Static Caravans (VAT)

Debate between Mark Garnier and Graham Stuart

Thursday 26th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Stuart]

I will give way to my other colleagues shortly, but let me first respond to my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Eric Ollerenshaw).

The Finance Act 1972 introduced zero rating of certain caravans. The notes on clauses relating to what was then group 10 of schedule 4 referred to relief for

“houses and other domestic accommodation”,

and stated:

“The caravans in the Group are akin to houses; they are too large to be towed on the road, and are usually permanently attached to the land.”

The deliberate intention of the law, which was debated in the House—with no anomaly, no forgotten section, and no category of products that had been missed—was to treat caravans, other than those towed by cars, as “other domestic accommodation” in the same way as houses.

[Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con)]

In my constituency, many people view static caravans as second homes. Is there not a case for the Treasury to treat them as second homes, subject to stamp duty, rather than making them subject to VAT like mobile caravans?

[Mr Stuart]

That would be consistent, because the qualities of a mobile caravan are completely different from those of a static caravan or a house. What are static caravans used for? They are second homes. Someone who buys a £240,000 cottage in one of the rural areas represented by my colleagues, which often means pricing out local workers, will pay tax of 1%, whereas it is proposed that someone who buys a static caravan for £24,000, a tenth of that amount, should pay 20%— 20 times as much—on a home that is used for precisely the same purposes. That is not getting rid of an anomaly, as Treasury civil servants originally suggested; it is creating an anomaly.

Independent Financial Advisers (Regulation)

Debate between Mark Garnier and Graham Stuart

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mark Garnier]

I can see no reason at all for not introducing grandfathering rights. Indeed, when the FSA was set up it introduced grandfathering rights when IFAs came over from the personal finance authority.

[Mr Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on opening this important debate this evening. Jon Marris, a constituent of mine and an IFA, came to see me on Friday. He has already passed the exams that will be required—he has done the 400 hours of study—but, even from his position, he believes it is ridiculous that those who have been in the industry for many years should be forced to go through that. Although he has been able to do this, he thinks that the removal from the market of people who are perfectly capable of doing their job but who might not be able to get through the exams, even though they have shown for many years that they can look after customers, is completely wrong.

[Mark Garnier]

I think my hon. Friend’s constituent agrees with us all.

The IFA community is broadly in support of raising excellence in the profession, and many are opting to take qualification exams on their own initiative without the dead hand of the FSA pressing them to do so. Indeed, the website unbiased.co.uk lists IFAs by their qualifications, so the move towards improved excellence is already going ahead under its own steam. A significant number—possibly as many as a third—feel that their 20, 30 or 40 years of experience not only trumps any exams but covers a significant depth of knowledge in their chosen areas, which will surpass any exam requirements. In taking exams, they will also be tested on areas they choose not to specialise in. As I and many hon. Members have said, the FSA seems blind to their expertise. The FSA does not recognise that experience and is determined to put out of business any IFA who is reluctant to take their exams or to subject themselves to the FSA’s ill-thought-through in-house assessment.