Councillors in disagreement over new rules which may hurt holiday trade

Councillors at Blackpool are in disagreement over how to respond to controversial rules which threaten to have a damaging impact on the resort’s holiday sector.

The rules, which came into force on April 1, 2023 but are only now resulting in difficulties for businesses, require holiday lets to be available for at least 140 days a year, and then each flat to be let out for a minimum of 70 days to qualify for business rates rather than council tax.

If owners cannot meet these more stringent requirements, some face going out of business and being hit by huge council tax bills, as previous exemptions will be lost.

Some 65 businesses in Blackpool are currently appealing against the rules.

A motion at Blackpool’s latest Full Council meeting, aimed at trying to get the current Government to change the rules was proposed by the town’s Conservative group, led by hotelier, Coun Gerard Walsh.

The motion, seconded by Coun Julie Sloman, sought urgent action to address what they describe as a “one-size-fits-all” policy that could devastate Blackpool’s tourism economy.

However, the motion was voted down by the leading Labour group.

Coun Neal Brookes, Deputy Leader of Blackpool Council, said the motion was to be voted against, not to reject it, but to allow for more time to get it right.

But Coun Walsh said: “Labour’s refusal to support this motion is a slap in the face to the small family-run holiday businesses that built Blackpool’s name. These rules might work for London or Manchester, but they’re economically illiterate for a seaside town with a short tourism season. We need common sense, not box-ticking bureaucracy.”

Coun Sloman added: “The Government needs to understand that illness, bereavement, or even bad weather can wipe out weeks of bookings for our local operators. For Labour to vote this motion down shows a shocking lack of empathy and understanding for the real-world pressures our tourism economy faces.”

The rules were first brought in under the previous Conservative Government but are still in effect under Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour regime.

Many of Blackpool’s holiday flats are found in large Victorian terraced properties—often four storeys high and subdivided into five or more units. These are typically run by resident landlords or small independent operators who provide affordable family holidays and form the backbone of the town’s visitor economy.

The proposed motion noted that the new rules do not reflect the operational realities of towns like Blackpool, where accommodation owners must contend with a highly seasonal visitor flow. The motion warned that the legislation could result in mass reclassification of holiday flats as residential property, triggering increased council tax bills and forcing many owners to abandon tourism altogether.

The motion had called on the Council Leader to write to Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, urging a full review of the new rules. It asked for the minimum letting threshold to be reduced from 70 days to 50 in seasonal areas, the inclusion of exemptions for personal hardship, and for larger multi-flat holiday properties to be treated differently to single short-term lets.

Coun Brookes, Deputy Leader of Labour-run Blackpool Council, said: “I’m disappointed, actually, that we’re going to be asking council to oppose this motion, basically because we’ve had insufficient time to look at the consequences, where it to be successful.

“There is too much here that we don’t know about.

“We want to go through the scrutiny process. The councillor is right, we are the leading resort in the country so it’s important we get this right, if we are going to be the standard bearer asking the Government to change it.

“So we are going to vote against it, on that basis.”