On 10 September 2026 the government confirmed that mayors and Strategic Authorities in England can introduce an overnight accommodation levy — a percentage added to the cost of every paid overnight stay in their area.
If you run a campsite, caravan park, glamping site or holiday park, the headline is not "a new tax is coming." It's narrower and messier than that: whether it applies to you depends on which mayoral authority you sit in, and that authority hasn't necessarily decided yet.
What's actually confirmed
The government's own announcement follows a consultation that closed in February 2026. The levy is expected to typically sit under 5%, and there is no statutory cap written into the scheme — each authority sets its own rate.
Critically, the announcement says local leaders "have the flexibility to offer exemptions — such as for campsites." That's a genuine opening, not a footnote. But it is an option each authority can take, not a guarantee that any of them will.
What isn't decided
Every mayoral authority builds its own scheme on its own timetable. First spending plans tied to levy income aren't due until early 2028, which means most areas are still working out the basics — whether to introduce a levy at all, what rate, and who's exempt.
That's a very different shape from Wales's visitor accommodation register, which is one national scheme with one national deadline. This is a patchwork: a park twenty miles from a mayoral boundary could end up on a completely different footing to a park just inside it.
What to actually do about it
Waiting for a single national announcement won't work here, because there isn't going to be one. The useful step is finding out whether your own combined authority or Strategic Authority is consulting on a levy, and if so, whether campsites and touring pitches are being treated the same as hotels — or being considered for the exemption the government has explicitly allowed.
If your site already reports its bookings and revenue through proper software rather than a shoebox of receipts, you're in a far better position to answer whatever a consultation asks of you — and to adjust pricing quickly if a levy does land in your area.