Last summer, it was reported that almost 40 per cent of properties sold in Gwynedd in the year to April 2020 were purchased as second homes, but strong anecdotal evidence indicates that this resulted from a disproportionately large number of existing second homes on the market. When I previously asked the Welsh Government what analysis it had therefore undertaken to establish whether this was a representative sample, they replied 'none'. The need for local people to be able to access quality affordable housing in holiday home hotspots is not a new issue; the same applied when my family sold our holiday home in Abersoch half a century ago, and holiday homes still in use as holiday homes today were built there in increasing volumes from the late nineteenth century. With many owners not only connected to local people economically but also through personal friendship and even marriage—and I speak from personal experience here—taxing holiday hotspot second home owners simply displaces ownership to wealthier second home owners or onerous registration with a valuation office agency as legitimate holiday lets.

Following the Welsh Government's massive cuts in social housing grant, the Assembly's north Wales regional committee met in Pwllheli in October 2003—18 years ago—to take evidence from local people on the affordable housing crisis in communities there—