Welsh campaigners have gathered to protest the country’s housing ‘tragedy’
The Welsh Language Society have taken a stand in a bid to protest against second homes and holiday homes invading the country’s community.
Cymdeithas yr laith, the Welsh Language Society, is attempting to dampen the demand for property hotspots, as hundreds of campaigners marched through Llanrwst this month. The society have begun protesting after recent research revealed young Welsh nationals were leaving the country to find work as they can no longer afford to live there.
In May 2022, The National reported that by 2043, the Welsh Government estimates that 16–64-year-olds could only make up 58% of the population if young people continue to move away and more older people come to the country to retire.
In response to this, the government have introduced measures to ensure second homes do not become the norm, including allowing councils to increase land transaction taxes and classify property types to make it harder to use local homes as second homes or holiday lets.
Robar Idris, Chairman of Cymdeithas yr Laith, said: ‘It is campaigners that have ensured new powers for councils to reduce the impact of second homes, but housing problems involve more than second homes and holiday homes.
‘Losing young people from our communities because they cannot afford to live there, and because there is no work from them, is a tragedy. We must counteract the capitalist forces that facilitate and accelerate the decline that makes our communities less viable.
‘We must keep the Welsh language as a community language in its traditional strongholds, and develop the confidence of our people to extend the Welsh language to the areas where it is less widely spoken.’
After the recent Census results were published, the society says the number of Welsh speakers in Conwy fell from 29.2 per cent in 2011 to 25.9 per cent in 2021, suggesting that more work needs to be done to keep more Welsh nationals in the country rather than older people migrating to Wales to retire.