Meeting of the Parliament 28 May 2024
The amendments in this group relate to the arrangements for paying a visitor levy if the local authority chooses to introduce one. Under the bill, the overnight accommodation provider is responsible for collecting the visitor levy and remitting it to the relevant authority. However, the liability falls on the accommodation provider, as that is a more practical and sensible approach than it falling on individual visitors, as compliance action against individuals who live in other countries would be impractical and uneconomic to collect.
Miles Briggs’s amendments relate to the practical arrangements for the payment of the levy and, in the Government’s view, would make it more difficult for businesses to collect and remit it.
Amendment 21 would require a visitor to pay a visitor levy only at the overnight accommodation. That would severely limit the options that an accommodation provider had to collect a levy, as it would mean that a visitor could pay it only at that overnight accommodation. For example, it would prevent the levy from being collected online when a booking was made if the accommodation was paid for in advance. It is also unclear how it would work for a self-catering property that uses a key box or similar arrangement for check-in.
Amendment 33 would also limit the flexibility that accommodation providers have to make administrative arrangements around a visitor levy. It would remove the ability for an accommodation provider to make an arrangement with a third party to collect a visitor levy. That would, for example, prevent an online travel agent from collecting a visitor levy on behalf of an accommodation provider for the bookings that were made through that platform. Under the bill as drafted, such arrangements can be made if an accommodation provider wants to do that.
The Government wants to give accommodation providers the flexibility to enter into such arrangements if they want to and to enable them to collect and remit a visitor levy in the way that works best for that business. That is why the Government does not support amendment 33.
I very much appreciate the points that Mr Briggs has raised in lodging the amendments, which has afforded us the opportunity to consider the issues. I assure Mr Briggs that I think that flexibility to ensure the most effective administration is absolutely critical for the success of any visitor levy that a local authority introduces. I also assure Mr Briggs that it is my expectation that those matters will be engaged through the statutory guidance. I am, of course, happy to discuss the matter further with any member, should Parliament pass the bill.