Submitted by Molly Scott Cato on Tuesday 2nd February 2021
Published on Monday 8th February 2021
Current status: Open
Open until: Sunday 8th August 2021
Current Signatures: 2,628
(count is updated approximately hourly)
Relevant Departments
Tagged with
Brexit ~ climate emergency ~ construction ~ Freedom ~ Government ~ Tax ~ The Government ~ UK
To create a tax incentive to favour retrofit instead of demolition and new build
To 0% rate VAT on refurbishment projects total costs if they substantially reduce CO2e emission of the building; impose a 20% VAT for new build schemes, reduced to 5% if the build meets minimum passive house standard; to 0% rate VAT for all items on a regularly updated list of energy-saving products
Since Brexit, UK has total freedom to use a differential VAT regime to address the climate emergency.
UK construction industry produces 40% of our total emissions; initial embodied carbon can account for 75% of lifetime emissions. Retrofitting is carbon-efficient but the current VAT regime privileges new build over refurbishment.
The government could also incentivize retrofit by removing the liability for VAT from all energy-efficiency products and simplify the processing for claiming back.
If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.
3.238.186.43 Fri, 26 Feb 2021 12:23:58 +0000
