The first study into how holiday home sales are pricing out local communities in some areas of Wales is due to be published this week, commissioned by the assembly. It found that just one in three Welsh councils have up-to-date information on housing need.
“Some areas are trying to draw up policies without any data or evidence,” said the report’s author, Mark Tewdwr-Jones of University College London.
“They might say ‘we need more affordable housing’ but they don’t know where to put it or how many to build.”
His report says issues such as affordable housing provision, language protection schemes, retirement migration, commuting distances and transport links must be addressed.
The number of holiday or second homes in Wales dropped from 22,000 in 1991 to around 19,500 in 2001.
But Tewdwr-Jones said: “The national figure doesn’t say anything at all about the impact that can be felt in a community. Our report also plotted hotspots where the number of second homes could be 20-30% of the total stock.” Hotspots included Gwynedd, the Llyn Peninsula, Anglesey, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion – all coastal areas.
The national parks in Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia were also heavily affected.
The report recommends that councils using existing powers such as planning gain, language protection policies and housing, need more effective studies, rather than to call for new legislation.
Gwynedd councillor Simon Glyn said: “Second homes are not the problem they were 20 years ago.
“The competition for housing now is between English people who want to buy a holiday home and English people who want to come here to live.”
He urged the assembly to “grasp the nettle” and confront the fact that in some areas house prices were beyond the reach of local people. He also called for research into what was causing young people to leave Gwynedd.
Source
Housing Today
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