Civic Voice welcomes the Chancellor’s support for town centres. It also regrets that the Budget once again does nothing to address VAT on historic and listed building works.
Repairing and adapting historic buildings still generally carries VAT at 20%, while most new-build housing is zero-rated. That gap is a perverse incentive. It makes demolition and new build cheaper than caring for the buildings that give our towns their character. It also works against the government’s own aims on housing, climate and growth, because reusing existing buildings saves carbon and brings empty upper floors back into use. The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has recommended targeted VAT relief for listed buildings. Wednesday was a missed chance to act on it.
More could be done to bring town centres back to life, for example:
- Tackling long-term empty shops, including bigger units, with high street rental auctions and stronger powers against absentee owners.
- Fund the conversion of empty upper floors above shops into homes, so town centres have people living in them again.
- Ring-fence part of the new visitor levy for public realm, heritage and town-centre improvements.
- Rebuilding local conservation and design expertise after years in which councils have lost conservation and planning enforcement officers.
- Make sure areas without a mayor get a fair route to central government funding initiatives.
Read our press release here