British Destinations

Tidy Britain litter survey and Sharing Economy update

Posted on August 7, 2018

1. The Tidy Britain Group today launched the findings their local environmental quality survey of  England 2017/18.  Of the 7200 sites surveyed 14% were deemed to be unacceptable a rise of 4% on the 2014/15 survey. This is a worrying trend that will in time impact on the perceived  quality of the of England as a domestic and international tourism destination.  Although a report on England the findings are likely to be replicated elsewhere in the UK as the underlying causes of increasing use of disposable packaging, a growing public disregard for doing the right thing and pressures, particularly but not exclusiveness on the public sector’s finances for non-statutory or partly statutory areas like cleansing and maintenance all begin to bite.  The press release is at:    http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/survey-reveals-littering-increase and the short summary report at:   ://www.keepbritaintidy.org/sites/default/files/resource/National%20Litter%20Survey%20201718.pdf .

2. I am working on comments on a draft position paper produced by the Tourism Alliance regarding proposals to introduce statutory registration as a mechanism to level the regulatory playing field between the sharing accommodation and established accommodation providers (a recommendation of the APPG Inquiry).  Rather than distribute it widely if any member is willing to assist me or simply wishes to look at the Alliance’s original draft, then please let me know and I send the detail to you.

Meanwhile, in researching my comments I have come across a number of recent international developments  relating to sharing accommodation provision, most notable in New York and Japan which I have added to the list of articles on the Britishdestination.net  “Sharing economy” page:  https://britishdestinations.net/tourism-the-sharing-economy-and-its-wider-implications/

It is worth noting that element within the UK are not alone in their concerns about the unregulated expansion of sharing economy platforms and sharing accommodation providers, and especial those providers that are not genuinely sharing their own spare capacity within their own main residency, I.e. at a reasonably low-level.  It is also noticeable that the platform providers seldom if ever seem to comply with requests to assist regulators in their duties until they are, or are about to be forced to.  In that respect pressing for compulsory registration whether you fully support the idea or not has merit if only to get the platform providers to start considering voluntary alternatives.