Lib Dems call for Shepway residents to benefit from V.A.T. cut

8.00.00pm GMT Tue 6th Jan 2009

Shepway Lib Dem Group Leader Lynne Beaumont: full benefit of V.A.T. reduction should be passed to local taxpayers and businesses

The Liberal Democrat group on Shepway District Council have tabled a motion for the next full Council meeting on 21st January to ensure that the V.A.T. reduction from 17.5% to 15% is passed on fully to Shepway residents and service users, or where this is not possible, the windfall extra income passed to local charities or communities.

The motion, submitted by Lib Dem Group Leader Lynne Beaumont, reads:

Council notes the attempts by Central Government, to assist the residents and businesses of Shepway, by reducing V.A.T. from 17.5% to 15%. This Government measure, is part of a wider set of measures to stimulate consumer spending and mitigate the effects of the current economic downturn.

Council resolves:

1) To ensure that the full benefit of the V.A.T. reduction is passed on, in full, to local residents and businesses.

2) In situations where it is technically and/or operationally not possible to introduce this V.A.T. reduction, e.g. in automatic car parking machines, that the windfall to the local authority resulting from their charging the same price, be ring fenced, and donated to local charities or communities. By this means, the community will still benefit from the V.A.T. reduction, and it will not be lost in the overall budget.