PASC UK

PASC UK FHL (Furnished Holiday Lets) Allowance Abolition Update When HMT Treasury emailed us on 29 July to announce the Government was going to carry on with the abolishing FHL Allowances, they asked us to come & discuss it with them, following on from our previous meetings, pre-election. We of course agreed, but delayed meeting until Monday the 19 August, so that we could hear from others meeting with HMT & adjust our pitch & presentation accordingly. This issue that affects the whole UK sector, so we engaged with Fiona Campbell at the ASSC, to have them both join the meeting & work together with Francis Clark on the tax & technical aspects of our push back. Once again the plan was to take Francis Clark to the meeting, we did this last time as this was a key to getting some transitional concessions. We were also joined by Alex Walker who is our Policy Lead at PASC UK. A huge amount of work went into preparing for this meeting, working with Members & Colleagues from right across the sector including The Tourism Alliance, Wales Tourism Alliance, The CLA, THE NFU MUTUAL OEIC & many more. We prepared a full presentation, to share with HMT, after having presented the key points in the meeting. The team of 4, Fiona, Alex, John Endecott, & myself each had sections to focus on. The meeting was scheduled to last for 30 minutes but lasted for 90. We covered what you might expect, the value & contribution that the sector makes, it's the bed stock for rural & coastal visitor economies, the combination of interventions on the small businesses in our sector is just overwhelming, the changes are too harsh, long term lets got three years, not 7 months. We had over an hour of discussion, I am carefully avoiding the word negotiation, but it was an open discussion of 'what if's' from both sides, with some shards of light to explore on pushing back on this intervention. Our key asks are that they 'pause' they don't have all the data of the impact, it's happening too fast for the majority affected to be able to adjust & that more transitional relief from FHL to another tax regime is needed. None of those affected have done anything wrong, they have followed an HMRC written & approved tax regime that has been in place for three decades. To close it with such short notice is inequitable, especially as any detail has to await the Budget on the 30 Oct, the subsequent Finance Bill & that being voted through. We are running a second iParl petition, & that will pass 5,000 letters to MPs tomorrow. This then gives us the data on the key MPS to follow up on. You can all help by sharing this link: https://lnkd.in/emuqy9ey    Huge thanks to Fiona Campbell at the ASSC, John Endacott at Francis Clark and all the team at PASC UK. Richard Toomer Richard Vaughton Tourism Alliance Sally Henry SuperControl Property Management System European Holiday Home Association (EHHA) The CLA NFU (National Farmers' Union) SCALE UK Steve Taggert

Late yesterday afternoon we received an email from HM Treasury announcing that they intend to carry on with the Abolition of FHL (Furnished Holiday Let) Allowances. PASC UK led one of largest ever sector pushbacks on this when it was first raised in the Spring Budget, ending up being the only sector Association to meet in person with both The Treasury Minister and the Chancellor. Both committed to further meetings and to hold a sector Consultation and the email confirms that this will be the case. So it's all to play for. Previous to the election we gathered and presented a vast amount of evidence to various Govt Departments so are ready to go again on this. If the abolition goes through as proposed, the first casualties will be small self-catering business in coastal and rural areas. These form the bed stock of the fragile eco-system that makes up these visitor economies. You damage the bedstock, as WILL happen if this goes through, you will see pub, restaurants and visitor attractions closing too, as it's the money that the guests who stay in our sector, and spend in these local business that far exceeds what locals spend. This policy does not align with the Governments stated ambition for growth, and we will be making that point loudly and clearly on behalf of the sector. Anyone can receive our free weekly newsletter and stay right up to date on this, all you need to do is send an email to [email protected] and put Newsletter in the subject line. Thank you, Alistair Handyside MBE Executive chair PASC UK Tourism Alliance, The Scottish Tourism Alliance (STA), Department for Culture, Media and Sport, ShortTermRentalz , Paul Stevens, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), The CLA, UKHospitality, Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers, WALES TOURISM ALLIANCE LIMITED, Keiran Craig-Jones, Fiona Campbell, Viktorija Molnar

🔔 Update on FHL Allowances Lobbying 🔔 The collective lobbying against the abolition of FHL Allowances has enabled PASC UK to secure a meeting with the Treasury Minister, Nigel Huddlestone MP, on Tuesday 30th April. We have also been able to gain the support of almost 50 MPs, who have written to the Treasury asking for a rethink or a full Consultation. One of the key supporters, Peter Aldous MP for Waveney has manged to get a House of Commons debate with the Treasury Minister on Wednesday the 1st May at 4pm. None of this would have been possible without the collective support of so many, so huge shout outs for all our agency and association partners and our Members. All of whom stepped up and helped get a record 15,000 letters into MPs and 7,000 businesses to complete a comprehensive data set on the impact of abolition. The report can be found here: https://lnkd.in/ebXUCvFh We know that the policy is not covered in the Finance Bill, which is a good start, but we are conscious that the Government may just leave it hanging, meaning incredible uncertainty for the 125,000 + businesses affected. To that end we have commissioned a report from Francis Clark, experts in FHL Allowances, that we will publish on Tuesday 30th April. This will be in the free reports section of the website, so that all who helped, regardless of whether they are a Member or not, can get a tax update and some scenarios to aid future planning. It is too early to tell the final outcome, but the collective lobbying has shown for the first time, what we can do as a sector when Governments launch ill thought through interventions, without looking at the data first. Post the outcome of the meeting and the Debate, we will regroup  and agree on next steps. Our first and foremost lobbying policy remains, get the data first please, to ensure better policy with less unintended consequences.

