Category: Policy

Chief Executive’s Report 2021

Introduction

We all know that coronavirus has posed an unprecedented challenge to the entire tourism sector, including self-catering. From the outset of the pandemic and the introduction of lockdown, the self-catering sector as a whole has demonstrated considerable leadership and perseverance, as we responsibly closed our businesses, at great personal and financial cost.

Throughout the pandemic and as we navigate out of it into the ‘New Extraordinary’, the ASSC has fought the corner of its members, kept them informed of unfolding developments over multiple platforms, and engaged with leading tourism stakeholders, MSPs and the Scottish Government to ensure the best outcome possible for our sector. The ASSC continues to be at the top table with key leadership groups and the Scottish Government to address the crisis as it unfolds.

We have liaised with Regional DMOs and tourism industry bodies to ensure self-catering is aligned with other businesses. We have held conversations around progress, restart and recovery activity and we have also had meetings with local authority representatives, COSLA and regional bodies such as South of Scotland Enterprise to understand how we can work with them to support long-term economic recovery.

We have worked closely with the Scottish Government Tourism Directorate, engaged with Cabinet Secretaries and their officials, as well as cross party MSPs throughout the pandemic.

At the same time, we have faced the biggest challenge the sector has ever faced: short-term let licensing legislation alongside planning control area legislation.

Self-catering is hugely important to Scottish tourism, in terms of jobs, revenue, and the world-class experiences we’re able to offer our guests.

To be such an essential part of Scotland’s tourism mix is even more remarkable for our sector, which generates £867 million every year, when we consider that most self-caterers operate small to medium-sized businesses.

Scotland’s professional self-caterers are diligent, conscientious, and considerate business people who are unjustly accused of all sorts of things for which there is not a single scrap of credible evidence.

Read more: Chief Executives Report 2021

Economic Impact Study: Self-Catering Worth £867m to Scottish Economy

Economic Impact of Self-Catering Sector to the Scottish Economy has shown that in 2019 the 17,794 traditional self-catering properties across Scotland not only generated £672million in economic activity but encouraged visitors to spend £867million, thereby benefiting other related businesses in tourism and hospitality.

The report, carried out by the specialists at Frontline and commissioned by the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC), also found that short-term letting in Scotland supports 23,979 full-time equivalent jobs.

Figures were taken from 2019 in order to understand how the sector, which has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, performs under normal circumstances.

Self-caterers have faced significant financial problems throughout the pandemic, with many operating at hugely reduced capacity and others facing the prospect of having to close their businesses entirely.

In 2020, due to Covid-19 restrictions, there was a £253 million plunge in guest spend and a drop in the total economic contribution the sector made of around a third (29%).

This underlines the need for government to support small businesses as they seek to recover from Covid-19.

Frontline also partnered with the Professional Association of Self-Caterers and SuperControl to produce similar figures showing the state of self-catering across Great Britain.

Their in-depth research discovered that the self-catering sector is worth £2.6billion to the British economy and supports 69,635 jobs across the United Kingdom.

The new figures cast further doubt over the Scottish Government’s plans for a licensing scheme, which threatens to irreparably damage the vital sector and hamper its ability to help Scotland’s tourism offering recover from COVID-19.

Rather than introducing licensing, which would jeopardise the £867million contribution self-catering makes to the Scottish public coffers, as well as many of the tens of thousands of jobs, the Scottish Government should consider listening to the sector’s exemption proposal.

Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers Chief Executive, Fiona Campbell, said:

“We already knew that self-catering is an essential part of Scotland’s vital tourism industry, but this report goes to show how significant our contribution is.

“Our £867million contribution to Scotland’s economy is indicative of the professionalism, entrepreneurial ethos, and drive that has made our sector a key pillar of Scotland’s world-renowned tourism offering.

“These figures make the Scottish Government’s continued willingness to thrust a damaging, counter-productive, and badly designed licensing scheme onto our businesses even more baffling.

“One thing is for sure, if the government is to rely on our huge contribution to the Scottish public purse, the last thing they should do is cripple our sector in this way.

Economic Impact Study–Scotland

Economic Impact Study-UK Report

The Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers has submitted its response to the latest Scottish Government consultation on short-term lets.

In its comprehensive and evidence-based submission, the trade body representing the Scottish self-catering sector points to serious government failures to acknowledge the industry’s concerns over the impending licensing scheme.

If implemented, the scheme could cost a modest three-bedroom self-catering property £2,000, far in excess of the Scottish Government’s estimate.

The document points out that the heavy-handed scheme remains completely unfit for purpose even in its revised form and has been unable to convince the industry of the data supporting it.

It also highlights that only superficial changes have been made to support self-catering operators or B&Bs

The ASSC has also argued that the proposals will have a hugely detrimental impact on Scotland’s tourism sector, particularly in rural and remote areas, and form part of an ill-fitting and overreaching approach that fails to consider or address localised issues.

Self-caterers have also drawn attention to legal issues with the licensing scheme, suggesting that it is incompatible with the Provisions of Services Regulations, European Convention on Human Rights, and the Scottish Regulator’s Strategic Code of Practice on several serious points.

The licensing scheme, combined with the control area plans which may be imposed on operators in Edinburgh, would comprise the most restrictive framework in Europe which has the potential to scupper the industry’s recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather than continuing along this path, which threatens the future of a key part of Scottish tourism, the ASSC has urged legislators to consider a mandatory programme of registration containing health and safety provisions, an approach that has near-universal industry support.

Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers Chief Executive, Fiona Campbell, said:

“The Scottish Government’s licensing proposals continue to represent a real threat to Scottish self-catering and are comprehensively and demonstratively unfit for purpose.

“Rather than this blunderbuss approach, the government should listen to our concerns and evidence-based insight, and seriously consider the industry’s mandatory registration scheme.”

“While up until now this process has been a string of disappointments and let-downs, it is not too late for the government to change its course, stay to true to its pre-election promises to the industry, and back small business for a sustainable recovery from Covid-19.”

Read the Consultation Response: ASSC Consultation Response 13.8.21

Read the media coverage.

Read what the Federation of Small Businesses think.

Read what Scottish Land and Estates think.