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Campaign launches |
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The Bishop of Middleton has taken part in the launch of DontDrainUs.org , a campaign which aims to permanently end the rain tax recently imposed on churches, clubs and charities. Standing shoulder to shoulder with representatives from other charities, the bishop revealed a poster accusing water companies of reducing the bills of big businesses such as Rolls Royce and then passing on the resulting £100 million a year shortfall to churches and other community premises. The rain tax, which was introduced last year by four water companies, classes all non-domestic buildings as commercial, making no distinction between factories and buildings owned by churches, charities and clubs. Ofwat, the water regulator, has defended the rain tax as fair. However, because it is calculated on the surface area and boundary area of a property, churches, clubs and charities will receive industrial sized bills, matching them with similar sized businesses. The formula used to calculate the rain tax means some surprising comparisons can be made: -Knutsford parish church would be billed more than the town’s Rolls Royce showroom -community halls holding regular jumble sales would be billed more than a Vivienne Westwood boutique -Manchester Cathedral would be billed more than the local department stores -McDonalds restaurants would pay less than some Scout groups -Liverpool Cathedral, the largest Anglican Cathedral in the world, would be billed more than United Utilities HQ in Warrington |
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Info box
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info@dontdrainus.orgHotline 0709 2847134 |
What the drain will costThe ‘rain tax’ is expected to cost the Church of England over £15 million a year, plus a further £10 million as churches employ professional services to appeal the initial bills. This is equivalent to the Church of England being permanently drained of the resources to employ 375 clergy (a loss of 10 clergy in every diocese), or being unable to support 3,000 community groups, or 7,500 pensioner lunch clubs, or the loss of 357 Church School teachers*. Larger churches will see their bills rise from £140 to £8,000 and Cathedrals will pay between £5,000 and £71,000 a year. The Scouts Association estimates the total drain from the pockets of children into the pockets of water companies to be around £1.5 million. Many small voluntary sports clubs are reporting similar increases to church bills, ranging from 100 to 1,400%, in the United Utilities region. The total annual cost to the not for profit sector of churches, charities and clubs is believed by many to be over £100 million a year. *(Estimated Church of England costs PA : clergy-£40,000 (Stipend £22,000, plus pension and NI/Housing), supporting in kind to parents and toddler groups-£5,000, support in kind to pensioners luncheon club-£2,500, average teacher salary with NI and pension-£42,000. A church in Chester Diocese recently paid £1,000 in professional fees to demonstrate no liability). |
DontDrainUs.org campaignRevealing the DontDrainUs.org campaign poster, the Bishop of Middleton, the Rt Revd Mark Davies, said, “The ‘rain tax’ is a disaster for churches, charities and clubs who will be billed at the same level as factory buildings, department stores and corporate headquarters. This will see millions of pounds drained from organisations which are often run by volunteers, which depend on donations, and which enrich every community in the country. We are sure the Government and Ofwat did not mean to allow monopoly water companies free reign to reduce the water bills of multi-million pound companies at the expense of churches, charities and clubs. But the introduction of the national rain tax has done exactly this. We hope regulations can now be brought forward to introduce fair rain water charging by water companies here in the North West of England and beyond.” |
Ofwat ignores adviceMPs have accused Ofwat, the regulatory body of the water industry, of ignoring guidance by the Government issued in 2000. The guidance to Ofwat said that the Government believed it would be ‘inappropriate to charge all non-household customers, such as places of worship, community sports facilities, charities and voluntary bodies, as if they were businesses’. Severn Trent originally excluded places of worship, hospitals and schools from the rain tax but was recently required by Ofwat to apply the charges across the board. A spokesperson for DontDrainUs.org said, “Ofwat say the rain tax is fair, despite some of the richest, premium, multi-million pound businesses paying less while some of our most vulnerable charities are asked to pay more. Ofwat has a notion of ‘fair’ which is at odds from reality, common sense and how the Government defines it. Regulators have had a bad press recently, for example, the failings of the financial regulator to manage the banking industry, we wonder if this is an example of another regulator that has lost touch with the real world.” To date United Utilities, Northumbrian Water, Yorkshire Water and Severn Trent are known to have implemented new charging regimes. Others are being encouraged by Ofwat to adopt the same approach. What the DontDrainUs.org campaign wants1. A review by the Government of the charging mechanism with serious consideration given to regulations that would introduce a charity band or the return to rateable value charging for churches, clubs and charities. 2. An investigation into why Ofwat ignored government guidelines and encouraged water companies to charge churches, clubs and charities as commercial enterprises. |
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