Amendment of the Law

Nia Griffith Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)]

Time is short, so I shall not repeat what my hon. Friends have said about the disgraceful robbing of pensioners to pay for a tax cut for the rich or the terrifying lack of a growth strategy to help the unemployed, or about how Government Members have avoided saying that raising the personal allowance is costing a lot of money, much of which will benefit those higher up the pay scales, whereas tax credits, which they are cutting, target money much more effectively on lower-income households.

I will therefore turn straight to my concern about the imposition of VAT on approved alterations to listed buildings, which unfortunately the right hon. Member for the historic city of Bath (Mr Foster) left until last in his speech, which meant that he ran out of time. On Friday, together with other members of the Llanelli Railway Goods Shed Trust, I met the team of architects that will conduct a feasibility study on ways to bring that historic listed building back into use and give it a new lease of life, while on Saturday I joined the Friends of Cwrt Farm to help clear ivy off the walls of that historic building. Both groups are worried about the potential VAT changes, which will affect the preservation of our historic buildings. They are concerned about the change in the Budget—described by the Chancellor as just closing a loophole—to abolish zero rated VAT on approved alterations to listed buildings and instead make such alterations subject to the full VAT rate of 20%.

I contrast that with the zero rating on new build. So much for this Government’s pretence at being the greenest Government yet. It would be much greener to encourage alterations to listed buildings, to make them practical to use in the 21st century. Furthermore, far from stimulating the economy, the change is likely to discourage people from undertaking such work. Having to pay VAT at 20% will mean less money for the alterations and therefore less work for local builders who undertake the work, and we all know about the difficulties faced by the construction industry at the moment. Labour is calling for a cut to 5% in VAT on all household repairs precisely to stimulate the construction sector and provide more work for builders, plumbers, carpenters, electricians and so on.

I am glad to see the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in his place, as I am still very concerned that his Government are not succeeding in making banks do anything like enough to help business. In my constituency, I know businesses that have been subject to sudden changes in the terms and conditions of their loans, which they simply cannot cope with and which could easily send them under. My constituent Mr Alun Richards has encountered considerable difficulties with Lloyds bank. In particular, he has raised with me the issue of banks foreclosing on businesses and selling off the assets at way below market value. This is not acceptable to business customers, nor should it be acceptable to Lloyds bank’s shareholders. Last July, the firm acting as administrators for Lloyds sold one of Mr Richards’s assets—Mansel house in Swansea—for £125,000. The same property is now on the market for more than £300,000, whereas the local economic circumstances have not changed at all. That raises serious questions about such practices, especially as Mr Richards can cite many similar cases that merit investigation and changes to the law.

This Government need to get their act together on bank lending, getting the economy going, providing jobs for our young who are unemployed and thinking about fairness sensibly and properly. They should rewrite the Budget completely.