Item 8 on the agenda this afternoon is the debate on petition P-05-1056, 'Give Local Authorities powers to control the housing market in rural and tourist areas of Wales', and I call on the Chair of the Petitions Committee to move the motion—Janet Finch-Saunders.

Motion NDM7652 Janet Finch-Saunders

To propose that the Senedd:

Notes the petition P-05-1056 'Give Local Authorities powers to control the housing market in rural and tourist areas of Wales', which received 5,386 signatures.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am pleased to open this debate on behalf of the Petitions Committee. This petition was submitted by Osian Jones on behalf of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, having collected 5,386 signatures. It raises an issue of significant concern in many communities across Wales: the availability of housing at prices affordable to local people, particularly for young people who are seeking to find a property in the same community in which they have grown up. The petitioners state that the context behind this petition as being the numbers of second and holiday homes in many rural and tourist areas of Wales, which has the effect of both reducing the available housing stock and increasing house prices.

This is an issue of very real concern in many communities, and one that I know has been frequently discussed within the Senedd. The petitioners point out that this is a particularly chronic problem in some places due to the level of inequality between local incomes, especially amongst those looking to buy a first home, and the financial means of people seeking to purchase second homes, holiday homes or to make property investments. Whilst this is a long-term trend, the petitioners contend that several factors have recently exacerbated the issue. These include the growth of Airbnb and similar services, as well as more recent changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift to more widespread homeworking seems likely to have lasting effects, including, as we heard in the previous debate, a long-term shift in the numbers of people working remotely. 

The petitioners point to examples of villages such as Abersoch in Gwynedd, where so many properties are now holiday homes or second homes that it is having knock-on impacts on the sustainability of schools and other public services. They also express concern about the impact that these changes will have on the Welsh language, the character and sustainability of communities, particularly outside of the holiday season.

I want to stress that the petitioners accept that this is not a simple issue to address; they have told the Petitions Committee that they understand that there are no quick or straightforward fixes to these concerns. In their detailed correspondence to the committee, they have acknowledged that the end of this Senedd term is fast approaching and that many of their demands would require consultation and scrutiny before they could be enacted. The Minister for Housing and Local Government has made similar points in her own responses to the petition.

However, the petitioners stress that there is a sense of urgency required in starting to address these issues. They have outlined action they believe to be necessary in the short and long term. In the longer term, they are calling for legislative reform—a property Act for Wales—that would provide for community control over the housing market via local authorities. In the meantime, they call for meaningful discussions with local authorities with the aim of preparing for this and to share good practice. The petitioners cite the Simple Lettings scheme in Carmarthenshire as one of those.

The Minister has also referred to examples, such as some councils making full use of the power to levy council tax premiums on second homes, for example, Pembrokeshire County Council, which has used proceeds to support community land trusts. However, due to their view of the urgency of the situation, the petitioners argue that further immediate action is required. They welcome the increase in the rate of land transaction tax for second homes, but question why it is only 1 per cent. They call for reform to the rules for registering second homes as commercial properties, such as by increasing the number of days in which they must be let, to enable more councils to levy a council tax premium without losing revenue. And finally, they call for the Government to issue urgent advice to local authorities around the local development plan process to emphasise their rights to designate protections in certain communities or to use local ownership clauses.

I'd like to note several recent statements and other work by the Welsh Government on this issue that seek to acknowledge that there is a problem that exists. The Petitions Committee has considered a written statement issued by the Minister that sets a direction of travel, as well as a recent report by Dr Simon Brooks of Swansea University, which scrutinises existing policy on second homes. I have also referred previously to changes to land transaction tax and council tax premiums. The main contention made by the petitioners is that, as welcome as these steps are, they do not go far enough. They are calling for the Government to do more to indicate its desire to tackle this problem, and to help to ensure that people can afford a home within their own community.

To conclude, I think we would all acknowledge that the issues raised by this petition will not be solved through one simple solution. However, I believe that the petitioners have proposed some practical steps to consider, and I hope that this debate can be a step forward towards further consideration of what else can be done. Diolch yn fawr.

