English speakers are being restricted from new homes in Welsh villages under council plans.
Trefor and Llanaelhaearn community council has said it will only back plans for a new housing development if people who are “able to speak Welsh” are prioritised.
The housing plans are for 15 “affordable” homes in the village of Trefor, in the north west of Wales.
The community council, during a consultation said it wanted to take the “golden opportunity” to impose a Welsh language condition to ensure the community is “balanced”.
Reform Wales, however, argued that homes should be open to all Welsh people, regardless of “whether they speak Welsh or English”.
Gwynedd, the region in which Trefor is, has a population of 120,000 people and according to the 2021 Census, it has the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in the country, with 64.4 per cent of people aged three or older able to speak the language, the Telegraph reports.
Trefor and Llanaelhaearn community council said: “This is a golden opportunity to be truly progressive and innovative by being the first planning authority in Wales to venture to impose a language condition on a new social housing estate, in the heartland of the Welsh language.
“This can give a decisive and solid start to the preservation of the soul of our nation and the few remaining fragile areas.
Gwynedd is a county in the north west of Wales and has the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in the country
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“We beg for your willingness to do so and to show our people that Cyngor Gwynedd’s mission for our language is genuine, sincere and uncompromising.”
The same census revealed the lowest ever recorded level of Welsh speakers in the country, with 17.8 per cent of people able to speak it.
This was down 1.2 percentage points since the 2011 Census.
Osian Llywelyn, the deputy Welsh language commissioner, told the BBC that such a condition would be lawful, but emphasised that language will not dwarf statutory requirements such as housing homeless applicants.
A 2021 census revealed the lowest ever recorded level of Welsh speakers in the country, with 17.8 per cent of people able to speak it
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The community council said: “We understand that the Welsh language commissioner has received a legal opinion, which states unequivocally that it would not be illegal to make ‘able to speak Welsh’ a condition for the letting of social housing.”
The house owner, Grŵp Cynefin’s intention wa s to provide a variety of “fully affordable” homes, including social rented, intermediate affordable rental and part ownership.
Malcolm Evans, a Trefor resident and Welsh speaker, thought the idea would be popular among the village, despite not agreeing with it himself.
He told the BBC: “I think it will be unfair on some people.”
Earlier this week, the Welsh Government responded to a report on the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities on Town and Country Planning.
The report detailed several recommendations, including development plans that considered linguistic impacts, to aid the Welsh language “thrive as a living community language”.
Rebecca Evans MS, the Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, said: “The Welsh Government is supportive of the broad principle of establishing a central, coherent framework for Welsh language policy, as recommended by the commission across all policy areas.”
In 2024, Botwnnog community council, also in Gwynedd, aimed to ban English-speaking families from an affordable housing development being built in the village because it posed a “danger to the Welsh language”.
The councillors dismissed the housing development two times in an attempt to preserve the language.
However, their efforts were in vain as the 18-home estate was approved on appeal in December 2025 as the Welsh Government’s planning inspector concluded there was “little substantive evidence” that allowing non-Welsh speaking residents would cause harm.
A Cyngor Gwynedd spokesman said: “We can confirm that Cyngor Gwynedd’s Planning Service has received an application to build 15 affordable homes in Trefor.
“The report that will be presented to the committee takes into consideration all the planning comments that were received as part of the public consultation and the matter will be discussed by the planning committee on Monday, 2 March.”