Activists and patriots from Alba, Eire, Cymru, Mannin and Kernow join in sending a message to governments

We thank 'Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg' and 'The National' for coordinating the following information:

"The rural housing crisis is threatening our future, claim activists from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man and Cornwall who have united in a cross-border plea over the survival of Celtic languages.

In an appeal aimed at authorities in each of those countries and territories, culture groups say housing market pressures and public policy is putting their languages at stake.

These include Scots Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Manx and Cornish.

They have drawn up a Celtic Charter that asserts a “right to a home” for speakers of these languages in their geographical heartlands. However, they say high costs and the proliferation of holiday lets in rural areas means the tongues themselves may soon be driven from those areas.

It includes 11 different demands, including the introduction of a “punitive tax” on homes used for Airbnb lets, a statutory cap on the proportion of second or holiday homes within communities, rent management to match local earnings and “specific supports for minority language speakers to remain in their communities”.

According to the Charter, these are issues that cross Celtic regions. It states: “We as organisations representing the minority languages of the Celtic nations, declare that urgent action must be taken. The damage done to our languages and their communities must be undone – including in some areas where our languages are no longer spoken.

“Homelessness is increasing, with more and more people unable to afford to live in their native areas. We regret that this is a result of the policies of the devolved and central governments. They include austerity and decades of economic inequality that disadvantage our rural communities.

“We therefore call on our governments to adopt a series of policies to ensure that the people who live and work here ... can afford to stay in their communities.”

Those measures should include:

*cap the percentage of second or holiday homes within a community;

*changing the definition of affordable housing and managing rent prices so that they are affordable to people on local wages

*further regulating and introducing a punitive tax on the use of houses primarily or exclusively for AirBnB, including defining the use of houses or flats as a whole as second homes or AirBnB

*develop a strategic plan for housing and tourism in rural areas to counter the fact that many houses have been taken out of the locally available housing stock

*devolve planning powers, including setting housing targets, to the most appropriate local level, and require that language planning is mandatory;

*close any weaknesses or loopholes in the law that allow taxes to be avoided

*property legislation to control prices, specific supports for minority language speakers to remain in their communities and to ensure the use of empty and existing housing before new development is undertaken

*return social housing stock to public ownership, return underused stock to public ownership, and all ‘new builds’ to include a major element of public ownership

*a tax on landlords' profits to invest in bringing empty and second homes back into use for communities and those who live and work in them

*incentives to renovate and / or build sustainable housing in terms of material and method of construction;

*penalties for refusal to let property to members of disadvantaged communities such as travellers or refugees.

Link to the Charter written in five Celtic Languages and English: https://cymdeithas.cymru/siartertai?fbclid=IwAR2A8h77KTjNuBy4cBHSlpe0s2HFpvktqdHLqmldLtOvg9Hp8mFPuWVj1ck

Link to news in 'The National': https://www.thenational.scot/news/18717044.ongoing-rural-housing-crisis-a-threat-celtic-languages/?fbclid=IwAR0XsmoyZJWJaakMXogzjVwvc8qpwaqJdaChLcZo7W5uLtppir-0LTGezVE