We asked HMRC what assessment it had made to determine who benefited from another large tax relief, the VAT relief on the construction of new dwellings. HMRC forecast that the relief cost £15 billion in 2018–19. We asked whether the relief would distinguish between the benefit of someone spending large sums of money to build a single house, compared to another spending the same amount of money to build many more houses for low-paid families. HMRC told us that this tax relief was intended to incentivise the construction of new dwellings and encourage housebuilding. It explained that it considered the test of whether this was a success to be based on whether the relief reached the intended target part of the economy rather than who benefited.