Why a visitor levy could help York and North Yorkshire thrive, by York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith
LIKE most readers, I will be taking a short break over August.
I'll be spending a couple of weeks with my family in Cornwall, an area like ours whose regional economy benefits enormously from tourism.
Just like here in York and North Yorkshire, the region would stand to gain significant further investment by introducing an overnight visitor levy to help mitigate the additional costs that large numbers of tourists bring to an area.
Readers in York will be particularly familiar with busy high streets, packed buses and the added pressure placed on our public services. Despite all that, we know that tourism is a good thing for our city and our county as a whole.
Money is being spent on overnight accommodation, in our cafés, restaurants, bars and pubs, and at our venues and attractions, among many other businesses. That supports the brilliant culture we have on high streets across our county.
I know from my own experience that tourism is a major driver for business. Visitors would come into my shop, buy a shirt and, more often than you'd think, place an order in the months to come from their home country.
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Now, I know that there is a lot of concern about an overnight visitor levy, and I understand that. However, there is also a huge opportunity to invest in areas that I know many residents feel have been overlooked for too long.
This would be a significant source of income for the people who live here and run businesses here, all without any of them paying an extra penny in tax.
This is just one of a whole raft of new powers heading our way, which will vastly improve our ability to make the day-to-day lives of our county's residents better in the long run.
Many readers will have seen the announcement in recent weeks that further powers, funding and responsibilities are heading to mayors across the country.
York and North Yorkshire are set to receive even more of those powers, as we have been granted Established Mayoral Strategic Authority status.
What does that mean? Well, it means that, as an organisation, we have reached a certain level of maturity and that the Government recognises that we have been successful in managing funding and delivering projects.
More importantly for the day-to-day lives of people living in our county, it means that we are now able to access additional funding streams, use additional powers and deliver more devolved programmes, such as shaping how 16 to 19 education is delivered locally.
Crucially, we'll also be set to receive a share of local income tax and business rates receipts.
That last point is absolutely key. It gives us a huge boost in funding to deliver on the ambitions that I have and that I know many residents share for our county.
My priority for this additional funding is to tackle the deep-rooted problems facing our county.
Poor transport connectivity is the result of year-on-year cuts to bus subsidies. We'll have greater powers and funding to change that by introducing greater public control of our bus network, ensuring that profits made on popular, well-used routes help support socially necessary services in our suburban and rural communities.
The affordability of housing in our county is forcing people to leave, reducing the number of young people that local businesses can recruit. With greater control over funding for affordable and social housing, we'll be able to ensure that we're building more of the homes we need, in the right places, and introduce stronger restrictions so that, in our rural communities, you'll need a local connection to move there and make your home.
Digital connectivity is also holding back our economy, particularly in our rural communities but also in our larger towns and cities. Phone signal in York city centre starts to struggle when the high street is busy, and towns such as Selby have significant signal black spots. This is having a real impact on our county's economy, and it is something we must address with additional funding.
These changes will help us attract the investment this county has missed out on for so long, bringing well-paid jobs and opportunities to learn that have too often not been readily available across too much of York and North Yorkshire.
This is a huge opportunity. It means that more decisions affecting the everyday lives of people, businesses and community organisations in York and North Yorkshire will be made in our county, for our county and by our county, rather than by those sitting in the corridors of power in London.