Period e-petition - Save our heritage: say no to VAT changes

[MatthewC]

I just copied this from the SPAB website. As Wakefield Cathedral is going through restoration, wouldn't that qualify as a repair and secure the 5% rating?

Q. Do I have to pay VAT on repairs on my listed building?

A. Yes. VAT is payable on repairs to all buildings. But if your building is listed, you may not have to pay it on approved alterations. The rules are complicated and may depend on local interpretation by your Customs and Excise office. The basic principle is that approved alterations for which you have been given listed building consent do not attract VAT. In practice there are grey areas, not least because of the differing judgments by local planning authorities on what may or may not require listed building consent.

This is the wrong way round, but repeated efforts by the SPAB and other conservation bodies to persuade the Government to remove or reduce VAT on repairs to listed buildings have so far failed. However there is currently a grant scheme for Listed Places of Worship that in effect reduces the rate of VAT on repairs to 5%.

It's not a 5% rating, it just happens that you are liable to get about 25% - 50% of the paid VAT back, and hence pay 5% or 10% VAT. The way it works is that there is a fixed size pot of money for refunds and they divide the pot between all the requests each quarter. The trouble with the recent change is that there is no mention of increasing the pot, even though it is bound to increase the sums requested.