Bishop welcomes law to scrap Rain Tax

Bishop welcomes law to scrap Rain Tax


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Published: 28 September 2009

Following today’s announcement by the Government that it intends to use law to scrap the Rain Tax, the Bishop of Middleton, the Rt Revd Mark Davies, said; “We're delighted the government has announced it is going to intervene to stop Ofwat's rain tax and introduce a sensible social water charging regime. This announcement will be welcomed by all community groups across England and Wales who have been frustrated by Ofwat's failure to understand the damage and financial hardship their policies were causing to charities, churches, clubs and groups.”

In a joint statement the Church of England, Scout Association, Football Association, Lawn Tennis Association, and the Rugby Football Union Said; “We will be seeking assurances from all of the main political parties for wide ranging cross party support to make sure these measures become law in the Floods and Water Bill to protect community and voluntary groups which are the life blood of many communities.”

Speaking at the Labour Party Conference, Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, said: "Some churches, sports clubs and youth organisations have been hit by huge and unaffordable increases in their water bills for surface drainage. It isn't right. We will legislate to allow water companies to run concessionary schemes for these organisations so they can get on with doing a great job instead of worrying about unaffordable bills."

Alan Cooper, Chairman of the Manchester Board of Finance, who has been active in the campaign said: “I am delighted. The rain may fall but we feel we can deal with it. All we asked for was fairness our parishes can breathe a little easier today.”

18 year Scout leader Nancy Ibrahim said: “Its great news to find out that the Minister has kept his promise to Scouting to stop the rain tax. We were really worried about where we were going to find the money to pay these charges and the cuts this would mean for our activities as a result.”

Chris Lilley, Treasurer of Penrith Rugby Club said: “we fully welcome the news that DEFRA have recognised the contribution that sports clubs make to both their local communities and the health of all participants in sporting activities through this announcement which will remove one of the main financial concerns that we have”

General Synod member Martin Dales said: "With over 16,000 places of worship Church of England parishes and cathedrals were facing an annual bill of several million pounds. Today's announcement is very good news. We look forward to the early implementation of what has been promised." 

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, 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 received industrial sized bills, matching them with similar sized businesses. The formula used to calculate the rain tax means some surprising comparisons were 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 local department stores

MacDonalds 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

The ‘rain tax’ was 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 were expecting to see their bills rise from £140 to £8,000 and Cathedrals from £5,000 to £71,000 a year.

The total annual cost to the not-for-profit sector of churches, charities and clubs was believed to be over £100 million a year.

In January 2009, the Bishop of Middleton revealed the www.DontDrainUs.org campaign poster, at the time 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.”


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