Town council calls for possible ‘visitor tax income’ to be kept in Scarborough
Funds raised from an overnight visitor levy should ‘not be syphoned off elsewhere’, town councillors have said.
Members of Scarborough Town Council (STC) said they are concerned about proposals for a new visitor tax due to rising costs and a lack of details on whether money raised locally would stay in the area.
In last year’s budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced combined authority mayors will get new powers to invest in their areas and drive growth through a charge on overnight stays.
David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, has long campaigned for a visitor tax which he has described as a “game changer” for the region.
Some hoteliers have already said they are “deeply concerned” by the proposal’s implications for businesses and tourism.
Coun Sarah Mason, a member of the Reform-led STC, said: “A visitor levy could be of value if the money raised in Scarborough was guaranteed to be spent in Scarborough, but that guarantee simply does not exist today.
“Without local control, we risk losing money here only to see it spent elsewhere.
“Our accommodation providers are already under intense pressure. Higher national insurance, rising business rates and escalating operating costs, adding yet another charge for undermining the sector that is fundamental to our local economy.”
Mr Skaith has suggested that with 41 million visitors to the region every year, a “modest levy” could raise £50m for York and North Yorkshire to “turbocharge investment into things like transport, but also really boost investment into the tourism and hospitality sector, which is so badly needed”.
He said that he will be “very much about working with the local authorities, working with businesses, working with the tourism sector as a whole, to really bring them all on the journey together and actually work out what we want to see from such a levy, how it’d work, how it’d be collected”.
Speaking at a full meeting of Scarborough Town Council on Wednesday (January 21), Labour’s Coun Chris Clark said he was in favour of ringfencing money raised in the area.
Independent, Coun Janet Jefferson, said: “I agree it’s not an easy taxation to start, and my concern is, is it going to be fair, and how is it going to be spent?”
The town mayor, Reform’s Coun Thomas Murray, warned of “unwanted effects for our hospitality industry”.
He said: “If the Labour leader and North Yorkshire Mayor chooses, as I expect he will [to proceed with the plan], this council has a duty to declare what we expect.
“We expect that the projected £8 million raised in this town stays in this town, and is not syphoned off elsewhere.”
Independent, Coun Rich Maw, said: “This is something which we have to support with a view to ensuring that towns like Scarborough, the tourist destinations – which are perhaps going to bring in the lion’s share of the funds, maybe only second to Harrogate – that the vast majority of that money must be spent in Scarborough.”
Alison Hume, the Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby, previously said: “Local coastal communities absolutely should benefit from a simple tourist tax.
“Mr Skaith knows the importance of demonstrating that every pound generated locally is spent locally on our transport and infrastructure, not funnelled into a combined York and North Yorkshire pot.”