In Wales, the First Minister has set out the next steps in a programme of actions aimed at making housing at tourism destinations more available to local residents by introducing restrictions on second homes and  tourism accommodation businesses. In a Co-operation Agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru, there is a commitment to undertake a package of measures including:

• Changes to planning regulations by the end of the summer to introduce three new planning use classes – a primary home, a second home and short-term holiday accommodation. Local planning authorities, where they have evidence, will be able to make amendments to the planning system to require planning permission for change of use from one class to another.  They will also introduce changes to national planning policy to give local authorities the ability to control the number of second homes and holiday lets in any community.
• Plans to introduce a statutory licensing scheme for all visitor accommodation, including short-term holiday lets, making it a requirement to obtain a licence.
• Following a consultation about varying land transaction tax locally in areas with large numbers of second homes, the Government will work with local authorities to develop a national framework so they can request increased land transaction tax rates for second homes and holiday lets to be applied in their local area.

These measures may have a significant impact on sectors of the tourism industry in Wales; some have voiced the opinion that the registration scheme for England should be more proportional, making the distinction between second homes and tourism accommodation businesses.

The Welsh Conservatives, meanwhile, have said the Welsh scheme could be bureaucratic and expensive, and that many in the tourism sector also believe that it will be a forerunner to a Tourism Tax.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport, Tom Giffard MS, said:  “To me, this looks like the precursor to a Tourism Tax which will destroy the tourism sector in Wales and cost a huge number of jobs.

“Ministers must make sure that this scheme does not punish people who work hard to make our tourism businesses thrive, especially after the damage of pandemic restrictions.”

Meanwhile, Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he has a ‘chalet’ in Pembrokeshire but said it was not a second home, suggesting that accommodation on holiday caravan and chalet parks would not count as ‘second homes’.