Renewed call for renovation VAT cuts

Renewed calls have been made for cuts in VAT on the cost of renovating homes in the wake of a government study on the issue of making existing houses more energy efficient, which said a cut in VAT on renovation could help.

As the government prepared to release a report called Existing Housing and Climate Change, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) said that the most effective way of improving home energy efficiency was to incentivise renovation by reducing the tax from 17.5 per cent to five per cent.

Richard Hyslop, co-ordinator of the Cut the VAT Coalition, of which the FMB is a member, said: "This is the third report this week calling for a cut in VAT for the refurbishment of existing housing."

He said that the tax system was presently "weighted" in favour of demolishing and rebuilding homes instead.

This view was backed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Public policy officer James Rowlands said the cut should be made "immediately".


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