Gender Budgeting

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 29 June 2022.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 1:34, 29 June 2022

Gender budgeting, as you know, promotes gender equity for women, men and gender-diverse groups. A survey by the Wales Tourism Alliance, UK Hospitality Cymru and the Professional Association of Self Caterers UK on the Welsh Government's proposals for self-catering accommodation and how it affects women and/or unpaid carers, to which 83 per cent of respondents were women, found that 71 per cent of respondents had caring responsibilities for school-age children, a disabled child or partner, or elderly parents; that 69 per cent fitted the self-catering accommodation around those responsibilities; and that 94 per cent were finding it difficult or challenging to run their self-catering accommodation business if an increase in the number of nights required to be available to rent, at 252, and the number of nights actually let to 182, came into force. In most cases, women are the driving force in these businesses. So, what consideration will the Welsh Government give to these businesswomen in Arfon, and across north Wales, when deciding on their proposal to raise the occupancy criteria for self-catering accommodation by 160 per cent before legitimate businesses are exempt from council tax premiums of up to 300 per cent from next April?