If glazing products are to be exempt from VAT in the future, we must act now, a representative of the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF) has urged. Chris Beedel, the GGF’s head of advocacy and stakeholder relations, has called on all businesspeople within the glazing industry to respond to a government consultation that could help drive changes in VAT for windows, doors and other glazed products. But be quick, as the consultation expires tomorrow (31 May).
“We need thousands of responses to this consultation, and we haven’t got long,” explained Chris, speaking to journalists at the Fit Show last week. “It’s the only opportunity we’ll have, certainly in my lifetime, to affect change.
“The consultation is about the energy-saving materials list that’s published by the treasury. There are about 19 questions but five or six in there say: ‘which products do you think should be on the list?; That’s our opportunity to take information from our Window of Opportunity document, published in March, and translate it into answers to those questions.” (Read our report about the GGF’s ‘Window of Opportunity’ document.)
“If we don’t get thousand of responses that would be an absolute lost opportunity from our industry to make a difference. Reduced VAT would save installers’ customers 20% on their installations.
“We can’t guarantee that we will end up on the list, but if we don’t try, we’ll never know. We won’t be asked again for a long time to come.”
Offering context as to how the consultation came about, Chris said: “During the spring statement last year, the treasury reissued the energy-saving materials list. We realised that glass, glazing, windows and doors still did not appear on it, yet insulation does.
“We’re a poor relation of the fabric-first industry. We don’t attract the same zero-VAT exemptions that all other insulating materials do. If the government really does want us to super insulate our housing, and do all the right things, they’ve got to treat us equally.
“We need equality, and to be seen in the same way as all other fabric measures.
“We responded to the treasury to ask why we weren’t on the list, and they said: ‘86% of homes have double glazing, so the job’s done.’ But we know that, even if that is a fact, a huge proportion of that glazing is going to be old. It’s like driving a 20-year-old car: it will get you form A to B but it won’t be have any of the features of something that you’d buy today.”
