As families across Bromsgrove and the Villages look forward to the summer months ahead, Bradley Thomas MP has lambasted the Labour Government for saddling them with their new Holiday Tax.
The Government is advancing plans for a new visitor levy in England, designed to allow local mayoral authorities to apply an additional charge on overnight stays to fund local services.
Statistics show between 66% to 87% of UK adults take domestic overnight holidays or short breaks annually, with over 105.6 million overnight trips made within Great Britain in 2024 by British residents. These figures highlight just how many British residents are going to be impacted by the Government’s latest tax raid.
Already, hundreds of leaders of UK accommodation firms have called for the Government to scrap this tax, arguing that the UK hospitality sector contributes billions of pounds in tax through business rates, employment taxes and VAT, which at 20% is double the rate faced in countries such as France, Italy, Spain or Portugal.
Tourism’s GDP impact in the UK totalled £147 billion in 2024 and contributes at least 4% to GDP across all regions and nations in the UK. Bradley believes it’s vital that the Government supports businesses who create jobs and growth, instead of forcing new taxes on them.
Bradley said:
“I believe it’s clear this Government loves tax and simply doesn’t care about the pledges it made to protect “working people” and those who have worked hard from rising taxes in their manifesto. The latest evidence of this: the continuous sea of tax measures being introduced, from the freeze on income tax thresholds that stands in direct contradiction to the Government’s own manifesto commitments, to now taxing British tourists for taking well deserved breaks in other parts of our country.
“And all of this comes at a time when household bills are climbing, and the cost of living is becoming ever more difficult for many in Bromsgrove and the Villages.
“This new Holiday Tax will impact countless families and pensioners in Bromsgrove and the Villages who choose to go on holiday in England. From the owners of hospitality businesses and their staff who will likely see less footfall due to the rising costs, to the British holidaymakers who will see their money stretch even less than before all because they decided to take a domestic holiday and support our local economies.
“It’s already the case that hotels and B&Bs pay VAT at 20%, corporation tax, business rates and National Insurance. Therefore, this new Holiday Tax introduced by the Chancellor is quite simply yet another tax being imposed upon us by this Government, and this time it is British holidaymakers being targeted.”
