This will require an expensive new bureaucracy. The Church of England, in particular, had been complaining for decades to successive Chancellors about this issue on the pretext that most of the nation s architectural heritage consists of churches. The Church repair VAT announcement in the Budget, however, was the culmination of a remarkable sequence of events which the Society had been following closely both in the press and in Hansard . The alarm bells started ringing with the Chancellor s pre-budget speech to the House of Commons on 8 November 2000. The Government is keen to preserve Britain's rich built heritage for both current and future generations.
Places of worship can play a focal point in rural and urban communities.
The Government is attracted to the idea of offering a reduced rate of VAT for the repair and maintenance of listed buildings which are used as places of worship. Brown s pronouncements were extraordinary, in that it is well known to politicians, economists and accountants that there are only a small number of special cases where concessional VAT rates are permitted. These are listed in an Annex to the EU s 6 th Directive, and church repairs are most certainly not included. Bell s reply confirmed that various discussions are taking place between Customs and Excise and the Church VAT group. We are considering possible derogations.