Background

Welsh Government has introduced changes to planning legislation so that local councils can manage the effect that second homes and short-term holiday lets have on local communities.

This change in the legislation is know as Article 4 Direction.

Article 4 Direction allows local planning authorities to say that people will need to get planning permission if they want to start using a property as a second home or as a holiday let.

Article 4 Direction on Anglesey

Isle of Anglesey County Council, the local planning authority, has served an Article 4 Direction notice for Anglesey.

LINK TO DOCUMENTS

Public notice: Article 4 Direction

The purpose of the Article 4 Direction is to cancel the right to change of use without planning permission, for:

• change of use of a main residence (use class C3) into a second home (use class C5) or short-term holiday let (use class C6) and specific mixed uses
• change of use of a second home (use class C5) to a short-term holiday let (use class C6) and specific mixed uses
• change of use from a short-term holiday let (use class C6) to a second home (use class C5) and specific mixed uses

Justification report

A report has been prepared to justify introducing the Article 4 Direction on Anglesey. This report can be downloaded on this page.

Support documents

• Impact Assessment on Equality
• Impact Assessments on the Welsh Language and Socio-Economic Disadvantage
• Impact Assessment the Welsh Language (seperate document)

Theses assessments will be modified during the process of preparation and receiving approval of the Article 4 Direction.

Hard copies of documents

All documentation are also available to view as hard copies at Isle ofcAnglesey County Council Headquarters in Llangefni, and in public libraries on Anglesey.

Have your say

The council will have a public consultation on Article 4 Direction on Anglesey.

This consultation will run from 6 January 2025 until 5pm on 17 Februry 2025.

What happens after the consultation

Isle of Anglesey County Council will analyse the feedback from the consultation.

A report will then be sent to the council's Executive Team.

The council will then decide whether it will adopt the Article 4 Direction on Anglesey.

If the council decides to adopt the Article 4 Direction on Anglesey

If the council decides to adopt the Article 4 Direction on Anglesey, it would start on 1 Febraury 2026.

This would mean that from 1 February 2026, people would need to apply for planning permission if they wanted to change the use of their property into:

• a second home
• a short-term holiday let
• specific mixed use

Existing second homes and short-term holiday lets

Article 4 Direction would not be backdated if it was adopted.

Any properties that are already in use as a second home, short term holiday let or specific mixed uses before 1 June 2025 would not be affected by the Article 4 Direction.