A major UK city is “crying out for a tourist tax” similar those considered and being enforced by sun-kissed European destinations in Spain, Italy and Greece, the council leader claims.
Liverpool Labour council leader Liam Robinson was speaking during a fringe event during the Labour Party Conference in the city discussing how the city could tackle mounting financial problems.
Cllr Robinson, who became leader of Liverpool City Council in May, said a tax paid by tourists coming to the city would help to address budget issues.
He told the Liverpool Echo: “This city is crying out for a tourist tax. Lets be honest, it makes sense. It won’t solve all of our financial problems of course but it will certainly help.”
The council leader also called on the new Labour government to introduce new multi-year council funding settlements to help struggling local authorities make financial plans for the years ahead. Short-term settlements have been a bugbear of town hall bosses for years.
Tourist taxes are used in many cities around Europe. It means visitors staying in those areas have an extra levy imposed on them when they stay in those locations. The taxes are usually paid indirectly through accommodation providers or holiday companies.
Liverpool has become a cultural and visitor powerhouse in recent years and Cllr Robinson said such a tax could help to address some of the financial crises being faced by the cash-strapped council.
Last year Manchester became the first UK city to implement a new visitor charge. It means that overnight guests in city centre hotels or holiday apartments are charged £1 a night. The policy raised £2.8m in its first year.
Cllr Robinson was joined on the panel by Kim McGuinness, the Mayor of the North East. She hit out at what she claimed was a “hunger games” style Levelling Up policy of the previous government.
She claimed Councils and regional leaders were often angry at being forced to compete with one another for pots of funding under the policy.
Ms McGuinness told the event: “They made us compete for these one-off, crappy, biddable funds and it actually meant that the gap between the north and the south got bigger. What we are looking at now is single funding settlements for city regions.”
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