>

Come 4th January, VAT will be at 20%. But will this make a difference?

When VAT fell to 15% just before the start of 2009, the Government thought that it would give the buying public the nudge to start spending a little more. In reality we found that it made hardly any difference. All it did was make paperwork more difficult when it rose back up to 17.5%. It didn’t create a surge in sales, or a spike in new appointments.

And when you turn it into numbers, and extra 2.5% less is only ÂŁ25 every thousand. It’s not going to make much difference on a house full of windows and doors.

So what about the 20% VAT figure. Again I don’t think it will have too much of a negative impact on the buying public. Adding another ÂŁ25 every thousand isn’t going to put Mr & Mrs Smith buying that big item, be it holidays, new windows or a new car. What I do think will happen is it will bring the Yorkshire out of everyone. No one likes parting with any more money than they have to. There could be a bit of a rush before the end of the year to replace people’s windows and doors before the VAT rate goes up. It’s only another ÂŁ25, but when money is tight and everyone is being as economical with their money as they can, it’s an extra bit of cash they won’t want to give away.