Senedd Cymru | Welsh Parliament
Y Pwyllgor Cyllid | Finance Committee
Bil Llety Ymwelwyr (Cofrestr ac Ardoll) Etc. (Cymru) | Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
Ymateb gan British Mountaineering Council | Evidence from British Mountaineering Council
(We would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
While the Bill’s objectives have the potential to ensure costs for local services are shared more equally between those using them, we have significant concerns about the impact the bill may have on facilities run by volunteers, non-profits, and in the outdoor education sector. The flat-rate levy disproportionately affects low-cost accommodations, which will have a heavy impact on accommodation types which have little or no profit margins, and for which costs are kept as low as possible. This threatens to make tourism, outdoor recreation, and outdoor education less inclusive and accessible, and pushing people towards the use of more infrastructure-intensive forms of accommodation which can have a negative impact on Welsh communities, such as AirBnb accommodation. For this reason, we are calling for the scope of the bill and the way fees are applied, to be reconsidered, alongside the potential impact of reporting and registration requirements on volunteers. It is far more productive to the Welsh Government’s ambitions for supporting sustainable tourism, for these types of low impact, low-cost tourism to be exempt however in its current form, the levy and its impact threatens their continuation.
Mountaineering huts, scout huts, mountain bothies, campsites, and outdoor education centres already contribute to sustainable tourism goals through environmental and outdoor education and sustainable outdoor practices.
If revenue can be effectively ring-fenced for reinvestment in key areas, revenue from the levy could feasibly contribute towards sustainable tourism goals.
The Regulatory Impact Assessment is set out in Part 2 of the Explanatory Memorandum (https://senedd.wales/media/g5ipwvwh/pri-ld16812-em-e.pdf). This includes the Welsh Government’s assessments of the financial and other impacts of the Bill and its implementation.
(We would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
A number of concerning barriers to implementation exists:
Scope: ambiguities within the definition of ‘visitor accommodation’ make it unclear whether the bill is targeted at non-commercial providers, causing confusion and unintended consequences. It was clarified to us by [redacted – named Welsh Government official], Visitor Levy Policy officer, that the levy applies to overnight stays provided ‘in the course of business or trade’, irrespective of the type of organization (e.g., private companies, charities, or non-profits). It is still unclear to those seeking to understand the potential impact of the bill what constitutes operating "in the course of trade or business." For example, would a scout hut charging a nominal fee to cover maintenance costs qualify as a business? This distinction needs clearer guidance to avoid unintended inclusion, and ambiguity could lead to inconsistent applications of the levy.
Administrative burden: should they be captured within the bill and required to levy fees, volunteer-run accommodations such as scout huts, and mountain bothies and huts will struggle to meet 30-day return and payment deadlines. This is not adequately addressed within the bill or its accompanying documents. It contrasts with charity commission timescales, which are 10 months for reporting, a much more reasonable expectation for volunteers to deliver. Unfortunately, many volunteer-run accommodations lack the administrative capacity to fulfil the requirements of the bill as it stands. The resource, time, and financial requirements involved will be prohibitive for many and cause them to close. A potential means to address this might be exemptions for providers that fall below a specified revenue threshold.
Finance: many of these providers do not hold the accounting expertise or financial resources that a commercial provider would hold. This means that the cash-flow requirements of the levy can create burdensome and complex conditions for volunteers who are not trained to create or maintain the procedures needed to correctly report and collect the levy fees. For voluntary or non profit providers struggling to answer the demands of the scheme the Welsh Government may consider providing free or subsidised accounting resources.
Equity of levy rates: The flat-rate structure disproportionately impacts low-cost accommodations without sufficiently accounting for their limited revenue generation compared to higher-end providers
None of these are adequately addressed in the Regulatory Impact Assessment, which focusses primarily on commercial providers. We contend that the impact of this bill will be felt most heavily by providers which operate with little or no profit margins and for whom the task of administering the levy would fall on those with the least capacity.
A more detailed impact assessment is needed to measure the impact on volunteer run facilities and to consider how to minimise the administrative burden and its impact, and the risk to the viability of these important facilities.
(We would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
There is significant danger of negative unintended consequences from the bill on the voluntary, educational, and non-profit sectors.
Volunteer-run accommodations and non-profit facilities may face closure or reduced viability due to administrative and financial burdens. Many of these facilities are already struggling to attract volunteers despite the significant public good they contribute and minimal strain on infrastructure.
