Beach hut owners no longer face the threat of a 10 per cent tax when they sell their beach huts after a campaign by a Hove councillor.
Conservative councillor Robert Nemeth, who represents Wish, the ward with the highest number of beach huts in Brighton and Hove, hailed victory, saying the Labour administration had scrapped its plans.
He said that he had received an assurance from Brighton and Hove City Council leader Daniel Yates that the administration would abandon its plans.
It had intended to put up the beach hut sales tax from £82 to about £2,500 with Councillor Nemeth denouncing “a 3,000 per cent increase”.
The policy of introducing a 10 per cent sales tax was presented at a meeting of the Tourism, Development and Culture Committee on Thursday 11 January.
It was aimed at bringing the council into line with neighbouring local authorities and raising much-needed revenue.
Some beach hut owners argued that the proposed sales tax was unfair because any rise in value was offset by the cost of maintaining the huts on a stretch of seafront largely neglected by the council and police, with huts often vandalised or burgled.
Thousands of pounds of damage has been caused to dozens of huts, most recently in April. But despite security camera footage of the most recent suspects, no one has been charged over the costly crime spree.
Councillor Nemeth said: “Labour used its majority to push the rise through. However, I subsequently discovered that the existing contract contains no provision for a sales tax – only an admin fee of £82.
“In response, the Labour administration brought the matter back to the Tourism, Development and Culture Committee on Thursday 21 June with a threat to remove beach huts from the promenade and dispose of them if owners do not sign up to a brand new contract containing the tax rise.
“The threat was made possible through a clause that gives the council the power to evict hut owners without reason with just one month’s notice.”
Councillor Nemeth and his Tory colleagues, with support from the Greens and abstentions from two Labour councillors, were able to defer the matter.
After threatening to take the matter for decision to a meeting of the full council, where Labour has no majority, the administration backed down.
Any rises that might be introduced will apply only to future owners – none of the existing 459 owners.
Councillor Nemeth said: “I was disgusted that the Labour administration was threatening to crush the huts of owners who did not comply with their bullying approach.
“In painting such an inaccurate picture of beach hut owners as the oligarchs of the seafront, they lost the support of the general public who knew this situation to be entirely false.
“Beach hut owners are normal people who love spending time on the seafront with the family.
“A 10 per cent sales tax out of the blue on any item is outrageous. And if a private landlord threatened a revenge eviction like this, the council would quite rightly be horrified.
“I now urge owners to join the Hove Beach Hut Association Facebook group.”
Councillor Nemeth said this was not the first time that he had forced the Labour administration into a u-turn.
With fellow Wish ward councillor Garry Peltzer Dunn, he led the campaign against a secondary school catchment area change that would have seen Hove children unable to attend Hove schools.
Before that, he joined library campaigners to prevent the Labour administration selling Hove Library for conversion into flats.
