Victory in Mountain Rescue VAT campaign
By Tim Farron MP - President of the Liberal Democrats
Tim Farron MP, President of the Liberal Democrats writes:
"One of my longest running campaigns is the one to make sure that our hard working mountain rescue teams have their VAT refunded. In the last 24 hours we have had a major development that I wanted to share with you.
Currently our Mountain Rescue teams have to pay VAT on the equipment that they use to rescue people and save lives. I have always thought this is totally wrong. To me they are the 4th emergency service. During the 2009 floods they were there helping people evacuate their homes, during the cold snap they supported the Ambulance Service and ferried people to hospital who lived in isolated areas that were hard to reach - and all that is alongside their day-to-day work rescuing people from the fells that the Lake District is so famous for.
Because of all this and the countless other stories of our Mountain Rescue teams going above and beyond the call of duty for people, I ensured that the Lib Dems had a manifesto pledge to refund VAT to mountain rescue teams during last year's General Election. Since May I have been pushing the government to live up to that commitment. Yesterday at Treasury questions in the House of Commons I asked when we would deliver on that promise. The great news is that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said money had now been set aside by the government to cover the cost of the tax relief.
He said in reply to my question: "In the spending review we've allocated funds for this purpose to help support mountain rescue teams with the additional costs of equipment."
A formal announcement is expected in the Budget speech on 23 March, but I just wanted to tell you in advance that our campaigning looks to have paid off.
Finally I just want to take the opportunity to pay tribute to the nearly 500 volunteers in Cumbria's Mountain Rescue teams - they give up so much to help others. They are volunteers doing an outstanding job to a professional standard. I am glad in a small way our campaign means that we can give something back to them.