The Mayor of York and North Yorkshire has expressed confidence in implementing a regional overnight visitor levy, despite concerns from local coastal MPs and hospitality businesses.
The Mayor of York and North Yorkshire is ‘very confident’ that he will be able to implement a visitor levy on overnight stays in the region.
David Skaith, the county’s elected Mayor, is “very confident that we will be able to implement” a so-called tourist tax while noting that “the legislation from Government still needs to be finalised”.
The Labour mayor said he was “doing a lot of work with the community, with the hospitality sector, with the three local authorities and the public to see if it is implemented what we’d like to see it in use for”.
Alison Hume, the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, has questioned whether a levy on overnight stays would be right for coastal tourism, which is “very price sensitive” and has called for monies raised in her constituency to be reinvested there, if the proposal does go ahead.
However, speaking at the annual Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, Mr Skaith ruled out the idea of ringfencing funds to the areas in which they were raised.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS):
“It needs to be across the entire patch and the reason I say that is if you did it into each local area you would limit your capacity to do the big scheme projects that we need to do particularly in our coastal areas.”
He added:
“I know there’s obviously a lot of concern particularly from the hospitality sector, and I’ve met with them a lot over the last six to 12 months or so, and we will be continuing to do that now that the report from York St John Policy Lab is out as well.”
The report by York St John University, commissioned by the mayor, found that a £1-a-night visitor levy on overnight stays in York and North Yorkshire could raise up to £26 million a year.
Also on Tuesday, Ms Hume announced she will be bringing together tourism leaders from across Scarborough and Whitby for a roundtable event to discuss concerns on the Yorkshire coast about the overnight visitor levy.
Ms Hume announced the talks following a visit to Haven’s Blue Dolphin Holiday Park near Gristhorpe, where she met senior staff to explore the opportunities and challenges facing one of the area’s most important industries.
The coastal MP said:
“Tourism is the lifeblood of Scarborough, Whitby and our surrounding villages, so it’s vital that the voices of coastal businesses are heard.”
She added:
“Our visitor economy depends on domestic tourism and families carefully weighing up the cost of a break.
“That means even relatively small additional charges can have a real impact on decisions about where people choose to visit.
“York and the Yorkshire coast are very different tourism markets.
“Before any firm decisions are taken, we need a serious discussion about what effect it could have on visitor numbers, local businesses and the affordability of family holidays.”
Labour’s regional mayors in England, including Mr Skaith, have pledged to cap a new fee on visitors’ overnight stays at five per cent, after hospitality bosses warned it could put jobs at risk.
Speaking to the LDRS, Mr Skaith said that the Mayoral Development Zone brought forward by the Combined Authority “is going to be huge” but noted that it would take “millions of pounds to really develop the whole of Scarborough, so being able to put more more money into the pot and direct it into those larger projects is absolutely key”.
He added:
“Also, we’re talking about transport and if we’re moving people around for one reason or the next, that funding can’t stop because all of a sudden that funding from one area hasn’t been put into the pot as well.
“So, I think looking at it on a region-wide level is the right direction to travel on it.”
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