{"id":7371,"date":"2014-03-21T18:44:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T18:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=7371"},"modified":"2014-03-21T18:44:32","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T18:44:32","slug":"budget-2014-update-and-roundup-ihbc-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=7371","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2014: update and roundup \u2013 IHBC & others"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2014 budget delivered by the Chancellor George Osborne on 19 March was described as \u2018a Budget for building a resilient economy\u2019 and has already been widely debated in the press and by organisations working in the built environment<\/span><\/p>\n

IHBC Chair Mike Brown said: \u2018Of course we welcome the \u00a320m for repairs to cathedrals – this is will help ensure that our cathedrals are in good condition before First World War remembrance services.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018However we can only regret the fact that, however unsurprising it might be, the broad base of support for VAT relief for repairs and maintenance of older buildings has not been registered by the Treasury for the boost changes here would bring to the economy.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Moreover we are also disappointed by further proposals regarding permitted development that are again, sadly, not surprising. They continue to reflect the fact that, in government, planning is still seen erroneously as being a break on investment and productivity.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has a comprehensive analysis of the likely affect throughout the UK, reporting key announcements for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, highlighting:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Garden City proposals at Ebbsfleet
\n\u2022 Judicial Review reform
\n\u2022 Nationally Significant Infrastructure Planning Regime Review
\n\u2022 \u00a3150 million fund for social housing estate regeneration
\n\u2022 \u00a3500 million Builders\u2019 Finance Fund
\n\u2022 Permitted development rights reviewed
\n\u2022 continued support to Enterprise Zones including a pilot Enterprise Zone near Coleraine
\n\u2022 Glasgow City Deal to drive employment and economic development across the city region
\n\u2022 Wales Bill to devolve new tax and borrowing powers to Wales<\/p>\n

The \u2018development benefits\u2019 pilot approach is strongly criticised by the RTPI.<\/p>\n

Janet Askew, Vice President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, said: \u2018The RTPI feels that paying individuals directly to accept development is unsupportable. Whilst it is hard to object to pilot schemes, there are better uses of limited resources. The RTPI urges the Government to deploy its time and effort to look at potentially more effective ways to get homes built.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Incentives for individuals to accept development have a number of drawbacks. Proposals that extend an incentive-led approach to individuals may lead to developing areas with fewer objections, rather than identifying the optimum location for communities. They send a signal out from Government that new homes are something which requires compensation, rather than something which addresses need. It is not clear how such incentives would work in relation with other mechanisms to mitigate impact such as section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Heritage Alliance reports as follows:
\n<\/span>In the 2014 Budget announced on Wednesday 19th March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, confirmed an increase in the VAT threshold from April 2014, but failed to make a targeted reduction in VAT from 20% to 5% on housing and renovation repair. The reduction has been the key ask of the \u2018Cut the VAT\u2019 coalition, a group which includes more than 60 charities (including the Heritage Alliance), trade associations and business groups that are all united in calling on all three parties to commit to this VAT reduction.<\/p>\n

Loyd Grossman, Chairman of The Heritage Alliance, and leading advocate for a change to VAT, said: \u2018I’m very disappointed that the Government hasn’t seen fit to reduce VAT to 5% on repair, maintenance and alteration, despite the compelling evidence produced by the Cut the VAT Coalition that this will boost the economy by more than \u00a315 billion from 2015 to 2020, and create more than 95,000 jobs. The 20% VAT rate to repair, maintenance and adaptation to existing buildings, compared with a zero rating on new build is the greatest barrier to the sustainable use of our historic buildings, and despite the Government’s current disinterest, we will continue to push to make this targeted reduction\u2019.<\/p>\n

During his speech in March at the launch event of the latest Experian report, ‘An estimate of the effects of a reduction in the rate of VAT on housing renovation and repair: 2015 to 2020’, Loyd Grossman had pledged the continued support of The Heritage Alliance for the targeted reduction from 20% to 5% on housing renovation and repair. He also urged all political parties to include the proposed reduction in their forthcoming general election manifestos.<\/p>\n

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) analyses the key housing and transport impacts, and writes<\/span>:
\n\u2018We welcome measures to secure the housing we need in the right places. We need to see a step change in the quality of new development at Ebbsfleet. This means design and master-planning of the highest quality, combining higher density housing with plenty of green space; a serious attempt to tackle car dependency and reduce energy usage; and a connection with the surrounding countryside. Will the Government meet this challenge, or does it just want to build lots of houses as quickly as possible?\u2019<\/p>\n

IHBC-partnered \u2018Cut the Vat\u2019 research launch<\/a><\/p>\n

RTPI full budget 2014 analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

RTPI on development benefits<\/a><\/p>\n

CPRE analysis\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Mineral Products Association press release on aggregates levy and lime<\/a><\/p>\n

Search Planning Portal<\/a><\/p>\n

Budget 2014 full report<\/a><\/p>\n

Government release on 2014 budget speech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2014 budget delivered by the Chancellor George Osborne on 19 March was described as \u2018a Budget for building a resilient economy\u2019 and has already been widely debated in the press and by organisations working in the built environment IHBC … 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-7371","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\/7371","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=7371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7372,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7371\/revisions\/7372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}