Waste Compliance and Enforcement for Short-Term & Holiday Lets
Case reference FOI2026/01075
Received 6 May 2026
Published 1 June 2026
Request
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding waste collection enforcement, specifically concerning short-term holiday lets. Please provide the following data, if held, for each financial year from 2022/23 to 2025/26 inclusive.
1. The number of properties which are registered for Business Rates as “Self-Catering Holiday Units” (or similar classification).
2. The number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) or formal warnings issued to owners of holiday lets or short-term rental properties for unauthorised use of domestic bins (i.e., using domestic waste collections for commercial business waste). If the data is not recorded by property type, please provide the total number of FPNs issued for unauthorised use of domestic bins for commercial waste generally.
3. The number of Section 34 (Duty of Care) notices or Section 47 notices issued to holiday let owners requesting proof of a commercial waste contract.
4. The number of reports or complaints received by the council regarding holiday lets/short-term rentals incorrectly using domestic bins in residential areas.
5. The total monetary value of fines collected from holiday let owners related to waste offences in the requested periods. If possible, please provide the data in spreadsheet format (e.g. CSV or Excel).
If data is not held for the full period requested, or if the breakdown cannot be produced within the statutory time or cost limits, please instead provide the most up to data figures available for a complete 12 month period.
Response
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding waste collection enforcement, specifically concerning short-term holiday lets.
Please provide the following data, if held, for each financial year from 2022/23 to 2025/26 inclusive.
1. The number of properties which are registered for Business Rates as “Self-Catering Holiday Units” (or similar classification).
Answer: Please see the answers below. However, it should be noted that the VOA do not rate such properties individually in all instances, so it is not possible for us to give a precise number of self contained holiday units. We can only provide the number of hereditaments that have been marked as such as listed on the business rates database.
2022/23 – 616
2023/24 - 613
2024/25 - 578
2025/26 – 579
2. The number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) or formal warnings issued to owners of holiday lets or short-term rental properties for unauthorised use of domestic bins (i.e., using domestic waste collections for commercial business waste). If the data is not recorded by property type, please provide the total number of FPNs issued for unauthorised use of domestic bins for commercial waste generally.
Answer: Please see the table below.
|
Year |
Warnings |
FPN |
|
2022 |
20 |
0 |
|
2023 |
8 |
0 |
|
2024 |
2 |
0 |
|
2025 |
1 |
0 |
|
2026 |
19 |
1 |
3. The number of Section 34 (Duty of Care) notices or Section 47 notices issued to holiday let owners requesting proof of a commercial waste contract.
Answer: Please see the table below.
|
Year |
Section 34 |
Section 47 |
|
2022 |
1 |
0 |
|
2023 |
0 |
0 |
|
2024 |
0 |
0 |
|
2025 |
0 |
0 |
|
2026 |
3 |
0 |
4. The number of reports or complaints received by the council regarding holiday lets/short-term rentals incorrectly using domestic bins in residential areas.
Answer: Please see the below reports.
22/23 – 0
23/24 – 1
24/25 – 1
25/26 – 2
5. The total monetary value of fines collected from holiday let owners related to waste offences in the requested periods.
Answer: £180.00
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.