January 12, 2009
Housebuilders get £500m tax boost
UK House-builders suffering from the current downturn in the uk property market have been thrown a £500m lifeline courtesy of the tax man. UK developers are expected to receive huge rebates following substantial losses run up in the last 12-18 months.
The government is expected to announce a loan guarantee scheme to the majority of small loans made to UK businesses later this week.
Revenue & Customs have recently speeded up the repayment of rebates to help the floundering construction industry. Persimmon, the UK's largest house-builder, were the first to receive a £150m rebate following write-downs in the region of £640m. Other UK developers are seen to get rebates over the next few months.
Analysts have warned that rebates are not calculated solely on the figure of the land write-down, where losses are calculated dependant on the original price the land was bought for.
The UK mortgage market is still proving difficult despite recent interest rates cuts.
