As the public flocks to tourist attractions and holiday hotspots to celebrate the jubilee weekend, new data shows there are more than 100 newly registered holiday lets in Carmarthenshire.

This is despite concern over the impact that increased tourism is having on rural 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.

New figures from the Government’s Valuation Office Agency, provided by property experts Altus Group, show there were 558 holiday lets in Carmarthenshire trading as businesses at the end of May which was 112 more than in mid-March 2020 and before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

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The figures cover second homes which are registered as commercial premises and not used as second homes which are used exclusively for private holiday lets.

Altus Group says the rise may be due to people ‘flipping’ their second homes and converting them into holiday lets to avoid paying council tax.

In January 2022, the Government announced it was clamping down on the holiday let tax loophole, telling second homeowners they will have to prove that their properties are rented out for a mininum number of days a year.

However Generation Rent, the charity that campaigns for fair housing, said there are now 'countless' stories of tenants being evicted to make way for a holiday let.

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

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

"But this destroys communities and starves local businesses of workers."

Welsh Government records show that in January there were 2,845 properties registered as second homes for council tax purposes in Carmarthenshire.

Meanwhile Secretary of State for levelling up, Michael Gove, said the Government wants to encourage 'responsible' short-term letting.

“We will not stand by and allow people in privileged positions to abuse the system by unfairly claiming tax relief and leaving local people counting the cost," he said.

“The action we are taking will create a fairer system, ensuring that second homeowners are contributing their share to the local services they benefit from.”