Finance Bill

I was motivated to highlight this particular area because of the importance of the voluntary sector in my constituency. I suppose that I am not at all alone in having a vibrant and important sector in my constituency. We constantly hear of the good work of the charitable sector from hon. Members from all parts of the House. We hear of the good work of the charitable sector from the Prime Minister in particular. He spent much time before the general election talking about the big society and how he would want to extend the work of the voluntary and charitable sector if he had the opportunity to move into government. It was therefore with profound distress—but no little surprise—that when the Budget came, I saw the VAT rise that inevitably follows the election of a Conservative Government. Of course, that rise affects the charities in our constituencies. I want to talk about two of them briefly in the context of the amendments. The first is called Chariotts, a charity in the Wrexham constituency that transports individuals who have disabilities. To put it simply, those individuals pay the fares, and the effect of the VAT increase on that charity is that, as it is becoming registrable for VAT, it will have to charge VAT to its clients. Those individuals, who receive disability benefits, will be asked to pay more to obtain the same service from the charity. That is causing the charity some distress and I have spoken to its representatives about the issue.