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As part of a short film featured on Channel 4’s Political Slot, Liz Saville Roberts, MP and leader of Plaid Cymru, claimed a housing crisis across the country was being fuelled by second home owners buying property – either as holiday homes or buy-to-lets. She claimed the demand had caused house prices to rise at an “alarming rate” in Wales.
In Gwynedd, 40 percent of homes on the market are bought as second homes every year. In parts of the county where houses sell for around £500,000, the prices are far beyond average salaries in the area, which are among the lowest in the UK.
“Once vital Welsh speaking communities are turning into a part-time playground for rich holidaymakers,” Ms Saville Roberts told viewers.
“This has now escalated to a point where communities face a collapse in the supply of housing.
“The demand for social housing outstrips supplies, and the sheer volume of second homes and buy-to-let properties are pushing out local families.”
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– Planning permission to be approved for turning homes into holiday rental properties.
– Imposing a licensing system to allow checks to be made on the intended use of properties – to ensure there is a sufficient housing supply for residents.”
Highlighting her concerns over the long-term impact on local communities, Ms Saville Roberts said: “If something isn’t done about this crisis now, we may well see further depopulation, and yet more of our young people leaving these areas.
“Our villages will become clusters of empty boxes; essential public services and rural areas will become more and more difficult to provide as key workers, such as carers and teaching assistants, simply cannot afford to live near enough to where they work.
“These communities are the cradle of the Welsh language’s culture and heritage, yet they run the risk of becoming the leisure retreat of the privilege.”
On the party’s official website, it calls on the Welsh government to charge council tax premiums of up to 200 percent on second homes, while asking for a loophole to be closed that enables homeowners to register their properties as businesses to avoid paying a council tax premium.
The party has made calls for planning laws to be imposed, which would allow councils to impose a cap on the number of second homes, while retaining the power to refuse planning permission to turn a main home into a secondary place of residence.
The party also wants to see regulations imposed to treble the Land Transaction Tax charge on the purchase of second homes.
Other calls include delegating more power to local authorities to enable homes to be built with local condition requirements – enabling vacant properties to be utilised, and a pilot scheme to bring holiday homes into community ownership to enable profits to be generated back into local projects, including social housing.
During the short film on Channel 4, a £257, 000 historic chapel, which had been granted planning permission to be turned into a holiday let, was shown to viewers.
Expressing her disappointment at the loss of a treasured landmark, Ms Saville Roberts said: “Despite the tireless efforts of campaigners to keep this building as an asset, it will no longer play a role in the community that originally built it.”
Ending the short film, Ms Saville Roberts said: “Everyone must have the right to live at home.”
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