HC Deb 24 April 1990 vol 171 cc146-7
6. Mr. Corbett

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the provision of accommodation within the British tourist industry after the introduction of the poll tax.

Mr. Nicholls

There is no evidence to suggest that the introduction of the community charge will have any significant effect on the provision of tourist accommodation.

Mr. Corbett

Does the Minister not understand that bed-and-breakfast accommodation owners who will have to pay double poll tax if they open for more than 100 days a year will simply shut their doors after 99 days? Does he not understand that that will inhibit the promotion of tourism, especially in our region where it is spread throughout the year? At best, will not it force up bed-and-breakfast charges?

Mr. Nicholls

No, the hon. Gentleman is confusing several matters. The 100-day exemption was introduced as a result of pressure from the tourist industry which wanted such a concession made. At present such a concession can be based only on the views and, if the hon. Gentleman likes, the fears that people have. In due course the evidence will be available and it must be taken into account. I thought that the hon. Gentleman might have been using his question as an opportunity to remind the House that business rate bills in Birmingham for 1990–91 have been reduced by just under 30 per cent. on average—[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. I hope that we shall not have answers to questions that have not been asked.

Mr. Bevan

Would it not, by implication, do far more damage to those running bed-and-breakfast accommodation if a roof tax were introduced?

Mr. Nicholls

My hon. Friend is entirely right. I suspect that, once again, that is a policy which the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mr. Corbett) and his colleagues will not tell us about today.

Mr. Wallace

May I direct the Minister's mind to another possible and worrying implication of the poll tax for the tourist industry and for other small businesses—the fact that many small business employers will find that they are obliged to attach the wages of many of their employees who have not paid the poll tax? What assessment has the Department made of the impact of that on industrial relations in small businesses and of the administrative burden that it will impose on those businesses, including those in the tourist industry?

Mr. Nicholls

I do not see how a question about enforcement arrangements relating to legislation passed through the House properly arises under this question. However, I must disagree with the hon. Gentleman if he feels that such arrangements would be an inhibition to the tourist industry.