Supporting the Economy

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 13 June 2023.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:03, 13 June 2023

Llywydd, let me be clear with the Member and the businesses that speak to him. There is going to be a visitor levy in Wales, brought forward by the Welsh Government, and if it gets supported on the floor of the Senedd then that will be the democratic will of the Senedd itself. Those proposals are coming forward. My advice to businesses in his community is, instead of complaining to him about what is going to be happening, to work with the Welsh Government to design the levy in a way, as we believe it will do, to support the sector in his constituency and elsewhere.

What we are doing, Llywydd, is to engage with those businesses. We held a consultation in every part of Wales, including in his part of Wales, to hear the views of the sector, and there were many, many constructive voices in that consultation, helping us to shape this policy in a way, as I believe it will, to create new investment in those conditions that allow that industry to thrive. That is the point of the visitor levy. It is to collect a very small contribution from people who visit tourist destinations in Wales, to invest in the circumstances that have made those locations attractive to them in the first place. The policy of Mr Davies's party appears to be that the whole burden of that should fall on the people who live locally. They don't believe that. I don't believe it either. That's why the visitor levy will come in front of this Senedd.