Tax rebates for builders

Battered housebuilders are looking forward to some good news. The Inland Revenue has quickened up its method of getting tax rebates back to building companies. Vast rebates are expected to be paid out to them over the coming weeks and months because of the disastrous losses so many of them have run up as a consequence of the Great Crash.

It’s not just the brake on building that’s hit them. They’ve also been clobbered by having to write down the value of their land reserves. Housebuilder Persimmon had a £150 million rebate last week after writing down its land reserves by more than £600 million.

Builders want the rebates quickly as some are in danger of breaking their banking convenants. It’s been reported Taylor Wimpey – with £1.9 billion worth of debt and engaged in urgent talks with its bankers – hopes to get a rebate of more than £90 million.

The worst building slump in thirty years has brought a number of household names to the edge of the precipice. Share prices have collapsed as projects have dried up. Big names such as Bellway, Barratt, Bovis and Redway are looking for big rebates and want them to be paid swiftly. Two years ago the government raked in a fortune from booming housebuilders. Today government coffers will be light by half a billion pounds in rebates.