Landlords in Wales will soon need a licence for their short-let properties after the Senedd passed a Bill to improve visitor accommodation.

Accommodation owners – beginning with self-contained, self-catering accommodation including holiday cottages and flats – will need a licence from 2029, by proving their properties are fit for visitors. Under the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill, they will have to show gas and electrical safety certificates, carbon monoxide alarms, public liability insurance, and that they have both conducted a fire safety risk assessment and taken relevant precautions.

Mark Drakeford, cabinet secretary for finance and Welsh language, says it’s a significant step towards attracting visitors to Wales, knowing that accommodation meets the standards they would expect. He adds: “Many providers already do the right things, and this Bill creates fair competition that protects both visitors and responsible businesses. I look forward to seeing the positive difference it will make to tourism in Wales.”

Promised

Drakeford has promised that licensing fees would be kept to about £75 and predicted that prosecution would be very rare because the law would require businesses “essentially to do the things they ought to be doing already, plus making sure that they have public liability insurance”.

The licensing scheme is likely to start in 2029 and will build on the national register of visitor accommodation providers to create a publicly available directory of visitor accommodation.

Move

The move comes after the Senedd passed the Visitor Levy Bill which lets councils introduce a charge on overnight stays, with all funds reinvested to help councils cover the costs associated with hosting visitors such as street cleaning, waste collection, and maintaining toilets. Councils would be able to make holiday-let landlords collect a £1.30 per-person, per-night fee from April next year.

The new register for all visitor accommodation providers operating in Wales will apply to anyone who charges guests to stay overnight or takes bookings for 31 nights or less. Those renting holiday cottages, spare rooms and hotels, whether accommodation is let for a single night, occasionally, seasonally or all year round, must register with the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) when the law takes effect this autumn.

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