Nick Bourne, Welsh Conservative Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales and Leader of the Opposition has welcomed the news that the Westminster Government has undertaken a U-turn on the proposed abolition of tax reliefs for self-catering businesses.
Following pressure from opposition parties both at Westminster and within the Assembly, the UK Government has abandoned its plans to change the rules for Furnished Holiday Lettings. Labour Ministers had previously claimed that the tax relief which self-catering businesses currently receive could be against EU law. However, they had not been able to provide any evidence as to why this should be the case.
Speaking from Ceredigion where the local economy is dependent on a large number of tourism self-catering units, Nick said:
“It is absolutely clear that scrapping this tax relief would have put severe financial pressure on many businesses and dealt a serious body blow to local economies up and down the country. There is no doubt that this, coupled with high business rates increases, would have caused a lot of small tourism operators to shut their doors for good. The Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne recently told a Tourism Conference in Birmingham that an incoming Tory Government would: “take action to undo the damage caused….”
“It’s probable that this is now why the Labour Government has abandoned its plans to implement this ludicrous tax. Whatever the reason, I know that thousands of self-catering operators across Wales will be very relieved to hear this news.
“Unfortunately, both the UK and Wales Governments continue to treat tourism as the ‘Cinderella’ industry and fail to fully understand its significance. The fact is that self–catering accommodation establishments provide a huge boost to the Wales holiday market and are particularly essential to the survival of our local economies in areas such as the Llyn peninsular and Pembrokeshire.
“It is absolutely imperative that Government listens to evidence from tourism business operators before implementing taxes such as this.”
