5. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Second Homes and Affordability

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:21 pm on 23 November 2021.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:21, 23 November 2021

Thank you, Mabon. In terms of whether we can roll the pilot out, we've got to get to the pilot first. One of the things that we will be doing is putting an evaluation contract in place so that we can get the data from that pilot as rapidly as is humanly possible so that we can evaluate what we're seeing from the pilot, the effect it's having, and what we will need to do to adjust it, if anything. Obviously, that data is essential for other communities who are looking on to see whether they want to take part in similar pilots, so I would anticipate that we would get the data coming in pretty swiftly—house price data, occupancy data and so on—and we will be able to use that data to assist other areas to do it.

Assuming the planning consultation allows the use class Order to be changed and any subsequent article for consultation done by a local authority comes out that they would like to do this, there's nothing to stop them doing it. What we're doing in the pilot area is assisting the council to go a little bit faster with that with some additional resource so we can get the information from the pilot. So, we're not putting any barriers in the way of councils doing it; we are assisting Gwynedd, who have been extremely helpful and co-operative in this, and it's been a pleasure to work with them over very many months now in coming to this point, to go a bit faster so that we can get that data in. So, the message there is that it's possible elsewhere, but we're going to assist in a particular area of need.

In terms of all the other provisions, we are of course forging ahead with our building of the 20,000 zero-carbon or low-carbon social homes. We are in conversation with councils in the areas with high levels of second homes to identify land in order to do that and to make sure that our RSLs and stock-owning councils are stepping up to that. I'm really pleased that that's going very well, despite the fact that we have major global supply chain cost increases. So, we've been able to help with that for our SME builders right across Wales to make sure that they stay in business, and to assist with additional moneys into the social housing grant to assist with the supply price inflation issues, which are affecting, as I'm sure every Member of the Senedd knows, all building work, right across the Chamber. 

The last bit was just around what we're doing to make sure that the rented accommodation market recovers in areas of high tourism and second homes. One of the things we're wanting to see in the pilot is whether the registration of holiday lets on the same basis or similar to the Rent Smart Wales arrangements will have an effect on whether people choose to stay in the long-term rented sector or they still want to go across to the holiday lets. So, one of the points of the pilot is to pilot whether we can have an influence on whether people make that decision or not, in order to increase the supply of long-term rented accommodation in large numbers in the particularly beautiful parts of Wales.