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| Lib Dems urge Chancellor to change VAT rule that bulldozed new sports hall |
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Richard Thomas, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Lewisham East has today written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer asking him to change the ludicrous rule which means that a lottery funded sports hall was bulldozed to avoid £4m VAT bill.
A lottery funded sports hall at Malory school was pulled down to escape a VAT bill of £4million, after just eight years of use it has been revealed. Malory School, Launcelot Road, received £725,000 from Sport England for the sports hall in June 1995. The outline plans to regenerate the school, approved by the planning committee in February 2004, made explicit the plan to retain the building. The formal papers submitted to the planning committee in July 2004, again stated that the building would be retained. Lewisham council, have confirmed that Haberdashers' Aske's would have been liable for £4million of VAT if the old sports hall had been retained as the whole school project would be classed by the Inland Revenue as a refurbishment and subject to VAT at the full rate of 17.5%. A new construction would not be liable for VAT. The cost of the new sports hall, is estimated at £1million. Richard Thomas has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer asking him to change the rules that have led to this ludicrous waste of tax payers’ money. Richard Thomas, Lib Dem spokesperson in Lewisham East said: “£1 million of taxpayers money has been wasted because of an idiotic VAT rule. Government policy should both encourage refurbishment of buildings over building new – and it should discourage profligate waste of tax payers money. The current rules fail on both counts and I can’t imagine that a prudent chancellor would not be willing to be persuaded of the case for change.”
Read the letter and related council statement
here (word document)
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