£90 MILLION ALLOCATED OVER THREE YEARS
Councillors yesterday (12 February) agreed the first full set of spending programmes for funding raised by the Edinburgh Visitor Levy, which comes into effect on 24 July 2026.
At a special meeting of the City of Edinburgh Council, councillors agreed a package of transformational funding worth over £90 million over the next three years to sustain and enhance Edinburgh’s reputation as one of the most beautiful and enjoyable destinations in the world.
In what is the first scheme of its kind in the UK, today’s decision sets out the amounts and projects within three well-defined investment programmes, as agreed by Council in January 2025: City Operations and Infrastructure; Culture, Heritage and Events; and Destination and Visitor Management.
Over the past twelve months, these programmes have been developed by Council officers, informed by feedback from public consultation and industry engagement, elected members and other stakeholders. The independent Edinburgh Visitor Levy Advisory Forum has also been consulted and provided feedback and recommendations on the programmes.
In accordance with the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act (2024), funds raised by the levy must be reinvested in local facilities and services substantially used by business and leisure visitors. All investment streams will be formally reviewed alongside the overall scheme in 2029.
Key initiatives agreed yesterday include, but are not limited to:
- Ambitious projects to renew and restore principal areas of Edinburgh, including investments in our town centre high streets, £3m for public realm improvements in Hunter Square (with the potential to combine with investment in the Tron Kirk) and £2m and £2.5m respectively towards transforming the city’s key coastal visitor attractions at Cramond Foreshore and Portobello Promenade.
- £5m to restore Leith Theatre and create a year round culture and live music space, expanding cultural opportunity beyond the city centre.
- £3m towards transforming the iconic Old Royal High School into a world class, accessible national centre for music, shaped by community engagement and open to all.
- Partnering with Police Scotland to create a City Centre Policing Unit, increasing public safety in the city centre and freeing up existing resource for frontline officers to be more present across other areas of the city – supported by an £850,000 investment in increased CCTV to allow residents and visitors to feel more safe in the city, town centres and other busy areas.
- £2.75m to create a Market Street Arts Hub, reinvigorating the City Art Centre and collaborating with the Fruitmarket to create a new arts and learning destination at one of the city’s major visitor gateways.
- £3.85m to speed up the Setted Streets renewal programme and £3m for new and upgraded public toilets to maintain Edinburgh’s streets, public spaces and public infrastructure to a world-class standard.
- Funding to ensure the city’s streets and open spaces are cleaned and kept to a high standard, including a £100,000 per year upgrade and replacement programme for bins in high footfall areas, £500,000 per annum to expand work to tackle graffiti through extra support for private businesses and £1.3m on additional operations services for the city centre (waste, cleansing, patrols).
- Investing in our Premier Parks across the city to create improved spaces where the highest footfall and impact on the environment is experienced – and increases to the parks repairs budgets, while doubling the number of Park Rangers across the city.
- Programmes to green the city with additional investment in planting, such as floral gateways, to improve the look and feel of the city’s green spaces as well as the overall visitor experience
Councillors also instructed officers to bring a report to the Transport and Environment committee setting out options to deliver further public realm improvements in the city centre, including both Princes Street and George Street, and how they should be prioritised.
Council Leader Jane Meagher said: “We’re rightly proud to be the first local authority in the UK to push ahead with a city-wide visitor levy scheme, and I can’t stress enough just how big an opportunity this is for our city, our residents and our visitors.
“Let’s not forget why we’re doing this. These spend programmes will help us not only to sustain and enhance the things that make our city so special, but also to better manage the effects of tourism and major events on those who live here all year round.
“But it’s so much more than that. After all, what’s not to like about visitors to Edinburgh contributing towards projects and services that benefit us all?
“We can now invest further in our plentiful parks and greenspaces, transform our city into a cleaner, greener and more welcoming environment, put more police on our streets and bring much-loved cultural venues such as the Royal High School and Leith Theatre back into use for the first time in decades. The list goes on.
“Agreeing these investment programmes today is a significant milestone in delivering a scheme that has been many years in the making, and is the result of a huge amount of development and engagement; engagement that, I’m pleased to say, will continue with communities making spending decisions in their local areas.
“I’m grateful to the many Council officers, Forum members, businesses and residents for their valuable contributions and for helping us to make this happen. I’m sure, like me, they’re looking forward to seeing the many benefits the levy will bring to our historic and beautiful Capital city.”
Commenting on the news that Edinburgh Visitor Levy Investment Programmes have been agreed by Edinburgh Council, Cllr Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill, Edinburgh Green Group co-convenor, said: “The Transient Visitor Levy is an innovation we can all be proud that Edinburgh is making.
“The legislation was passed in Holyrood in 2024 but the idea was raised by Green councillors in City of Edinburgh more than a decade ago. Scottish Greens in local and national chambers have welcomed the levy rolling out in our capital city – the first city in the UK to do so.”
Cllr Kinross-O’Neill continued: “Our group put forward bold proposals to redistribute visitor levy funding to free bus travel, to invest in improving the city is more accessible and sustainable. And most importantly, we have pushed hard to increase investment in genuinely affordable housing to address the spiralling rents which are partly due to overtourism.
“The Green group comes to this decision from a fundamentally different position to other political groups. Edinburgh already suffers from overtourism, especially at festival time. We do not believe that Edinburgh needs ever more visitors.
“We believe we need to better manage the tourism that we already have for the benefit of residents and visitors alike.”
Cllr Alex Staniforth, Edinburgh Green Councillors Finance spokesperson, said: “Our proposals rejected unnecessary spending on the whims of private business regarding graffiti and bunting.
