"The sector would be better off without a national grant rate calculator. Discuss."
That might be a suitable question for the Housing Corporation. Research published by the National Housing Federation this week suggests that a number of schemes require increasingly high levels of subsidy.

If this trend continues it would become impossible to proceed with some schemes, notably those that are £10,000 or more per home adrift. Not, of course, that there is any suggestion that the homes themselves are unnecessary. And it would be a brave regulator that disputed an RSL's local knowledge on where they should be built.

There have long been arguments over whether the total cost indicators, part of the calculator, impede development in areas with high land values. Can any regional, let alone national, financial model be sensitive enough to take account of wide variations in local costs?

Breaking down the calculator to lower levels, as some suggest, would be fearsomely complicated. But at least it would not impede the provision of homes.

Source

Housing Today