L

Lord Swire (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 12 January 2026

Debate

Heritage Craft and Building Sector

Contribution

My Lords, there are approximately 60,000 thatched properties in the United Kingdom. The great majority are in the county of Devon in which I live; in fact, I live in a thatched property. Thatch used to be a sign of poverty; it is now deemed to be a sign of wealth—I cannot quite get my head around that when you look at the levels of insurance we are obliged to pay. The problem is that 75% of thatched properties are listed properties and therefore extremely expensive to maintain. Can the Minister give some encouragement to the idea that there might be parity and that we can get rid of the anomaly between VAT on newbuild and VAT on repair once and for all? Given that there are now only about 1,000 thatchers in the country, what can the Government do to encourage that skill and to encourage better access to authentic reed and thatch to maintain and enhance an important part of our built rural heritage?

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