Tourist tax: Chancellor in talks with mayors over granting visitor levy powers to cities like York

Ms Brabin said: “We’ve been talking with the Chancellor on fiscal devolution, for example a visitor levy.”

The Labour mayor implied that this would be something she would consider bringing in for cities like Leeds, saying: “I think that’s something really of interest because it gives us an example to be more self-sufficient.”

The West Yorkshire Mayor was speaking to MPs about the English Devolution White Paper, which was unveiled by Angela Rayner last year.

Ms Brabin called for greater flexibility for mayors to spend money, and identified a visitor levy as one way of allowing that.

Currently, only Scottish councils can officially introduce a tourist tax, after Holyrood passed legislation on this last year, however there are workarounds which have allowed Manchester to add a £1 fee on hotel rooms.

Edinburgh became the first city to approve a visitor levy last week.

People staying in the city will have to pay a 5 per cent fee per night, capped at seven nights – which is expected to raise up to £50 million a year for the local authority.

This would be a sizable amount of money for combined authorities, which on average have flexible funding of around £20m.

In particular, politicians, councillors and businesses in York have called for some sort of visitor levy in the city.

Local business owner Keith Rozelle found that the city’s annual ratio of tourists to residents of 43 to one was higher than Amsterdam and Barcelona.

David Skaith, mayor of York and North Yorkshire, said: "York and North Yorkshire is an amazing place to visit and welcomes over 25m visitors a year.

“A modest visitor levy, like those in most European cities, would allow us to invest in the public services, helping us to keep our great places attractive for both residents and visitors, as well as improving services that residents rely on, such as transport.

“As Mayors take on more responsibilities, we'll need more fiscal devolution to ensure we can provide the best quality services and deliver for our residents.”

IPPR North director Zoë Billingham also made the call for visitor levy powers in England at the HCLG Committee yesterday.

She said this “low-hanging fruit” would be a “quick win” for bringing spending power to regions to drive national growth, as it would not take any tax raising powers away from Whitehall.

Ms Billingham argued that it should be “phase one of fiscal devolution” to truly deliver the government’s promised “devolution by default”.

She explained: “In a country where an incredible 96p in every £1 is still raised by Whitehall – an internationally staggering figure - the government needs to apply its mantra of ‘devolution by default’ to new areas.

“From next year, councils in Scotland will have the ability to introduce visitor levies and Mayors in England should have the same power.

“Moving power from Whitehall to town halls is a route to powering up regions to deliver better living standards, a stronger democracy and growth across the country.

“The government has shown that they’re taking devolution seriously, with their promise of devolution by default.

“As devolution matures, this should involve fiscal devolution – and a visitor levy is a clear candidate for a quick win in phase one”.