MORE than 1,000 people formed a 600-metre chain near the iconic site of Capel Celyn village on Saturday in protest against the worsening housing crisis in Welsh-speaking communities.

The demonstration, held at Tryweryn dam under the banner of “Nid Yw Cymru Ar Werth!” (“Wales is Not For Sale!”), was called to demand urgent action from the Welsh government over the worsening crisis in north and west Wales.

Recent research shows that in Dwyfor Meirionnydd, the consituency in which the protest was held, almost half of the houses sold in the last year were purchased as holiday homes.

“Since Covid, people have been buying houses they’d never visited,” said community activist Menna Machreth.

“Whole terraces have been bought for Airbnb. Sellers are told that they can receive a higher price if properties are advertised over in Chester.”

Responding to recent Welsh government proposals to tackle the problem, she asked why it had not taken more radical steps to limit holiday homes, such as those being implemented in Cornwall, the Lake District and Scotland. 

The government said it was “working at speed” for “sustainable solutions to what are complex issues.”

Protesters heard testimony on behalf of Elfed Wyn, who was self-isolating, of houses in Trawsfynydd going for exhorbitant sums in low-wage areas.

“There is an attack in progress by a capitalist housing market on our communities,” asserted Cian Ireland, who was a local Labour candidate in the recent Welsh parliamentary elections.

Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru member of the Welsh Parliament for Meirionydd, said: “Local government must be given the power to place a cap on the proportion of holiday homes in an area.”

Concluding, Cymdeithas chair Mabli Siriol Jones asserted: “Houses must not be used to make profit but to create homes for communities.”

Capel Celyn was flooded in 1965 to create a reservoir in order to supply Liverpool and Wirral with water for industry — an act carried out against the political will of the Welsh people.