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Treasury blasted for secrecy on tax change consultation results
TREASURY chiefs have come under fire for refusing to disclose the results of public consultations over a tax change which could cost the Yorkshire tourist industry £20m and put hundreds of jobs at risk.
The Government's proposals, to scrap tax privileges for holiday home owners in April, has provoked a storm of criticism as it will affect thousands of affect self-catering accommodation owners as well.
But despite cross-party condemnation of the plans, the Treasury says it will not publish a report on the findings from its public consultation which closed on February 26.
The Tory MP for the Vale of York, Anne Mcintosh, one of more than 110 MPs to sign a Commons motion calling for a review of the changes, said: "They are hiding behind a veil of secrecy and have sunk to a new low.
"This is very disappointing as these results are normally published very shortly after the consultation has finished.
"By not publishing the public consultation they are showing no regard to the opinions of the thousands of people who will be hit hard by this."
The national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, John Wright, who helped gather information from self-catering accommodation owners for the consultation, said: "Removing tax breaks from small firms that run self-catering holiday properties could have a devastating impact on the sector – 60,000 self-catering holiday cottages could be severely affected.
"As a result we feel that the Government should be showing more interest and seriousness by issuing a formalised response to the consultation process on furnished holiday lettings.
"Given the detrimental effect this will have on small businesses, they deserve a public response."
Last month the Yorkshire Post launched a campaign alongside senior politicians and regional tourist chiefs calling for a review of the tax changes.
The Government has predicted its changes to the furnished holiday lettings rules will cost the industry 20m nationwide, but research undertaken by the Tourism Alliance says the proposals could create an overall reduction in tourism spend of 200m in Britain and a loss of nearly 4,500 jobs in rural and seaside economies. Self-catering accommodation in Yorkshire would be particularly hard hit with nearly 500 jobs put at risk.
The Tory MP for Whitby and Scarborough, Robert Goodwill, said: "The Government isn't being straight with people.
"I spoke to the Chancellor of the Exchequer myself about the scale of the problem these changes will create and we have written questions and raised the matter at Prime Minister's Question Time.
"But by stifling public debate they are showing they are not prepared to listen to common sense."
The Government's decision not to publish the consultation was revealed after a written letter from Labour MP Gordon Banks to Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, asking when the report would be made public.
Mr Timms said: "There are no plans to publish a full report on the findings from the technical consultation on the proposed legislation to repeal the Furnished Holiday Lettings rules, as none of the responses to this informal consultation identified any technical difficulties with the draft legislation which was published at the 2009 Pre-Budget Report."
Last week Tory leader David Cameron pledged to reverse the effects of the changes and accused the Government of "cutting off its nose to spite its face".
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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