Gwynedd’s housing crisis is immoral
Craig ab Iago
As former housing leader at Gwynedd, I first used the term “housing crisis” at Gwynedd back in 2020.
It all began when I saw a house for sale in my locality, Llanllyfni, on sale for £400,000. It was being marketed as a house near Abersoch.
It rang alarm bells in my mind. The average wage of a Llanllyfni resident at the time was around £23,000. It was obviously not being targeted towards the local market.
Crisis
As Plaid Cymru Gwynedd councillors we’d always worked on strategies around
housing, but this catapulted the issue as we branded the situation a housing crisis.
Funnily enough, when I began the research to the background context of housing in north Wales, I saw that Cornwall was going through a similar problem.
St Ives Town Council had recently been in the media trying to tackle the second home crisis in their area. When I rang a housing officer at Cornwall Council to learn more, a local lad from Meirionnydd answered the phone and we began an enthusiastic dialogue.
A cutting arrived via email from that officer taken from The Guardian newspaper in 1972 showing an image of his grandparents as one of the last local families to leave the village of Rhyd in Gwynedd.
The houses in the village that sits between Maentwrog and Llanfrothen during those 1970s had become second homes.
Looking at the history of second homes in Gwynedd, I then found that former Plaid Cymru MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Elfyn Llwyd had been introducing private member bills in the House of Commons decades earlier.
Sad story
I quickly realised that my situation in Llanllyfni was not new, it was just the latest chapter in this sad story.
Housing was then catapulted as a major priority for us in Gwynedd. Did you know that 65.5% of Gwynedd residents cannot afford a single home in Gwynedd.
40% of all homes currently on the market are not bought as a primary residence. This situation is immoral.
You may not be aware that there are two elements to housing. The first is supply, which is the actual houses available for people to live in. Gwynedd now has a strong £190m ‘Housing Action Plan’ with great progress being made.
The other element is managing the housing demand, and that’s where planning comes in. Over the years Gwynedd has been innovative in the use of various tools available to create a level playing field for local people keen to get onto the housing ladder.
I am now the cabinet member with responsibility for planning. We’re the only council in Wales to introduce Article 4, which means that property owners will now need to request planning permission in order to change the use of their home from a primary residence to a second house or holiday home.
Beautiful
That should improve the number of houses available for people wanting to live in their local area.
Abersoch, Aberdaron, Botwnnog, Llanengan and Tudweiliog on the north west coast of Gwynedd now have 90% and 96% of local people unable to afford to buy houses in these villages and hamlets.
We know that these areas are beautiful places. But houses with price tags of well over a million pounds, will never be affordable for local people.
We need thriving communities with youngsters feeding the local schools, families working within the local economy and supporting vibrant local businesses.
That is how we create a prosperous community with housing, work, education, leisure, language, culture and heritage forming the cornerstone of our society. We continue in our quest!
Penygroes County Councillor, Craig ab Iago, is Gwynedd’s cabinet member for environment.
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Ah…A very sensible post indeed. Article 4 should be demanded in all sales of homes that are not primary used. I ask the question, why have our Senedd not ensured that Article 4 is used in all sales – not much to ask is it?
I think this would be detrimental to the rental market in other parts of Wales. Many people, especially the types we want in Wales need (e.g young, professionals) need the fleixibility to rent.
But of course, a lot of current politicians own rental properties (including the leader of one party!), so they wouldn’t touch this issue!
I do take your point…but, it would not be difficult to amend article 4 to take abnormalities into account rather than a one size fits all approach?
How does Article 4 negatively affect the rental market? Someone renting a property is still using it as their main residence.
Fair point and dumb comment, apologies! (I blame it on my prescription drugs!)
Having lived in rural Wales, lack of rental properties is a genuine concern. My local estate agent had a queue of 26 renters seeking accommodation, when I last spoke to her. this is partly due to second homes, but also gvmt policy.
I also think different measures are needed in different parts of Wales. Flintshire, e.g. also has challenges, but of a different sort, which needs different measures.
