Cycle to Work Scheme Approved

After months of persistent campaigning by Barry Maguire and David Linsey, the NHSBT has now signed up to the 'Cycle to Work' scheme. This is the arrangement that allows you to get a loan of up to £1000 for a new bicycle and accessories and pay this loan back through salary sacrifice. This means that you pay the loan back from your gross salary and you save on income tax, national insurance and pension contributions. For a standard rate taxpayer, you can save nearly 40% of the cost of the new bicycle and accessories. This compares very favourably with the current loan scheme which will save you around 0.5% over the period of the loan.

Due to the length of the tendering process, the scheme won't be up and running until April 2010. This is a positive step by the NHSBT but it is only a start. To wean staff off their cars, the facilities offered to cyclists and walkers need to be improved with proper changing rooms and showers at all bases and centres. While we often say that donors expect higher standards at our venues, it is equally right that staff should expect higher standards at our workplaces. It is not right that staff are forced to wash and change in the toilets after they cycle to base.