Emma Downey, who owns Tides Kitchen and Wine Bar in Newport, Pembrokeshire, said as well there being a high number of properties on the market, visitor numbers to the town also fell over the summer.
“People who have second homes here are desperately angry at the charges they’re now facing, and a lot of them simply are putting them on the market because they’ve had enough,” she told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.
She said the town needed a mixture of local people, holidaymakers and second home owners “to enable us to run our businesses successfully”.
She also called for more affordable homes to be built to solve the housing crisis.
“What we certainly don’t want… are all these homes going on the market and sitting there empty. That is not going to help anybody,” she said.
Aled Thomas, a local Conservative councillor who opposes the premium, said: “Tourism is one of the things that brings money into the economy, but people are going out of business because of these policies.
“What we need to do is to build more houses.
“Only around 20 to 30 houses have been built by the council in the last 30 years and that is disgraceful.”
Pembrokeshire council disputed figures quoted by Mr Thomas, saying it had completed 44 units so far this year, with seven more finishing in the “next couple of months”.
It also said the council has acquired 124 properties since 2021.
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