Domestic Travel and Holidays: Visitor Levy

Lord Forbes of Newcastle Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

The visitor levy was announced on 25 November 2025 and a consultation on the design of the levy powers was launched in the Budget. The consultation has now closed, and the response will be published—perhaps the noble Lord will not be surprised to hear me say this—in due course. We expect that local leaders will be able to introduce the levy before the end of this Parliament. I am afraid I do not accept the wider characterisation from the noble Lord. As he knows, we have done a great deal to support the hospitality industry, including pubs and live music venues, through business rates support and through our Great British Summer Savings scheme, which is now well advanced.

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle (Lab)]

My Lords, I am a former chair of Core Cities UK, the group of the 10 largest cities outside of London. Core Cities campaigned long and hard for the power to introduce a discretionary visitor levy to fund the additional costs of tourism-related expenditure, maintaining historic sites, promoting marketing campaigns, and the cost of major events—which in my time as leader of Newcastle City Council the hospitality sector told me was the single biggest thing that brought additional business in through their doors—ultimately reducing the burden on council tax payers of the overall visitor economy. Can my noble friend the Minister indicate whether His Majesty’s Government have plans to press ahead with this financial flexibility for areas in England that wish to introduce it?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

As I have said, the discretion will be with local mayors, and I pay tribute to the campaign of my noble friend and others. Perhaps I can quote one regional mayor:

“I am proud that nearly two million people from all over the world choose to visit Greater Manchester every year. The money they spend contributes about £9 billion annually to our economy”—