As the public flocks to UK tourist attractions and holiday hotspots this summer, recent data shows there are hundreds of homes newly registered as holiday lets in Pembrokeshire – despite concern over the impact of increased tourism on local communities.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a boom in staycationing, with prices for holiday accommodation rocketing in tourist hotspots, and many seeking to capitalise by converting their second homes into holiday lets.

Recent figures from the government’s Valuation Office Agency, provided by property experts Altus Group, show there were 2,495 holiday lets in Pembrokeshire trading as businesses as of the end of May this year; 465 more than in mid-March 2020, before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

This means the area has seen one of the largest increases in holiday lets across England and Wales.

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The figures cover second homes which are registered as commercial premises – meaning they must be made available for at least 140 days each year– but does not include other second homes used for private holiday lets.

Groups have highlighted the increased pressure of in tourism on some communities – particularly those in rural and coastal areas, such as increased rent and stretched local services Across England and Wales, nearly 20,000 new homes have been newly registered as holiday lets over the course of the pandemic – there are now 83,342 nationally.

Highly visited areas such as the south-west of England, Wales, Yorkshire and the Humber have seen the highest growth in holiday lets, with over 2,500 new holiday homes registered in Cornwall alone.

Altus Group says the national rise may be due to people ‘flipping’ their second homes – converting them into holiday lets, and registering them as a business, to avoid paying increased council tax.

Generation Rent, a charity that campaigns for fair housing, said there were ‘countless’ stories of tenants being evicted to make way for a holiday let.

The charity's deputy director, Dan Wilson Craw, said: “The popularity of domestic holidays last year, combined with the lack of regulation and tax advantages, has fuelled the appetite for holiday homes and deprived renters of places to live.

“Taking homes out of the residential market prices out people who want to settle down in the place they grew up.

"That destroys communities and starves local businesses of workers."

Records from the Welsh Government from January show there were 1,622 properties registered as second homes for council tax purposes in Pembrokeshire.