Monmouthshire County Council

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 26 October 2022.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 1:39, 26 October 2022

I'm grateful to John Griffiths for raising this issue, and I do recognise what he says in terms of property prices being higher than average in Monmouthshire, and there obviously are links between job opportunities and higher house prices. But property prices can be skewed, of course, by second home ownership and also by a significant number of short-term holiday lets in an area, which is why the work that we're doing in partnership with Plaid Cymru to address the second home challenges is really important, and will have an impact, I think, in Monmouthshire.

But, of course, it's important that there is good-quality social housing and affordable private rental sector housing available in these areas, and schemes such as that which you've described, which I know has now been confirmed by Monmouthshire County Council's new administration, are exactly the sort of ambition that this Welsh Government wants to see in terms of fulfilling our citizens' needs. So, I can reassure John Griffiths that I and my colleague the Minister for Climate Change will absolutely be keen to support Monmouthshire in their ambitions.