Killing the golden goose? The tourist tax on Liverpool hospitality

“Always very amusing to see people defending the impending tourist tax by quoting the Manchester ABID charge. The reasons *that* works is because it’s very low, the hoteliers control the spend and therefore it goes on things to build visitor numbers, not random social issues.”

It was late October and Vaughan Allen, the chief executive of Manchester’s Business Improvement District, was posting on X about the bill for an Overnight Visitor Levy — that is, a proposal to give mayors the ability to introduce a small fee on overnight stays. Allen seemed to grow more openly indignant in the next post in the thread. In it, he argued that mayors imposing a charge of up to 5% plus VAT and spending the money as they saw fit would mean cutting out the same elements he thought made Manchester’s tourism tax so successful. “It *does* show the influence of Steve Rotheram over the PM though– he's desperate to screw over Liverpool hospitality”, Allen opined. 

It should be noted here that the Overnight Visitor Levy has been discussed by the government since before Burnham’s premiership, with a consultation launched in November 2025 under Keir Starmer. Allen argued Rotheram was “the main proponent of the introduction of Mayoral OVL,” (the overnight levy) something he noted was opposed by the trade body UKHospitality and the trade association for UK tourism, Tourism Alliance, as well as major hotel groups. 

So is Allen right — is Rotheram pushing through a measure that many of those in the hospitality scene oppose?