What Burnham’s tourist tax would mean for a weekend in Manchester, Liverpool or London
Key Points
- Burnham's cabinet statement gives every strategic authority in England the power to introduce an Overnight Visitor Levy
- The powers arrive from April 2027, with local leaders setting out revenue plans by March 2028
- No rate exists yet; the levy could be a flat fee, a nightly per-room charge or a percentage of the room rate
- Manchester already charges £1 plus VAT per room per night and Liverpool £2, both through a Business Improvement District workaround
- London has no charge, though the London Assembly's oversight committee has pushed for one by April 2027
Mayors and strategic authorities across England will gain the power to charge visitors for overnight stays under the cabinet statement Prime Minister Andy Burnham published on Friday (31 July), though no English city has set a rate yet.
The statement commits the government to giving all strategic authorities the ability to introduce an Overnight Visitor Levy, with local leaders able to set out plans for how revenues will be invested by March 2028.
Ministers will confirm the design of the levy over the coming weeks and months, and the powers themselves arrive next year, alongside mayors retaining a share of business rates from April 2027.
Areas that do not want a mayor will get non-mayoral foundation strategic authorities, which also carry the option to introduce the levy.
What Manchester and Liverpool already charge
Two cities charge visitors already, using a legal workaround rather than a tax. Manchester and Liverpool city councils both set up tourism-based Business Improvement Districts, which collect additional business rates payments from businesses in a defined area.
Manchester adds £1 plus VAT per room or unit per night to bills at paid accommodation inside its ABID zone, and the charge applies to around 73 hotels and serviced apartments inside the inner ring road with a rateable value of £75,000 or more, leaving Airbnbs, small hotels, hostels and bed and breakfasts outside it.
The charge raised £2.80 million in its first year. Liverpool followed in June 2025 with a £2 charge on overnight accommodation, which authorities estimate will raise £9 million over two years, £6.70 million of it going to the city’s visitor economy.
London charges nothing at present. The London Assembly’s GLA Oversight Committee has recommended a levy on overnight accommodation with revenues ringfenced for infrastructure and services, and its chair, Bassam Mahfouz, has called for a levy operational by April 2027. A YouGov survey the committee commissioned found 41% of Londoners backed the measure.
How much a levy might cost
The government has not published a rate, and the consultation that closed in February left the structure open.
Local authorities could apply a flat rate covering an entire stay, a nightly rate per room, or a percentage of the nightly accommodation cost.
The proposals cover hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts, hostels, campsites and self-catering accommodation, and VAT applies to the full cost of the stay including the levy, because the accommodation provider pays the levy rather than the visitor.
Elsewhere in the UK the rates are already set. Edinburgh’s visitor levy went live on 24 July at 5% of accommodation cost, and Welsh councils can begin charging from April 2027.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated that a charge of £1 per person per night would raise roughly £420 million a year across England. The powers sit in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which is currently in the House of Lords.
The government will publish a white paper this autumn, alongside the Budget and a fiscal devolution roadmap, setting out the full reforms and an implementation timetable.
