I'm pleased to participate in this debate. I'm fortunate to have been selected for a short debate next week. I had considered doing that short debate on second homes, but I'm pleased to have an opportunity to discuss my ideas a week earlier.

This issue has been of great importance to many of us in the Senedd for many years. I remember a Cymdeithas yr Iaith poster, 'Nid yw Cymru ar werth' on the wall of my bedroom in the 1980s. But the lockdown and the fact that people have got to know their communities better, they've noticed people moving back and forth to second homes, trying to register with GP surgeries and so on, has given a new impetus to this, has raised the level of concerns and has increased the desire among the public to see us do something to resolve this problem. Parts of Wales—many parts of Wales—still feel that they are for sale to the highest bidder and, too often, our young people and people on low salaries in our communities simply can't compete. 

It's difficult to know where to start with the examples that I see on Anglesey. Some four of every 10 homes are holiday homes in places like Rhosneigr. You see ideal family homes going for absurd prices, way beyond the reach of the local community, and the result is that those homes are withdrawn from the housing market forever: a small cottage that's doubled in value in a few years; the house on an estate in Llangaffo rented out for £1,800 a month on a website in London; old terrace houses and council houses becoming holiday homes. For some, they are homes to be used occasionally. I see no fault on people who want to do that; Anglesey is a wonderful place to spend a weekend. But there are implications to this: it pushes prices up and it changes the nature of communities, and we know how lifeless many communities with a high number of holiday homes are throughout the year.

Many people do buy second homes as holiday lets, and many of these are local people. But the implications are the same. Websites such as Airbnb have made this even more attractive and easier. But it's no coincidence that so many areas and cities across the world have prohibited or placed strict restrictions on Airbnb lets now. A constituent recently got in touch to complain that one house on their estate had parties every evening, as people came in for short holidays. That's not the kind of community that people expect to live in on these estates in our villages. 

As others have suggested, there are ways of introducing rules and regulations to stop this. Make it a requirement to have planing consent to turn a permanent home into a home that is let for brief periods. It's not rejecting all holiday lets. Self-catering can be an important part of our tourism offer but, at the moment, it's out of control. We need to be able to decide how many to allow within any community and how many holiday homes too. And that means placing a cap and allowing no more than that cap in some communities. 

I'll turn to the loophole that Mike Hedges mentioned—the taxation loophole that we've been asking the Welsh Government to close for years now, but with no joy. A loophole where people register a holiday home as a holiday let, and therefore do not pay council tax, which has a premium, of course, as a second home in certain counties, and then are given full business rate relief. The threshold for change of use is far too low and it costs as much as £1 million per annum for a council such as Anglesey, and it has to stop. It's as simple as that. It's a disgrace that the Labour Government has refused to acknowledge the problem. The problem became even more apparent at the beginning of this pandemic when £10,000 in support was available for small businesses. It's wonderful that real businesses do receive that support, but it's disgraceful to see people trying to take advantage of that. 

With the clock against against me, let me just say this, in conclusion: there is nothing unique to Wales, as we've heard already, in what we're discussing. Concerns about the impact of the ownership of second homes and holiday homes has led to legislative changes and robust steps across the world. So, let's do what others have realised has to be done. It's not an attack on tourism, by the way, but tourism without control is something that happens to a community, it's very different to tourism which is controlled, where there is real ownership and which is sustainable within our communities.

I'll leave it there. We know that Plaid Cymru want to see action. We're urging this Government to start to take action now, because we are in a crisis.