Cymdeithas yr Iaith is campaigning for action on second homes and holiday lets and longer-term changes to the housing system. Walis George reports.
Our rural and coastal communities are facing an unprecedented shortage of truly affordable housing. The local population is increasingly excluded from being able to secure a suitable home to rent or buy due to economic disadvantage. Recent research by Gwynedd Council shows that on average 65.5 per cent of the county’s population is priced out of the housing market, with the percentage increasing significantly in areas where there are higher numbers of holiday homes.
This inequality is forcing many families from their communities, affecting the provision of essential services, the future of rural schools and the available workforce for local businesses. The hidden rural housing crisis is causing real damage to individuals, families, the local economy and threatening the sustainability of our Welsh-speaking communities.
The results of the 2021 Census demonstrate why we need further urgent action to promote the Welsh language and support Welsh-speaking communities. An estimated 538,300 people, 17.8 per cent of the population, reported being able to speak Welsh. This percentage was the lowest ever recorded in a census. The percentage of people able to speak Welsh decreased in all local authorities, except for four in the south-east. Carmarthenshire saw the largest decrease, from 43.9 per cent in 2011 to 39.9 per cent in 2021.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith (the Welsh Language Society) has campaigned for decades to ensure affordable homes for local people and control the numbers of second homes and holiday lets. Its campaigns have successfully combined policy development and lobbying alongside civil disobedience and non-violent direct action, resulting in activists facing arrest and the possibility of prison sentences.
RIGHT TO BUY
It has long recognised the threat posed by neoliberal philosophy of free markets and deregulation to the social and economic sustainability of local communities. A prime example of this dogma was the introduction of the Right to Buy in 1980 which resulted in over 139,000 social homes for rent being sold in Wales prior to its abolition in 2019. Such a drastic reduction in social housing has contributed significantly to the current housing crisis throughout Wales.
The pandemic highlighted the worst characteristics of an unregulated housing market: fierce competition for housing as wealthy people fled from the cities; houses in seaside villages sold overnight; an increased demand for second homes and short-term holiday lets such as AirBnB; and private landlords, for example the Bodorgan Estate on Ynys Môn, accused of evicting its tenants to let the houses as more profitable holiday accommodation.
Rural and coastal communities around the UK have been demanding urgent action:
- In Cornwall, a new campaign group Homes for Cornwall was established by a local hotelier after hearing of her staff’s difficulties in securing affordable housing. More than 400 people – including councillors, planners, business leaders and community groups – attended its launch event in May of last year.
- In Brighton, the city council voted last June to ban the building of second homes and new holiday accommodation.
- In Whitby in North Yorkshire 95 per cent of residents voted in a local referendum to stop people buying new properties as second homes.
- Here in Wales, the Nid yw Cymru ar Werth (Wales is Not For Sale) campaign has been pressing the Welsh Government to take action to control the increase in numbers of second homes and holiday lets.
- There has also been local campaigning by groups such as Hawl i Fyw Adra (A Right to Live at Home) on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, a hot spot for second and holiday homes.
The Nid yw Cymru ar Werth campaign by Cymdeithas yr Iaith has been increasingly active in the last few years. The campaign has attracted widespread support from all parts of Wales including Senedd members, county and community councillors, private tenants, trade unionists and housing campaigners. Since July 2021 thousands of campaign supporters have attended a series of protest rallies, from Tryweryn (site of the Welsh-speaking community of Capel Celyn in Gwynedd drowned in 1965 to supply water for Liverpool Corporation), to Cardiff Bay, Aberystwyth and at the National Eisteddfod in Tregaron last August.
PACKAGE OF NEW MEASURES
In July 2022 Welsh Government announced a long-awaited package of new measures: planning powers for local authorities to apply new use classes for second homes and holiday lets; a statutory licensing scheme for short-term holiday accommodation; and powers for local authorities to request higher land transaction tax rates. This was followed in October by publication of the Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan which offers support to Welsh-speaking communities with a high concentration of second homes, building on lessons from the Dwyfor second homes and affordability pilot scheme announced in late 2021. Cymdeithas yr Iaith has welcomed these policy developments and looks forward to learning more about their outcomes in due course.
Attention now turns to action by local planning authorities (LPAs) following the amendment of legislation last year to introduce three new planning use classes, namely main home, second home and short-term holiday accommodation. The LPAs can now introduce an Article 4 Direction which would make it necessary to submit an application for planning permission to change from one use to another. This will help protect the existing housing stock from being becoming second homes and holiday lets, thereby supporting the local population to have access to houses within their communities.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION
Cymdeithas yr Iaith recently wrote to all LPAs in Wales to ascertain their intentions regarding Article 4 Directions and their anticipated timetable. It appears that Gwynedd Council will be the first LPA to introduce an Article 4 Direction following a Cabinet decision in June to begin the process, which will involve a period of public consultation before implementation. Over the coming months Cymdeithas yr Iaith will be actively encouraging other LPAs with high concentrations of second homes and holiday lets to follow suit.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith is also calling for the introduction of a Progressive Property Act for Wales. It proposes a whole-system approach to housing and planning policy, based on the principle that housing needs should come before profit and that homes should be recognised as essential community assets rather than investment opportunities. This principle would apply equally to all parts of Wales irrespective of whether they are Welsh-speaking, English-speaking or multi-cultural communities.
Some of the measures in policy proposals published by Cymdeithas yr Iaith last Autumn include:
- A right to a home locally: a duty on local authorities to act on a request for assistance to buy or rent an affordable home within a reasonable distance and time
- Plan for local needs: duties on local authorities to produce a community assessment jointly with individual community councils and to reflect their results in the local housing strategy and Local Development Plan
- Empower communities: introduce a ‘community right to buy’ enabling communities to buy or lease land and property from private and public landowners for community purposes such as community-led housing
- Prioritise local people: a duty on local authorities to apply a moratorium on open market sales in areas where there is unmet local housing need
- Control the rental sector: amend the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 to give tenants of private landlords the right to receive secure contracts
- Sustainable homes: amend the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to include a duty for private landowners, housing developers and community housing providers to undertake sustainable development and work towards the well-being goals
- Invest in communities: a duty on the Welsh Government to establish a community wealth fund to enable communities to exercise their right to buy key community assets.
The Cooperation Agreement between Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru includes a commitment to publish a white paper on proposals for a right to adequate housing, a system of fair rents and new approaches to making homes affordable. It is expected to be published early in 2024.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith will be pressing Welsh Government to include proposals for a Progressive Property Act in the white paper along with a commitment to legislate during the present Senedd term. This next phase of the campaign will include holding a major rally during the National Eisteddfod this August and local action to further highlight the need for radical change to the housing and planning system in Wales.
Walis George is a former housing association chief executive and a member of Cymdeithas yr Iaith. Originally from Carmarthenshire, he has lived in Gwynedd for over 30 years