Welsh language groups unite to fight homes crisis in heartlands

international | environment | news report Monday August 04, 2003 23:20 by Dafydd Meirion

Two of the groups campaigning for the survival of the Welsh language will join forces to draw attention to the housing crisis in the language’s heartlands. During Wales’ leading cultural festival and one of the biggest in Europe, the National Eisteddfod, which is on from 2nd to the 9th August, Cymuned (Community) and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society) will come together for the first time to mount a joint protest on the Eisteddfod field. According to the joint organisers, the purpose of the protest is ‘to draw attention to the housing crisis that is undermining communities across Wales, and to stress certain steps the Welsh Assembly Government could take to get to grips with the problem’.

The two groups decided to organise a joint protest following the announcement by Edwina Hart, the Assembly’s Housing Minister, that no additional funding would be available for the Homebuy Scheme. This is the scheme that was set up with the object of helping families to buy houses in their own communities.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith has been in existence since the mid-1960s and was set up in response to the nationalist party Plaid Cymru’s failure to act on behalf of the language. After successful campaigns during the 60s, 70s and 80s where they forced the British Government to provide bilingual road signs, official documents and forms and eventually the establishing of a Welsh-language television channel, it has been in decline. Cymuned was established three years ago specifically to try and protect Welsh-speaking communities from the threat of migration from England. Many of Cymuned’s members are former members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith during its heyday and it is considered better funded and better organised than the mainly student-based Cymdeithas yr Iaith.

‘By failing to provide more finance for this scheme, the Labour Government has refused to take one of the simplest possible steps towards easing the housing crisis in Wales. This is a clear sign of a lack of sufficient will, on their part, to ensure a sustainable future for our Welsh-speaking communities’ said to Eurolang a spokesperson on behalf of the organisers.

Cymuned and Cymdeithas yr Iaith believe that a substantial increase is needed in the budget currently provided for the Homebuy Scheme. At present the budget is so limited that it has very little effect in some areas. Furthermore, there is a need for sufficient resources to enable housing associations to buy houses on sale in village and town centres in order to let them to local families at a fair rent.

‘The problem of the threat to the Welsh language's existence is a multi-faceted one, and it is therefore natural that the campaign for Welsh-speaking communities involves a number of different groups, each with its own particular emphasis and methods’ says Wyn Hobson, a spokesman for Cymuned, to Eurolang.

‘But some matters are so central to the problem that campaigning about them is common to several groups by now. The crisis in the housing market is the most important of these at the present time - and it is therefore just as natural a development that Cymuned and Cymdeithas yr Iaith should come together to demonstrate their condemnation of the Government's inertia in this matter’.

‘The fact that Ceredigion Council [in Welsh-speaking west Wales] has set aside as much as 80% of its Social Housing Grant allocation for 2002/03 to finance the Homebuy Scheme speaks volumes. There is every reason to believe that the present level of expenditure on the scheme is insufficient to meet all the needs of people who are on incomes just above the average but who can still not pay the asking prices without assistance’.

Huw Lewis, on behalf of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, said to Eurolang that ‘There is no doubt that the need for action is urgent. According to the Principality Building Society's latest figures, house prices across Wales have increased by almost 20% over the past year - an increase from £73,000 to £87,000 in the average price. When we consider that wages in Wales are low - about 14% lower than the UK average - it is no surprise that local people are being priced out of the market.

‘In the face of such a competitive housing market, and local people's inability to hold their own in it, one would expect a responsible Government to do its best to help. Nevertheless, Edwina Hart has refused even to call for an increase in the budget for the Homebuy Scheme.

‘These are all entirely practical steps that could be implemented within a few months, and which would undoubtedly contribute positively towards improving the situation. Calls for this have been made many times by Cymdeithas yr Iaith and Cymuned, and indeed this is the call that will form the basis of the protest being arranged by the two organisations on the Friday afternoon of the Eisteddfod’.