A group of activists called ‘Gwynedd Against Article 4’ launched an appeal against introducing the measures in the High Court and on the morning of Wednesday the 24 June a judgement was made by the court stating that Gwynedd Council’s cabinet hadn’t received accurate information before the decision to confirm Article 4. The judge stated that documents circulated to councillors before the vote had “materially misled” them regarding the nature of the measures.
Article 4 was a cornerstone of the Council’s housing strategy, which has seen the authority get to grips with the local housing emergency by increasing council tax on second homes, buying land to build houses and beginning to rebuild council owned social housing stock.
The judge, Mr Ustus Eyre said that a report by Council officers and the information provided by them to cabinet were misleading as Article 4 wasn’t a general measure for all new holiday homes, only for those cases in which change of use is relevant or significant. You can read the Council officers’ report and the documents presented to councillors by following this link. You can read the paper justifying the implementation of Article 4, published in May 2024 by following this link.
In a statement, Councillor Craig ab Iago, Cyngor Gwynedd Environment Cabinet Member said:
“As a Council, we have been determined to do everything in our power to ensure that the people of Gwynedd have access to suitable homes in their communities. To achieve this, we have taken proactive steps including introducing the Article 4 Direction to manage the significant number of homes that are being lost to become second homes or short-term holiday lets.
Research carried out before introducing the Article 4 Direction showed that 65% of Gwynedd households were being priced out of the housing market, with the problem even more prominent in communities where there is a high proportion of holiday homes.
We are extremely disappointed with the judgement and will be proceeding to start the appeal process to defend our decision of introducing the Article 4 Direction in Gwynedd.”
Councillor Nia Jeffreys, Leader of Cyngor Gwynedd said:
“The whole purpose of this measure is to ensure fairness for the people of Gwynedd and the sustainable future of our communities by giving the Council more control and ensuring that decisions reflect local needs.
Everyone has a right to a home in their community, and we will now be carrying out the necessary steps to firmly defend our case through the legal process.”
