A short history of PASC UK
The Professional Association of Self caterers UK (PASC UK) was established in 2017. Prior to this, the professional self-catering owner in England did not have access to an association that would fully represent the sector to the Government and lobby on their behalf.
PASC UK covers England and Wales. We signed a Memorandum of Association with the ASSC, (Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers) in October 2024. See more here
PASC UK was established by Alistair Handyside MBE, who has been a self-catering property owner for over twenty years, and former Chair of the English Association of Self-catering Operators (EASCO). In January 2021 PASC UK also formally took on the reigns to represent the sector in Wales from WASCO (the Wales Association of Self-Catering Operators).
PASC UK are the largest trade association representing self-catering/short-term rentals/holiday lets in the UK with over 2500 Members, of which 170+ are Agency Members, representing over 230 online brands.
We have built a Team to support your business, all of whom have considerable experience, and many who are operators themselves.
Joining PASC UK helps finance the lobbying that is so important. In England, Scotland and Wales Governments are all planning on legislating the sector. It’s vital that we have a powerful voice to effectively lobby in support of self-catering. Once poor legislation gets onto the Statute Books it is almost impossible to get it removed. If you are not already a Member, please consider joining here
Over the years we have achieved much for the sector, in early 2026 the Government decided against requiring self-catering properties to have an EPC at level C or spend £15,000 trying. PASC UK led the campaign against this, meeting with all the relevant Government Departments using data to show just how damaging a measure this would be. This data showed that about 30% of the sector would cease trading if the measure was introduced.
When the announcement was made the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero credited PASC UK with supplying the data and information that led to the decision not to apply EPC C’s to self-catering.
We also worked hard to support the sector through the new Fire Regulations that came out in March 2023. We have run the most comprehensive support programme ever seen by our sector. From Fire Webinars, many held jointly with the Home Office, numerous specialist papers and free Fire Safety signs helped many thousands of businesses become fire compliant. Over 1400 Members were helped by having their fire questions answered by our retained Fire Safety Expert.
New ‘Draft’ Guidance was issued in November 2024 relating to larger properties covering two storey ‘open plan’ properties and we provided Guidance on navigating that whilst we await formal publication of the new document. The website has a huge range of assets to enable Members to understand and navigate these changes
In January 2023 PASC UK negotiated an exemption for the sector from paying PRS/PPL licences. If you have three units on one site or less, you no longer need to pay for these licences, so benefitting 95% of the sector.
We have been working closely with the Valuation Office for almost a decade, and the relationship has achieved much. We secured a fairer settlement for Business Rates after the 2017 securing an agreement from the Valuation Office to reduce the Rateable Values for properties with three units and above by 35%.
For the 2023 Revaluation a further overall average 25% reduction was secured. The 2026 Revaluation has though seen rises that mean that we are having to revisit previous work with the Valuation Office to get the 2026 Rateable Values reduced once again.
PASC UK maintains guides for paid members to enable them to check their Business Rates and get the reduction, if applicable, as part of membership.
During Covid PASC UK lobbied Government to let us prepare the cleaning protocols so that they were understandable and freely available to all. As a result, the collaboration between the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC), Premier Cottages and PASC UK resulted in clear and understandable cleaning protocols that were placed on the English, Scottish and Welsh Government Websites. They were downloaded from the PASC UK website over 150,000 Times. These helped the self-catering sector open in April 2021, earlier than many other businesses in hospitality.
During the pandemic we had the scandal of insurance companies denying Business Interruption Cover. PASC UK curated and led the Cottagesure Action Group (CAG). CAG successfully lobbied for inclusion into the Government supported FCA vs Insurers court case, that ended in victory for 2500 CAG policyholders in the Supreme Court in January 2021.
CAG continued to successfully lobby for fairer Increased Costs of Working (ICOW). The insurance companies also tried to deduct the Covid Support Grants from the Government from pay-outs. PASC UK curated and funded the national campaign to get this dreadful practice stopped. A coordinated campaign under the heading #justpayit, combined with direct lobbying to Treasury, finally secured a U-turn from the insurers and this practice was stopped and deductions repaid to tens of thousands of self-catering policyholders.
Whilst all the above was going on PASC UK continued to support and provide information and data to Government to try and steer better policy. We started a free weekly newsletter covering all aspects relevant to the self-catering sector. It has now been running continuously for over 310 editions.
Since emerging from Covid, we have seen a veritable tsunami of Government interventions into the sector. The new Government abolished Furnished Holiday Let (FHL) Allowances, the Welsh Government introduced a ludicrously high letting threshold for the sector at 182 days, as well as planning changes and is implementing a Wales Tourism Levy as well.
Statutory Registration is coming in England, which we support if appropriate, and NOT if they become licensing schemes as we seen in Scotland.
We are currently working on more than twenty regulatory and taxation changes, supporting our Members on one side, and lobbying the Governments in England and Wales on the other.
You can find the PASC UK Policy positions on all the key interventions here and the impacts that we are currently working on here.
Our support for our 170+ Agency Members has grown dynamically through 2024/25 and into 26. We have provided legal advice of their responsibilities under the Fire Safety Order, helped support them through the HMRC Intermediaries DAC7 reporting of owner income and much more, they in turn have been an invaluable asset in increasing the reach and number of responses we can garner for our lobbying campaigns. 2500 Members can only muster 2500 letters, yet we managed to send 27,000 with the help of our Agency Members and partners.
We now hold an Annual PASC UK Agency Conference, creating many new relationships and collaboration across the sector. We just held our third in March and we will be holding another in the Spring of 2027.
PASC UK works hard in the media as try we are to change the negative narrative against our sector, we constantly get conflated with empty and second homes. Please have a look at our Media Page here: Will be released shortly.
The work laid out above means that PASC UK is well connected and respected with the relevant Government Departments England and Wales and continues to work flat out to try and ensure the best outcome both the businesses in the sector and the consumer.
Joining PASC UK helps finance the lobbying that is so important. In England, Scotland and Wales Governments are all planning on legislating the sector. It’s vital that we have a powerful voice to effectively lobby in support of self-catering. Once poor legislation gets onto the Statute Books it is almost impossible to get it removed. If you are not already a Member, please consider joining here.
Joining PASC UK is easy, a single property is just £90 (plus VAT from 1 January 2025) per annum. Membership gives a range of benefits including email and phone support and numerous sector specific papers on topics ranging from legal papers providing Terms and Conditions, CCTV etc, plus papers dealing with VOA, Business Rates, EV Charging etc as well as access to discounts via the PASC UK Buying Club.