Affordable housing: ‘Why should I leave Penmachno to buy a home?’

For Meinir Hughes, Penmachno is more than a beautiful village in the Snowdonia national park - it is home.

The 33-year-old primary school teacher has been trying to buy a house in the village for over eight years.

“I want to stay here in Penmachno and I just can’t afford a house here,” she said.

According to research carried out last year by Conwy council, 88 out of the 390 homes in the village - 23% - were second homes or holiday homes.

“I want to be independent and have my home and I don’t see why I should have to move from the village I was born in to do that,” Ms Hughes said.

Local councils currently have powers to issue additional taxes on second home owners but do not have the right to stop residents turning their homes into places to rent.

Conwy council has introduced a 25% premium on council tax for second homes in April 2019 but concern has been raised that a rising numbers of second homes are being designated as businesses, meaning owners pay no council tax at all.

Homes designated as businesses pay no local taxes, as long as their holiday home is let for 70 days a year and available to let for 140 days.

As small businesses, many are also exempt from paying business rates.

Conwy council said it would be seeking to bring forward a policy in its new local development plan to “control the concentration where negative impact is apparent”.

Sioned Davies works full time and has been saving for more than a year - but she cannot find a home in the village either.

“They are all just about over £200,000 and I can’t afford that,” she said.

“A lot [of people] from big cities see a house for £100,000 or £150,000 and think it’s cheap, but for us it’s expensive”.

Eryl Owain, deputy chairman of Bro Machno Community Council said the effect could be widespread.

“The visual impact is that the village is empty - but the social impact is that it drains the village,” he said.

“There are families that want to reside here but can’t.”

The Welsh Government said it understood second homes could have a negative effect on the local area but insisted it was on target to deliver 20,000 new additional affordable homes by the end of the current assembly term in 2021.