Caernarfon: Rally held for action on housing ‘crisis’ in Wales

Around 1,000 people attended a rally to call for further action on affordable housing in Wales on Monday.

Activists say legislation is needed to ensure people aren’t priced out of their communities by a lack of affordable homes.

The rally was held outside Caernarfon Castle, where King Charles III was made Prince of Wales back in 1969.

The Welsh government said it is taking “radical action” to deal with a “complex set of issues” around housing.

Organisers asked attendees to commit to the future of their communities, by sending a message to the Minister for Climate Change Julie James, to demand new laws to treat homes as social assets.

“Since this campaign has been running the last two years, our government in Cardiff Bay has taken action against the extreme concentration of holiday homes and holiday accommodation,” said Ffred Ffransis, of Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg.

“Now, they’re taking action on fair rent, which is all to the good.

“But we need to go to the root of the problem, (which) is the open housing market which distributes houses according to how much money can be made out of them, rather than according to social need.”

Mr Ffransis, whose group organised the rally, added: “We’re calling for a property act for Wales which will treat housing as a social asset which will provide homes for our people and sustainable communities.”

Wallis George, former chief executive of housing association Grwp Cynefin and Tai Eryri, said after the rally that the ability of local people to access suitable homes was “worse” than he could recall from his 35 years of working in the housing association sector.

“We having a genuine housing crisis here in Wales and housing prices and the Welsh government needs to act and act immediately within this parliamentary term in the Senedd,” he said.

Last year, the Welsh government announced councils would be given the ability to control the number of second homes and holiday lets.

New rules were also announced that meant local authorities could charge up to a 300% premium on second homes.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “We are taking radical action using the planning, property and taxation systems to achieve this, as part of a joined-up package of solutions to a complex set of issues.

“We are also committed to publishing a white paper on the potential to establish a system of fair rents as well as new approaches to make homes affordable for those on local incomes.”