A trading update issued by the firm this morning revealed that revenues for 2016 of £3.14 billion were 8 per cent higher than the prior year (2015: £2.90bn) with legal completion volumes increasing by 599 new homes to 15,171 (2015: 14,572).

The group’s average selling price increased by 4 per cent to c. £206,700 (2015: £199,127).

Sales reservations through the autumn season were strong with healthy customer demand for new homes. The group’s private sales rate for the second half of the year was 15 per cent ahead of the prior year and second half legal completion volumes of 7,933 were 695 stronger than for the first half of the year (H1: 7,238).

Persimmon said: “We have continued to focus on disciplined high quality growth to achieve sustainable market share in our regional markets. The two new house building businesses we opened at the start of 2016 based in Perth, Scotland and Launceston, Cornwall have made good progress delivering over 650 new homes in their first year of operation.

“On 2 January 2017 we launched a further new business based in Mansfield, north of Nottingham, to support the delivery of increased volumes of new homes in this regional market. The value of our forward sales at 31 December 2016 of c. £1,230m is 12 per cent ahead of the prior year (2015: £1,103m).”

The group successfully opened 255 new development sites across the UK during the year and is building on all sites which have an implementable planning consent.

During the year it acquired c. 18,700 plots of new land in 83 locations with good deferred terms.

“We continue to see good opportunities to acquire additional land whilst remaining mindful of the risks associated with the uncertainty arising from the UK’s decision to leave the EU,” it added.

Persimmon will announce its full year results next month.