𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A UK city that was named the country’s second dangerous is on the brink of introducing a new tourist tax. Expatriate Consultancy placed Coventry in the West Midlands as number two on its list ranking cities based on data from Numbeo’s Crime index. Now, councillors are set to debate the prospect of a new levy on overnight stays after Rachel Reeves announced in her Budget that local authorities would be given the power to introduce one if they so wished.

Manchester and Liverpool already have one, with overnight stays subject to £1 and £2 charges respectively. The Budget read: “Mayors are transforming the trajectory of local economies across England by investing in transport, housing and local growth. In recent years, this has driven a step change in the productivity growth rates of cities across the North. “The government has announced a historic commitment to fiscal devolution, giving mayors and potentially other local leaders, subject to consultation, the option to introduce a visitor levy on overnight visitor accommodation in their area.

“This will fund further investment in growth locally, including the visitor economy. The government is consulting on the design of the levy.”

The leader of Coventry City Council’s Conservative opposition has voiced concerns that a tax would deter people from visiting the city.

But this has been dismissed by its Labour leadership as “scaremongering”, the BBC reports.

It is understood that the levy, if passed, would need to be approved by the Labour mayor for the West Midlands, Richard Parker.

Cllr Ridley bemoaned during a council meeting last week at the prospect of “a Birmingham-based mayor levying a tax on Coventry”.

He added that “there isn’t even any guarantee that the revenue raised from it would be spent in Coventry.”

But Labour Cabinet member Cllr Jim O’Boyle said the move would “back a grown-up approach that will see evidence-led policy, proper consultation, and local democratic accountability.”

About £2.8million was raised from visitors to Manchester a year after the city became the first in the UK to try the levy.

The funds were spent on things like street cleaning and marketing campaigns.

The mayor of Liverpool’s city region Steve Rotherham said he thinks a tax in the north west city could raise up to £17million each year.