The second-home situation in some parts of Wales is critical and this is a debate that we’ve brought to the Senedd on so many occasions over the past few months and years, and the situation is getting worse. Too often, the Welsh Government’s response is to say that more research is required. Well, there has been plenty of research undertaken, so much so that it’s almost become tiresome. The clearest proof of the need for action is the evidence on the ground and the critical impact of a problem that’s been left too long untackled. The 5,000 and more people who have signed this petition know the reality of the situation and that is that people can’t afford homes in their own communities. Deputy Presiding Officer, I represent South Wales East in this Senedd, and this is a problem for residents in my area too. I don’t accept that this isn’t an all-Wales problem. The over-use and unregulated use of second homes is having an impact on communities across Wales. It's a symptom of a state that is fundamentally unequal, and Wales is tied to this problem.

We don't expect the Conservatives to agree, but any socialist Government should understand that a situation where 67,000 people are on housing waiting lists while others can afford a number of homes is not right. And this should encourage us all to do something as a matter of urgency. We shouldn't wait for more research. What’s shocking is that the Welsh Government, despite the warm words that we’ve heard, haven’t given any clear signal of the solutions that they would put in place. We have a number of recommendations and we agree with the petitioners that more powers must be provided to our local authorities in planning—that is a key issue—as Gwynedd Council and a number of other local authorities led by Plaid Cymru are currently doing.

But it's the work of Government to implement recommendations and to generate change, and a Plaid Cymru Government has a comprehensive plan that we published in September of last year, and it’s ready to go after the election in May. This includes changing the classification of planning use, making it a requirement to have planning consent before turning a home into a second home, doubling the council tax premium again, and closing the loopholes in the law that allow some not to pay any tax at all on some second homes, and bringing houses back within reach of local people. We will be just waiting for the Labour Party to do something, anything positive to resolve this issue, so you have to vote for a change in Government in May. We can't wait for Westminster to share wealth equally and create an equal nation. That's not going to happen.

We need a change in the way we consider housing, Deputy Presiding Officer. They are not places. They are not empty buildings. They are not an investment. A house is a shelter that should strengthen communities. It appears that there's only one party that would want to actually deliver people's aspirations of staying in their communities, and that party is Plaid Cymru.

I'd like to thank Osian Jones and Cymdeithas yr Iaith for arranging this petition and everyone who signed the petition. Ensuring appropriate housing in the right places for local people is crucially important. In Gwynedd at the moment there are around 160 individuals, couples and families too, who have been placed in temporary accommodation, which is inappropriate, because they don’t have a proper home. Over 2,000 Gwynedd residents have registered an application for social housing. The average waiting time before social housing is provided is consistently over 400 days. Much of my casework relates to young people living in inappropriate and damp homes and flats, in homes where there are too many people, young families having to share their parents' home, and some, of course, living on the street.

The other side of the coin is luxurious homes that are empty for large parts of the year. The local housing stock is shrinking as property is purchased as second homes or for holiday accommodation. In Gwynedd now, there are 7,000 second homes or holiday accommodation in the county—that's 11 per cent of all stock. The average house price in Gwynedd is £155,000. With the average income being £26,000, then the income affordability comparison is 5.9:1. Now, this means, on average, that 60 per cent of local people are priced out of the housing market.

Plaid Cymru has a set of meaningful steps that would start to tackle the housing crisis. A number of organisations, including Cymdeithas yr Iaith, make reference to appropriate steps that could be put in place. Simon Brooks has also talked about the kinds of policies that we need to see implemented. There is consensus that reform to policy and finance legislation is required, and reform to planning legislation too. But what's becoming increasingly obvious is that only one party intends to take action on these policies. We hear only empty rhetoric from Labour Ministers. The problem is complex, they say. Well, the fact that something is complex isn't an adequate excuse for not taking action for our communities.

