Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:32 pm on 27 April 2022.
I thank Peter Fox for raising this issue this afternoon. I know we will have more of an opportunity to get into some of the detail in the debate that is also scheduled for Plenary today. But it is the case, as Peter Fox recognises, that we did consult on our proposals to changes to local taxes, and we had around 1,000 responses to that consultation, which was an excellent response. And the views that were collected through that consultation, including, I have to say, representations from the wider tourism industry, did clearly support a change to the criteria for self-catering accommodation to be classified as non-domestic. And there was a wide range, it is true to say, as to where people thought we should best pin those levels in terms of the number of nights that accommodation should be advertised for, and then that accommodation should actually be let for, to be considered a business and then to be considered as a business in respect of business rate relief.
We are of the view that self-catering properties should be let on a frequent enough basis to make a real contribution to the local economy and that those that aren't should be subject to council tax. And I have met with the Wales Tourism Alliance—I had an excellent meeting with them very recently—and they did share with me a collation of the 1,500 responses that they've had, which I am considering alongside the work that we're doing on the technical consultation at the moment. But we have had some excellent discussions with the industry throughout the formulation of this piece of work, and, of course, I should add that it's a joint piece of work that we are doing with Plaid Cymru.