Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire Assembly Member Angela Burns has welcomed the announcement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance that the Welsh Government will not be taking the ‘tourism tax’ forward.

Angela, along with Paul Davies AM and the Welsh Conservative Group in the Welsh Assembly, has led a campaign against the possible introduction of this tax which according to industry experts and businesses would have a detrimental impact on tourism throughout Wales.

Commenting after the statement Angela said: “I am delighted that the Cabinet Secretary opted not to go ahead with the tax. It threatened to have a serious impact on tourism businesses in my constituency and a number of them had got in touch with myself and my colleagues to express their concerns.

“As I have previously said, we are not against taxes, but we want taxes to be levied effectively and to have an impact. We are broadly supportive of the vacant land tax which the Welsh Government announced that they are planning to introduce.

“I want to sound a note of caution however that this battle may not be completely over. Although the Cabinet Secretary has ruled out his government introducing this tax, he states that ‘we will now explore ways in which local authorities could be given permissive powers to develop and implement a local tourism tax’. I trust that Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire County Councils take note of the strength of opinion on this issue and look at other ways to raise funds rather than considering an ill thought through tax on business.”