Holiday lets should be licensed to protect housing stock for local people, says North Wales MS

A North Wales MS has called for holiday lets to be licensed to ensure local people are able to afford to buy a home

Gwynedd Council recently published a report on how it plans to tackle the growing housing crisis, which has seen residents from the area being priced out of the market.

With Scotland about to introduce its own licensing scheme for short term holiday lets, Arfon MS Siân Gwenllian wants Wales to follow suit.

Raising the issue in the Senedd earlier this week, the Plaid Cymru MS said: “Gwynedd Council has published a new housing scheme for the county with a budget of almost £80 million.

“The purpose of the scheme is to respond to the increasing crisis that there is in terms of housing in Gwynedd, placing the pressure on homes for local people, people who are in need, and investment in the local housing stock for the future.

“But as another step to respond to the crisis, Plaid Cymru wants to see every holiday unit in the short term receiving a licence before being available to let, ensuring planning permission in some areas.

“Scotland is about to have those powers through transferring them to the local authorities.

“Do you agree with me that we need a similar scheme here in Wales to prevent the loss of more of the housing stock from local hands?

“Gwynedd Council has found that 92 per cent of people in Abersoch have been priced out of the market.”

Housing Minister Julie James agreed it was something which should be considered, and said the Welsh Government would monitor the impact of the Scottish legislation.

But she sounded a note of caution over damaging the region’s tourism industry.

She said: “I’m very happy to look with Gwynedd at reviewing a number of other issues that the local authority could do and we’re keen to take forward what can be done without the use of primary legislation.

“Siân will be aware—as well as all other Members of the Senedd—of the difficulty of getting any legislation through in this Senedd term now as a result of pressures on resourcing as a result of Covid-19, Brexit and the shortness of the timescale.

“But I’m very happy to look with the cross-party group at the recommendations of the report in Gwynedd.

“I’m as anxious as she is to do something about the increasing difficulties of parts of Wales where they’re very beautiful, so more and more people want to come and either live there or stay there on a longer-term basis.

“Having said that, of course we want to ensure that the tourism industry, which is very, very important to Wales, is also resilient and sustainable, especially after the battering they’ve all had this year.

“It is a question of balance as always, but I absolutely accept that Gwynedd in particular has a real problem with the numbers of people who come into the county looking for lovely holidays.”