Firebombing threat to Welsh holiday homes

SECOND home owners in rural Wales could be targeted by a new firebombing campaign amid anger about the soaring cost of housing, it has been claimed.

Such attacks were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s by extremists in the Welsh nationalist movement Meibion Glyndwr hoping to force out English owners.

Now North Wales councillor Craig ab Iago has warned he has heard ‘even middle class and comfortably off people talking about this being an answer’.

A trend for rising house prices has been worsened in rural and coastal areas of Wales by demand for holiday homes.

But Mr ab Iago, a member of Plaid Cymru and housing spokesman at Gwynedd Council, said more housebuilding was needed to tackle price rises.

He said: ‘We need homes, not our homes being burnt down and people ending up in jail. That is where we are at but torching houses is not the answer.

‘The real issue across all areas is a lack of affordability in the market – every area in the UK is affected in different ways.’

The Labour-run Welsh government has put forward measures such as allowing local authorities to increase council tax premiums to 300 per cent in a bid to mitigate demand for second homes.