VisitBritain funding row taken to EC

THE European Commission has been asked to investigate the Government over alleged illegal state aid to VisitBritain for its self-catering booking system EnglandNet.

A group of self-catering agencies, led by Hoseasons chief executive Richard Carrick, has made the complaint after a two-year fight with the Government and VisitBritain.

The 25-strong group – which lets more than 20,000 UK holiday properties – claims EnglandNet’s booking facility is in direct competition with their businesses.

EnglandNet is a central database of accommodation put on websites, including those of tourist boards, where it can be booked by the public.

Networks for Tourism, the private company which developed EnglandNet, has received more than £7 million in public funding, the group claims.

Helpful Holidays general manager Moray Bowater said the EC complaint was made due to the "desperation of being in all-out warfare with the national tourist board”.

Bowater and Carrick have met with VisitBritain and the department for Culture, Media and Sport, but say they were left frustrated by the lack of "recognition that there is even a problem”.

"This was the only avenue left for us,” Bowater said.

A VisitBritain spokesman said EnglandNet is "a marketing medium which does not plan to compete with self-catering agencies”.

"It provides an additional channel for self-catering agencies to sell their product to a wider audience,” he added.

A Government spokeswoman said: "We’re aware of a complaint but we have not received anything from the EC.”

The EC is to complete a preliminary investigation. If it rules in favour of the complainants a full investigation will start in the new year.

Meanwhile, the National Audit Office – which audits all Government departments’ accounts – has criticised VisitBritain for acting "like a commercial organisation” with "parts of the industry sometimes perceiving VisitBritain as a publicly funded rival”.

In a report, it claims VisitBritain gets involved in commercial partnerships because its £35.5 million Government funding has been the same for nine years.