As second homes are impacting many communities in Wales, we decided that this would be the focus of our first inquiry as a committee. One of the main aims of our work was to examine the recommendations made by Dr Simon Brooks in his report, 'Second homes: Developing new policies in Wales', and the Welsh Government's response to those proposals. We made 15 recommendations in our report, and we are pleased that 14 have been accepted in full and one accepted in principle by the Welsh Government.

We know that addressing the issue of second homes is a priority for the Welsh Government and that a lot of work is already happening. During our inquiry, the Minister confirmed that a phased pilot scheme would be run in Dwyfor, Gwynedd, in order to test a number of interventions. We welcome that pilot and think that a proper evaluation of the measures being trialled there will be key to understanding whether these measures should be rolled out to other parts of our country. We are pleased that the Minister has committed to updating the Senedd every six months on the pilot and its effectiveness. We also welcome the Minister's confirmation that the pilot will be subject to a robust independent evaluation.

We believe it's important to be able to distinguish between holiday lets and second homes for personal use. We therefore welcome the Welsh Government's new use-class definitions, as we believe these provide an opportunity for greater consistency. Combined with a registration or licensing scheme for holiday accommodation, this can ensure a clear distinction is drawn between property types.

We heard a lot of evidence on the economic benefits of tourism to Wales, particularly in rural and coastal areas where many people rely on the tourism and hospitality industries for their livelihoods. However, it is important that the economic benefits are not outweighed by the negative impacts of second homes and short-term lets. The visitor economy is vital to Wales. It is therefore important that interventions aimed at protecting communities are targeted correctly to prevent unintended consequences.

We recommended that the evaluation of the Dwyfor interventions should include assessing the impact on tourism. In response, the Minister has said that, where feasible, the independent evaluation will include that impact, and that further exploratory work will take place to determine how this will be done. I would like to re-emphasise the importance of assessing the impact on the visitor economy to ensure that the many jobs reliant upon it are protected.

Much of the evidence we received placed second homes within a wider discussion about the availability of affordable housing. That is a problem across Wales, but coastal and rural areas have the additional issue of second homes to contend with. It is clear that a lack of affordable homes is an issue making some people, particularly young people, move away from the communities where they have grown up, and live further from their families and support networks. With fewer people of working age living in these areas, we are concerned that a dwindling workforce is impacting the ability of employers across public and private sectors to fill essential roles. Communities need people in order to survive. If high numbers of homes within towns and villages lie empty for large parts of the year, it is inevitable that a lack of customers will force businesses to close during the quieter periods, leaving remaining residents without those amenities.

We believe that increasing the availability of affordable housing is key to preventing the disappearance of sustainable, living communities. The Welsh Government is committed to delivering 20,000 new low-carbon social homes for rent across Wales, but building new homes isn’t the only solution. There are over 22,000 empty properties across our country. Bringing those back into use will make a significant contribution, so we would like to see greater progress being made. Our predecessor committee reported on this particular issue in October 2019, and the Minister has committed to providing an update on those recommendations by December this year.

The impact of second homes on the Welsh language was another key consideration of our work. We are concerned by the evidence that high numbers of second homes, particularly in Welsh-speaking heartlands, are having a detrimental impact on the number of Welsh speakers and the viability of Welsh as a community language in those areas. We therefore welcome the establishment of the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities by the Welsh Government and its aim of making recommendations to strengthen policy in relation to the linguistic sustainability of communities. We’re pleased that the commission will be analysing the results of the 2021 census and other data, and that the work will involve analysing correlations between the density of second homes in communities and the number of Welsh speakers.

Llywydd, this is a very important issue to us, and particularly to people living in rural and coastal communities. We will be returning to this important issue during the term of this sixth Senedd to see how interventions have progressed. Diolch yn fawr.