“We also rejected the pie-in-the-sky notion that extra funding for police will improve the night time experience. Instead we proposed funding for local initiatives, free bus days for residents and visitors alike, more for sustainability and accessibility as well as funding for important cultural assets like Gorgie Farm and the Tron Kirk.
“I have a background in tourism, I want to share this beautiful city with our visitors and our proposals would have let us share it responsibly and happily.”
Edinburgh City Centre Green councillor Claire Miller said: “I’m delighted that one of the key Green Group proposals for Visitor Levy funding was to help and support people who tend to gather in and around Hunter Square, where there are currently significant impacts for visitors as well as the tourism and hospitality industry.
“This project would look at the human aspect and to work directly with people to help them and to tackle the issues at a much deeper root-cause level, so that harm can genuinely be reduced for them. I’m disappointed this project was not funded today, but I hope it can be considered in future years.”
Commenting on the agreement between SNP, Labour and Lib Dems to scrap the George Street project, Cllr Claire Miller said: “I’m gobsmacked that SNP councillors today have scuppered the long overdue pedestrian and cycle priority project for George Street.
“George Street is an important section of the “city centre west-east link”, the segregated route to cycle safely between Roseburn and the top of Leith Walk. The project is almost ready to start, with designs that have taken a decade to develop in collaboration with all stakeholders.
“I’ll be the first to call out the deficiencies – it’s got far too few trees and not nearly enough protection for cyclists – but it’s essential that the project goes ahead to complete the CCWEL.
“Greens stand by the many residents and businesses who have invested considerable time and energy into a vision and design which would transform George Street.”
Chair of the Visitor Levy Advisory Forum, Julie Ashworth said: “I’m very pleased that agreement has been reached for these first spend programmes, which I hope will have a transformative impact on both protecting Edinburgh’s unique heritage and supporting its future success.
“The Forum has worked closely with Council officers over the last few months to provide robust feedback on these initial investment streams and ensure the levy is delivered in a way that is fair, just and brings benefits to everyone in the years to come.
“Today’s agreement of the first round of investment is just the beginning and there will be plenty of opportunities for further proposals to come forward.
“As the programmes begin to expand and bear fruit, we will provide feedback on performance and continue to put forward the views of the city to ensure they are fairly and accurately represented and taken into account over the next three years and beyond.”
Other programmes designed to help meet the Council’s objectives in its Business Plan and Tourism Strategy include:
- A Housing and Tourism Mitigation Fund which could help deliver 472 affordable homes between 2026/27 and 2028/29, with more than 75% potentially available for social rent. Making more social rent homes available could allow households currently using unsuitable temporary accommodation, such as bed and breakfasts, to access more appropriate settled accommodation. This would return B&Bs to their intended use for shorter-term guests.
- Initiatives to strengthen awareness of Edinburgh’s diverse, year-round offer by inspiring visitors and residents to explore beyond the well-known attractions, leading to more balanced visitor numbers and impact around the city, throughout the year.
- Programmes to provide direct support for the visitor economy to improve economic as well as environmental sustainability, fair work and innovation and help the sector to be more resilient, ethical and ready for the future.
- Giving Edinburgh’s cultural organisations the investment and support to innovate and generate new world class content for the whole city, all year round by supporting local talent, spreading cultural activity and ensuring culture remains accessible, affordable and embedded in communities.
- Investing in Edinburgh’s cultural and heritage locations to secure their futures as high-quality visitor destinations, green, creative and well maintained, spaces.
- A Well-Kept City Fund to help to revitalise the city through a range of Clean, Green, Safe, Well-Maintained and Sustainable Infrastructure themed projects:
- Clean: Ensuring the city’s streets and open spaces are cleaned and kept to a high standard.
- Green: Protecting the quality of our green spaces through effective maintenance and visitor management.
- Safe: Providing extra resource to allow residents and visitors to feel more safe in the city, town centres and other busy areas.
- Well-Maintained: Maintaining Edinburgh’s streets, public spaces and public infrastructure to a world-class standard.
- Sustainable Infrastructure: Ensuring that public transport and events spaces are responsibly protected and used to their best.
- The Council has also agreed that £2m of income generated from the levy would be used to support new participatory budgeting (PB) activity over the next three years. PB involves communities making decisions on how public money is spent.
Speaking before the special council meeting to allocate ‘tourist tax’ funding, Fiona Campbell MBE, CEO of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, said: “From a grandiose super cycle lane on George Street to bringing back the Festival Cavalcade, Edinburgh Council has compiled an extensive shopping list based on projected revenue.
“Some of the ideas are merited from a visitor economy perspective, but a dose of realism is required. Many should already be part of basic council core spending – and it shouldn’t take a tourist tax for adequately policed streets in the city centre.
“To retain confidence, the Council must be laser focused on ensuring the spending falls within the statutory purpose of the visitor levy legislation. In particular, the plan for affordable housing not only scapegoats local businesses for issues beyond their control, industry has also repeatedly warned that is legally dubious.
“Given the Council’s recent track record in the courts on short term lets, the last thing it needs is another legal challenge.”
Edinburgh’s Visitor Levy scheme was formally agreed in January 2025.
The levy applies to paid overnight accommodation booked after 1 October 2025, if the stay takes place from 24 July 2026 onwards.
It is a 5% payment on the accommodation-only cost and applies to the first 5 nights’ stay. The scheme is projected to raise up to £50 million a year to invest in protecting, supporting and enhancing Edinburgh’s worldwide appeal as a place to visit and live.
