{"id":7167,"date":"2014-02-07T17:32:04","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T17:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=7167"},"modified":"2014-02-07T17:32:04","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T17:32:04","slug":"ihbc-president-eh-chair-culture-secretary-informal-talks-on-vat-and-lg-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=7167","title":{"rendered":"IHBC President, EH Chair & Culture Secretary: informal talks on VAT and LG conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trefor Thorpe, President of the IHBC and Sir Laurie Magnus, English Heritage (EH) Chair, with England\u2019s Culture Secretary, Maria Miller MP, discussed heritage VAT reliefs and local government conservation capacity at a sector breakfast meeting at Wellington Arch this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trefor Thorpe said: ‘I was delighted to be among those invited along by Sir Laurie to meet the Secretary of State. It was a most generous gesture and also a great opportunity to learn of the extent of common ground between English Heritage, ourselves and the DCMS in such challenging areas as conservation services in local government and targeted VAT relief.\u00a0 Of course we all appreciate that the challenges are huge – the ‘real world’ certainly loomed large in our discussions – but there was also a lot of understanding shared around the table.’<\/p>\n

‘The discussions were especially useful as a prelude to the IHBC’s own VAT initiatives, not least the launch in March of updated research into the impact of VAT relief on repairs.\u00a0 We are helping lead on that in partnership with bodies such as the Federation of Master Builders.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Clearly the updated research, and our joint parliamentary reception launching it, constitute a critical ‘position statement’ for the entire construction industry.’<\/p>\n

‘Nor is the IHBC forgetting the heritage-specific issues in tax and VAT! \u00a0Indeed we hope to meet soon with the Treasury, following their re-introduction to our case on heritage VAT reliefs by Vince Cable. \u00a0With that under progress, and support from government\u00a0departments, we can highlight again just how unfair the tax regime is to our built\u00a0heritage and historic places.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018There is a real injustice embedded in our tax system, one that runs wholly contrary to the huge benefits the proper care of that heritage offers: beating climate change; as an economic driver underpinning tourism, construction and other business sectors, and encouraging healthy and inclusive communities. \u00a0Clearly, we urgently need fair taxation, led by the \u2018VAT Cut\u2019!’<\/p>\n

For more on the importance of existing and traditional buildings in the construction sector see the NewsBlog at<\/span>: LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information and links on the updated research and the IHBC\u2019s role in the Cut the VAT campaign see information and links at<\/span>: LINK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trefor Thorpe, President of the IHBC and Sir Laurie Magnus, English Heritage (EH) Chair, with England\u2019s Culture Secretary, Maria Miller MP, discussed heritage VAT reliefs and local government conservation capacity at a sector breakfast meeting at Wellington Arch this week. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ihbc-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7168,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7167\/revisions\/7168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}