WALES: Political Party Makes Housing Key In
Election Campaign
Jan 7 2005
By Tomos Livingstone
Holiday home owners would face a massive tax hike under plans to be unveiled by Plaid Cymru today.
The party wants to scrap the council tax discount for second homes, and allow authorities to charge the owners higher rates possibly up to three times more.
The party plans to make housing one of the key planks of its General Election campaign. It says rising house prices have affected rural Wales particularly badly, with many young people unable to buy homes in their own communities.
The new policy document, The Right to a Home, proposes that:
:: People buying a second home in Wales would not be entitled to the current 50% discount on council tax
:: Councils be given discretion to charge higher rates, of up to 200% of the usual rate, to second home owners.
:: A Land Trust Unit at the Assembly to provide set-up costs and advice to communities wishing to purchase land themselves for housing.
:: Stamp duty overhauled, with the charge scrapped altogether for homes costing below the average house price :: Banks and building societies to be encouraged to offer shared equity mortgages.
Plaid are also launching a two-month consultation to investigate the scale of the housing shortage in rural Wales.
The party currently has four MPs, and is hoping to re-capture Ynys Mon, which it lost to Labour in 2001. A General Election is widely expected in May.
Plaid's parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd said: "The paper launched by Plaid Cymru today sets out a series of radical measures aimed at increasing the supply of affordable homes and social housing in Wales.
"We also propose ways of tackling specific problems such as growing homelessness and the distortions caused by the housing market in culturally endangered rural communities.
"Under our radical stamp duty proposals a family buying an average home in Wales would save £1,400. In contrast, wealthier individuals buying second homes at the same value could be charged more than £11,000 in stamp duty. These bold measures are necessary if we are to get to grips with this urgent crisis, a crisis Plaid Cymru is not afraid to confront head on."
The Meirionnydd Nant Conwy MP added: "Government leadership is essential for action but the inability or unwillingness of the Labour Assembly Government to tackle the issues and give clear leadership is wholly unacceptable."
Labour said Plaid's proposals showed they were "retreating to the margins of politics".
Deputy Social Justice Minister Huw Lewis said: "This is yet another sign of an increasingly desperate, extreme and leaderless party retreating to the margins of Welsh politics. It is a housing policy based on spite.
"Labour in the Assembly is delivering on housing. We are delivering policies designed to improve access to quality housing and to make it easier for the elderly and disabled to remain in their own homes.
"Our social justice budget will increase by £150 million over the next three years, with an extra £16 million each year being allocated to the social housing grant."
The Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney AM added: "Sadly the Nationalists believe that zealously punishing a single group of people will solve all of Wales' housing challenges."