British Destinations

Self-catering commercial waste collection commentary, urgent correction.

Posted on October 20, 2023

I am embarrassed to say that less than 3 hours after circulating yesterday’s update note I have already been proved wrong about what was supposed to be a rare slightly lighter moment in an otherwise gloomy war-torn update.

As the comment was one of the few points made that relate directly to a tourism and to a pragmatic destination management issue and the item covered related to a matter of fact rather than an assessment of the prevailing situation, I do now need to correct and expand on my comments on, of all things, “bin tax” as the Times has recently unhelpfully chosen to call it. I have amended the original online version of the update to reflect this, however, it has already been published more widely and therefore assuming anyone takes a blind bit of notice of what I report, unintended harm may have been done.

The Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 (see specifically Schedule 1, paragraph 2’s Classification table line 11 & 12 plus also lines 14,16, 18 & 19).

This regulation applies to any and all waste generated by commercial activity all types of property, regardless of whether that property is subject to business rates (BR) or Council tax (CT).  I was wrong to say that owners of holiday home, short-term lets, or to quote the regulation definition: “domestic property used in the course of a business for the provision of self-catering accommodation”, can choose pay CT and therefore continue to use the domestic waste stream to dispose of waste generated by their business activities. 

Many CT paying short-term let accommodation provider do apparently still use the domestic service and many Councils either accept this state of affairs or at least don’t yet do anything about it. Arguably either because a lack of local scale to justify action, a lack of resource and ability to easily identify “offenders” (the invisibility issues of much of the recent boom in provision) or simply because they haven’t yet got round to addressing, what for many, is a relatively new and still growing problem. 

What was usefully illustrated by the Times article is that in recent years a growing number of authorities, especially those in popular destination towns and tourist areas, have or are now reviewing their approach the application of the 2012 commercial waste regulation.  Some doing so for all the burgeoning post pandemic residential property, home-based commercial activities and not simply for holiday homes, holiday lets, short-term lets, “Airbnb” or, whatever shorthand terminology is used to identify this type of business.

My confusion between the letter of the law and its application in respect of tourism accommodation came about largely because all of the more prominent examples of Councils “clamping down” I was readily aware of until 24 hours ago, have involved a far more targeted approach, directed towards those who have chosen to register for BR but have not then taken the necessary steps to take out a commercial waste contract.

Having had my error pointed last night and having then done the additional research that I should perhaps have done earlier, I have found that there are indeed a number of examples where it appears Councils are applying the regulation to both CT and BR paying self-catering providers as the regulation clearly says they can do. Whether the regulation or some other associated regulation or Acts says they should or must, is a matter I not yet qualified to comment on. I doubt it is or should be mandatory but I simply don’t know for certain.  Other may be able to advise me and then I can advise you all at a later date?

While there may be more of a potential problem around easily identifying those properties paying CT rather than BR and generating commercial waste, once CT or BR payers are identified as undertaking businesses in a property there are absolutely no grey area.  Accommodation provision indisputably generates a volume of commercial waste. It is an offence for anyone, including owner or guest, to carry or dispose of commercial waste without appropriate licences and/or an offence for them to dispose of that commercial waste into anything other than the commercial waste stream. It is also an offence not to have a commercial waste contract in place where commercial waste is being generated and an offence if you or the contractor on your behalf, do not then maintain accurate records of every disposal made.  Its also an offence not to retain those records for previous 24 months, presumably to prove both the existence of a contract and critically its proper usage. There is also no de mimimis stipulated for either the period involved or number of guests being accommodated; 1 paying guest on 1 day is therefore as much a commercial activity, as any number of guests accommodated across any or all days of the year.

It is breaches of one or more of the above that owners appear to have been fined for. Anecdotally it is suggested that it is the knowledge that a particular Local Councils are applying the letter of the law and fining offender that generally then encourages others to rapidly comply and take out and then use a Council or private commercial waste contract.  In the defence of Council’s actions, I have yet to see any evidence of Council’s pursuing property owners without giving due warning via letters, stickers on domestic bins, public notices etc. and typically doing so anything up to 2 years in advance of them first taking any legal action,and then only against those who have ignored further targeted due warning. Other may know differently; please do tell if there are example of no or unreasonably limited warning.

The disposal of waste via the domestic waste stream, isn’t of course “free”.  The waste collected doesn’t simply evaporate. The process of disposal costs Councils significant sums starting with staff, equipment and transportation costs, through things like recycling charges and ending with landfill tax for that which remains.   Generating more revenue to dispose of the same waste they were already disposing of in error, or reducing the waste at source and the costs to the Council by contracting its disposal to private commercial waste services paid for by the business generating it, clearly makes good financial sense to increasingly cash strapped Councils. 

Some tourism interests will of course legitimately argue against the application of additional business costs, or caution against penalising tourism businesses that support local economies.  However, wherever your sympathies lie, ultimately it comes down to the difficult to avoid and hard to answer question of: “why should certain provider, not be expected to bear the same business cost, as all other accommodation providers and all other legitimate commercial businesses operating within the same administrative areas?”.  

Recent developments and new business models have seen the creation and expansion of many new self-catering businesses, Sadly, that rapid expansion has outpaced officialdom’s ability to apply all existing and necessary regulation.  Unless we say no accommodation, business should pay for commercial waste disposal (a nice idea but economically impractical) its patently unfair that some have no choice but to pay because they are known about and already do pay while other don’t have to pay, simply because they often new to the game, harder to spot and, for whatever reason, the rule that say they should pay, are not being universally applied by those that could or should be applying them. 

Rather than seeing this as an attack on business and a threat to the visitor economies of certain popular destinations, personally at least, I tend towards viewing this as Councils belatedly catching back up with recent rapidly developing trends and, in doing so, arguably reinstating a level and fair playing field for all local businesses and for the local communities in which those businesses generally prosper. 

I would welcome the view of colleagues and, in particular, those who have the unenviable task of managing destinations and delivering a cohesive destination product, brand and message to and for consumers, businesses and local residents.