13. Plaid Cymru Debate: Second Homes

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:32 pm on 23 September 2020.

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Photo of Neil McEvoy Neil McEvoy Independent 6:32, 23 September 2020

We're in a position now, if we're talking Gwynedd—. Abersoch—it's come up earlier, and the school has to close, the primary school, because of a lack of numbers, directly related to second-home ownership. Now, with decades of being in power—my in-laws live just up the road—with decades of being power, what has Plaid done in Gwynedd to resolve this problem? Next to nothing—bron dim byd. And this is the best ever, this one; this is the best. It's worth remembering that it was a Plaid Cymru Minister here, when in Government—Jocelyn Davies—who accepted the flawed population figures from London, which paved the way for local development plans all over Wales, gobbling up our green fields and decimating our language. Plaid, in power, once again caving in. 

And it's the Plaid Cymru group in this Senedd that has no less than 40 per cent of its members registering an interest in at least one second home. And that's higher than the Labour Party; it's higher than the Conservative group here. Only the Brexit Party has a higher percentage. And I'll contrast that with the same politicians—multiple home-owning politicians—voting not so long ago to prevent people owning their own council house. So, it's okay for one person to own three, and yet constituents of mine are not allowed to buy one single council house they want to buy. 

I will be voting in favour of the motion, but I've just been unable not to call out the hypocrisy of Plaid Cymru here, who have failed to tackle the issue in Gwynedd, in Ceredigion, and who own so many second homes themselves. 

We cannot continue to have communities that are empty for much of the year, where there are so few children that the schools close. We need a system based on the primary principle of local housing for local people, local needs. And we need—we desperately need—a new planning system, and we need some, I'd say, innovation in local government as well to address these most serious problems. And that is what the Welsh National Party is campaigning for. Diolch yn fawr.