Scrap VAT on repairs to boost small trades
I was out on a job the other day, fixing a boiler for a customer in Mapperley, and they were moaning about the cost of the repair, and I'm thinking, it's not just the parts and labour, it's the VAT on top that's killing them. This got me thinking, why are we charging VAT on repairs anyway, it's just encouraging people to buy new stuff instead of fixing what they've got.
I've been a plumber for 20 years and I've seen the industry change, more and more people are looking for cheap fixes or just replacing things instead of getting them properly repaired, and it's not just bad for business, it's bad for the environment too. If we scrapped VAT on repairs, I think we'd see a lot more people opting to fix things instead of throwing them away, and that would be a good thing.
sort out the recycling mess already
What's the point of having all these different bins if the council's just gonna send it all to the same place anyway, I mean I've seen the blokes chucking everything in one truck, so why bother. I was talking to a customer the other day, a builder, and he said the same thing happens on his sites, all the recycling gets mixed up with the rubble.
I think we should just have one bin for actual recyclables, like metal and glass, and make sure the council actually sorts it properly, not just pays some company to take it away. My wife works at a vets and they've got a decent system for recycling, maybe we could copy that, she says it's all about making it easy for people to do the right thing. I've got two apprentices and they're always asking about why we can't just make things simpler, and I reckon they're right.
What do you think?
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