Low-cost accommodations such as hostels, campsites, and bunkhouses will pass on the cost of the levy directly to guests, reducing affordability and impacting the inclusivity of tourism and residential stays in Wales. For these types of accommodation, the levy is a far more substantial percentage of the total overnight cost, even with the reduced rates, than for hotel or airbnb type accommodation. Many sites currently only charge a few pounds for an overnight stay. The cost of administering the levy means that it is likely that the price of accommodation would rise by more than the £0.75 or £1.25 fee.
Residential outdoor education centres, which operate on narrow margins, could be disproportionately affected, limiting youth access to outdoor learning experiences.
Negatively impacting these types of accommodations will have broad negative impacts, from reducing opportunities for outdoor education, to creating a new financial barrier to the Welsh countryside, to weakening community-based work by youth organisations, to an economic loss to Welsh outdoor tourism, which currently has an annual impact of 1.6 billion, supporting an estimated 31,000 jobs.
For providers running at low or non-profit margins, and relying on untrained volunteers to administer the levy, the significant fines referenced in the bill could have a disastrous impact on voluntary organisations and non-profits, causing some to have to cease operations permanently.
(We would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
While the financial assessment highlights the potential for increased revenue, it underestimates the impact on small, volunteer-run, and low-cost providers. The costs of compliance, especially for non-profit organizations, and the inequity of a flat-rate levy are not sufficiently addressed. Additionally, there is limited discussion of how funds will be transparently managed and reinvested.
The powers to make subordinate legislation are set out in Part 1: Chapter 5 of the Explanatory Memorandum (https://senedd.wales/media/g5ipwvwh/pri-ld16812-em-e.pdf).
The Welsh Government has also set out its statement of policy intent for subordinate legislation (https://business.senedd.wales/documents/s155951/Statement%20of%20Policy%20Intent.pdf).
(We would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
In our view the bill does not accurately reflect the diversity and unique needs of all of the varying types of visitor accommodation providers in Wales, nor does it appropriately consider the capacity of all of them to deliver revenue via the visitor levy.
(We would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
The balance leans too heavily towards subordinate legislation, leaving significant aspects, such as levy exemptions and premium caps, to future determination. This creates uncertainty for providers and stakeholders. Clearer definitions and guidelines should be included in the Bill itself to ensure fair and transparent implementation.
(We would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
The indicative additional provisions may increase the administrative burden on providers, especially small or volunteer-managed accommodations. Without specific exemptions or support mechanisms for non-commercial facilities, these amendments could exacerbate existing challenges rather than resolve them.
The 30-day reporting window proposed is a practical impossibility for many volunteer-run organisations, and together with the enforcement provisions outlined in the statement of policy intent, serious unintended consequences could occur including forcing many of these providers to cease operations permanently.
An additional concern is that local authorities may introduce registration/licensing fees – we ask that non-profit accommodations be given an exemption from these.
(We would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 500 words).
Considering all factors, many types of accommodation are currently potentially captured within the scope of the bill which could result in negative impacts on the Welsh Government’s sustainable tourism goals, limiting access to the Welsh countryside, and having a disastrous impact on outdoor education. Commercial and non-commercial accommodations are treated as the same when their impacts could not differ more. This should be resolved in future drafts of the bill.
The impact of this bill on young people and types of accommodation specifically catering to young people, are also likely to be considerable. We ask that the decision to include children within the scope of the levy be reconsidered, and for those under the age of 18 to be excluded in all instances.
We are concerned about the ring-fencing of revenue – clear mechanisms are needed to ensure that revenue is reinvested transparently into services that benefit both visitors and local communities. We propose that councils be required to publish detailed breakdowns of how levy funds are spent including outcomes achieved, and the establishment of Levy Forums to discuss and advise the council on the scheme, as occurs in the Scottish counterpart to the scheme. This would help achieve buy-in from accommodation providers.
We are also calling for changes to the bill to support non-commercial, volunteer-managed facilities, to avoid potentially disastrous unintended financial and administrative burdens. We are calling for extended administrative deadlines. If fees are to be applied to volunteer-run accommodations, then we would like administrative processes to be made as easy as possible for non-commercial accommodations, and for reporting windows to follow the convention set by existing charity commission rules.