What happens now?
Update - 24th September 2025
Argyll and Bute Council has decided to pause the possible implementation of a visitor levy.
At the meeting of the Full Council on Wednesday 24 September, it was decided to delay the potential introduction of a levy and for the leader of the council to seek clarity from the Scottish Government on possible changes to the visitor levy legislation in relation to a single flat rate or tiered rate instead of a percentage rate as is currently allowed.
The council also agreed to lobby the UK Governments on concerns from businesses about going over the VAT threshold and asked officers to explore the possibility of local exemptions.
Read more in our news section.
Update 9 September 2025
Thank you to everyone who gave their views to the consultation earlier this year on a visitor levy. We welcomed views from across Argyll and Bute, and time has been given to fully considering feedback.
You can read the findings report, produced by an agency independent to the council, via this link - Agenda for Short Life Working Group on Argyll and Bute Council Visitor Levy on Monday, 15 September 2025, 2:00 pm - Argyll and Bute Council
Update 1 September 2025
The full report on visitor levy consultation findings will be published on the council’s website on 8th September (*).
The report and additional information are being finalised with further detail and explanation following feedback from councillors at a seminar today.
The council welcomed a high level of response to the consultation run earlier this year. Analysis of feedback is being provided by an agency independent to the council. Findings from the consultation will be considered at a meeting of full Council on 24th September.
In advance of that, the findings report will go to a meeting of the visitor levy Short Life Working Group on 15th September. Update 9 Sept - you can read the report via this link - Agenda for Short Life Working Group on Argyll and Bute Council Visitor Levy on Monday, 15 September 2025, 2:00 pm - Argyll and Bute Council
Information will be published on 8th, a week in advance of that short life working group. This means that, although normal practice is for reports to be published a week in advance, the visitor levy information pack will be published more than two weeks before full Council on 24th.
(*) Meeting information appears in the meetings section of the website - Browse Meetings, 2000 - Argyll and Bute Council
Reports appear around 11pm on the day of publication. We will provide a direct link to the reports here, once they are published: Agenda for Short Life Working Group on Argyll and Bute Council Visitor Levy on Monday, 15 September 2025, 2:00 pm - Argyll and Bute Council
Update 15 August 2025
We are aware of information circulating regarding the council’s procurement process for the visitor levy consultation, and specifically, an individual council officer.
The facts are that the council has robust procurement processes in place that are designed to identify correct, best value procurement outcomes. The independent agency (EKOS) was commissioned through these rigorous, scrutinising processes.
The fact that an officer of the council was involved with the agency, nearly two decades ago, is entirely irrelevant. EKOS was subject to the high level of procurement scrutiny built into the council’s procurement processes. To suggest otherwise would be wholly wrong. And to target a hard working, individual officer is unfair and extremely disappointing.
Update 7 August 2025
At the Council’s next meeting scheduled for 24 September, councillors will consider findings from the visitor levy consultation run earlier this year.
With various council areas considering introducing a visitor levy to raise investment for their visitor economies, the council took the decision in December 2024 to give people in Argyll and Bute the same opportunity and give their views on introducing a visitor levy for this area.
The 12-week consultation ended in April. Since then, the focus has been on collating and analysing feedback and producing a report outlining findings for consideration by councillors prior to any decision being made. This work is being carried out by consultants independent to the council.
There will be a seminar on the consultation findings for councillors on 1 September. The formal agenda and papers for the Council meeting on 24 September will be issued on 17 September in line with normal practice(*). If possible, the Council will release the visitor levy consultation findings documentation earlier.
(*) Committee reports are published in the ‘meetings’ section of the website and typically appear for viewing around 11pm on the day of publication.
Update 31 July 2025
We welcomed a high volume of feedback to the visitor levy consultation run earlier this year. The priority since then has been to allow sufficient time for feedback to be fully considered and analysed by the independent agency commissioned to produce a report on findings. Councillors have been asked to hold 1 September as a possible placeholder date however with work continuing on finalising the report and information to go to the Council meeting, this date is not yet confirmed.
We will confirm the date for the meeting in due course. The findings report will be published along with any other information going to the meeting, on the website in advance of the meeting taking place. We will provide details of this once a date for the meeting is confirmed.
Update July 2025
The independent agency we commissioned to prepare a report on the visitor levy consultation findings continues to analyse findings from the consultation to ensure that all feedback is fully considered and represented in the report.
When complete, this report will be presented to councillors to consider at a meeting of the Full Council. We do not yet have a confirmed date for the meeting. We will provide a further update in August.
Update June 2025
Thank you again to everyone who replied to the consultation, and provided feedback in different ways. We received more than 3,300 responses through the consultation surveys, emails, and comments.
This feedback is now with the independent agency we commissioned to produce a report on the consultation findings.
We obviously want to ensure that time is available for responses to be fully considered, and for the report therefore to be fully informed and representative of feedback.
We have therefore not yet set a date for the report and additional information to go to a meeting of councillors for their consideration.
We will provide another update on progress by the end of June.
April 2025
We are now commissioning an independent agency to collate and produce a report on the findings that will go to a meeting of Council for councillors’ consideration later this year. The report will be published on our website as part of the information that goes to Council.
Time will be taken to consider all feedback and allow a representative findings report to be produced, so a date is not set yet for that meeting of Council. It is not expected to be before August.
We will provide an update on this by the beginning of June.
Thank you again to everyone who got involved.
