Meeting - Cefin Campbell & Cllr Hazel Evans

Monday 15th September 2025 Cefin Campbell MS and Cllr Hazel Evans (Executive Board member for Carmarthenshire County Council) attended a member meeting with over 20 businesses represented.

The purpose of the meeting was to allow the politicians the opportunity to explain the ‘raison d’etre’ for the introduction of the 182 Rule and the forthcoming Visitor Levy and Registration Bill which received Royal Assent this week and allow sector businesses to challenge its reasoning.

Mr Campbell advised that this legislation, drawn up as part of the Co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and Labour, would ensure that second home owners and those operating furnished holiday let properties would be making a financial contribution to the communities through payment of domestic Rates as opposed to business rates with the opportunity for each Local Authority to increase this with a premium of a further 300%.

Carmarthenshire County Council have set the premium at 150% on top of the base rate if businesses fail to reach the somewhat arbitrary target of 182 days let is not achieved.

Plaid Cymru, voted in the Senedd for the 182 days target but have now reflected on the situation and plan to review it as a manifesto commitment for the forthcoming election in May 2026.

It was pointed out that review doesn’t mean an alteration to the number of days in a favourable direction, and they were urged to indicate what that number of nights occupancy required would be.

Tourism Levy and Registration Bill

A robust debate was had over the introduction of the Levy and Registration Scheme which was followed by a short presentation by George Reid which highlighted the potential additional costs to businesses if they failed to reach the 182 days and the costs of introducing a Visitor Levy as a further expense on the already high inflationary costs currently being experienced.

Following on from a meeting with the Wales Revenue Authority the previous day George was able to update the group on the current timetable which would see the first introduction of the Levy by April 2027 after a completion of the Registration process by Autumn 2026.

The Governments own figures were presented back to the Senedd member, which clearly demonstrates the huge financial risk of introducing the Visitor Levy and 182 Rule in the current environment of dwindling visitor numbers and escalating operational costs.

A copy of the presentation has been sent to Mr Campbell for validation and further consideration.

Although no decision has yet been made it was felt that Carmarthenshire County Council would follow neighbouring Pembrokeshire in not introducing the levy at this stage.

Energy Infrastructure

Mr Campbell MS informed the group that it would be Plaid Cymru policy to bury all high voltage cables underground and favoured more local community generation schemes as a way forward towards net zero.

Quote from Hayley Steel – Y Pantri, Goslas.

‘The meeting was a great opportunity for people in the industry to ask questions and share their views with people who would hopefully take on board the comments and influence positive change.’

‘What I did find alarming, though not surprising, was that legislation has been brought in without any data or meaningful consultation with the industry. Yet, a report done by Cardiff University is dismissed because it is based on assumption rather than fact.’