Young people find it hard to get a foot on the property ladder

Scores of people turned up at meetings in north and west Wales on Friday to tell Welsh assembly members that they wanted help to buy homes they could afford.

The assembly's regional committees for both areas had appealed to people in Pwllheli and St David's to attend the first in a series of roadshows designed to explore the problems faced by those struggling to live in rural Wales.

Those taking part included the Welsh language pressure group Cymuned, local councils, the Chartered Institute of Housing, and the Welsh Federation of Housing Associations.

Concerns about young local people being priced out of the market have emerged in many parts of rural Wales.

Points raised in all the regional meetings will be passed on to the assembly's Environment, Planning and Countryside Committee, which has launched an inquiry into the issue.

A similar session will be held for people in mid Wales next week. It will he held at the Metropole Hotel in Llandrindod Wells, on 10 October.

Plaid Cymru north Wales AM Janet Ryder, who chairs the assembly's regional committee for north Wales, had urged people to attend the meeting.

She said: "Young people in north Wales are finding it increasingly difficult to afford to stay in their communities, particularly in areas like Pwllheli and elsewhere in Lleyn, and this is an issue the assembly must tackle."

'Severe crisis'

On Tuesday, Gwynedd council commissioned a report into a scheme to help young people build their own houses by selling them cheap plots of land.

It was the idea of Plaid Cymru councillor Elwyn Edwards, who represents the Llandderfel ward.

Mr Edwards said there was "a severe crisis in the housing market in Gwynedd."

Other areas of rural Wales are affected and a recent survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed that four out of 10 farms sold between April and June 2003 in Wales went to non-farmers.

Unemployment problems, combined with the lack of affordable housing, drives young people away from the communities in which they were brought up.

Farming provides fewer job opportunities in many areas

There is also a knock-on effect on local businesses and services.

Farmers' Union of Wales President Gareth Vaughan said: "There is a danger that essential services such as schools, post offices and local shops all face closure as villages are turned into little more than glorified holiday centres."

Many people throughout rural Wales complain that house prices have risen faster than they can afford.

The RICS survey showed that incomers who were looking to buy for residential and leisure purposes were more likely to inflate the asking price.

A derelict farmhouse in the Preseli mountains, valued by local estate agents at �140,000, went to a family from Surrey for �170,000.

The RIC report said in the three-month period monitored, 39% of Welsh farms sold went to non-farmers.