The company also plans to return the money it used to support staff under the government’s furlough scheme, due to its strong trading position and the strength of the business.
The housebuilder said it had conserved cash through the crisis and had now seen a “significant opportunity to invest in land at attractive prices”.
The pandemic has caused disruption in the land market creating opportunities for housebuilders to snap up plots at bargain prices.
Land acquisition over the next 12 months will deliver completions in 2022 and beyond, when the company expects that the impact of the pandemic will have largely passed.
Housing demand remains positive
Ahead of the fundraising, Taylor Wimpey’s chief executive Pete Redfern, who invested £200,000, said: “We have built a strong and resilient business and invested in our people, processes and resources to deliver enhanced value to our stakeholders.
“We have seen robust demand for our homes throughout the lockdown period and have been encouraged by the continued resilience of the housing market as we have returned to our developments. Our order book remains strong with a healthy increase in reservations in recent weeks.”
Taylor Wimpey said there would be a “meaningful” reduction in its 2020 completions because of the disruption caused by Covid-19 but it expects demand for housing to remain positive.
It said strong demand, shortage of supply and the reduced capacity of housebuilders to build would underpin the market.
The company expects these factors to support robust sales prices and keep the price of new-build homes stable in the medium term.
