Cynnydd Ffrynt Gwrth-Dwristiaeth Cymru | AKA ‘Senedd Cymru’

Most small accommodation businesses look to achieve around 60% occupancy rates to be considered successful, so how would you feel if your ‘Government’ said you had to achieve 72% or pay the penalty.

The Welsh Senedd continue to press on with their draconian measures to kill off tourism and small accommodation businesses in Wales with key measures, already set in motion for 2023/24FY and no doubt the ‘registration’ one and others will follow.

• Minimum let days rule, from 70 to 182 days, otherwise money will be demanded.
• Everyone must register, be certified and rated, for which money will be demanded.
• Granny annexes classed as second homes, for which money will be demanded.
• Tourism tax, charged to visitors via a percentage on their accommodation.

They insist that they are consulting the industry, which in itself is true, but what they don’t say is that they completely ignoring that feedback. Now you may think I am just being cynical, but….

The Professional Association of Self Caterers UK (PASC) and its partners have and continue to put up very robust opposition to the 70 day and 182 day issue. We even suggested 105 days which is line with HMRC’s threshold and we put forward 500 written responses against. However, they still chose to go with the 9 responses from those that supported 182 days. All very disappointing.

PASC UK

Indeed their own statistics show an average occupancy rate of 51% for Ceredigion, where we are. Going with their new 252 minimum days that we must be available to let for and their own occupancy figure of 51%, this equates to no higher than 128 days at most, that should be booked. Not 182 as they want, which would be an occupancy rate of 72%, that is very hard to achieve, especially in this economic climate.

Then we have the ‘everyone must register and be certified’ if you operate an accommodation business in Wales approach, well this is obviously just the Senedd revenue raising and jobs for the boys. All the assumptions they make in explaining why why it is necessary, fly in the face of what ‘market forces’ already enforce. They go on for example about minimum standards, mentioning PAT testing, EICR certification, public liability insurance, risk assessment statements and the like, all of which are covered/required by your insurance if you want to be covered and by the booking agents who require them anyway. If not you would probably be breaking the law anyway, so we don’t need additional interference. As for quality and cleanliness standards, if you are performing badly in this area you will lose customers anyway as your reviews will be rubbish, so self policing. It’s called ‘market forces’ or is that too capitalist word for the Senedd?

Basically all this meddling is just another expense that pushes us towards the ‘I won’t bother then’ route, so leading to a decline in small accommodation businesses in Wales. Which is one of the few ‘industries’ that can actually thrive here in Wales if the Senedd would just stop sticking their oar in. It’s already bad enough, that to succeed in getting sufficient bookings you need people like ‘Booking dot Com’ and ‘West Wales Holiday Cottages’ and the like, who take a decent proportion of the booking fee as commission already. Then there are the operating costs, property maintenance, plus ‘cleaners’ that you need as the good ones are not cheap.

We are not a ‘Cash Cow’ for the commercially challenged and Economics illiterate politicians to sponge off.

Then we come to the ‘second homes’ thing, how can a flat on the first floor of an outbuilding, within the curtlidge of the main house, be considered a second home? It is never going to be sold or rented out separately, so the Senedd’s stance of adding to the housing stock is nonsense. If it come to it, we shall just rip out the kitchen or whatever, so it can no longer be classified as a so called ‘self contained unit’ by the VOA, which helps nobody.

At least running this business contributes to the local economy, unlike our politicians. Putting too many hoops for people to jump through, they simply stop jumping through them!

Yes there are bad businesses out there, but they will still be out there with this legislation, as they work off the radar. This to put it simply is lazy legislation from a Senedd who just can’t be bothered to make use of the rules and laws already at their disposal.