THE Scottish Parliament is seeking opinions on a proposed bill that could allow councils the right to add additional charges on overnight accommodation.
On Monday, the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee launched a public consultation on the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill, and want to hear from businesses, tourism organisations, community groups, individuals and stakeholders.
If passed, councils can add additional charges to overnight accommodations such as hotels and B&Bs.
The charges will be calculated based on a percentage of the cost, with each rate being left to the discretion of individual councils.
READ MORE: Preparations underway for Chain of Freedom independence event
The consultation runs from June 26 until September 1.
After the consultation period, the committee will hear from stakeholders and will produce a report on its findings.
MSPs will then discuss whether the bill should proceed or not. They will then debate the Bill in the Chamber and decide whether it should proceed.
Committee convener Ariane Burgess said: “We’ve now launched a call for views on the Scottish Government’s Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill and want to hear from as wide a range of communities, businesses, tourism organisations and individuals as possible to inform our scrutiny.
“Tourism is one of Scotland’s leading growth industries, contributing more than £4 billion to our economy each year, so ensuring these proposals work for those connected to the industry is essential.
“The bill provides a framework for local authorities to decide how money raised should be spent within local communities, how flexible they can be with where and when the levy would apply and whether certain exemptions should apply, all of which we want to gather detailed views on from urban, rural and island communities across Scotland.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Parliament said: “Like most call for views, the committee welcomes the views of anyone with an interest in the subject matter including individuals, businesses, organisations and other stakeholders.
“As individuals may be paying the levy, or interested in how it is applied/spent locally, we want to hear from people all over Scotland including places with high levels of tourism to ensure their perspective on how it might affect them is captured.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here