The ambitious housing plan of Gwynedd Council shows what's possible under Plaid Cymru leadership, as the council generates new housing stock for people living in the county, with the new second-home premium contributing to paying for this plan. Cymdeithas yr Iaith say this: 'The open market doesn't work for the benefit of Welsh communities, and this is what's at the heart of this crisis. The only way we can resolve the problem meaningfully will be through legislating to transform housing policy so that it prioritises homes, not capital.' Those are the words of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, and I agree. 

The Member does need to wind up now or she's going to preclude other Members from speaking.

Yes, I am drawing my comments to a close, Deputy Llywydd. There are measures that could be put in place tomorrow, with the will—

No, no, you're way over debate, so if you can just finish with one very, very quick sentence, please.

It's the will that's missing and, in the meantime, the housing crisis is intensifying and our communities are creaking.

Thank you. Mark Reckless.

Thank you, and I thank the Chair for the introduction of the debate. I certainly think, with the Chair's backdrop, she's doing quite a lot to promote living in tourist areas of Wales. I'm not sure whether that's for second homes or main homes, but she also gave, I thought, a very good description of the petition, which is more nuanced than I'd appreciated from reading the shorter written description that we had. Siân spoke just now about the particular circumstances in Gwynedd and referred to a house-to-price earnings ratio of 5.9, but the average for the UK as a whole is 8. We heard from Delyth about particular difficulties with second homes and holiday homes in south-east Wales that we both represent, but looking at the official data, there's actually a very small number of wards where there is high incidence of that ownership in our region.

And I would say, if you're looking at rural areas, there's been an issue, really, across large swathes of Europe for at least a century in terms of rural depopulation, and some of those areas have seen increasing levels of second-home ownership, partly because some people leave those areas but retain a property there, while also living elsewhere. And I think there's a lot of scapegoating of second-home owners, and we've seen some of that during the COVID crisis. But here also, the wording of the written petition says that people are being priced out because of all these second-home owners coming in. I'm sure that there are some particular localised areas where that does happen, and I think social housing, for rent and shared ownership, where people have to have it as a main residence, is one way of mitigating that. But there is a broader range of issues. The idea that somehow local authorities are going to be able to control the housing market following urgent discussions with the Welsh Government, I think, is probably unrealistic. A whole range of economic influences happen over the housing market, and local government and others influence that market through a range of ways. In Gwynedd, the example given, where I think most of the petitioners are from, a lot of people say that, yes, they'd like to keep their main residence, that they've grown up there, but, actually, it's the dearth of employment opportunities that, in many cases, lead people to leave the area, and then some of those houses are then taken up by second-home owners.

Similarly, in Gwynedd, there's an education policy in terms of the Welsh language where there's 100 mainstream schools, and it says they're all bilingual, but, actually, when they say bilingual, that's how they style it; elsewhere in Wales I think we would call those Welsh-medium schools. In addition, they have this policy of people not having English lessons until they're aged seven or eight. And if you're in that area and there are a lot of Welsh language essential jobs elsewhere in Wales, then disproportionately people who are learning Welsh in those areas through that schooling—perhaps a higher number of those may move to take those Welsh-essential jobs elsewhere. Similarly, if you've got people who want English-medium education for their children, and are unable to get it in Gwynedd—they've got their main residence there and they learnt through English themselves—some of those people, then, move away, and no longer have a main residence there, and some of those homes again are taken up by second-home owners. Other people, who are moving in perhaps from an urban area elsewhere, over time, may be looking to move there permanently, but in some cases won't move there permanently as a main residence until their children have finished school, because it is quite a hurdle for people to get over for their children to have to learn through the medium of Welsh. And I know there are five Welsh language centres where people go for two to three months of immersion, but that doesn't function over year 9, and many people may choose not to do that.

So, I think Gwynedd council and others also need to look at their policies and the impact that has—although I'd like to be clear in Abolish that we do believe that local authorities should be able to determine their policies for Welsh language in school, and we do think there should be funding for free schools to give people and parents a choice if they wish to make a different decision. But I think this is a complex area. I wish the petitioners well, but I don't believe it's right to scapegoat second home owners, and I'm sceptical that the situations they're worried about will be resolved by the policies proposed.

