Housing magazine calls for golf courses to be closed down and built on 0
A leading equities analyst has written an article for Property Week calling for authorities to dig up golf courses in a bid to solve the UK’s housing shortage crisis.
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Posts From Alistair Dunsmuir
History made as HMRC agrees to pay VAT back to private golf clubs 36
After several years of legal wrangling, HMRC has agreed to make substantial payments to hundreds of private members’ golf clubs for overpaid VAT by April.
Golf club managers vent fury over loss of Open coverage 5
Several golf clubs and their managers have expressed their anger that the Open Championship will not be shown live on terrestrial television from 2017.
HMRC set to argue that VAT payments to golf clubs must be substantially reduced 11
EXCLUSIVE: HMRC is set to argue that the amount it is due to pay private members’ golf clubs back in overpaid VAT should be reduced by at least half.
Mainstream media reveals golf’s shortcomings 8
Two of the UK’s biggest media outlets, the BBC & The Telegraph, have both published articles identifying the problems golf is facing and offering solutions.
The golf industry is now in a ‘precarious position’ 10
England Golf has warned that the industry is now in a ‘precarious position’ after its major survey revealed that club membership is still in sharp decline.
See the 21 golf clubs put up for sale in the UK 19
At least an astonishing 16 golf clubs, most worth millions, have been put up for sale in the UK in the last 13 weeks. We take a look at all of them.
Vivien Saunders to stand as an MP 5
AGCO chair, former British Open champion and campaigner for tax reform in golf, Vivien Saunders, is set to stand as an MP at the 2015 General Election.
Golf clubs’ fury over new VAT repayment delay 3
Hundreds of private members’ golf clubs are now almost certainly not going to receive any VAT repayments this year following a new tax chamber ruling.
Two major golf clubs to close down ‘next month’ 6
Taunton Vale GC and Lostwithiel Golf & Country Club are both set to permanently close down this November, in a sign the industry is still in severe trouble.
This is Britain’s youngest golf club manager 4
Britain’s youngest golf club manager is a 23-year-old woman called Ellie Green, research by Golf Club Management can reveal.
England Golf launches its plan to save golf 6
England Golf has launched its far-reaching plan to stop the decline in golf – and in doing so reveals that English golf clubs have lost more than 200,000 members in the last decade.
You will probably think that golf’s latest plan to get new people playing has a few holes in it 11
A golf organisation that is backed by players, equipment manufacturers and industry leaders has devised a radical way to halt the decline in golf: Make the holes bigger. More than three times bigger.
CEO Mike Round leaves the Golf Foundation for the LET 3
Mike Round, CEO of the Golf Foundation since 2000, is to leave the the junior golf charity and join the Ladies European Tour (LET) as a director.
HMRC finally accepts VAT ruling – but says it will restrict payments to members’ golf clubs 20
HMRC has finally accepted a 2013 European Union ruling that green fees at private members’ golf clubs must be exempt from VAT – but the clubs in question will be far from happy.
‘Ayatollah’ golf case: All clubs told to implement anti-bullying measures following ‘saucy scandal’ 3
A golf club has been rebuked by a judge for displaying ‘amazing ignorance and a total misunderstanding of bullying’ after it rejected a claim because the lady in question had not been physically hurt.
AGCO makes application to throw out EU VAT rebate ruling 26
The Association of Golf Course Owners has applied to provide data that the ruling that VAT must not be applied to green fees was based on flawed evidence.
Clubs unhappy with HMRC’s ‘delaying tactics’ re VAT rebate 6
Many clubs are angry that HMRC has not yet processed claims for a VAT rebate on green fees, as KPMG calls for members’ clubs to now treat green fees as exempt from VAT.
Almost all golfers under 35 now use social media 7
The vast majority of golfers now use at least one of the major social networking sites and, for the first time, the majority now own a smartphone.
Who is to blame for the municipal golf courses slump? 4
The National Association of Public Golf Courses has said it is clear who is to blame for the now astonishing deterioration in municipal golf courses.
This man has become the first ever deaf-before-he-could-speak person to be named captain of a British golf club 11
Ellesmere Port Golf Club in Cheshire’s has appointed a pre-lingual deaf person to be its captain – the first time this has happened in British history.
This golf club has done something amazing for local wildlife 4
Boston West Golf Club in Lincolnshire has won two conservation awards in the last year for creating a ‘mini nature reserve’.
Golf sees global boom in female participation… with one exception 7
The game of golf is seeing a boom in the number of women playing it around the world – with the one notable exception being the UK.
Full extent of flooding damage revealed 2
The full extent of the damage and the recovery of the flooding that devastated several golf courses throughout the British Isles this winter is now beginning to emerge.
American course goes ‘ball-less’ 5
A golf course in the USA has become the first club in the world to go ‘ball-less’ – golfers play usual rounds on its course but hit a virtual ball rather than a physical one.
EGP loses £500,000 of public funding 9
The England Golf Partnership is to lose £500,000 of public funding because not enough people aged 26 and over have taken up golf in the last year.
Golfers set to fail if they sue clubs over VAT 2
Golfers are unlikely to be successful if they take action against golf clubs for not paying them back the overpaid VAT they paid, one of the UK’s leading tax experts has said.
