Labour has announced a new tax!

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

I know, I know, we’re all shocked.

In the King’s speech today. A new tourist tax that would be applied to overnight accommodation. It’s called the Overnight Visitor Levy Bill and could add around 5% onto hotel, B&B, guesthouse costs. They are pushing it through as we speak, I guess in time for summer.

It's widely implemented in Europe and I think it's very fair. If people descend on a place for a few days it is right that they should pay the local area for the privilege. My one concern is that the tax or levy is ring fenced for the area to which it applies and doesn't go to central funds to be swallowed in a big black hole somewhere!

Is fine. It’s been everywhere else for decades

We live Central Europe. It’s currently €2.50 per person overnight (not children). This will increase a lot to €4.50 each at the end of the year. But this will increase lots of local services in whole region ie cheap and increased public transport for everyone, so both tourists and locals will benefit.

We have a business where our guests have to pay this. I can’t say in 10+ years that our guests have ever questioned paying it. It’s just part of trip. They pay us, and then we get billed each month and have to pay our local council. So hotels/ accommodation don’t benefit from a penny, they are just middle man to collect and pass on basically.

Our small town goes from population of around 3000 people to around 30,000 in summer due to tourists. Tourists that mean the roads need more maintenance, parking, more street cleaning, more services and infrastructure, etc etc.

We also don’t pay council tax at all. So it’s hugely beneficial, and the tax will help stop uk areas increasing your council taxes so much if visitors pay tax.
I also think in country residents should pay, you always get loads of city residents head to the coast or in reverse so they should pay.

I think every other country in Europe charges it.

And yes we recently went to Venice just for the day, no overnight stay in town. I think €5 is fine for day visit. It’s a bargain isn’t it, €5 to view whole town and try to reduce tourists going multiple days if not overnight so it’s more pleasant for everyone.
It cost me €5.20 for a cup of tea locally the other day in cafe and that was 15mins entertainment

I'm the same. They want to benefit from our council tax so let them contribute

Annoying really if it's imposed on people paying council tax and water bills in their home location. Should just be for non UK residents.

@RaininSummer - why? Presumably you don’t holiday often in your own council district?
if you live in London, your council tax doesn’t pay for council tax in St Ives.

If tourist taxes are paid, then each area can use them locally on what’s critical. London might decide they can use the money to make more tubes run overnight ( which would benefit non tourists also). Margate might use money to pay for an extra few trains from London a day. Or an area might pay for extra bin collects in street, or street cleaners, or streets cleared or weeds. Or new playground or public toilets. Or fix the million pot holes. All things most councils say they currently have no budget for.

Tourist taxes are really really common across the world, not sure why everyone is shitting a kidney over this.

Why everyone is ‘shitting a kidney.’ Off the back of this thread no one cares less, so I’m going to guess you haven’t read the full thread.

I don’t think it will apply to local people. It’s an overnight tax attributed to hotels and guesthouses etc.

Come on. They are not trying to help at all. They are applying massive pressure to people who are working abd making the COL even more difficult. They are also now fighting amongst themselves after taking an absolute hammering locally.

Firstly, I don’t think the current situation about their leadership is relevant. They’re still in government, so are still very much trying to meet their objectives!

They’re also not intentionally applying massive pressure to working people. I think they’re just in a really, really tough spot, and have been since they came to power almost 2 years ago, because they have very few politically palatable or feasible options open to them right now to help improve the economy.

I’m not saying this to defend them, but more to set out that they’ve faced huge problems in trying to get the economy going, and those problems are getting worse, and meanwhile, they’ve been doing everything they can to try and sort those problems out.

Yeah this one doesn’t bother me as much as the numbskull decisions to increase the employers NI and the minimum wage which impacted on almost every sector and increased the cost of employment and therefore the cost of living - most dramatically affecting those on low incomes making minimum wage jobs more scarce and at the same time making everything more expensive. Beggars belief. And as labor voter and overall Starmer fan, I can’t forgive that he let this happen and that Rachel Reeves still has a job

I feel the same. I’m frustrated and annoyed - and also feel sorry for them at the same time - that a very small number of their decisions have come back to bite them, and define their whole time in power, because they were poorly thought out, but pushed through and maintained regardless.

