Hospitality Industry: VAT
Debate between Lord Pitt-Watson and Lord Lee of Trafford(2 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Lord Pitt-Watson (Lab)
I think I am struggling to get across my main point here. If I could halve VAT for every industry in Britain and it had no knock-on consequences, that would be wonderful. But this has £11 billion of knock-on consequences. The thing that noble Lords need to think about is not whether it would be nice not to charge people money. Of course we would rather not charge people money. But if the Exchequer loses £11 billion, where is that funding going to come from?
Lord Lee of Trafford (LD)
My Lords, I declare an interest as president of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. Given that tourism is probably the number one industry in more parliamentary constituencies than any other single private sector industry, is it not time, to demonstrate and reflect its importance, to bring tourism into the title of DCMS?
Lord Pitt-Watson (Lab)
I will pass on that thought to the DCMS Minister. I thank the noble Lord.