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?

Saplings aren't trees though they are baby trees, and you probably wouldn't want them growing randomly. The sheet don't eat the saplings in the woods or hedges.
Only some trees will grow on steep hillsides.

"Baby trees" are just as much trees as the established kind.

And why wouldn't you want saplings growing on pastoral land? For what reason exactly?

Honestly, you sound clueless.

Well you've already called me a moron. They do not eat trees. They might eat saplings but saplings are soft.
I do understand nature and it's not the nature you are trying to describe.

The sheep don't eat the saplings in the woods or hedges.

They will eat any saplings they can get at. The ones protected by a foot of thorny hedgerow will be safe, but a sapling in woods that are accessible to sheep will get eaten.

I called you nothing of the kind!

Because you want grass to grow on it.

It was @RhymesWithTangerine who called me a moron, and you quoted it, @TarantinoIsAMisogynist

Trees definitely grow on hillsides and sheep do eat trees.

Exhibit A.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/somerset/cheddar-gorge/our-work-at-cheddar-gorge

I was in Vermont last year. Half the restaurants etc were closed due to lack of staff. Even the new supermarket was on reduced hours and was opening when the 14-year-olds (yes - 14-year-olds) were home from school to staff the place. It was so weird to see a sort of Bugsy Malone shop!

I just guess that people of appropriate age don’t want to do “menial” work. In some places people are well enough off that they don’t need a job (even the teens) and coupled with fewer permanent inhabitants (too many holiday homes) and you have a problem.

Pah! Call those trees. I've got bigger trees in my garden.

You moved from "sheep don't eat trees" to "saplings don't count, and from "trees can't grow on hills anyway" to "it's good that sheep eat saplings because otherwise trees would grow on the hills and the grass wouldn’t grow". Why not just admit the impact that sheep grazing has on the upland ecosystem and the vegetation that's able to grow there?

One thing that always stands out on the steepest hillsides is that trees grow where sheep and deer can't get to them. In nooks and crannies on the crags, or on the steep sides of ravines. If sheep/deer can't get there, trees will grow - you see it time and time again, all over the UK.

The upland moors in my area would be perfectly able to support trees (you can still see the odd remnants of an old forest up there), if it weren't managed intensively for a sheep farming and grouse shooting.

@TarantinoIsAMisogynist , trees don't belong in a pasture because grass doesn't grow well under trees.
Steep rocky hillside becomes scrubland if not farmed.

Oh, I understood your point. It just totally contradicted your claim that trees can't grow there anyway. If they can't grow there anyway, why would you need to control their growth to protect the grass?

And your second sentence simply isn't true.

There are countries across Europe that have substantial quantities of unfarmed hillside, and as a result they have enormous forests. Look at the hillsides of Norway, or Slovenia, or any other mountainous country that's less intensively farmed than the UK.

We have an appalling lack of biodiversity in this country compared to much of Europe. We are ecologically impoverished because people have been brainwashed into thinking that intensively managed grouse moors and uplands denuded by sheep and deer are "natural".

Google ‘tree covered hillside’ images. Think you might find some trees.

(This is crazy)

It's derailing a thread about lack of workers in tourist areas.

The grass I was posting about isn't on a hillside. Some hills have trees, steep rocky ones don't.
There is plenty of ecodiversity in my urban garden.

🤦‍♀️ It's probably time I stopped trying to play chess with a pigeon.

This is exactly why people voted to Leave. The cracks were happily being papered over fora long time. As long as the affluent could have their dinners out paid for by second home rentals it’s all good. Whatever the rest of the population were saying about not affording to either rent or buy a home.
You could ignore the issue whilst someone from Poland masked the issue.

OMG, this is hilarious.
So without googling ...

please guess what % of residential properties is a "2nd home". From what pp were saying I wanted to suggest at least 30%. For these places...

Cornwall
Lake District
North Norfolk (the district)

Hint, I Iive in one of those places & apparently we are 2nd highest in England for % of homes that are 2nd homes. The top place being... where? Who wants to guess? FWIW, I hugely appreciate the jobs the tourists bring. There'd be few jobs at all here without the tourism.

Good question. I’m not sure as the towns will bring the average down. But in desirable villages I’d say 60%

The ones that are second homes will probably be quite low. The 'airbnb' ones won't be included in that figure. Throughout Cornwall I'd hazard a guess at around 5%, but if you only looked at the coast it would probably be much higher. If you add the holiday lets and airbnb, at least twice that.

I'd guess the Lake District to be higher than Cornwall because it's a national park.

No idea about North Norfolk. Nearer London and many beaches. Lots of large arable farms, so possibility of farmhouses having been sold as 2nd homes. About the same as Cornwall?

keep going gals

Did I stop the thread?
I am hours overdue for a good bath & will come back & post here after that.

<Drumroll please>
The place with most 2nd homes = City of London
2nd most is ... North Norfolk. About 9.8% of housing stock.
Cornwall is somewhere far below, maybe 4.8% of housing is 2nd homes. There are claims that 40% of some NN properties in some villages are 2nd homes &/or Airbnbs.. all of this about Norfolk is disingenous. There are a lot of planned estates in NN which are only allowed to be 2nd homes, you aren't allowed to live there year-round. Hemsby, Walcott, around Hunstanton, Eccles, etc. I'm still eyeing one up for my own retirement.

You can't trust Airbnb stats because plenty of "all the property" holiday rentals are actually someone's primary residence, or their 2nd home. In Cornwall, just 19% of all properties are listed on Airbnb/similar platforms.

I'm starting to believe that 78% of north Norfolk jobs, FTE, are tourism dependent. Maybe you have more agriculture, HGV-driver needs & fishing elsewhere. We don't have much of those in NN. We'd be Grimsby without the tourism.

@BridgeOverTheRiverWye

You are not far off with your guess of 5% in Cornwall.

However this masks a big difference in the amount of second homes in say the Padstow area, St Ives and St Mawes compared to say St Austell, Bodmin and Launceston.

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornwalls-number-second-homes-empty-7842205?intsource=amppcontinuereading&inttmedium=amp&intcampaign=continueereadingbutton#amp-readmore-target

source info; ignore the sensationlism & think about the numbers.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/20/revealed-the-areas-in-the-uk-with-one-airbnb-for-every-four-homes

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/housing/20626377.parts-north-norfolk-becoming-airbnb-next-the-sea/