England Visitor Levy To Add Tax On Overnight Stays

Published on Nov 27, 2025, 11:08 am CST

9 min read

Key points

UK government plans a new England visitor levy power on overnight stays
Mayors and some local leaders could add modest fees to hotels, B&Bs, and short term lets
A 12 week consultation runs until February 18, 2026 to design caps, exemptions, and collection rules
Scotland will bring in a 5 percent Edinburgh visitor levy from July 24, 2026 and Wales can charge up to £1.30 per night from April 2027
Hospitality groups warn a levy set near 5 percent could push UK holiday costs sharply higher
Travelers should expect city by city tourist taxes later this decade, especially in major English urban areas

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Expect the first England visitor levies in large city regions such as London, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, and other mayoral areas once enabling powers are in place
Best Times To Travel: Near term trips through at least 2026 will likely avoid new England visitor levies, while higher costs are more likely on city breaks from 2027 onward
Onward Travel And Changes: City taxes will add a small nightly cost on top of existing hotel rates rather than changing routes, but may nudge some travelers toward shorter stays, cheaper areas, or day trips
What Travelers Should Do Now: For 2027 and later, budget an extra one to three pounds per person per night in major UK cities, watch how each mayor sets the levy, and check booking breakdowns for new fee lines
Health And Safety Factors: Visitor levy revenues are intended to fund public transport, public realm, and cultural programs, which could gradually improve safety, cleanliness, and crowd management in busy city centers

Some of the links and widgets on this page are affiliates, which means we may earn a commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you.

England is moving toward a formal visitor levy on overnight stays, a change that would let city regions across the country add a new tourist tax line to hotel and short term rental bills while promising to reinvest the money in transport, streets, and culture. The England visitor levy on overnight stays would apply to hotels, bed and breakfasts, holiday lets, and other paid accommodation, bringing England into closer alignment with emerging schemes in Scotland and Wales. Travelers who rely on city breaks and domestic staycations will not pay anything yet, but they should start assuming small, local overnight charges in their medium term budgets and watch how individual mayors design the fees.

The core change is that the UK government now intends to give mayors in England, and possibly some other local leaders, an explicit power to introduce an overnight visitor levy in their areas, similar to the systems already being rolled out in the rest of Great Britain. A 12 week consultation launched in late November 2025, and is scheduled to close on February 18, 2026, asking businesses, local authorities, and residents how any levy should be structured, whether there should be caps, and which exemptions should apply. In practical terms, this means that the earliest England visitor levies are likely to appear later this decade, once Parliament has legislated and local areas have designed their own schemes, but the direction of travel is clear.

Background, what the visitor levy proposal would do

The visitor levy is framed as a local tax on overnight stays, collected by accommodation providers and then passed to mayors or other designated authorities to spend on transport and the visitor economy. Under the proposal, a stay in a hotel, serviced apartment, guesthouse, or paid short term rental inside a participating city region would attract a small nightly charge, either as a flat amount per person or as a percentage of the room bill, on top of existing taxes and fees. The government has stressed that emergency accommodation, homeless shelters, and registered Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller sites used as primary residences would be exempt, and that mayors could create additional local exemptions, for example for people seeking medical treatment or those fleeing domestic abuse.

What the consultation does not do is set a single national charge. Instead, it asks whether levies should be capped, and how much flexibility local leaders should have to choose between a flat rate and a percentage of the nightly price. In practice, that means London, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, the West of England, and other combined authority areas could end up with noticeably different rates and exemptions, just as European cities vary today.

How Scotland and Wales are setting the benchmark

Part of the case for an England visitor levy is that other parts of the UK have already moved. In Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council will introduce a 5 percent visitor levy on most paid overnight stays from July 24, 2026, applied to the pre VAT room cost and capped at the first five consecutive nights, with accommodation providers allowed to keep a small share of the proceeds to cover admin costs. Local forecasts suggest the Edinburgh levy could raise around £100 million by 2030 for transport, public services, and cultural programming that supports the city's heavy visitor load.

Wales is further behind on timing, but the principle is similar. Legislation passed in July 2025 gives councils the power to introduce a visitor levy from April 2027, with draft guidance suggesting charges of £1.30 per person per night for most accommodation, and 75 pence for campsites and hostel style shared rooms, with councils able to opt in or out. Cardiff has begun consulting on becoming the first Welsh city to use that power, at a rate up to £1.30 per person per night, which would funnel several million pounds a year into local budgets.

