Backlash over VAT-free shopping

LUXURY retailers rued a ‘missed opportunity’ to entice tourists to the UK.

High-end names including Harrods and Burberry wanted the reinstatement of VAT-free shopping for international tourists, which ended in January 2021.

But there was no mention of the policy. Tourist spending in Britain has reached only two-thirds of its pre-pandemic level, according to Global Blue, which specialises in providing VAT refunds. Italy and Spain are much closer to a return to 2019 levels of tourist spending, and in France they are spending more.

Steve Medway, at the Knightsbridge and King’s Road Partnerships in London, said it was ‘a missed opportunity to reassert Britain’s pre-eminent status as the international destination of choice for retail’.

Dee Corsi, chief executive at New West End Company, said Jeremy Hunt ‘missed an opportunity to accelerate growth’.