Knaresborough 'needs to benefit ' from potential new £1 per night levy on visitors
Knaresborough deserves to have any money raised by a potential new ‘tourist tax’ invested back into the town says its former deputy mayor.
Tourist taxes are commonplace across Europe and America and are typically charged per night, per person, or as a percentage of the booking cost.
A British ‘tourist tax’, which is being backed in principle by the Government, could charge around £1 a night and has the potential to raise millions, though plans are far from finalised.
But mayoral authorities in Yorkshire are already advancing plans for a tourist levy on overnight stays to fund local infrastructure and tourism.
Knaresborough Town Councillor Andy Bell, Chair of Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrats, who was Deputy Mayor of Knaresborough Town Council from 2024-25, said he, like many others, supported the idea of a tourism levy in theory if the details were right.
“We support local events and even run the local tours which bring vital footfall for our local businesses,” e said. "We need to see the money from a visitor levy pumped back into the community, to public transport and cleaning to reduce the environmental impact of tourism will improve the town for locals and visitors alike.”
At the moment, North Yorkshire does not have a tourism levy, though the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire is exploring a visitor levy for overnight stays.
Manchester already has a small nightly levy while Edinburgh is planning to introduce a similar charge.
The owner of a North Yorkshire holiday business echoed the views of Coun Bell.
Charlotte Denny from Holiday at Home, a luxury holiday cottage rental business based in Richmond, said she didn’t feel a tourist levy would stop visitors “if the levies remain modest.”
“There is potential the tourism levies could end up as one more form of taxation on local tourism, unless there are guarantees the money is ring fenced to go back into tourism,” she said.
“If there were guarantees that funds won’t disappear into general local authority budgets, the next challenge would be the cost of administering the scheme so it would not outweigh the benefits."