There are multiple problems contributing to the shortage of rental properties but I suspect the main issue is the massive jump in interest rates combined with HMRC removing tax relief on mortgage interest that together made it unprofitable to be an amateur landlord.
It’s a matter of balance, not something many want to know in todays self centred society. £23k pa salary is too low, but the reality it that tourism is a huge and growing industry and Gogledd Cymru is a beautiful area where people want to be. Controlled tourism creates and supports many other new enterprises with improved salaries for employees. The old industries have provided thousands of properties that still exist, though many are empty and require renovation. So the council should be focussing on supporting those working towards a mortgage who buy properties that require financial support to renovate.… Read more »
The council, Cyngor Gwynedd, does provide grants, up to £20,000, to people who are renovating empty homes.
I’ve never met Craig ab Iago, but he comes across as someone who could add a lot to the Senedd. He comes across as very measured, does his research and doesn’t seem to simplify complex social challenges for social media clips (a habit of so many MSs). In my view, Cyngor Gwynedd have led the way in reducing demand for second homes, but more importantly, they’ve been planning to build new affordable housing, which is somethin I don’t think they don’t get much credit for. A stronger national plan for housing in this area ahead of the next election could… Read more »
£50 per hour tradesmen should have no problem…
How many tradesmen per million pound house, how many such houses in the many holiday villages around Gwynedd’s coast. Then go up through the professions, this is non-stop… We are talking millions of pounds in wages and charges…This has been going a long time…pre war, post war, 50’s 60’s and on, many were filling their boots with English cash and turning coastal farms into vast caravan sites…it is impossible to have an honest conversation on this subject unless one is advanced in years… Rhyd in Flames, end of the Seventies?, early wildfire…we went up to give a hand, one crazy… Read more »
Maybe this wasn’t a wildfire but a ‘come home to a real fire’ that took out acres of hill top…!
He must be doing a good job because the serious (racism and murder) crime rate has fallen in Penygroes…
The real issue is having more jobs locally, especially better paid jobs. We’d all like to live in a nice area, unfortunately houses in nice areas are more expensive. It is a combination of better paid jobs and new affordable housing (that can’t be sold on to people from outside the area) that is required.
Popular areas (rather than “nice” areas) are more expensive due to the demand aspect mentioned in the article. The other factor affecting price is supply. That’s why having houses not available for use as a main residence pushes the prices even higher.
Having lived most of my life in Gwynedd I’ve been aware of the housing problem for a long time and everyone else who was involved in Welsh politics knew about it too. I was hopeful that devolution would give WG powers to address the problem . AS house prices have risen the situation for young people has become dire. Article 4 should have been implemented about 20 years ago. WG like Scotland has rejected “right to buy” so why wouldn’t it implement Article 4 or similar years ago when it could have made a difference.
I agree. I don’t object to Article 4 or Council tax premiums; but it all has the resounding feeling of being too little, too late. It fails the acid test of making homes more affordable for local people as Mr ab Iago effectively concedes.
What do you propose instead? Buy a DeLorean?
Address the real issue – lack of affordable housing supply. Start by reforming the NIMBY friendly Welsh planning system – this site regularly features ridiculous examples of schemes being turned down or “consulted” upon until the proposers give up.
It’s the second homers and incomer or returner retirees that are objecting to affordable home developments. No real community objects to having somewhere affordable for their young people to live. Putting unlimited power into the hands of developers can’t be the answer unless you imagine a Costa Del Cymru future for Wales. We need communities that aren’t hollowed out by empty homes. Those communities will naturally make better decisions for the community.
Disagree. Communities are being hollowed out by, er, communities. And self interest. It is convenient to blame developers, retirees, the English and so on. But the reality is very different.
It is impossible to have an honest conversation unless one has had a life of seven decades and been part of the process and seen the understandable self interest but for political career purposes it has had to remove much truth to create their case after two generations of their families have become minted…