Is the heritage sector adapting to reuse?

摘要

Historic England made headlines this week by joining calls from the AJ and others for VAT on retrofit and revamp work to be slashed. In an unexpected move, the government's heritage watchdog and adviser has called forthe tax on refurbishment, currently levied at 20 per cent, to be reduced just weeks before new chancellor Rishi Sunak announces his 2020 budget. The surprise plea to the government, echoing one plank of the AJ's RetroFirst campaign, was announced alongside 'game-changing' new research published by Historic England into the embodied carbon of the nation's built heritage. The study, There's no place like old homes: reuse and recycle to reduce carbon, forms part of the organisation's wider drive to end the 'fastfashion for buildings' and to encourage retrofitting of existing stock instead. Drawn up for key stakeholder group the Historic Environment Forum, the document includes a wealth of hard-to-ignore data that Historic England says must become a key factor in decision-making if the government is to meet its target of being carbon neutral by 2050.