Chancellor Gordon Brown brought in 150% tax relief last year to give developers – increasingly including housing associations – a financial incentive to build on wasteland sites.
But, Smith & Williamson said, many housing associations are letting the opportunity slip through their fingers because they are unaware of the details.
Francesca Lagerberg, the firm's national tax director, said: "This is because legislation gets pumped at [housing associations] all the time and I don't think they have realised it is applicable to them."
She explained that eligible land included former industrial sites, as well as less obvious areas where harm is being caused or there is a possibility of harm.
The definition of "harm", as far as the Inland Revenue is concerned, is "reasonably wide", she said. It would often include land earmarked for social housing because this "doesn't tend to be the best land".
However, National Housing Federation policy officer Aaron Cahill said the issue was more complex than that.
If we see more housing associations acting as developers, I wouldn’t be surprised if more took advantage of the legislation
Aaron Cahill, NHF policy officer
He said the trend for housing associations to work as developers, rather than just social housing partners, was very recent and so there had simply not been that many in a position to take advantage of the new tax incentive.
"If we see an increased trend of housing associations buying brownfield sites and acting as lead developer, then I wouldn't be surprised if there were more taking advantage of the legislation.
"But the important thing to remember is that a tax credit is not a grant.
"You have to spend before you get something back," he said.
A registered social landlord who spoke to Housing Today was more openly critical, saying: "Logically, 150% would sound like an attractive deal, but there are bound to be catches to this that mean it is just a bloody nonsense."
Source
Housing Today
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