The RHS calls for a reduction of VAT on ornamental plants and seeds

Inga Grimsey, RHS Director General used the Chelsea Flower Show as a platform to call for a change in VAT rates on ornamental plants and seeds.

The standard rate of 17.5% VAT is currently charged but the RHS insists that Gordon Brown treats these as 'green' goods and applies the same principal as the government do to wind turbines and solar panels.

Grimsey says “It is an anomaly that the Government makes ‘green’ provisions for building materials but not for plants. Having a garden is seen as a luxury, rather than fundamental to our lives, and what could be more essential to a sustainable future than investing in plants and trees?”

If the appeal is successful, it will mean a saving of £175m a year for gardeners in the UK.

“If every person was given the means to plant up their garden, window box or patio tubs, just imagine what could be achieved. Unless more people are encouraged to grow plants, the Britain that was once known as a nation of gardeners faces the likelihood of a bleak, brown future.”

However, my view is that the garden industry should not rely on this initiative as a way of improving trade. Recently, the HTA lobbied ministers to lengthen Sunday trading in a bid to increase takings at beleaguered garden centres.

Chasing ambulances is not an ethical way to gain trade. Garden centres should be looking at ways to improve the quality of the plants and the range they stock with better in store advice and educational resources rather than looking at artificial ways to bolster balance sheets.

Whilst the VAT reduction will initially be good news, it will not, as a single initiative, provide the long term incentives for gardeners to increase their spend.

You can add your name to the RHS VAT petition, which will help the cause.

Comments

[Richard Loader]

Not sure about this one - seems like a good way to boost Garden Centre profits but with little sales benefit.
I can imagine most retailers sticking with their usual mark-up: trade x 2.35 and pocketing the VAT savings. Also, as most items are price pointed I don't see 10% savings on the VAT being enough to drop an item by 50p or £1.
Also, this won't help wholesale nurserymen; - give them some kind of a easement on haulage costs and that would help them to compete with the Dutch boys.
I guess it might benefit domestic landscapers.........
What do the rest of you think?

[Nick Steele]

Its not going to happen is it ? Gordon Brown is in enough fionancial difficulty without giving £175m to the garden industry. Gardening is a leisure activity, and I can't see any way that the government would consider relaxing VAT on it, no matter how green its credentials. You could make an equally strong (or spurious?) case for reducing VAT on any number of other leisure goods which might encourage the nation into healthy activity. It would be the top of a slippery slope for the exchequer - don't hold your breath!

[Philip Voice]

Some good points Nick.

I have never really understood why grass seed is zero rated when veg seed isn't!?

[plants and trees]

House plants can survive both in cool and warm temperatures but drastic temperature fluctuation is not good for them. Do not place your plants near gas heating. If you plant like warm weather, do not place it near an air-conditioner during summer.