A popular quintessentially British seaside town in the Garden of England is considering taxing tourists who only want to stay for weekends or overnight.
Councillors in Margate, Kent, have made rumblings they’d like to adopt the type of punitive charge used in some EU countries like Spain to raise money from visitors.
Councillors on Thanet District Council, which covers an area of Kent including Margate, Broadstairs, and Ramsgate, have suggested the new charge on overnight stays in an attempt to raise cash and “reduce the impact” of visitors on the local community.
At present there is “no formal proposal to introduce a tax on tourists” but a meeting of the council’s Oversight and Scrutiny Panel on April 16 did recommend a tax on overnight visitors and increasing council tax on properties used as holiday lets.
According to the MailOnline, a report from the committee said the council should “actively investigate opportunities to maximise income to the council from the visitor economy to help balance its costs to the council”.
Visit Kent figures show the Thanet region recorded 330,200 overnight stays last year. Kent County Council say there are 680 businesses that rely directly on tourism in the region.
Conservative leader Cllr Reece Pugh told the MailOnline: “Businesses that rely on tourism have to be seriously consulted.
“There’s are a lot of jobs around here that need it so we’ve got to make sure any gains we get from a tax don’t wipe out the benefits we get from tourism in the first place.”
Margate is easy to reach from London with good transport and train links making the journey around an hour-and-a-half. People who visit from the capital just to stay for the night, or weekend, are known as DFLs, or down from Londons.
The Mirror repots one local Conservative councillor, John Davis, said he would back any tax on holiday lets and Airbnbs.
He told Kent Online that there were currently “866 homes for short-term let and 21 flats” in Ramsgate, despite the ongoing housing shortage.
A spokesperson from Thanet District Council said: “Thanet is blessed with miles of glorious coastline and 16 bathing beaches and bays. Tourism is a vital part of the local economy, supporting more than 5,000 jobs and generating £212 million in revenue annually.
“The Tourism Review Working Group comprised five Councillors and was established to explore how the impact of tourism on the council’s services and its local communities could be mitigated.
“The group considered five different areas as part of their review: beach management, public toilets, waste management, traffic management and financial management. Their report contains a number of potential ideas for consideration by the council’s Cabinet. At this stage, there is no formal proposal to introduce a tax on tourists and at present, in England, neither the central government nor local councils have the power to introduce such a tax.”
