A gorgeous UK city is set to agree to adopt a tourist tax scheme, with the final decision due to be made in less than a week.
Councillors in Edinburgh have said yes to its 5% visitor levy that could be in place from May this year to allow for a transition period.
Following the meeting of the policy and sustainability committee and a 12-week public consultation, the final decision over the tourist tax will be made by the council on January 24.
Council Leader Jane Meagher said adopting the visitor levy would be “important, innovative and ground-breaking” work for the city.
It’s predicted to generate over £100 million in the first three years, and then £50 million a year. Of that money, £5 million will be used to build new affordable housing, and £2 million will be budgetted for communities to decide what to do with it.
From what’s left, 55% will go to city operations and infrastructure, 35% to local arts and culture, and 10% to tourism marketing.
Cllr Meagher said: “Today represented yet another important milestone in our journey towards securing a visitor levy for Edinburgh – and to realising a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest tens of millions of pounds towards enhancing and sustaining the things that make our city such a great place to visit – and live in – all year round.”
The recent meeting also heard calls for the levy to be raised. The SNP proposed it be upped to 7%, while the Greens suggested 8%. The Conservatives went the other way, however, calling for it to be lowered to 4%.
The SNP argued that upping it to 7% would create more opportunities, and called for the housing portion of the funds to be increased to £20 million.
If the council approves the levy next Friday, it will apply to advance bookings made after May 1, but industry bodies have warned this is not long enough of a transition period.
Cllr Meagher said she’d spent roughly a decade “lobbying for and developing” the visitor levy scheme. She said: “The scheme we have today has involved a great deal of collaboration with the industry, residents and visitors through extensive consultation.
“At all stages we have engaged and we have listened – and it’s in this spirit that we must continue to fine tune the levy as it launches and grows.”
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