Aimée L Felton 2012

50 FIVE listed building or scheduled ancient monument consent, or has ecclesiastical exemption, whilst ‘routine repair work’ requires full VAT payment. Works of repair (or maintenance), inclusive or incidental works are specifically excluded in the Act. This places a greater financial burden upon the owners of historic buildings to maintain the importance of the current and future cultural significance of the building. TIn November 2004, the Select Committee Report (Kindred, B. 2006 as cited in Shacklock,V. 2006:p60) pronounced that there was ‘no compelling evidence that the absence of a reduced VAT rate on repairs significantly hinders the maintenance of historic buildings’.Whilst the iniquitous and pernicious nature of VAT has been blamed for the disinterest of many historic building owners towards maintenance, especially by conservation academics (Murphy,M. 2007, UWE. 2003, Pickard, R and Pickerill, T. 2002 and 2002a), it is to be noted that parliament have had the opportunity to impose a duty of care on owners to keep their buildings in good repair since William Morris’s dictum of duty of care in the 19th century. It could be argued that this resistance is the most damaging influence of government fiscal policy. The failure to do so simply reinforces the poor legislative framework within the UK (ibid. 2006:p59) to support the continuation and future of historic buildings outside of national body ownership and the predominant attitude towards maintenance outside of the conservation profession. Chapter Five- Statutory and Policy Aimee Felton