Please read ...

Listed places of worship are allowed to claim back the VAT (17.5%) on all costs incurred for repairs and maintenance to the building, professional fees and repair works to fixtures such as bells and organs. In real terms this has meant over £100 million since April 2001. Such financial support has not only helped safeguard our national heritage (churches receive no other government funding or grants), but has also ensured that cathedrals and churches across the country can continue to be vital community resources, meeting people’s spiritual, social and educational needs. From 2011 the scheme comes to an end. This will mean that many communities will struggle to keep their churches open and in good repair, thus jeopardizing the valuable service those buildings provide as well as our national heritage.

What this will mean for St. Lawrence Church is that we will face, due entirely to VAT, significant increase of costs that we will struggle to meet.

What this means for the Friends of St Lawrence is that from 2011 the money that they will raise to help preserve and enhance the fabric of the church will, to all intents and purposes, be used to help us simply pay the VAT bill and nothing else!

Please act ...

What you can do is to sign the on-line petition offered through 10 Downing Street. The petition reads: ‘We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to safeguard the nation’s heritage and vital community buildings by ensuring that the VAT exemption scheme (Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme) is renewed indefinitely from March 2011.’

You will simply be asked for your name and address to make certain that people can only sign once. There is no communication to you resulting from signing this petition!

Currently the petition has been signed by only 9,097 people. This is not enough to put pressure on the Government to renew the VAT exemption scheme.

The deadline to sign is that of 29^th of August, 2010

Petitions will reopen for signatures upon the formation of a new Government following the General Election. You can access the petition by typing in -

petitions.number10.gov.uk

Then type in VAT exemption and this will then show up the petition, which you click on to view and sign

From April the 1^st, 2011, if the VAT exemption is listed, places of worship in general and St Lawrence Church in particular will be hit very hard by increase of costs which will have a direct impact on the Friends of St. Lawrence. Please sign!