Announcing its half-year results for the six months ended 30 June 2022, Persimmon said it is still on track to achieve 14,500 to 15,000 legal completions this year.

With the drop in completions, group revenue fell 8% to £1.69 billion against 2021’s half year. Pre-tax profit decreased 8.4% to £439.7m.

The business is set to increase its active outlets by 10% by the year-end, opening 60 in the first half. Around 70 are forecast to open in the second half, although Persimmon noted its ongoing planning delays as a risk. It is rebuilding its outlets after a pause on land buying three years ago.

But its guidance for full-year legal completions remained intact, it said. It had some exciting new sites approaching at “industry-leading” margins. It also said it had expanded production in its own brick tile and timber frame factories – during the half year, 35% of the homes delivered used timber frames.

Dean Finch, group chief executive, said: “Persimmon continues to perform well. We are making important progress in quality, service, land investment opportunities and efficiencies to build an even stronger business, while continuing to deliver the strong financial returns that Persimmon is renowned for. Demand for our attractively priced, high quality homes has remained robust, with our average private sales rates for the period being c.1% ahead year on year. Our customer satisfaction score3 is currently 92%. We have some exciting new sites coming into the business at industry-leading margins, with a land replacement rate for the period of over 130% and expanded production in our own brick, tile and timber frame factories, is further enhancing our supply resilience and cost efficiency, enabling us to re-iterate our guidance of 14,500 – 15,000 legal completions for the full year.

”We are on track to achieve a c.10% increase in our active outlets by the end of the current year as we work to rebuild our outlet position after a land buying pause three years ago and are tackling the on-going challenges in the planning system. We are stepping up proactive engagement with local authorities, enhancing our approach to developing attractive communities and raising the bar on design to help mitigate planning challenges. We continue to expect our volume delivery to be significantly higher in the second half of the year.

“Our combination of compelling affordability and high levels of service and build quality, coupled with our well-located sites provides a uniquely strong and sustainable customer proposition. It is by strengthening this proposition further that we will achieve our ambition of becoming Britain’s best homebuilder for both customers and shareholders, consistently delivering high quality homes, excellent customer service and industry-leading financial returns.”