Rachel Reeves is never short of ideas when it comes to taxing you – and now she has set her sights on the Great British getaway. Having already raised taxes by more than £60 billion, the Chancellor wants to charge you for taking a break in your own country with her Holiday Tax.
Hotels, B&Bs, campsites, holiday parks – nothing escapes Reeves. If Labour leaders follow the model they’ve already rolled out elsewhere in the country, you could be looking at £2 per person, per night. For a family of four staying for a week, that’s an extra £56. Two weeks away? Over £100 gone before a single ice cream is bought.
That’s meals out quietly cut back, seaside treats scrapped, and the little day trips that make a holiday feel special slowly priced out of reach. This is quite simply a tax on memories.
But the damage doesn’t stop at family budgets. Price Britain out and families will simply go abroad. Fewer people holidaying here means less money spent in local shops, cafes and attractions. A blow to the very seaside towns and tourist spots that rely on visitors. Yet another example of Labour not understanding business.
Labour’s Holiday Tax will increase the cost of holidaying in Britain, hitting families in the pocket and damaging local economies, writes Sir Mel Stride. This is a blow to the very seaside towns and tourist spots that rely on visitors. Yet another example of Labour not understanding business, writes Sir Mel.
And business is rightly furious. Last week, I met with UKHospitality and more than a dozen of their members to discuss the impact of the Holiday Tax. Their message was clear: the Holiday Tax will hurt business, hurt holidaymakers and hurt the UK economy.
The CBI has warned an overnight levy would ‘apply a handbrake’ to investment and growth and heap red tape on to an already struggling sector, while research from Oxford Economics has found it could mean a £1.6 billion tax increase for holidaymakers, cost 33,000 jobs, reduce GDP by £2.2 billion, lose the Treasury £688 million and cut tourism spending by £1.8 billion.
The public aren’t buying it, either. According to UKHospitality, 56 per cent oppose a Holiday Tax.
This isn’t just a squeeze on household budgets, it’s a blow to jobs, businesses and local economies already under pressure. Another money-grab from Rachel Reeves that will only do more damage to a hospitality sector already reeling from the impacts of her jobs tax and soaring business rates.
The facts are simple. Labour’s Holiday Tax will increase the cost of holidaying in Britain, hitting families in the pocket and damaging local economies.
A tourist levy is wildly unpopular, as well as economically destructive. So here’s the message Rachel Reeves needs to hear: Axe the Holiday Tax.
Sir Mel Stride is Shadow Chancellor.
