Staff shortages in tourist areas.

[StaffShortages]

I've just returned from the Lake District and there's a severe shortage of staff, partly due to Brexit but also apparently because of a lack of affordable accommodation. One chip shop was offering £14 an hour for a counter assistant. Many restaurants shut for a day or two because of staff shortages.

Is the same happening in other touristy parts of the UK?

I grew up in a west country seaside town, where my parents still live. In their street of 27 houses, 18 are now holiday homes/air b&b. It's the same all over town. There used to be three primary schools and a secondary school; there's now one primary, and the kids have to travel to the nearest big town for secondary (about 40 minutes by bus (or an hour peak season!)).

People can no longer afford to live in the area, they certainly can't afford children, and all the local shops and pubs are struggling because there's neither the staff or a sufficient year round customer base to make them viable.

Yes it’s all coming home to roost.

The only way to holiday in Cornwall now without spending massive amounts of time booking/chasing/confirming spare tables is real ‘self-catering’. Service by private inns, hotels and restaurants is shot to pieces. Solid hard working staff have gone back to Poland, Czech Republic, Romania where their economies are performing much better.

Never mind, some crooked wanker will come along and convert all those pubs into HMO’s and take the profits overseas or into the chipping Norton set.

If there is no housing and no transport then there will be no workers.

Build houses on fields. Not many fields but definitely some.

Similar problems in Ireland:

June 2023
Restaurateurs [in Ireland] are struggling with the biggest staffing “nightmare” in the tourism industry just as visitor numbers are bouncing back, a major report warns.

Almost three quarters of those surveyed say they just “can’t get the staff"

... the availability of affordable housing to buy or rent is having a major impact on attracting staff.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/staffing-nightmare-is-biggest-threat-to-the-tourism-industry-as-foreign-visitors-return/a1945029218.html

One in five of the country's workers is a non-Irish citizen, with the economy now "completely dependent" on people from outside the EU to fill jobs, the Irish Hotels Federation conference in Killarney has heard.

With rising living standards in countries such as Poland "eastern Europe has largely dried up” for staff recruitment.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41087446.html

How would there be jobs for the locals to do in some of these places, without tourists, and where would the tourists stay when they visit if not in 2nd homes, holiday lets & Airbnbs ?

I imagine you can't have the jobs without the 2nd homes, Airbnb & holiday let properties.

Very much a problem across the highlands. Even if you can attract staff there’s no an accommodation for them.

Well it has to be about balance..places like st ives.....it seemed every house was a holiday let when we went. Tbh honest I personally have decided not to book another holiday let. There are other options besides holiday cottages

Tourists have been visiting these areas since long before air bnbs were a thing. They stayed in hostels, caravans, campsites, B&Bs, inns, hotels etc. Most of those types of accommodation also generate jobs in their own right - more so than air bnbs.

There have always been some holiday cottages for rent, but the number of them, and of second homes, has skyrocketed, to the detriment of rural tourist destinations.

Genuinely, anyone who thinks that rural holiday destinations 'need' lots of AirBnBs to support local jobs is really badly informed. They don't, because the tourism isn't dependent on the AirBnBs.

There's absolutely loads to do in the countryside without tourism.
You know like growing food, quarrying, professional work, shopkeeping, HGV drivers.... and thats getting increasingly difficult when there are absolutely no affordable houses to buy or rent

2nd home owners........... One home is surely enough. Countless rural areas are now full of houses that are empty much of the year or are only stayed in by holiday makers. Ruinous of rural community life. Yes tourism boosts the local economy but its crap if it then also kills the local community as well.

I think it's a mixture of factors.
We are technically not in the Lake District as outside the National Park boundary but only just. The number of houses in our village and the surrounding ones which are now holiday rentals has rocketed in recent years. Until fairly recently you would have said our village was too far away from the tourist hotspots to be considered a holiday destination but now there are quite a lot of holidaymakers. I think it is at least in part due to Covid. A lot of people who previously only holidayed abroad came to the Lakes then and are still coming and quite a lot of people are seeking out quieter spots. So there's a bigger demand for tourist services and affordable housing is getting less available. We've also seen cuts to public transport so it is harder for people who live outside the main tourist areas to get to work in them. Some big places have minibuses that pick workers up but obviously not every business can afford to do that.
But I agree Brexit has had a large effect. I have several friends working in big hotels who say that pre Brexit a lot of the staff were Eastern European but they have almost all gone back now.
It's a combination of demand for this type of work going up whilst the supply of staff is simultaneously going down I think.

Yes, she’s looking for another hospitality job that pays more once she has a bit more experience. If they increase her wage she’ll stay. They’d have the same issue regardless as to whether she was also at school or not. As it happens, she’s back at school now (Scotland) but will be working all year.

yay... send them all back down the mines. And out into the sea. And potato sorting. More HGVs on the road if only ... anyone in God's waiting room needed to buy anything.

