"Give councils the power to stop second home sales"

10.40.47am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 17th Jan 2007

Welsh Liberal Democrat AM for Brecon and Radnorshire, Kirsty Williams, has called for a clampdown on second home sales.

Across the UK there are 185,000 unoccupied second homes and holiday residences, mainly in rural areas, where local people are found still renting homes at ages when they could be expected to have entered the housing market.

Ms Williams said: "I want communities to have as much power as possible to ensure a sufficient supply of affordable housing in their area. Councils should have the opportunity to prevent the sales of properties as second homes. By requiring buyers of second homes to apply for planning permission for change of use - where councils wish to use this power - we can help stop houses being priced out of the reach of local people and prevent the spread of unoccupied homes.

"We should also give councils the power to suspend the Right-to-buy. To promote the supply of affordable rented housing, I would expect this to happen initially in areas where the affordable housing crisis is at its worst, and for a specified period of time. Where councils are reluctant to do this, we should encourage the withdrawal of discounts on the Right-to-buy to allow local authorities to impose local occupancy conditions on sales."