All ten of Labour's metro mayors have agreed to cap any new tourist tax at five per cent in their regions, while mayors from other parties have ruled out introducing the levy altogether. In a joint letter to the Chancellor and the Local Government Secretary, the Labour mayors called the Overnight Visitor Levy a critical step towards fiscal devolution. Responding to concerns from the hospitality industry, they promised the modest […]

The Transport Secretary has said a major failure of the UK's air traffic control system was not unavoidable, as flight chaos continues for a second day. Heidi Alexander told the Commons she has ordered an independent investigation by the aviation watchdog into the four-hour outage at operator Nats, which has caused over two thousand flight cancellations. Following a meeting with Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe, Ms Alexander confirmed a cyberattack […]