ROSC Me�n Fomhair 1972

Welsh housing groups repel English buyers

le P�l � Duibhir
"We are a positive organisation and our aim is to release the crea�tive energies of the people of Wales. The name of our organisa�tion, Adfer, means to restore, and our movement is a form of Welsh Zionism. We are trying to build a. homeland for the Welsh language in West Wales where there are still Welsh-speaking areas."

This is how Emer Llewely de�scribed Adfer, the housing com�pany of which he is secretary. This company is one part of the positive response by Welsh-speak�ing Wales to the threat posed to their language and culture by the invasion of well-off English people from across the border, who are gobbling up property all over Wales, as soon as it appears on the market. Mostly they use the properties for holiday homes in summer, leaving them vacant dur�ing the winter months.

There are three important as�pects of this question in Welsh-speaking areas. English buyers can afford to pay more than local newly-weds, so young couples have to leave the district. Even a small inflow of English can change the language of an area very quickly, particularly if they themselves are not sufficiently involved in the life of the community to make it worth their while to learn Welsh. And finally if a significant pro�portion of houses in any commu�nity are left vacant for long periods during the year, the social fabric of that community is undermined.

A recent report on Holiday Homes by the newly formed Free Press of Cardiff, which describes itself as an independent news ser�vice for Wales, contains the fol�lowing graphic description of the killing of a community.

"In a small village, a house or two falls empty and are snapped up by wealthy outsiders who pop down for the weekends. The eld�erly of the village suffer first; in times of trouble they have no neighbours to look to - only empty second homes, barred up and empty for the winter. Some of these elderly will die from sheer loneliness - and more properties will become vacant. The village becomes a half deserted collection of buildings. Its community spirit is gone. Local traders cannot rely on steady trade and some of them are forced to leave and seek work elsewhere. There is a drop in the number of children attending the local school and it is forced to close. Some parents move - rather than have their children travel miles to school every day; rather than visit the nearest town each time they want meat, now that the mobile butcher no longer finds it worth while to call by. Few people use the local bus now, since there are fewer people left and the bus company reduces its service. That's alright for the second home owner because he owns a car, but it's hard luck on the local resi�dents. Fewer people go to chapel. There are fewer people in the vil�lage. The second home owners have killed a community and re�placed it with empty houses."

There is no comprehensive data on the extent of the problem of second homes in Welsh-speaking areas, but the limited number of studies done so far give cause for grave concern. In the Llyn Rural District, one in six dwellings was a holiday home two or three years ago and the situation has probably deteriorated since. In the Cemaes Rural District, one in six dwell�ings was a holiday home in Feb�ruary of this year, and in smaller local surveys the percentage of houses owned by incomers was as high as 40%; most of these are probably holiday homes.

An aspect of the English inva�sion which is causing great scan�dal and indignation among Welsh-speakers is the fact that it is sub�sidised by the government. Grants can be as high a: three quarters of the cost of modernising homes in development or intermediate areas. The grants come in two layers: standard grants to cover the cost of standard amenities, the councils must pay these if certain condi�tions are met; and improvement grants which are paid at the dis�cretion of the councils. Some councils are already refusing to pay improvement grants to holiday home owners and the Llyn Rural District Council are now refusing to pay even standard grants for holiday homes, and in this they will be breaking the law under the regulations of the 1969 Housing Act.

In an effort to gain wider publicity for the problem, the Welsh Language Society disrupted two property auctions in June of this year. At the first in Caernarfon the auctioneer's table was over�turned and Society members staged a sit-in. The protest was orderly, but there were exag�gerated press reports about vio�lence. Two weeks later a similar auction was disrupted in Pwllheli and the auctioneer said he was not likely to hold a public auction again. Dafydd Iwan, a past chair�man of the Welsh Language Soci�ety, who was involved in both disruptions, said that they had succeeded in drawing attention to the situation.

Behind these flamboyant activities, however, there is a solid base being laid to combat the influence of holiday homes. There are three nationalist housing groups in the field at present, all of them buying up vacant houses in Welsh-speaking areas for letting or resale to Welsh-speakers.

The first of these, Adfer, is organised as a limited company and this allows it a fairly wide field of action. Its secretary, Emer Llewelyn, told me that they had already lent money to set up a Welsh fabrics shop in the main street in Pwllheli, and they have given mortgages and assistance in setting up light industry to Welsh-speakers. Funds are collected through local branches, houses are bought locally and activities are run locally. Emer feels that the only sort of real nationalism is one with local roots. Most of Adfer's staff, including Emer himself, have done time in prison for offences connected in one way or another with the Welsh language.

The second group, Cymdeithas Tai Gwynedd, operates north-west Wales and it is organised as a housing association. Dafydd Iwan, who is on the committee felt that a housing association was the structure most suited to co�operating with local authorities. It does mean that they are restricted to housing matters only, but they can advertise for money. Dafydd feels that when his association and Adfer buy a house in the same area it reinforces the idea in people's minds that something is being done.

The third group, Cymdeithas Tai Clwyd, is at present being regis�tered as a housing association and it will operate in the eastern part of north Wales not covered by either of the other two groups.

Pressure is increasing for legal restrictions on the buying of holi�day homes and the Free Press re�port referred to above suggests the adoption of a system along the lines of the one in operation in Jersey for many years.

"In Jersey all applications to purchase property in the States comes before the States Housing Committee, which is only em�powered to grant permission for purchase to those who are not residents under certain special con�ditions. As a consequence of such rigid control, while the Islands cope with the influx of tourists in summer months, there is al�ways a permanent population on the islands all year round to pre�serve the community."