Pressure Pays off as Welsh Government Launches Consultation on 182-day Holiday Let Threshold

As Member of the Senedd for Carmarthenshire, I welcome the Welsh Government’s decision to launch a consultation on lowering the punitive 182-day holiday let threshold, calling it a long-overdue admission of failure from Cardiff Bay.

For years, Reform UK has been leading the charge against the anti-business, anti-tourism policies imposed by the Welsh Labour administration. The draconian 182-day letting requirement, imposed in April 2023, has pushed countless legitimate local businesses to the
brink, threatening the lifeblood of rural economies across Wales.

Now, facing relentless pressure from Reform UK and local communities, the Cabinet Minister for Finance has been forced to open a 12-week consultation to consider reducing the threshold and introduce critical common-sense exemptions for properties on farms, within home curtilages,
and part of wider local businesses.

This consultation is proof that Reform UK is making a real difference. We have called out this destructive policy from day one. Labour’s crusade against small holiday let owners wasn’t protecting local housing, it was crippling hard-working family businesses that keep
Carmarthenshire’s local economy afloat.

Tourism is not a luxury in Carmarthenshire; it is essential. It fuels our pubs, shops, cafes, and tradespeople. Pushing local entrepreneurs out of business through absurd regulatory hurdles was always complete economic madness.

While I welcome the fact the Welsh Government is finally waking up to reality, a consultation is only the first step. I will continue to fight hard in the Senedd to ensure that this threshold is drastically lowered and that fair, robust exemptions are put into law without delay.

Carmarthenshire’s tourism industry deserves a government that actively supports local enterprise, not one that punishes ambition.

Reform UK will continue to scrutinise the 12-week consultation closely to ensure that the voices of rural business owners, farmers, and local communities in Carmarthenshire are heard loud and clear in Cardiff Bay.