as a resource for the general well-being of present and future generations. It also sets out the planning policies for the sustainable management of specific categories of historic assets.
Technical Advice Note 24: The Historic Environment
Technical Advice Note 24: The Historic Environment
This technical advice note provides guidance on how the planning system considers the historic environment during development plan preparation and decision making on planning and listed building consent applications. It also provides specific guidance on how the following historic assets should be considered:
- scheduled monuments
- archaeological remains
- listed buildings
- conservation areas
- historic parks and gardens
- historic landscapes
- historic assets of special local interest
- World Heritage Sites
The technical advice note usefully gathers together the selection criteria employed in the designation of scheduled monuments and listed buildings and the registration of historic parks and gardens and historic landscapes.
Best-practice guidance
We are in the process of amending Cadw’s guidance documents to reflect the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023 and its supporting regulations. In the meantime, the existing documents remain valid.
Cadw has produced a series of best-practice guidance publications that complement the legislative framework and associated planning policy and advice and support the sustainable management of the Welsh historic environment. All are informed by Cadw’s Conservation Principles for the Sustainable Management of the Historic Environment in Wales. Some are aimed primarily at owners, while others are intended for local planning authorities, but all are accessibly written and freely available on the Cadw website.
Sixteen titles have been released so far:
Heritage Impact Assessment in Wales
Heritage Partnership Agreements in Wales
Historic Environment Records in Wales: Compilation and Use
Managing Change in World Heritage Sites in Wales
Managing Change to Historic Places of Worship in Wales
Managing Change to Listed Buildings in Wales
Managing Change to Registered Historic Parks and Gardens in Wales
Managing Conservation Areas in Wales
Managing Easy Access to Listed Buildings in Wales
Managing Historic Character in Wales
Managing Listed Buildings at Risk in Wales
Managing Lists of Historic Assets of Special Local Interest in Wales
Managing Scheduled Monuments in Wales
Managing the Marine Historic Environment of Wales
Setting of Historic Assets in Wales
Understanding Listing in Wales
Further best-practice guidance publications are in preparation.
Cadw also has a back catalogue of guidance publications, which can be accessed from the following web pages.