Historic synagogues in the UK face “disaster” over a potential Labour tax raid next year, shuls have told the JC.
The government has refused to say whether it will renew a tax relief scheme that exempts listed buildings used as places of worship from paying 20 per cent VAT on restoration work.
The Board of Deputies has written to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy requesting urgent clarification and requesting that the scheme is not dropped.
Synagogues have said that there will be “devastating” consequences for their ability to fund other community projects and continue to carry out expensive repairs if the Listed Places of Worship (LPW) Grant Scheme expires on March 31.
Henry Freedman, the finance director of Sandys Row Synagogue, a Grade II-listed building and the oldest surviving Ashkenazi synagogue in London, said an end to the grant would damage their ability to maintain the building, whose maintenance has cost hundreds of thousands of pounds over the past 15 years.
“It’s devastating. When carrying out this kind of work, one of the most important factors for us was being able to reclaim VAT. A building such as ours, which is over 250 years old, requires constant maintenance,” Freedman said.
“In the last 18 months alone, we have spent in excess of £100,000 to refurbish the toilets, kitchen and other interior parts, and that amount of money took us a long time, several years, to raise.
“We fundraise all the time as it is, but now we will have to raise more money on top of it all due to unforeseen renovation costs.”
London’s Grade I-listed New West End Synagogue, which will be carrying out multi-million pound repairs in 2025, said that a failure to renew the tax scheme could add £1 million to the bill – a cost that would take money away from “other projects benefitting the Jewish community”.
The New West End Synagogue in Bayswater, West London (Credit: Leon Neal/AFP via Getty Images)
The Board urged Nandy to renew the tax scheme for a further three years, saying in its letter that the move would “greatly benefit those who maintain our historic synagogues, such as Bevis Marks, the Grade I-listed oldest synagogue in the UK, whose recent restoration was supported by this relief”.
A motion to renew the LPW scheme had, at the time the JC went to press, received the support of 15 MPs. The motion’s text claims the scheme has for 24 years been a “vital lifeline” to faith communities throughout the UK and “the most universal and accessible source of relief for congregations of all faiths.”
Sandys Row Synagogue (Credit: Instagram)
It calls on the current government to ensure the “renewal of the scheme as a matter of urgency.” Michael Mail, the founder of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, warned of “potentially disastrous” consequences should the VAT recovery scheme no longer be made available.
He said: “Saving 20 per cent on expenditure is never a small sum when we’re talking about carrying out works on historic buildings, which are often far more complex and costly than normal buildings.
“Each project is very different, and expenditure varies, but restoring the work from a different century requires a high degree of expertise. It requires specific materials, specialists to come in.”
Some synagogues, he said, especially those smaller and independent, do not have the capital to invest, and the problems are only getting worse with time. “It would be a considerable blow to renovation efforts going forward and to the heritage sector as a whole should VAT exemption not be offered, [so] the heritage sector is awaiting the government’s decision on the matter with bated breath,” he said.
Dr Sharman Kadish, who was active in Jewish heritage preservation for over 30 years, said VAT exemption on repairs had been the “bedrock” of the buildings conservation cause.
The scheme has paid out over £317 million towards the maintenance of 13,000 buildings – mainly churches but also shuls, Hindu Temples and mosques – since its inception in 2001.
New West End Synagogue (Photo of New West End Synagogue, Getty Images)
One of the most complex, extensive and costly repair jobs to be carried out in the near future will be to the Grade I-listed New West End Synagogue next to Kensington Gardens. Costs could exceed £5 million – meaning VAT exemption could easily amount to £1 million.
United Synagogue’s Director of Property, Lali Virdee, said their team is in the process of working on several projects and finalising details of design packages for the 2-3 buildings, which will be ready during 2025.
He told the JC: “In particular a couple of years ago, we identified the New West End Synagogue building’s upper roof as nearing the end of its life, along with spoiling brickwork, crumbling turrets, and poor conditions in the building’s lead and copper work.
“There is also a need to reengineer the rainwater discharge system as we found the building unable to get rid of it all efficiently. Internally, too, there’s many years of water damage to the plaster work and to some of the building’s ornate details.”
Virdee said the repair work must be carried out in the short term, because “as things continue to deteriorate more and more over time, so does the cost as prices continue to rise.”
Through LPW, United Synagogue has successfully been able to reclaim “many, many thousands” of pounds back for each restoration project carried out on listed buildings. The New West End project, if funding is identified and it proceeds, will involve a professional team of architects, specialists and cost consultants, and will be one of the US’s largest listed building projects in many years.
“The grant scheme helps us invariably, whether we spend 10k, 100k, or a million, it is still 20 per cent, so it’s a significant sums of money we’re talking about, which could otherwise go towards projects benefitting the Jewish community elsewhere,” he said. “For New West End, that could be several hundreds of thousands of pounds we don’t have to raise, or, if we do raise it, we can invest it in other properties and projects that require works.”
Exeter Synagogue
Sandys Row Synagogue has in the past 15 years raised and spent over £750,000 on the building.
Finance director Freedman said: “If the VAT exemption scheme is no longer available to us, it will affect us dramatically. Raising money is very hard in this day and age,” he said.
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said: “We are in the process of finalising programme funding following the budget and will announce decisions in due course.”
