Stark warning over second homes blight

“ABERSOCH yesterday, Morfa Nefyn today” was the stark warning of one councillor as the Welsh Government was urged to intervene in Gwynedd’s second homes “crisis.”

Thursday saw the authority unanimously back Cllr Gruff Williams’ motion calling for stricter measures, including making it compulsory for planning permission to be in place before anyone can turn a house into a holiday home.

While such a move would require changes to the existing planning act, member after member raised concern over the impact on communities across the county, which was said to have worsened in the wake of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown.

The Welsh Government says it’s currently looking at the implications of more stringent rules when it comes to holiday homes, studying the results of such action on areas both in Europe and elsewhere in the British Isles where stricter guidelines are already in place.

Morfa Nefyn councillor Gareth Tudor Morris Jones painted a bleak vision of the future, claiming that many locals would be forced to become tourists in their own square mile unless action was taken.

“We’re told that the Welsh Government’s research will take time, but time is not on our side and the clock is ticking,” he said.

“Morfa Nefyn, Edern and Nefyn are changing, these villages are changing and turning into Abersoch.

“They are under siege from outside developers and people from Cheshire and Lancashire, they are snapping up every available house for big money and transforming them into second or even third homes.

A Welsh Government spokesman said that they recognised the challenges second homes present to the affordability and availability of housing in some communities in Wales, adding that the law makes a “clear distinction” between properties used as second homes and those used as self-catering accommodation.”