Tories take bed tax campaign to the sea
Wednesday, 2 August 2006 12:00 AM
Proposals to impose an extra tax on Britain's hotels and B&Bs could have a major impact on the country's tourist industry and must be resisted, the Conservatives argued today.
Shadow culture secretary Hugo Swire and his local government counterpart, Eric Pickles, are taking an ice-cream van along the south coast to warn of the dangers of the proposal.
However, the government rejected their campaign as unnecessary, saying there were currently no plans to introduce any kind of bed and breakfast tax.
The idea was raised in Michael Lyons' interim report into local government funding last December. He noted that Austria, the Netherlands and France all used the local tax to ensure tourists paid for some of the public services they used.
But today Mr Swire warned that increasing the prices in England's 16,000 hotels, hostels and bed and breakfasts could drive away potential tourists.
"The brilliant summer weather has shown what a great place Britain is to spend a short break or a holiday," he said from Brighton.
"But the great British holiday is under threat from a bed and breakfast stealth tax - Gordon Brown's latest money-making ploy. There's nothing wrong with choosing to travel abroad, but no-one will benefit from making British holidays a rip-off."
Mr Pickles was similarly indignant, and could also not resist taking a swipe at deputy prime minister John Prescott, who used to be in charge of local government funding until he lost responsibility for his department in May.
"Gordon Brown and John Prescott have already hiked up council tax bills. Now they want to hike the price of a British break," he declared.
"John Prescott travels the world on foreign jollies at taxpayers' expense, from Sydney casinos, to Maldives scuba-diving to Wild West ranches. Obsessed with the trappings of power, he doesn't give two cents for the struggling British seaside resort."
The Tories are today handing out postcards for members of the public to send to chancellor Gordon Brown to express their indignation.
However, a spokeswoman from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport insisted: "There are no plans for a bed-tax at this time.
"A local tourism tax, or so-called 'bed tax', is one of many areas being looked into by the independent Lyons inquiry into local government funding, which will report...ahead of next year's comprehensive spending review.
"Ministers are, of course, fully aware of the concerns of the tourism industry on the issue of a bed tax and will continue to represent the interests of the tourism industry in all cross-government policy areas."
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