For England, ministers are clearly looking at those numbers and at continental models. Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram has cited Barcelona and Paris, where tourist taxes raise tens of millions of euros annually, as proof that well designed levies can fund big events, public realm improvements, and transport upgrades without collapsing demand.

Support from mayors and local leaders

Urban leaders have been some of the strongest backers of an England visitor levy. London mayor Sadiq Khan described the proposal as good news for the capital, arguing that a small nightly charge on overnight visitors could support public transport, cultural events, and street maintenance that residents, commuters, and tourists all rely on. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has made a similar case, saying that the city region already has a thriving visitor economy, and that a levy would help sustain growth over the next decade rather than kill it.

Leaders in York and North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the West of England, and the North East have also welcomed the power, framing it as a way to fund festivals, cultural programs, and heritage upkeep that draw visitors but often strain local budgets. Their argument is essentially that visitors benefit from buses, trains, clean streets, and safe, well maintained city centers, so visitors should also contribute a little extra to keep those systems running.

There is a political dimension as well. The visitor levy sits inside a broader fiscal devolution push that would give English mayors more tools to raise and spend money locally, rather than relying on central government grants. For city halls that want more autonomy, a tourist tax is both a revenue source and a test case for how much fiscal risk they are willing to take.

Pushback from hotels and tourism businesses

On the other side, hospitality groups are already objecting to the idea of new tourist taxes. UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls has warned that a visitor levy set at levels similar to Edinburgh's five percent charge would effectively push the tax burden on a hotel room close to 27 percent once value added tax is included, and could add more than £500 million a year to UK holiday costs according to the trade body's analysis.

Industry critics also argue that UK accommodation providers already face higher VAT than many continental competitors, and that older, price sensitive markets, especially domestic families and coach tours, could be squeezed out if tourist taxes are layered on top of rising room rates. There is concern about hotel investment too, particularly at the higher end, where percentage based levies fall hardest on expensive rooms and might tilt developers toward other markets.

Other business groups have taken a more conditional stance, accepting that visitor levies may be inevitable but insisting that revenues must be ring fenced to support tourism infrastructure, not used as a general tax. The consultation period is therefore critical for hotels, destination management organizations, and event venues to influence how transparent, predictable, and locally accountable any new charges will be.

How England compares with European tourist taxes

If England moves ahead, it will be joining a crowded field. Across Europe, many cities already charge nightly taxes on hotel stays or separate access fees. Venice has tested and expanded a day trip access fee of 5 to 10 euros for visitors entering the historic center on peak dates, while also maintaining a separate overnight lodging tax in the city's hotels and guesthouses. Barcelona combines a regional accommodation tax with a municipal surcharge that is being increased by 1 euro a year until it reaches 8 euros by 2029, which could bring the total nightly tax to as much as 15 euros for some high end stays.

The key pattern for travelers is that these taxes are usually modest in absolute terms, but they add up on longer stays or multi city itineraries, and they vary significantly between destinations. England's visitor levy, if modeled on Scottish or Welsh levels rather than the highest continental charges, is likely to come in closer to one or two pounds per person per night in many places, with major hubs potentially testing higher rates over time.

What this means for travelers right now

For trips already booked, or stays in England through at least 2026, nothing changes yet, because the visitor levy power still has to go through consultation and legislation, then be adopted locally area by area. Edinburgh's five percent levy on overnight stays will be the first major change UK travelers feel, starting with stays on or after July 24, 2026 that were booked on or after October 1, 2025, and Welsh councils cannot introduce their own taxes before April 2027.

For medium and long term planners, especially those arranging conferences, study abroad programs, or repeat city breaks, the safest approach is to assume that most large UK cities will eventually add a small tourist tax on top of accommodation bills. A reasonable working estimate is one to three pounds per person per night in the first wave, with more detailed figures to follow as individual combined authorities publish their own plans. Travelers and travel advisors should also expect that levies may be higher on premium properties, and that separate fees may emerge in resort or rural areas if they are designated under any expanded local powers.

Practically, travelers should get used to scanning the tax and fee lines on booking confirmations, comparing city center and out of town options with the levy included, and factoring local visitor taxes into the real cost of stays just as they do with resort fees or city taxes in continental Europe. If the government delivers on its promise to reinvest the money into transport, public spaces, and cultural events, some travelers may find that a few extra pounds per night buy a noticeably better experience in the busiest English city centers over the next decade.