Tourists who come to Britain legally will soon face up to 5% hotel tax, whereas illegal migrants breaking into our country get put up for free and paid to stay. Where’s the fairness in that? Andy Burnham and Labour are overseeing an uncontrolled immigration crisis that costs more than it generates, while hard working families face more expensive staycations with their children to fund benefits for non-workers.
Local mayors have been given the tax raising power and most say they will levy 5% on overnight stays at hotels, rented properties, campsites and other holiday accommodation. With families already facing more costly overnight stays during school holiday periods as prices rise, this is yet another kick in the teeth.
But adding salt to the wound, asylum seekers will not be expected to pay the overnight visitor levy. Labour justifies this by saying they are “vulnerable individuals”. To my mind, there’s nothing especially “vulnerable” about young men who have paid thousands of pounds to people smugglers to break the law and force their way into our country. Currently, there are 170 hotels across the country providing free accommodation to illegal migrants. UKHospitality estimates this tourist tax will cost the industry at least £1.6billion. Significantly, Reform and Tory mayors have all pledged not to impose the levy, insisting rightly that the PM cannot “tax his way to growth”.
Hospitality is already suffering a disaster at the hands of Labour taxes and increases in minimum wage and national insurance rises, amounting to some £6.8billion in extra costs. That’s not including the higher costs of energy – thanks to net zero – and the general cost-of-living crisis affecting every aspect of the sector.
More than 800 business leaders signed a letter this week asking the PM to help them by reducing VAT from 20% to 10%. In February, the then mayor of Manchester called for just such a VAT cut saying hospitality brings value to “places and towns that need that life injected into them”. These businesses are now calling for him to honour that pledge, but faced with a ravenous social care sector that devours billions and billions, I wouldn’t hold your breath. He’s already made it crystal clear in the Commons that social security matters more than national security to Labour.
With climate change making British destinations more attractive for holidays, it seems perverse to charge Britons more for staying at home and supporting UK PLC. Yet this tax, not charged as a flat fee, but a percentage of the overall cost, will send prices surging over holiday periods and will especially penalise young families with children. Faced with such extra costs, it would not be surprising if more families elected to go abroad rather than patronise our own holiday destinations.
It really is odd how the government thinks they know best how to help UK businesses. The hotel levy is supposed to allow mayors to invest in their local areas. But the best way to do that is to cut the extra costs on local firms who know better than civil servants how to invest. Burnham insists he wants to reduce the cost of living but then adds extra burdens to those simply wanting a cheaper holiday at home.
“The government says it wants to support hospitality, create jobs in every postcode and reduce the cost of living, yet this policy acts in opposition to all of those goals,” says Allen Simpson, chief executive of UKHospitality.
Burnham is an old-fashioned socialist whose only answer to a lack of growth and yawning public sector debt is to tax us more. Any and every aspect of our financial life that he can get his hands on, he will, saying the government is the best partner for business, redistributing our money to causes he believes will deliver the “right” kind of growth.
Somehow Labour believe they are the most righteous custodians of our money and yet they end up doling it out to illegal migrants and benefits claimants, creating a state-dependent generation who will never work. In reality, the most virtuous path is to leave more money in the pockets of families and businesses who know best how to spend it.
Across the nation, hardworking hoteliers, publicans and restaurateurs are trying to create businesses and jobs that will enhance their local areas, bringing joy and opportunities. Burnham’s latest wheeze is simply making that harder and harder for them. What a Scrooge he truly is.