A little while ago I put up a poll to find out if there would be any sort of tangible support from the industry for a campaign for 5% VAT for energy efficient windows and doors. So far, the results have been a bit surprising.
Out of 149 people who have voted, 102 have said that they don’t think 5% VAT would benefit the industry, 45 have said it would, and two have said they don’t know. Given the discussions I have had online and with others, I was expecting a resounding “Yes” vote from the majority of people.
The other question I asked was to find out if other people would get involved in a campaign with me, weirdly, those results don’t match those of the first question. Out of 77 votes, 37 said they would, 37 said they wouldn’t, 3 said they weren’t sure.
At the moment, given the state of the results, I don’t believe a campaign from me to try and get some momentum going is going to be a productive use of my time. If results were showing a little differently, then I might think otherwise. But that the minute, if the industry doesn’t think it will help, or if the industry isn’t going to back me in something like this, then I won’t spend my time on it. A promise I made right when I put those polls live.
If the results suddenly swing the other way, I may change my mind. But until that happens, no more mentions of lower VAT from me.
Mindblowing. Vat @ 5% would be a huge fillip to the industry bringing multi faceted benefits: At a stroke removing the low price benefit that encourages the public to use cash merchants who put the customers in danger of not having proper guarantees,registrations and health and safety. Also, if applied to A rated goods, promoting countrywide insulation as an even greater benefit. And removing the need for this awful, ill concieved, convoluted, expensive and industry damaging so called “Green Deal” When I have to add 20% to a £ 6000 order and add the £ 1,200 of pure tax on… Read more »
This poll saddens me
Well said everybody! We actually did an exercise the other day (not a very scientific one I have to add) but by the time we have paid the government all their ‘dues’ we actually wonder who owns our company…it doesn’t feel like we do!
The Adam Smith Institute stated about 10 years ago that if all the tax layers were removed, the actual goods and services cost only 3 pence in each pound. And taxation has become worse since then.Should we laugh or cry?
PP