The Tourism Sector in North Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 27 April 2022.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 2:06, 27 April 2022

Diolch. Well, self-catering accommodation is key to a 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 that 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, UKHospitality Cymru and the Professional Association of Self Caterers UK, 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, while the industry's own larger consultation, with 1,500 replies in just four days, showed 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?