Meeting of the Parliament 28 May 2024
The underlying principle of the bill is to empower local authorities to be able to raise revenues to invest in the services and infrastructure on which the tourism sector and local communities rely. The minister has already referred, in relation to earlier amendments, to the importance of flexibility for local authorities to meet local needs and circumstances, recognising that the tourism sector differs in different parts of the country and at different points in the year.
It is important that we do not land local authorities with a poisoned chalice. Fundamental to that is ensuring a degree of fairness, so that the legislation that we apply and the way in which local authorities can use it does not appear to single out one section of the tourism sector while excluding others.
Over recent years, in my Orkney constituency and across the Highlands and Islands, we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of motorhomes making up a part of the tourism sector; that is even more the case with cruise traffic. I am not trying to make an argument about whether that is a good thing or a bad thing—that is for another debate—but what is beyond doubt is the fact that the increased volumes are putting additional pressure on services and infrastructure in Orkney and other parts of the country. If the bill is to command public confidence as well as the confidence of the sector, recognition of that fact is required.
In addition, there is the question of the administrative costs for operating any scheme that a council brings forward. Excluding cruise traffic, motorhomes and other sections of the sector, while including hotels, bed and breakfasts and self-catering, runs the risk of local authority schemes costing more to operate than they are likely to be able to recoup through revenue—I know that that would be the case for Orkney Islands Council.
I understand from the exchanges that I had with the minister at stage 2 that there are complications in trying to incorporate these provisions in the bill, and I thank the minister for his constructive engagement ahead of stages 2 and 3. I understand that there have been on-going discussions with local authorities and that the minister is committed to continuing those discussions to find a way forward in relation to both cruise traffic and motorhomes. Identifying ways of applying the bill in an island setting, where the requirement is to travel into the islands and within the islands by ferry, opens up opportunities that are not available in operating schemes on the Scottish mainland.
I recognise that the process will take some time in order to get the detail right. However, in the choreography of what local authorities are able to do in the introduction of a visitor levy that applies to those businesses that are captured by the bill, allowing local authorities to apply it with a degree of fairness to cruise traffic and other elements of the tourism sector, it is important that the work is taken forward with good speed and that the legislation that is required to introduce it is brought forward in this parliamentary session.
Again, I thank the minister for his engagement on the issue. Despite having rushed to introduce my amendments, which secured them numbers 1 and 2 in the list, I can confirm that, as at stage 2, I do not intend to press them to a vote; rather, I intend to use them as a means to allow the minister to put on the record the Scottish Government’s commitment to take forward the consultation and legislation in due course.
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