To add, I think they took the decisions they did out of desperation, more than anything. Which is awful.

whijst I get your sentiment here in Bath we have a ton of UK tourists the council have to clear up from daily so it’s not much use to our local council if someone is paying their council tax in Cardiff - it only applys if staying over so on 3 nights might be around£12 - it’s hardly make or break level - cost of one big glass of wine here!!

But surely the council already receive a lot more proportionately in business rates from all the shops and establishments that can only exist because of the tourist footfall than somewhere like, say, Barnsley.

Plus all of the non-touristy businesses which nevertheless benefit from the tourist economy, with the spending power of the people who do own successful touristy businesses.

There's already loads of potential money coming in from those hordes of tourists to be paying their way; it just needs to be channeled wisely. Just because tourists are clearly not on their uppers, it doesn't mean they have an unlimited budget; it may well turn out that people just spend a bit less in shops, cafes and bars to allow for the tax, so loads more admin and bureaucracy (not to mention potential bad feeling, when people see it that they're being charged for coming to spend money) for no overall gain.

Wales and Scotland already have a tourist tax. Not sure about NI.

Councils only get half of the business rates they collect, the rest goes to government.

The birth rate is declining. You want less immigration so less tax generation. Creating new jobs? How exactly? New jobs in the era of AI sounds naive to me.

You’re expecting miracles at a time when the whole world is suffering. Totally unrealistic, and no, migrants aren’t solely to blame.

Sorry, but if that’s what they’ve been trying to do they’ve been monumentally failing. You can’t say “we want to grow the economy” and then impose policies that are anti-growth. They haven’t succeeded in creating new jobs or getting people off welfare and into work - quite the opposite!

I’ll answer this! The “growth” figures for Q1 2026 are misleading. GDP growth figures last year were awful (0.1-0.2% each quarter) and we had a debacle leading up to the budget because Labour kept leaking policies, judging the mood, and then reneging. Businesses were hamstrung, no one was making any medium- or long-term decisions because they didn’t know what the budget would say. The budget ended up being a bit of a damp squib and so businesses started to transact again post-budget. So it’s inflated the Q1 2026 numbers. If we had been governed properly and had the markets trusted the Chancellor we could have seen steadier (still poor) growth throughout 2025 and we wouldn’t have seen a bump in Q1 2026.

Q1 is an anomaly - Q2 will be back to disappointing growth rates, but they’ll blame it on world events. The fundamental issues in our economy haven’t gone anywhere and now Labour are squabbling and the pound declined nearly 1% against the dollar today and bond prices (the amount it costs the government to borrow money) hit a 30 year high last week.

Sorry, did you read a positive headline in a newspaper and just blindly believe it?

Except...the money raised will mostly be spent on the visitor economy which in turn will drive a better experience and more events, facilities and £spent . .which should be a win for everyone
As I say sometimes tourist taxes are levied to reduce visitors, this one is to encourage growth of the visitor economy

Lots of European museums / sites are free for EU citizens and then just a couple of euros for others.

A nominal fee for non UK citizens could work.

I am quite open to nominal fee fo non citizens. Dh's country has it too. But they don't have completely free entry. It's like 1 their money, while tourists pay 5 for example. So he goes pays 1, I pay 5😂
No one seems to have an issue but that's because it is long established... British museum would still have to be free for all🙈

Look at the taxes already on the UK tourism sector. The main killer is VAT at 20% of revenues. Compare that to VAT in say Italy. That apparently is only 10% on hotels etc. So half what we pay here. Adding a small additional tourism tax still puts them below the VAT paid here. Adding an additional tourism tax to UK hospitality hits the business even harder.

A hotel I have contact with for every £100 in revenue (money taken in before deducting the costs of running the business) £35 goes straight to the government. That's 35% of every penny in the door straight to the government. Think VAT, rates, other taxes. Add another 5% that's an insane tax rate. The business has then to deduct costs, salaries, purchases, utilities etc and they are down to a profit of a few pounds per £100 in the door if that.

If we want comparable taxes with overseas, which is how it's being sold, then VAT needs to be reduced accordingly.

Obviously this is seen as a tourist tax, so paid by tourists. In the end it is paid by businesses because they will lose trade, have to cut back on everything, cut prices, probably lay staff off and the very very many that are struggling will go under. To hit an industry that was destroyed by covid, where owners are still paying off large debts they took on to survive covid, during a cost of living crisis is the kind of politics I'd expect to see during a y6 class project where in depth concepts just aren't considered.