This week the new tourism tax, supported by both Labour and Plaid, was presented to the Senedd.
I want to make it clear from the outset that I, and my Welsh Conservative colleagues, cannot support this tax hike on our tourism sector.
Currently, 1 in 7 jobs in Wales rely on the tourism industry, which equates to almost 200,000 people.
I firmly believe that this is a sector that must be supported and not exploited, particularly considering the hardships that many of these businesses have gone through.
The Welsh Government has stated that this tax would follow its tax principles, one of which is to support jobs and growth.
However, I cannot see how levying new taxes could possibly support growth.
Even last week we heard from a wide variety of experts as to the detrimental effect that Labour’s National Insurance hike will have on businesses across the country. So, this policy of levying taxes in the hope that it will help businesses grow is clearly deep rooted in Labour’s philosophy.
Businesses in the hospitality sector have already faced huge challenges, having had to pay double the business rates as their competitors in England. This is while having to deal with the backdrop of the impact of the pandemic and the global increase in inflation.
Thanks to the proposed tax hike, a family of four children, staying in a guesthouse in Wales for a week, will have to pay around an extra £50.
This will most definitely make people who are already strapped for cash think twice about coming to stay here and could end up staying in England and making day trips to Wales instead.
This policy could also have a detrimental impact on Welsh councils who are already facing £560 million worth of pressures due to underfunding by the Welsh Government.
As a result, councils are being forced to hike up council tax here in Wales to make up for this deficit and there is the very real risk that local authorities will be expected to use this to raise revenue when it may not be in the best interest of the local economy.
I look forward to scrutinising this legislation in more detail going forward, and I hope that my colleagues across the chamber will see sense and join my opposition to this bill
Peter Fox MS - Monmouth
