Bolton Council backs motion on community sites VAT relief

This comes after a motion was passed at a full meeting of Bolton Council to call on the government to bring in VAT relief on essential repairs on community buildings.

Cllr Emily Mort, of Tonge with the Haulgh, proposed the motion, citing her own experience with buildings in her area that need upkeep and repair work, like the Bolton Sea Cadets.

Labour’s Cllr Mort said: “Many community buildings are ageing, roofs need repairing, heating systems need replacing.

“Buildings need modernising so they are accessible, warm, welcoming and fit for the future.”

The motion was put by Cllr Emily Mort (Image: Phil Taylor)

She added: “All community buildings provide vital social infrastructure for our residents.

“They support community cohesion, reduce isolation, provide space for local services and activities, and help residents access support close to home.

“If the government extends VAT relief to community buildings, as it does for museums, then this will be a life line for many voluntary community groups, helping buildings remain open and affordable.”

As it stands, community groups can end up having to pay 20 per cent VAT on money they raise to make essential repairs.

In response, the campaign to extend VAT relief is being led by the Cooperative Party as part of a national campaign lobbying the government to change tax rules.

VAT relief is currently available for essential spending on museums and art galleries, provided through the VAT Refund Scheme.

This scheme allows museums and galleries to reclaim VAT on goods and services that is used to provided free public access and services.

Campaigners argue that the same criteria should be applied to community buildings, run by volunteers, used for the purpose of providing free services to the public.

The motion was ultimately carried by a majority at Bolton Council.

Leader Cllr Akhtar Zaman will now be writing to the chancellor John Healey, housing secretary Angela Raynor and Bolton’s three MPs asking them to support the campaign.

Bolton Council leader Cllr Akhtar Zaman (Image: Phil Taylor)

But Labour’s Cllr Zaman said he was disappointed that it was not supported by town hall’s Green Party group.

He said: “I’m pleased that the majority of councillors supported our motion, but am disappointed that the Green Party did not support it.

“They really need to take a good look at themselves because anything that assists in the financing of community and voluntary groups must be supported.

“I believe that due to recent policy comments from our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, we will be knocking at an open door, as he has stated his commitment to strengthening community ownership, and giving communities more power over the assets they rely on.”

But Green Party group leader Cllr Hanif Alli says his group refused to vote for the motion in protest against Labour’s running of community facilities.

He said: “Let us be absolutely clear, Bolton’s Green Party Councillors did not vote against support for community centres.

Green Party group leader Cllr Hanif Alli (Image: Newsquest)

“We abstained in protest to the hypocrisy of this Labour run council who denies locally formed community coalitions a fair opportunity, as in the case of Cobden Community Centre, to bid for and run closed down youth and community buildings in favour of giving them to corporate bodies.

“Any suggestion that we voted against VAT relief or do not care about voluntary organisations is therefore misleading and inaccurate.

“We recognise that removing VAT from essential repairs could provide ‘some’ partial, valuable financial help to volunteer-led community buildings.

“Our abstention was not a rejection of that principle or of the dedicated volunteers who keep these facilities running but a cry for justice and a demand for local community led services instead of bringing big brother type organisations to impose themselves on our local communities in the guise of neutral stakeholders.

“This was a Labour motion asking their own Labour Government to change national tax policy.

Bolton is represented by three Labour MPs, while the Labour Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, is a former Mayor of Greater Manchester with longstanding links to Bolton’s Labour councillors.

“Bolton Labour Party already has direct access to their own people who have the power to make this change, and we would welcome them securing that commitment from their own Labour Government, they don’t need opposition council members’ support to deliver this.”

Cllr Alli said he believed motions are valuable but “they must not become a substitute for real action”.