The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has provided an update on Cut the VAT Campaign.
Beatrice Orchard at the FMB writes:
It’s been a while since we have been in touch with you all and so I wanted to drop you a note to update you on where we are with the Cut the VAT campaign.
Like many of you, the FMB is now concentrating its lobbying on achieving a reduced level of VAT for energy efficiency measures rather than for all RM&I work as we believe this is more likely to gain traction in the short term.
Looking ahead, we think that the medium to long-term aim of the Cut the VAT Coalition should be to persuade all parties to include a pledge to reduce VAT in line with our broader campaign asks in their 2015 election manifestoes – perhaps putting particular pressure on Labour as they are the only one to adopt it as party policy to date.
In line with this, we will continue to keep the issue live and continue to present our recommendations at every relevant opportunity. However, I also think it would be useful for us to come together again in the final quarter of next year to discuss how we can best lobby the respective parties in advance of the 2015 general election.
We have made some changes to the website to better reflect the current level of campaign activity – for example, on the supporters page, we have removed the ‘cut the VAT in Parliament’ section as it was proving difficult to keep this current. However, we have kept the list of organisations and individuals as these do not have dates attached and are therefore not time sensitive. We have made similar amendments across the site in order to ensure that the content does not appear stale.
Please do continue to use the research findings for evidence of the economic, social and environmental benefits of a VAT cut on home repair, maintenance and improvements when the opportunity arises.
Let me know if you have any further suggestions for the website – or feel free to give me a call if you would like to discuss any of the above.
Contact Beatrice at BeatriceOrchard@fmb.org.uk
For the summary on the website see: LINK
For the website and to join see: www.cutthevat.co.uk
