This is an existential threat to the self-catering holiday sector in Wales. We need your help to save it.
We need your help to Save Us!
SOS - Save Our Sector
The Self-Catering Holiday sector is currently under a barrage of threats from the Welsh Government in a veiled attempt to reduce the second home ("crisis") ownership in Wales.
This '182 Rule' is by far the most pernicious and most egregious of them all.
In a nutshell, the '182' refers to the total number of nights per year - per accommodation - a self-catering establishment in Wales must be booked (ie: 'let') in order to be considered as a 'genuine business' by the council (and the Govermnent!) and Not as a 'second home'.
That equates to 6 months of the year when, in many cases including our own, a "typical" season is only 7 months - Easter to the end of October. In effect, that's an 85.71% occupancy rate!
Failure to achieve 182 nights 'let' per year will result in the accommodation being classified as a 'second home' and subject to a punitive 100% Council Tax rate - back-dated to 2022, as well as being ineligible for business rates relief and other support measures available to genuine businesses.
In reality, the average occupancy rate for self-catering accommodation in Wales is around 40-50% (and that's considered good).
In either case, the number of genuine businesses that are affected by this is enormous. What other business sector would allow over 40% of operators to be treated this way?
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