Finance (No. 4) Bill

Debate between Lord Soames of Fletching and Gordon Marsden

Wednesday 18th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Marsden]

It would be absolutely appropriate, not least because there seems to have been scant consultation with any of the Churches or other religious groups or places of worship on this issue. Perhaps the Government would like to start taking notice of the e-petition on this issue, which already has more than 16,000 signatures. Anne Sloman, chair of the Church Buildings Council, wrote to the Chancellor last week stating:

“a very large proportion of the alterations to these buildings…are concerned with making these buildings viable for use by the wider community by installing meeting rooms, lavatories and kitchens. This is the Big Society in action. The imposition of 20 percent VAT…means…most of it will simply stop.”

In conclusion, this is a nonsensical policy. At the end of holy week, the Prime Minister piously talked about the Church in action, but at the same time he let this howler through in a Budget that he claimed to have read line by line. I appeal to the Treasury Front-Bench team, if it is worth appealing to them on this matter, to take notice of what is being said across the Committee. They ought to do a little more line-by-line consideration of this proposal’s perverse effects if they want to dissuade people from the general judgment often passed—possibly very cynically—that some officials and others in the Treasury do indeed know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

[Nicholas Soames]

I believe that there is a great deal in the Budget to applaud and support, but on this issue I wholly agree with the hon. Member for Blackpool South (Mr Marsden), who has just sat down, and the right hon. Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw), who put it very well. I also know that my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) has written a powerful letter about this matter.