At Wednesday’s Ipswich Borough Council meeting, Conservative Councillor Edward Phillips is putting forward a proposal to rule out any tourist or visitor tax to be imposed on Ipswich.
Starmer’s government has recently said that Mayors of Strategic Authorities will be permitted to levy a tax on overnight visitors, introducing a new Tourist Tax despite previous assurances that no such policy was planned.
Ipswich Conservative councillors say if this were to be imposed on Ipswich once the new authority has been set up, this will damage the visitor and tourist economy in Ipswich. Eddy says “I want Ipswich to the prime destination for people to stay when they are visiting our historic town for leisure or business purposes, the beautiful National Landscapes in our area, or the nearby seaside resorts. However adding on tourist taxes to nightly accommodation fees is completely the wrong message to put out and will particularly damage smaller and independent businesses.”
Our proposal is to tell any new authority that Ipswich will not accept any such tax. We are calling on the Labour group to put town before their national party and back us.
Cllr Eddy Phillips
Bixley Ward Councillor and Conservative Group Chairman
