North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has highlighted in the Senedd this week the findings of a tourism industry consultation which shows that Welsh Government plans for taxes on legitimate holiday-let businesses would “reduce local owners' ability to earn an income and cause a decline in secondary jobs in hospitality, retail, house maintenance and cleaning”.
In March, Mr Isherwood condemned the impact on legitimate holiday-let businesses of new Welsh Government regulations which will allow local authorities to charge a Council tax premium of up to 300% on second homes in Wales, quoting legitimate North Wales holiday-let business owners who say they will destroy them.
In Wednesday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament he raised their concerns again, this time highlighting the findings of a consultation by the industry which endorsed their original concerns.
In his question to the Minister for Finance and Local Government on the provision of financial support for the tourism sector in North Wales, Mr Isherwood said:
“Self-catering accommodation is key to the tourism sector in North Wales. Questioning you last month, I highlighted concerns raised with me by actual legitimate Welsh holiday let businesses that your local taxation proposals would devastate them, quoting business owners who told me, 'I fear we'll end up bankrupt', and, 'How could council tax be charged on cottages that have planning permission which states they can never be residential?'.
“You referred in your response to the ‘technical consultation open to response’, but businesses then told me, 'The Consultation is not really a consultation on the decision to increase holiday let thresholds. This is hardly a chance for us as genuine businesses to have our say'.
“How do you therefore respond to their question: ‘Can the Welsh Government really be serious about their occupancy limits given the evidence submitted in the report produced by Wales Tourism Alliance, UK Hospitality Cymru and the Professional Association of Self Caterers, which found that less than 1 per cent of the respondents to the Welsh Government's consultation - just nine people - suggested the occupancy threshold proposed by the Welsh Government, but the industry's own larger consultation, with 1,500 replies in just four days, shows that a significant majority of businesses cannot meet this new threshold; that it will reduce local owners' ability to earn an income and cause a decline in secondary jobs in hospitality, retail, house maintenance and cleaning; and that it will not safeguard the Welsh language as these businesses will be lost to wealthier outsiders?”
In his response the Minister said the proposals were subject to a 12-week consultation, and that there was “ample opportunity for businesses and representative bodies to engage with that consultation”.
He added:
“We had over 1,000 responses to that consultation, many of which supported the increase in the number of nights that a property must be offered for or actually let. So, we did have strong responses to that consultation. Since then, I've also met with the Wales Tourism Alliance, and we did discuss in detail that specific point you made about the issue regarding planning conditions on certain properties, and that's something that I did commit at that meeting to exploring further, and that's something that I'm currently in the process of taking some advice on.”