The government says it doesn’t know how many island homes have been granted use for tourism accommodation.
We submitted an FoI request to discover in each of the last five years, how many private properties have [had] granted either additional or change of use to be designated as tourist accommodation.
However, in its response to our request, DEFA said it “does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find the information that you have requested”.
It added: “This is because whilst the Planning and Building Control Department do record applications by development type, there is no ‘type’ which specifically captures a change from residential to tourism.”
It was however able to provide data which identified the number of applications received for change of use with ‘tourist’ in the proposal.
They were:
2020 – 28
2021 – 26
2022 – 35
2023 – 31
2024 – 38
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