Tourism tax would not hit long-term caravaners

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Visitors who stay in static caravans for more than 31 days a year may not need to pay the tourism levy, a Powys finance chief has explained.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Economy, Communities and Residents scrutiny committee, councillors received a report which looked at the pros and cons of implementing the levy – which could bring money into council coffers to run services.

The Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill is Wales’ first locally designed tax and was approved by the Senedd in July.

The levy is a charge on overnight accommodation and would cost 75 pence per person per night for those staying at campsites and hostels, excluding people under 18.

For those staying in all other types of visitor accommodation it would cost £1.30 per person per night.

The Welsh Government says that if all local authorities introduced this levy, it could generate up to £33 million a year across Wales which could be used by councils to invest in tourist infrastructure.

Cllr Adrian Jones (Conservative – Berriew and Castle Caereinion) brought up concerns about regular visitors to the county who stay in caravans.

Cllr Jones said: “We have loads and loads of static caravans in our area, you can’t possibly be expecting to charge them daily rates, they are tourists, they come in the summer, but some are there all the time.”

Another issue he felt needed to be addressed is whether people who visit the county and stay overnight due to work would also be charged the levy.

“We need to have more detail on these bits and bobs that need to be sorted out,” said Cllr Jones.

Head of Finance, Mari Thomas, said: “Based on the information we have at the moment, any stays of more than 31 days wouldn’t be charged.

“For people effectively staying in stating static caravans for longer than a month – the charge would not apply.”

Cllr Jones added: “These people usually come and go on weekends; it’s a complicated area.”

He said he would be happy to support option two in the report which contained a total of five options. Option two is the council officers’ preferred option.

A majority of councillors at the meeting voted to back option two which will be added to the report before it appears at a meeting of the Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet later this month.

The five options are:

1. Not to implement the levy.
2. Minded not to implement the levy, but undertake an engagement exercise with the residents, businesses and tourism stakeholders of Powys to gather evidence and views on this decision.
3. Implement the levy and use the income to support general council services when the work impacts on visitors, this means – street cleaning, public toilets, parking, waste/recycling services, rights of way maintenance and public transport.
4. Implement the levy and use the income for more tourism specific infrastructure, visitor marketing, visitor information and site-based interpretation, tourism development projects.
5. A mixture of options three and four.