Experts call for scrap of VAT on building refurbishments

New-build projects are not liable to pay VAT, which can provide developers an incentive to demolish existing buildings.

Dr Will Hawkins, lecturer in Bath’s Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering and a member of the UK FIRES consortium, said: “We need a new approach to construction, where the creative re-use and adaptation of existing buildings is the default option, or even incentivised. A first step would be removing VAT on building refurbishment, which is already zero on new buildings – this would remove the disincentive to reuse perfectly good existing buildings and help us to create a more circular economy with less waste and emissions.

“Producing materials to make new buildings releases huge amounts of CO2 and depletes natural resources. All too often, perfectly safe structures are demolished to make way for new developments, and this also creates considerable unnecessary waste.”

Professor Tim Ibell, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & Design at Bath, and a member of the UK FIRES consortium and the Institution of Structural Engineers Climate Emergency Task Group, said that choices on construction need to be placed in stark terms to change thinking within the industry.