Wick community councillors call for Highland residents to be exempt from visitor levy
Community councillors in Wick are adamant that residents of the Highlands should be spared the proposed tourist tax.
Consultation is continuing until the end of this month on a visitor levy scheme which could be worth £10 million a year to Highland Council.
However, there are concerns that it would penalise hospital patients and family members from the far north and other parts of the region who need to book overnight accommodation in Inverness.
Highland Council agreed in December to launch a formal consultation on a five per cent charge. The aim is to generate revenue “for the benefit of the visitor economy”.
Misgivings over the potential impact on Highland residents were raised at the March meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council.
Vice-chairman Allan Bruce said: “The main thing for me is about the residents having some kind of dispensation from it. The second point was I felt there maybe wasn’t a lot of detail in the document as to how the funds are going to be distributed.”
Community councillor Norma Craven agreed there should be dispensation for those from the Highlands staying overnight in another part of the region.
Chairman Allan Farquhar wants as many members of the public as possible to respond to the consultation, which runs until March 31.
“The general consensus from anybody I’ve spoken to is that Highland region residents should be exempt from it,” Mr Farquhar said.
The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 was passed by the Scottish Parliament in May 2024 and received royal assent in July. It gives local authorities in Scotland the power to introduce a levy on overnight accommodation at a percentage rate.
Businesses are worried that a percentage-based fee could make collection and calculation of the levy unnecessarily burdensome.
Four chambers of commerce in the Highlands, including Caithness, are calling for local authorities to have the option of setting a flat or banded rate.
In December, the tax was condemned by Caithness Health Action Team as “a shameful levy on the sick” as patients travelling to receive NHS treatment would be classed as visitors within the legislation.
The group’s vice-chairman, Iain Gregory, said at the time: “If it goes through then thousands of people from Caithness, and all over the Highlands, will be taxed because they are ill.
“We call on Highland Council to have a rapid rethink of this disastrous proposal.”
Expenses for travel and accommodation can be claimed from the health board at limited rates of reimbursement.