"Tourism is the biggest sector in Cornwall, supporting one in five jobs"
Apparently tourism supports 1/4 jobs in Cumbria.
78% of total FTE jobs in in North Norfolk are tourism dependent, am I reading that right?!!

There is a fairly simple solution to the second home / holiday let / Airbnb problem in the planning system.

If I own a residential home and want to say turn it into a hotel or a pub or a shop then I would need to get planning permission. Similarly if buy a residential home and want to use it as a holiday let or Airbnb or even a second home then I should also need to get planning permission.

Local councils could then decide if a particular area already has enough holiday lets / Airbnb's / second homes before deciding whether to approve the application or not.

Existing holiday lets or Airbnbs or second homes would be unaffected until they are sold again. Anyone operating without planning permission would simply have the income from that illegal operation seized, which could be a nice earner for local councils.

What do you suppose those fields are doing all year? Just sitting there doing nothing? The countryside is a factory where we grow our food.

Farms employ people. Build on farmland, and not only do you lose productive land, farm workers lose their jobs. The new houses are bought by well-off 'incomers' who have decided to relocate. They WFH now, don't have to live near their cushy jobs any more, so they can live somewhere nice and picturesque instead. The price of houses in the area goes up as a consequence.

Upshot is:

Less agricultural land, so we have to import more food from overseas which has a negative impact on our trade deficit.

Fewer affordable homes for young local people so even more of them leave the area and don't return.

An ageing local population who public transport, but qualify for bus passes and bus companies don't like to operate loss-making routes.

Greater built environment = greater runoff = more flash flooding.

I don't think building houses on fields is going to improve matters, to be honest.

We just got back from Poland. Been many times and it's flourishing. Felt very different from a trip to the lakes a few weeks ago.

@Merapi

"What do you suppose those fields are doing all year? Just sitting there doing nothing?"

+++

In fact farmers are being paid subsidies to not grow crops on their fields.

amp.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/06/englands-farmers-to-be-paid-to-rewild-land

We don’t really grow crops in the Lake District.

”Second homes/holiday lets/air bnbs etc have taken all the accommodation, so no one can afford to actually live/work here 🤷‍♀️” this to a T and agreed about planning only going on holiday homes, madness.

there is also a difference in second home owners (from nice to meh) and airbnbs (hell).

Also get into the details (not a criticism, it’s boring) - these payments are shit. So if you’re a big Tory who buys up mega massive farms just to hold land as a way of passing it on to your kids and avoid inheritance tax on it, you don’t give a shit about the lane and what it’s doing - re wilding is ace for them. For really anyone else it’s shit as you give up your only income producing asset for pennies. Already being paid pennies for producing food but these payments are shit,

Local people who 5 years ago were moaning about the lack of rental accommodation in SE Cornwall, are now turning long term lets into AirBnB, the attitude being "if you can't beat em join em..." following on from new arrivals buying up 2nd homee & renting out as AirBnBs....

Any changes to planning etc wont be retrospective, so its all rather too late... my village, previously over looked, is now wrecked beyond repair, we even have a TV celeb move in...

Then there is a severe lack of EU workers here, from carers, to delivery drivers to bar/hotel staff.

BUT we have all voted for this, both in 2016 and again in 2019... so who is really to blame?

Who's this 'we'? Some of us didn't vote for any of it.

This is ridiculous and wrong. ^

The UK is almost entirely green - we’ve only built on 8% of it. Seriously, look out the window when you next fly across the UK - it’s fields.

Most agricultural land is chemical sprayed mono culture. Gardens are much more diverse for wildlife. They can also assist with flash flooding.

Sheep on hills are also an issue with flash flooding. They eat all the trees and the water whooshes off. Again, a well planned environment With plenty of rolls and trees can manage this much better than The sheep farmer.

Build more houses on fields. Mor all fields just many more fields.

Same where I live in a ski resort in France. For someone to work in a restaurant for a winter season the rent would cost more than their wage. Unless the restaurant is able to provide accommodation there are real staffing issues and lots of places on reduced hours.
We (2 people on minimum wage jobs) are currently in the process of moving 40 mins away from resort so we can afford a house with garden for our family - our flat has been sold to a second home owner. Same story with lots of our friends/ co-workers.
No big deal having to commute but frustrating to be putting all that pollution in the air daily when most properties locally are sitting empty most of the time.

Surely the hotels requiring the staff can provide accommodation.
Brexit ? Well back in 2003 we were paying much more than workers in Poland etc received. This is not the case now and not necessarily due to Brexit. Things have balanced up. So the incentive to come here has gone.
Our terrible summer weather might have dimmed the enthusiasm for airbnbs.
The other problem is a very short holiday season. So accommodation is needed for a few months only.