LPOC’s Parliamentary Reception to raise the issues of listed building ownership hailed a tremendous success, with minister for Culture, Media and Sport Ed Vaizey MP attending to how his support. Many important Westminster figures gathered to listen to LPOC founder Peter Anslow’s presentation on listed property ownership as part of our lobbying campaign, with a  number signing to join an All Party Political Group after the election next year. Mr Vaizey MP arrived to meet LPOC on Tuesday 21st October and made a closing statement following Peter’s presentation. Showing his appreciation, the minster expressed  thanks to LPOC and listed property owners for their
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The Listed Property Owners’ Club (LPOC) have designed a strategy to draw attention to the issues surrounding listed property ownership. Following years of disappointing decisions by government that have eroded help for owners of listed properties, LPOC Founder Peter Anslow has decided to lobby parliament to raise awareness and improve support. Zero-rated VAT on approved listed building consent works was lost in the 2012 budget, while owners also face a barrage of conflicting information, regulations and demands from local conservation offices that makes maintaining their homes to the legally required standard extremely difficult and expensive. With 80% of people who
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With their continuous countryside, rolling hills and picturesque backdrops, it is no surprise that Wales proudly boasts over 30,000 listed properties. Beautiful cottages are tucked away in the Welsh valleys, town houses sit amongst the bustling towns and farmhouses are sitting comfortably in thriving villages. And now, in perfect recognition of these incredible pieces of history, The Listed Property Owners Club is proud to bring you a plaque specifically for the Welsh listed properties which will continue to play a part of Wales’ history. The Listed Property Owners Club previously created a distinguished plaque for listed buildings in England; designed to
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Definitions: Green Deal assessors – they will visit your property, tell you what improvements you can make and estimate how much you could save on your energy bills. Green Deal providers – they will help you decide if a Green Deal Plan is right for you, provide finance and arrange for installation of improvements. The providers range from local and national energy companies to DIY organisations.   How it works: The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) Green Deal is the new government initiative which enables homeowner’s and businesses to take out a loan of up to £10,000 to
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VAT Update As you are probably aware the Finance Bill 2012 was approved by MP’s on 3rd July 2012 and VAT on approved alterations will now be removed from the 1st October this year,  however there were three major alterations as a result of our efforts together with those of other organisations; i.e.: 1. Providing owners had applied for Listed Building Consent before 21st March this year zero rating will still apply for approved alterations (originally work had to have been started or a written contract in place before 21st March 2. Owners now have until 1st October 2015 to complete the
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Rt Hon George Osborne MP Chancellor of the Exchequer HM Treasury 1 Horse Guards Road London, SW1A 2HQ 14 June 2012 Dear Chancellor, Despite recent u-turns on a VAT hike for pasties and caravans, the Treasury is still planning a 20% tax rise that will damage the nation’s finest and most loved buildings. Worse still, this tax rise is based on completely insufficient evidence. When the Treasury announced plans to remove the current VAT relief on approved alterations to listed buildings in the Budget it stated that the majority of the work covered by the relief was not necessary for
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VAT Update Thank you to all our members who have written to both us and their MP’s about the VAT changes, we are encouraged by the number of responses we’ve received. As you know we’ve joined forces with over 20 similar organisations who attended a meeting with David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, on 17th May who seemed to be in listening mode on the whole, and once again said he had ‘some sympathy’ about extending transitional relief but evidence would be needed to convince HMRC.  We shall continue working on this with every effort. You may also have
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I’m sure you will already know that there was a nasty little surprise hidden away in the Budget 2012 documents about the removal of the zero rate of VAT on approved alterations to listed buildings. If you haven’t seen the details they are available in the consultation document on ‘addressing borderline anomalies’ in the VAT system: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2012/vat-con-4801.pdf, and also in the Budget’s policy costing document (pages 37-38): http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget2012_policy_costings.pdf. To fight this unfair move, we have joined forces with 20 other similar organisations including the Federation of Master Builders, SPAB, Georgian Society etc. Unfortunately Government has only given us until the
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