20th
Oct 2022
The Conservative’s Shadow Housing Minister Janet Finch-Saunders slams the Welsh Government’s recently introduced measures to curb the ‘explosion’ of second homes as “a tsunami driving landlords to sell up”.
The Welsh Conservative Senedd Member for Aberconwy also said part of the Welsh government’ cooperation deal with Plaid Cymru to drastically reduce holiday homes across the country, will only cause the ever decreasing number of private rental properties.
Finch-Saunders has worked with a Welsh landlord association compiling a set of figures which revealed that 26.8 per cent of landlords have sold properties in the last 12 months, 49 per cent have said they will be following suit and selling a property in the next twelve months.
Following the Welsh government’s consultation, as from April next year local councils will be able to set a 300 per cent council tax premium on second homes and long-term empty properties. Self-catering accommodation liability for business rates instead of council tax will also change at the same time, from 70 to 182 days.
Over the past year the number of landlord repossessions increased and between April to June this year there were 150, whereas in the last quarter of 2021 it was 78.
Mrs Finch-Sanders says: “There are communities such as Caernarfon and Bangor in Gwynedd, Llangefni and Holyhead in Anglesey, and Milford Haven and Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, where providing a sufficient supply of rented accommodation is more important than limiting the numbers of second homes.
“The anti-multiple ownership policies stemming out of the Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour cooperation government are driving private landlords out of the sector.
“At a time when residents are waiting years on housing lists, the spend on temporary accommodation is sky-rocketing, and not enough houses are being built, Wales needs to retain a strong rented accommodation sector.
“For years, I have warned the Welsh Government that this key component of our diverse property market was going to collapse, and now we have it.
“Welsh Government policy is acting as a tsunami driving landlords to sell up, repossess, and as such reduce the number of homes available on the market.”
Last month published figures revealed that Pembrokeshire Council raised £5.84 million, Anglesey and Gwynedd and Powys raised over £4m each by introducing council tax premium on second homes/houses and empty homes between 2017 and 2019.
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