Despite the pleas, Tourist Tax income can only go so far - Iain Whyte

Matt Forde. Photo credit David Monteith-Hodge

Then comedian Matt Forde told a House of Commons Committee of impossible accommodation costs for working class comedians preventing them breaking though due to the “Edinburgh Festival Model”.

It seems we have a clash between left-wing politicians who wanted to sort “over tourism” and the usually left of centre arts establishment complaining about the eminently predictable consequences.

The recent over-regulation of the Short Term Let Licensing has made tourist accommodation much scarcer in Edinburgh and pushed up costs, especially in August. It hasn’t made the slightest difference to Edinburgh’s “housing emergency” and the cost of tourist accommodation will shortly jump further with the imposition of the Tourist Tax.

So now Mr Lankester wants us to put all the Tourist Tax raised during the Fringe back into repaying the tax to performers and subsidising the pop-up venues that big promoters put on.

The first of these is a circular argument and won’t help in an accommodation market where supply is drying up and corporate hotel companies can’t build rooms quick enough. The ability of the Fringe audience to find accommodation might become more of a problem first.

The big promoters undoubtedly have costs putting on venues, but they increasingly recoup this in higher ticket prices and highly priced quinoa burger and beverage villages that discourage the spread of spend outwards to the local pubs and restaurants that are here all year round. They don’t do this entirely philanthropically, there must be some profit to be made.

The promoters are also heavily built into the “Edinburgh model” Matt Forde describes. But this model, that might see a performer booked for BBC TV or radio or a lucrative tour was chosen by those influential in booking comedy, not by Edinburgh or the Fringe.

Mr Lankester did make two calls I’ll support that would help residents, southern Scotland and visitors alike - the need for better mobile phone coverage in the Old Town and overnight train services to Glasgow each August. But these are things the mobile companies should be fixing and ScotRail should be enterprising enough to resolve if it makes financial sense, not a case for public subsidy.

I suspect a grubby compromise will be found on the Tourist Tax spend. But really, the left on the council and the left-wing Scottish Parliament establishment need to decide what their policy priorities are.

Right now, the Tourist Tax is trying to please all audiences at once and it just won’t raise enough money to do that.

Cllr Iain Whyte, Leader of the Conservative Group