Published on : Friday, February 1, 2019
The Finance Secretary Derek Mackay and Scottish Green co-convener Patrick Harvie announced agreement had been reached minutes before a debate on the tax and spending plans for 2019-20 got under way at Holyrood. The local government funding had been a key feature in the Greens’ demands.
Mr Harvie said that finally, after months of hard work and Green pressure for local tax reform and protection of local services, we have reached a budget agreement. Under it, ministers will legislate to allow councils to bring in a transient visitor levy. The Finance Secretary also pledged an additional £90 million of funding for local government.
The ministers will also back changes to legislation currently going through Holyrood that could allow local authorities to bring in a workplace parking levy. The moves sparked dismay from the Scottish Tourism Alliance, FSB Scotland and CBI Scotland. The Scottish Tourism Alliance said the decision over a Transient Visitor Levy was “beyond disappointing” and “will deliver a significant blow to our industry.
A spokesman for the alliance pointed out that a national consultation on a tourist tax “only drew to a close last Friday thus providing just three days to assimilate and analyse the evidence shared by the many businesses and organisations that took time to contribute to this national discussion through various channels”. They added: “A decision of such importance and one which has the potential to cause significant negative impact, not just to businesses who provide visitor accommodation but to all businesses that benefit from tourism economic activity, has been reached prematurely.
“It will only serve to undermine the confidence that the thousands of tourism businesses operating across all sectors of the industry has had in the Scottish Government, both in its commitment to conduct in depth research and economic analysis and consider views, prior to reaching a decision on one of the biggest threats to the sector.
“Whilst we acknowledge the Scottish Government’s commitment to conduct a formal consultation, we sincerely hope that there will be further economic analysis and detailed transparent examination of options to assess the impact a tourism tax will have Scotland’s economy, before any implementation of a TVL be permitted to come into force.”
Tags: Business chief, Scotland