Thanks for just giving me a minute or two to make a short contribution—and can I thank Osian Jones for organising the petition? What I want to do is just highlight one of the problems we face, and that's the loophole that I've spoken about on numerous occasions here and elsewhere that allows second home owners to register their homes as businesses, and in so doing, avoid paying council tax, and, through the business rate relief system, avoid paying anything at all.

What I have is a copy of the owners newsletter for March 2021 from Menai Holiday Cottages Limited, now owned by Sykes, one of the biggest players in holidays lets in the UK, and one the headings is, 'Second home tax rise in Gwynedd'. Read on, and you read, 'As of April 2021, the tax premium on second homes in Gwynedd will rise to 100 per cent'. And then it explains that 'now is a better time than any to consider registering your second home as a furnished holiday let to claim tax relief'. Now, that e-mail isn't encouraging law breaking; there is, after all, as I've said many times, a loophole that makes it far too easy, in my view, for a property to be registered as a holiday let business, leading to the payment of no local taxes. And remember, many of those who've gone through that process have received payments of many thousands of pounds as COVID compensation this year.

I think it's pretty disgraceful; here we see one of the UK's biggest holiday let businesses actively encouraging second home owners to avoid paying local taxation—the kind of thing that creates growing inequalities within the housing sector. I'll make it quite clear: holiday lets are an important part of our tourism offer in places like my constituency. Local, well-run tourism businesses make a big contribution to the economy and they should be supported. In fact, this was shared with me by a tourism business owner who was fuming about this. There is a loophole, it's undermining our housing stock and it needs to be closed.

Thank you very much. I now call on the Minister for Mental Health, Well-being and Welsh Language, Eluned Morgan. 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank the Petitions Committee for their work on this issue. I am highly aware of the strong feelings, particularly in some parts of Wales, on the issue of second homes, and it's clear that some of these feelings have grown stronger as a result of Brexit, the pandemic, and, as was noted in the petition, as a result of the numbers renting through Airbnb.

I'm sure that Senedd Members will be aware that we recently published Dr Simon Brooks's report on this issue, and the report comes to the same view as us: that this is a complex area, it's not a simple matter and there is no one solution that can tackle this problem. We have already taken action in this area, and I think it's unfair of Siân Gwenllian to say that we haven't done so. An example of this is the increase in land transaction tax, but we've done other things too. There are many aspects to these challenges: the economy, tourism, planning and the sustainability of our communities, particularly our Welsh-speaking communities. Since the pandemic, we've seen and heard increasing concerns about the impacts that a high number of second homes could have on some of our communities, particularly those Welsh-speaking strongholds.

Dr Brooks's report made a number of recommendations for the Welsh Government, but the report also encourages local authorities to consider the powers that they already hold, and to use the current provisions. I do very much hope, as a result of reading this report, that we will all have a better understanding of the powers that we have, and I hope that Delyth Jewell, for example, would note that in Dr Brooks's report he would disagree that this isn't a national problem, and there are number of statistics that he cites that demonstrate that.

Reference has been made to planning powers in the petition and in the report. The key contribution of our planning system to the way that local housing markets work is to ensure that there is sufficient supply of sites and plots available for homes for local people. This is a responsibility for the local authorities to assess local housing needs and to respond to the specific circumstances in their localities and to ensure that they deliver against these responsibilities. This is done already in some local authorities. For example, Gwynedd and Anglesey councils have policies in their local development plans with the intention of limiting access to new-build homes in certain areas to local people. This is part of broader social policies within councils of supporting and sustaining Welsh-speaking communities.

Dr Brooks recommends that Gwynedd and Anglesey should extend these schemes, and we'd be interested to understand why more local authorities don't develop local policies to address local issues, given the clear steer that is in 'Planning Policy Wales'.

