Many firms have lost confidence in it, or simply refused to join at all. As a result, the Government will stop trying to corral tourism firms in England into joining an official rating scheme.
We will leave decisions on whether and how to modernise, shrink or close the existing state-sponsored scheme to the industry itself, through the newly-refocused VisitEngland. All firms will, of course, still have to satisfy fundamental standards of health, safety etc as part of the existing Local Authority inspection regime, which will continue. And tourism firms will also still be free to join any or all of the other local or national rating schemes (such as the AA’s hotel ratings) if they’re right for their businesses as well.