On 6th March, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered the spring budget. Yesterday it was voted through. This contained the news of a hammer blow to the Self-Catering and Short-Term Lets sector – the removal of the FHL (Furnished Holiday Lets) Allowances. PASC UK are opposed to this, on many levels. The removal of FHL won’t generate anything close to the proposed £300 million the Chancellor is expecting and will do little, if anything, to help solve the current UK wide housing shortage. Even if the FHL 127,000 properties were banned it would not even touch the sides of the housing shortage, widely thought be be over a million homes. It will impact the holiday lets that operate to the higher HMRC Threshold of letting, availability and profitability, that are real small business, higher quality, higher occupancy, not second homes or casually let properties. The business affected are the rural and coastal bedstock that mean that pubs, restaurants and visitor attractions remain viable and open and maintain vibrant communities, whilst providing local employment, use of services and investment. This will do further damage to the already delicate eco-system of the visitor economy. PASC UK remains committed to supporting a national registration scheme to ensure compliance with regulation, and to compile a complete register of short-term accommodation availability on a Nationwide level. On Monday afternoon, we launched a Petition to MPs to ask them to reconsider this measure and work with us on this. As of Wednesday lunchtime, over 8500 business owners have used the link below to contact their MP directly to let them know what the real impacts of this change will be. It takes only a minute to complete and submit and we would appreciate your support. Please share widely. We want to get past 10,000 as quickly as possible. Many thanks for reading. https://lnkd.in/d8bjQfak

Late Saturday 2nd March, the Government slipped out a Budget pre-announcement that the Chancellor would launch a £300 million tax raid on the holiday lets sector. Some sources suggested £500 million. We think that this likely to be an abolition of the FHL Furnished Holiday Lettings Allowances, which was muted by the OTS (Office of Tax Simplification) in November 2022. See report link below. It might be something else but we think that this is the most likely. We are seeing a veritable tsunami of legislation, taxation and regulation bearing down on the sector at the moment, and all before a Statutory Register is in place to provide real, not emotive data. We will respond in full when we have more detail, but if we are right and it is the abolition of FHL Rules, then it will damage the sector and time will show that it will not bring in anything like the Chancellors expectations in monetary terms. This and the planning interventions, launched before really good data is available, will shrink the sector, and that will have repercussions for local rural and coastal economies as well as businesses like pubs, restaurants, cafes and visitor attractions that the sector supports, in that fragile eco-system, the visitor economy. To follow this in detail, sign up for a our free weekly newsletter simply by sending an email to [email protected] and putting Newsletter in the Subject line. https://lnkd.in/eGWXe_a6

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PASC UK Commentary on Registration & planning changes. 22 Feb. What do we know? Registration Scheme: ·It will be national and mandatory, which means the same scheme wherever you are in England. ·Cost? We do not know at this stage, but we have been told by DCMS that it will be the same price across England and that they will be determining the cost, not Councils. ·The Register is for Short Term Lets/Self-Catering, not B&B’s, Hotels & Hostels. ·We are worried about the implications raised by this comment: "The Government is considering how to apply the register so it does not apply disproportionate regulation for example on property owners that let out their home infrequently." Our view and that of all of the Tourism Associations, is that the same rules apply by law if you let for a single night. This will remain our position on this matter. Planning Changes: ·There will be a new use class in planning for short-term lets. All existing let properties will be automatically reclassified. We definitely need more detail on what this means, although on the surface it appears welcome. ·There will be a new permitted development right so properties can move from ordinary residential use to short-term lets without planning permission. But councils can remove this right and require full planning permission. Again, the devil really will be in the detail on this point. ·The Government is introducing a new planning 'use class' for self-catering/short-term lets. This will be for properties that are not used as a main or sole home. Again we need much more detail here as this will affect future entrants to our sector or businesses that wish to expand. ·Homeowners will still be able to let out their own main or sole home for up to 90 nights throughout a year without planning permission. We have reservations about this. Measuring a threshold like this is almost impossible. London has had this for years and it has proven unworkable.  ·Timescale? The Minister has said that both the register and the planning changes will be introduced during the summer. Sadly, it is more likely that Planning Changes can be made through rushing through Parliament, than the time it takes to build and test a Registration Scheme. We are still awaiting the formal responses to both consultations and believe this announcement was brought forward due to the Coastal Communities debate taking place in Parliament this week. Our focus now is to drill down into the detail and to work to try and achieve the necessary changes necessary to first make the Registration Scheme creates that ‘level playing field’ for health and safety, and second to address the issues that will arise from the Planning Changes. We have meetings with both DCMS and DLUHC where we will be trying to get as much detail on these announcements as possible. We still fundamentally believe that Registration should come before Planning Changes, and this is also shared by our colleagues across the Tourism sector.