Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a strict England-wide lockdown from 6 January, which will last until at least mid-February, following a review of the rules on 15 February 2021. Under the new rules, which are being imposed to halt the spread of the more transmissible COVID-19 variant, people will only be legally allowed to leave home for a very limited number of essential purposes. The stricter restrictions are being implemented across England, replacing the tiering system.

As with Tier 3 and 4, guest accommodation providers such as hotels, B&Bs and holiday homes must close. These may only remain open for the specific reasons set out in law, including:

• where guests are unable to return to their main residence,
• where guests need accommodation for work purposes, or to provide voluntary or charitable services,
• where owners use that guest accommodation as their main residence,
• where individuals need accommodation while moving to a new house, are self-isolating as required by law, or would otherwise be made homeless because of the accommodation closing.

In response to the new lockdown, the UK Short Term Accommodation Association (STAA) has called on Government and local authorities administering the latest lockdown grant scheme specifically for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses, to make sure that short-term rental businesses are included.

Last year, many companies in the short-term rental sector had their grant applications refused due to technicalities over whether they could be classified as ‘hospitality businesses’. This meant that many legitimate businesses missed out on vital funding to compensate for the loss of business they experienced when they were unable to operate, or were operating under massively reduced demand, due to restrictions limiting trading to essential stays only.