Bath and Cambridge are urging the government to allow them to introduce tourist taxes, becoming the latest in a string of English destinations seeking similar levies.
While Scotland and Wales have granted their councils the ability to tax tourists, at present the UK government has no law giving English local authorities the power to impose visitor levies.
In recent months, an increasing number of cities and popular destinations around England have been voicing their eagerness to introduce similar tourist taxes.
Bath and Cambridge are among the latest, having joined forces in urging Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to consider passing a visitor levy law in England.
The two cities attract hordes of tourists every year, with visitors drawn to Bath’s Roman-built baths and Georgian architecture, while Cambridge appeals to visitors with its world-renowned university and pretty city centre.
In a letter sent to Ms Rayner, the leaders of Bath & North East Somerset Council and Cambridge City Council state that their ‘destination’ cities are under growing amounts of pressure when it comes to tourism.
They note that the number of visitors is putting local infrastructure under strain and increasing demands on services like waste management.
The councils are seeking a roundtable with the government to explore ways that they can support sustainable tourism in their cities, including the introduction of “a modest visitor levy” with revenue that will benefit both residents and visitors.
The cities are keen for a similar structure to that which has been applied in Wales and Scotland, whereby levies would be applied across all types of accommodation, including short-term lets like Airbnb.
Councillor Kevin Guy, leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council, has called for a “fairer system” that recognises the costs of playing a role in the national visitor economy.
He said that the council should be given the tools to manage tourism “in a way that reflects local needs and priorities”, as well as sustain the quality of the city for visitors.
Cameron Holloway, leader of Cambridge City Council, said that while it is proud to welcome so many visitors a year, the “high numbers of tourists ebbing and flowing through our relatively small medieval city centre can have a serious impact on local people, and can detract from the visitor experience”.
“If tourism in historic cities like ours is to remain sustainable and internationally competitive, we need to be given the means to manage the flow of visitors and to address some of the negative impacts of tourism on local residents, public realm, and infrastructure,” he added.
The councils also want to explore other ways that sustainable tourism can be upheld in their heritage destinations, while still being able to enjoy the benefits from the visitor economy.
Cambridge and Bath have both followed other destinations seeking the powers to impose a tourist tax. This includes Brent, home of Wembley Stadium, which attracts huge crowds and is keen to reinvest the funds from levies in local infrastructure.
Oxford has also floated the idea of introducing a tourist tax through a legal workaround, which would involve setting up an Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID) that would allow hotels to charge an extra fee to be reinvested in projects in the area.
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast
