WEIGHING IT UP

Hot on the heels of the Welsh Government’s consultation on a proposed short-term lets (STLs) licensing scheme comes the Government’s own sounding period on a STLs registration scheme for England and Chief Executive of UKHospitality, Kate Nicholls, shares her thoughts.

Unlike the Wales scheme, though, what’s being proposed in England affects just STLs, and doesn’t include hotels – a position UKHospitality strongly supports.

Not only do we support a registration scheme, but firmly believe that it must be mandatory if it’s to drive real change and level the accommodation playing field.

Because many businesses across the short-term letting market are simply not operating to the same legal standards as hotels, a scheme with which STLs have to comply is desperately needed if they’re to be brought up to acceptable levels.

It’s important, since the growth of STLs has created something of a hidden economy, with some STLs operating as de facto hotels, letting out a number of rooms in blocks, but without having to adhere to the same regulations as hotels.

An opt-in scheme won’t work, instead providing a loophole through which STLs will wriggle, and continue to fall well below the high standards that hotels have been setting for decades.

What any new licensing scheme in Wales must not do, though, is burden hotels with any further red tape. Instead, they and other businesses already recorded with Government, for example through business rates, should be excluded from additional inspections and red tape, and are granted automatic licences.

UKHospitality has long argued that a registration scheme for STLs is essential to ensure parity across accommodation in the UK, so we’re delighted that the Government is taking action in England.

Consumers deserve to know that wherever they stay, they’ll be experiencing the high standards of health and safety, fire safety and accessibility that they have a right to expect.

Regulating STLs, whether in England or in Wales, will ensure that they offer safe accommodation for guests in a structure that promotes transparency and fairness, and crucially put them on a level playing field with the established hotel sector.

Two good reasons alone for seeing a registration scheme

Kate Nicholls,