Burnham 'determined' to hand tourist tax powers to England's mayors
Andy Burnham has told England's regional mayors he is determined to hand them tourist-tax powers, with legislation due in the coming weeks and an estimated January 2028 rollout.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told England’s regional mayors he is “determined” to hand them the power to impose a tourist tax, with legislation to be tabled “in the coming weeks”.
Burnham said mayors should be able to overrule local councils to introduce the Overnight Visitor Levy, with local consultations to follow the legislation and an estimated January 2028 rollout.
He countered hospitality industry warnings by citing Manchester’s existing £1-per-person-per-room-per-night visitor charge, which a 2025 study in the journal Tourism Management found had “no significant impact” on hotel occupancy. He pointed to Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram — who plans to use the revenue to fund a new Beatles attraction — as the model for locally reinvested money.
London mayor Lord Khan of Tooting urged him to accelerate, asking that authorities be allowed to start taxing overnight stays by the middle of next year.
The meeting came days before Chancellor John Healey’s first Budget on Wednesday, with Burnham telling mayors it will include further fiscal devolution — extra grant funding and new borrowing powers. Growth minister Dan Tomlinson said extra grants for mayors would be detailed in the Budget, alongside a devolved borrowing facility offering subsidised loans from 2028.
The levy, announced on 10 September, would charge visitors a percentage of the accommodation cost, with mayors pledging to cap it at 5%; it is opposed by UKHospitality — whose Oxford Economics research estimates 33,000 job losses — while Edinburgh launched its own 5% levy in July.
Sources: The Times; Dunya News (Reuters); Mezha
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