5. What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Economy regarding the provision of financial support for the tourism sector in North Wales? OQ57916

I regularly engage with the Minister for Economy on a range of issues, including tourism. We have delivered a budget allocation of over £16.9 million per year to support tourism throughout Wales over the next three-year period, including eight projects in north Wales through the brilliant basics 2020-21 fund.

Diolch. Well, self-catering accommodation is key to a tourism sector in north Wales. Questioning you last month, I highlighted concerns raised with me by actual legitimate Welsh holiday let businesses that your local taxation proposals would devastate them, quoting business owners who told me, 'I fear we'll end up bankrupt', and, 'How could council tax be charged on cottages that have planning permission that states they can never be residential?' You referred in your response to the technical consultation open to response, but businesses then told me, 'The consultation is not really a consultation on the decision to increase holiday let thresholds. This is hardly a chance for us as genuine businesses to have our say.'

How do you therefore respond to their question: can the Welsh Government really be serious about their occupancy limits given the evidence submitted in the report produced by Wales Tourism Alliance, UKHospitality Cymru and the Professional Association of Self Caterers UK, which found that less than 1 per cent of the respondents to the Welsh Government's consultation—just nine people—suggested the occupancy threshold proposed by the Welsh Government, while the industry's own larger consultation, with 1,500 replies in just four days, showed that a significant Majority of businesses cannot meet this new threshold, that it will reduce local owners' ability to earn an income and cause a decline in secondary jobs in hospitality, retail, house maintenance and cleaning, and that it will not safeguard the Welsh language as these businesses will be lost to wealthier outsiders?

Well, the proposals were subject to a 12-week consultation. So, there was, I would argue, ample opportunity for businesses and representative bodies to engage with that consultation, and, indeed, they did. We had over 1,000 responses to that consultation, many of which supported the increase in the number of nights that a property must be offered for or actually let. So, we did have strong responses to that consultation. Since then, I've also met, as I said to Peter Fox, with the Wales Tourism Alliance, and we did discuss in detail that specific point you made about the issue regarding planning conditions on certain properties, and that's something that I did commit at that meeting to exploring further, and that's something that I'm currently in the process of taking some advice on.