Positive Redrow results but housing crisis remains

Redrow chairman Steve Morgan, said on the  results for the full year to 30 June: “Redrow has continued to build much-needed new homes across England and Wales with completions up 15% to over 5,400. Pre-tax profits were £315m, up 26% on the prior year, with a 27% increase in earnings per share to 70.2p.”

He added: “Redrow began the current financial year with a record order book, up 14% year on year to £1.1bn. Sales in the first nine weeks are very encouraging, up 8% on a strong comparator last year. Based on the strength of our current performance and the robust demand that we are seeing, we are today updating our medium term guidance. We now expect turnover in 2020 of around £2.2bn and pre-tax profit of around £430m. We expect the dividend in 2020 to rise to 32p per share.”

While the results were positive and augur well for a raft of results from UK house builders expected over the coming weeks, some were less pleased by the pace of housebuilding.

Anthony Rushworth, founder of housebuilding investment platform Homegrown, commented: “This is welcome growth that has been fuelled by healthy demand but if we are to solve the housing crisis, the UK is still significantly off the pace.”