English mayors push for customer levy to spice up source of revenue from tourism

A coalition of mayors from throughout England are urging the federal government to permit native government to usher in a Barcelona-style customer levy to generate source of revenue from tourism.

The staff, led through the Liverpool town area mayor, Steve Rotheram, argues {that a} customer levy would unencumber essential investment for tourism and cultural infrastructure, empower regional expansion and cut back dependence on central executive investment.

The letter to the tradition secretary, Lisa Nandy, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been co-signed through the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham; the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan; the north-east mayor, Kim McGuinness; Richard Parker, the mayor of the West Midlands; and the West Yorkshire mayor, Tracy Brabin.

They say provisions might be made within the imminent English devolution invoice, or in a particular finance invoice, to present native government the liberty to design and introduce a in the neighborhood administered customer levy.

It would imply towns they constitute, together with Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham and London, may introduce fees to harvest direct advantages from tourism.

Many European towns have an identical levies in position, together with Venice, Lisbon and Amsterdam, as do Spain’s Balearic Islands.

In the Liverpool town area, which hosts greater than 60 million guests every year, a customer levy may lift just about £11m a yr, the mayors stated. The town hosted Eurovision in 2023, which generated £54m in direct financial have an effect on.

If a £1- to £5-a-night levy have been presented in Greater Manchester, it will lift between £8m and £40m a yr, which might pass against infrastructure initiatives such because the regeneration of Old Trafford or airport construction, the mayors stated.

The mayors stated price range raised thru a customer levy can be ringfenced for native reinvestment, and stated the federal government had to act urgently, as devolved governments in Scotland and Wales are shifting forward with their very own tourism levies, leaving English areas vulnerable to falling at the back of.

“The Liverpool city region is a global icon of creativity, culture and character – attracting more than 60 million visitors every year and supporting a £6.25bn visitor economy,” Rotheram stated. “That’s something to be incredibly proud of – but it also comes with pressures on our infrastructure and services.

“A small charge on overnight stays – the kind most of us wouldn’t think twice about when travelling abroad – would give us the power to reinvest directly into the things that make our area so special.”

Burnham added: “At a time when national resources are under real pressure, a modest visitor levy – something we all pay in other parts of Europe – offers a fair and sustainable way to support our local services.”

McGuinness stated: “A local tourism tax is so mainstream across the rest of the world you barely notice it, so it should not be a big step here in the UK.”

Last yr, a file from the panorama charity Friends of the Lake District made a an identical name. The organisation’s leader government, Mike Hill, stated: “In most of the places around the world that we’ve looked at that have brought in some sort of tourism levy, tourism numbers have actually increased, because the place gets better.”