Savings of £2.8m for Midlands Acute Trust

Following a regular strategy meeting with Liaison Financial, we reviewed copies of the relevant contracts and began investigating the nature of the various supplies, as well as the activities to be carried out within the hospital. The Trust and their cost advisors had made some assumptions around VAT recovery where upon further investigation, VAT recovery was unlikely. Additionally, there were opportunities for VAT recovery that we identified that had not previously been considered. Our approach was therefore two-fold to address both aspects above and help the Trust proactively to secure as much legitimate VAT recovery as possible.

Following several meetings, Liaison Financial carried out a strategic restructuring of the procurement process for the hospital. This protected some of the VAT recovery assumptions that the Trust had made on design fees. Consideration was also given to strategic aspects of the building such as option to tax, business activity input VAT and subsequent capital goods scheme adjustments that would be required in future years. Activities such as car parking, retail outlets and hospital restaurant were considered, investigated and reported to the Trust. Via financial modelling, the Liaison Financial advisor was able to demonstrate the implications in each case, and the implications both from a capital and revenue perspective on the project.