Title: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom
Content:  1976. Under Margaret Thatcher's leadership, Conservative Chancellor Geoffrey Howe increased the standard rate of VAT from 8% to 15% and abolished the higher rate in June 1979. The rate remained unchanged until 1991, when Conservative Chancellor Norman Lamont increased it from 15% to 17.5%. The additional revenue was used to pay for a reduction in the hugely unpopular community charge. During the 1992 general election the Conservatives promised not to extend the scope of VAT but in March 1993, Lamont announced that domestic fuel and power, which had previously been zero-rated, would have VAT levied at 8% from April 1994 and the full 
Title: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom
Content:  to VAT, were 13, 22, 36 and 55%. On 1 January 1973 the UK joined the European Economic Community and as a consequence Purchase Tax was replaced by Value Added Tax on 1 April 1973. The Conservative Chancellor Lord Barber set a single VAT rate (10%) on most goods and services. In July 1974, Labour Chancellor Denis Healey reduced the standard rate of VAT from 10% to 8% but introduced a new higher rate of 12.5% for petrol and some luxury goods. In November 1974, Healey doubled the higher rate of VAT to 25%. Healey reduced the higher rate back to 12.5% in 
Title: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom
Content:  Standard VAT rates since 1973: During this period an alternate VAT rate of 25% and then 12.5% was introduced for petrol and some luxury goods. This was abolished in 1979.
Title: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom
Content:  that the VAT on installation of energy saving materials would be reduced from 17.5% to 5% from 1 July 1998. Brown subsequently reduced VAT from 17.5% to 5% on sanitary protection products (from 1 January 2001); children's car seats (from 1 April 2001); conversion and renovation of certain residential properties (from 12 May 2001); contraceptives (from 1 July 2006); and smoking cessation products (from 1 July 2007). In response to the late-2000s recession, Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling announced in November 2008 that the standard rate of VAT would be reduced from 17.5% to 15% with effect from 1 December 2008. In December 
Title: Taxation in the United Kingdom
Content:  the scheme in 1994, it was charged at a new, lower rate of 8 percent. In September 1997 this lower rate was reduced to 5 percent and was extended to cover various energy-saving materials (from 1 July 1998), sanitary protection (from 1 January 2001), children's car seats (from 1 April 2001), conversion and renovation of certain residential properties (from 12 May 2001), contraceptives (from 1 July 2006) and smoking cessation products (from 1 July 2007). On 1 December 2008, VAT was reduced to 15 percent, as a reaction to the late-2000s recession, by Chancellor Alistair Darling. On 1 January 2010 VAT returned to 17.5 percent. On 4 January 2011 VAT was raised to 20 percent by Chancellor George Osborne, where it remains.
Title: Value-added tax
Content:  The default VAT rate is the standard rate, 20% since 4 January 2011. Some goods and services are subject to VAT at a reduced rate of 5% or 0%. Others are exempt from VAT or outside the system altogether. Due to COVID-19, the United Kingdom temporarily reduced the VAT on tourism and hospitality. Until 30 September 2021, the reduced VAT rate will be 5%. Between 1 October 2021 and 31 March 2022, the VAT rate will be 12.5%. As of 1 April 2022, the VAT rate will again be 20%
Title: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom
Content:  from April 1995. The planned introduction of VAT on domestic fuel and power went ahead in April 1994, but the increase from 8% to 17.5% in April 1995 was scuppered in December 1994, after the government lost the vote in parliament. In its 1997 general election manifesto, the Labour Party pledged to reduce VAT on domestic fuel and power to 5%. After gaining power, the new Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in June 1997 that the lower rate of VAT on domestic fuel and power would be reduced from 8% to 5% with effect from 1 September 1997. In November 1997, Brown 
Title: Value-added tax
Content:  Value-added tax (VAT) in South Africa was set at a rate of 14% and remained unchanged since 1993. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba announced on 21 February 2018 that the VAT rate will be increased by one percentage point to 15%. Some basic food stuffs, as well as paraffin, will remain zero rated. The new rate is to be effective from 1 April 2018.
Title: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom
Content:  with effect from 4 January 2011. Before the 2015 general election Labour claimed that the Conservatives would raise VAT to 22.5% if they were re-elected and Osborne reputedly refused to deny the claim. On 25 March 2015 Cameron pledged in the House of Commons that VAT would not be increased. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the UK government introduced zero VAT rating for personal protective equipment (PPE), which was in effect from 1 May to 31 October 2020. In the March 2020 budget the government announced that it would move women's sanitary products into the zero-rated group, as pledged in the 2016 
Title: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom
Content:  Darling announced that the standard rate of VAT would return to 17.5% with effect from 1 January 2010. In the run up to the 2010 general election there were reports that the Conservatives would raise VAT if they gained power. The party denied plans for such an increase, but refused to rule one out for the 2010 budget. Following the election in May 2010, the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. In the 2010 budget, described by PM David Cameron as an "emergency budget", Chancellor George Osborne announced that the standard rate of VAT would increase from 17.5% to 

Question: when did vat change from 17.5 to 20?
Answer: 4 January 2011.