We're acutely aware of calls for changes to planning legislation to manage issues associated with second homes and short-term holiday lets. Whilst the planning system can provide a wide-ranging delivery mechanism, I'm afraid when it comes to second homes, it reaches the limits of its usefulness, because the town and country planning system manages the use of land rather than the ownership, and I know the Minister for local government has looked into this in depth. I know she's considered whether the land-use planning system has a role in managing the number of second homes as part of a comprehensive review of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987, but I'm afraid that the review identified fundamental practical and legal challenges in defining second homes in planning terms.

Without a clear definition of what a second home is, enforcement would be really difficult and create uncertainty, making planning legislation on this issue ineffective, and that's why we're continuing to explore how we can better define second homes. And I'm afraid that simply changing the use classes Order, which many have suggested, would not be a practical option for managing second homes—partly because we need to differentiate between second homes used principally by their owners and holiday properties let on a commercial basis, because these two distinct uses impact differently on local communities and therefore should be considered separately. 

Potentially, short-term holiday lettings could be managed through the planning system, but that would require changes to primary legislation. The Scottish Government has changed its main planning Act to help address the issue of short-term holiday lets, and we're monitoring this to see what we can learn from them. Clearly, it will be up to political parties to determine what they want to put in their manifestos and what will come next. In a planning sense, we're clear that modifying primary legislation to clarify when a change of use requires planning permission is something that could be considered in the next Senedd term. 

I've also asked the tourism team in the Welsh Government to consider asking if the incoming Government might want to consider setting up a task and finish group to consider the idea of local community groups or councils buying holiday homes in sensitive areas, which they could then rent out and plough the money back into those communities through housing or community schemes, so that it's the communities themselves who would benefit. That's an idea that was initiated by Cynog Dafis recently. These changes, in conjunction with a change to the use classes Order and mandatory registration of short-term lets, which we're actively working on, are something we think could help manage short-term letting. And whilst we've already provided significant flexibility to respond to the myriad issues, we recognise that more needs to be done in this space. But I repeat: there's no single or quick answer to the challenges that we're facing.

We'll continue to work with partners to build on our strong record of fostering affordable housing solutions and identifying the most balanced and, critically, effective actions to current challenges. We're hugely keen to ensure that young people can continue to live in their local communities and strengthen these communities, and that's why one of the things that we've done recently, picking up on the point that was made by Mark Reckless, is to make sure we understand the link between people being able to stay in their local communities and the economy. That's why we had in our economy round-table last week an action plan that's now been developed to address the issue of developing the economy in those rural communities. I think it's very important that we address this issue. We have already started this, but clearly there is more to be done, and I'm sure we'll all want to look at this in the next Senedd term. Diolch yn fawr. 

I now call on Janet Finch-Saunders to reply to the debate.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I wish to thank all Members who have contributed to this debate today and thank the Minister for responding. I also wish to thank the petitioners for using the petitions process to draw attention to something that is a major issue and concern in many parts of Wales. 

Given the very short time left available in this Senedd, it will be a future petitions committee that will consider the petition following today's discussion. And for Members and members of the public's information, this is the thirtieth and final petition that has been debated during this Senedd term. Many of those have taken place since the introduction of a debate threshold in 2017. I, as Chairman of the Petitions Committee, do hope that the ability to directly debate petitions that matter to the people of Wales has been of some value to petitioners, people who have signed petitions and Members of the Senedd over recent years. I want to close by placing on record my thanks on behalf of the Petitions Committee to everyone who has spoken in these debates, and to the Business Committee for supporting us to be able to table them in a timely fashion. I know, given how busy our Senedd agendas are, that this is not always easy. 

Finally, I'd like to thank the clerking team, all the teams that have supported us during the COVID period in terms of the Commission staff and the IT, members of the committee now and previous members of the Petitions Committee—you know who you are—and finally, I thank everyone who has submitted, signed or otherwise provided evidence to the Petitions Committee. I would urge you to continue doing this. I'm a great advocate of the Petitions Committee; I think it's a fantastic mechanism for engagement with the Senedd, or the Welsh Parliament. Keep on doing that. Thank you, diolch. 

Thank you. The proposal is to note the petition. Does any Member object? No, I don't see objections. Therefore, the motion is agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.