Seasonal Hospitality Businesses in Coastal Areas Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business and Trade
Tom Gordon
Main Page: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)Department Debates - View all Tom Gordon's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
Seasonal Hospitality Businesses in Coastal Areas
Tom Gordon Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)
The visitor levy is the wrong policy at the wrong time, as the hon. Gentleman puts it, and I have discussed it with UKHospitality. Does he agree that we need to stop this tax, at the same time as cutting VAT? If we do not, we will end up with an effective VAT rate on hospitality and tourism businesses of 27%, which, compared with the rates in Ireland and Germany, for example, at 9% and 7% respectively, is just not competitive.
Joe Robertson
The hon. Gentleman is right, we need both. Our tourism and hospitality sector is one of the most highly taxed tourism and hospitality sectors, compared with our European neighbours, who already have a cost-competitive advantage.