That’s one way of dealing with it, and since I’ve raised this issue, I’ve been surprised by the number of people who have been in touch with me and have proposed various solutions to the problem. You’ve mentioned one—there are other people who have other solutions. So, this is a problem that can be sorted out. What we need is desire in Government to actually tackle the problem. It’s the Government that should lead in finding a solution. To date, that desire hasn’t been particularly apparent to me, but I do very much hope that we can have some detailed discussions on what exactly can be done.

There is something wrong with a situation where 2,000 people are living in poor conditions whilst 800 of 5,000 owners of second homes in the same county are playing the system for their own benefit and avoiding paying council tax. That funding—a total of over £1 million per year—as well as the council house premium, which would bring additional millions, could be an important contribution towards building more appropriate housing for local people in Gwynedd.