The Welsh Assembly has been told it should intervene to ensure that housing remains affordable for local people in rural house price hotspots.
Giving evidence to a key Welsh Assembly inquiry into the supply of rural housing, a planning expert called for the extensive use of section 106 agreements to curb the purchase of new developments in rural hotspots by people from outside the areas.

Nic Wheeler, the long-serving chief executive of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, told the inquiry that the aim should be to create "parallel markets" in affected areas in Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia.

As long as the local authority ensured properties remained affordable when they were sold on, "it would reduce the [cost] of these properties [to locals] by about 30%", Wheeler told the assembly's environment, planning and countryside committee.

The issue of the affordability of rural housing for local residents has become heavily politicised in Wales, and the outcome of the inquiry is certain to be closely watched by councils and associations in other high-demand areas of rural Britain. In 2001, the average house price in Wales was £79,900.

The inquiry will continue into the new year.

Source

Housing Today