Fewer homes built by Persimmon

The group, which has its West Midlands regional office in Telford, completed 4,249 from 6,652 a year earlier.

Its new home average selling price was up from £245,597 to £256,445.

Chief executive Dean Finch said: "Against a backdrop of higher mortgage rates, the removal of Help to Buy and significant market uncertainty, Persimmon has delivered a robust sales rate excluding bulk sales whilst growing the private average selling price in our forward order book and also securing cost savings. We are on track to deliver profit expectations for the year and are building a platform for future growth.

"Our private sales rate has remained broadly consistent throughout the period resulting in a private forward order book that is now 83 per cent higher than it was at the beginning of the year, despite controlled use of sales incentives and limited recourse to investor deals. Our pricing overall has remained resilient with continued positive momentum in the forward order book. However, the reduced volumes in the first half of the year has negatively affected our operating margins as we predicted earlier in the year. As we look forward, we expect increasing completions to result in improving operating margins."

Group revenue for the six months to the end of June was down from £1.69 billion to £1.19bn with pre-tax profit dropping from £439.7 million to £151m.

Mr Finch added: "We have been proactive in managing our cost base however, this has been done without losing our focus on quality. We were delighted to retain a five-star customer service rating in the period and have made very pleasing progress in our Trustpilot scores. The group's national network of outlets providing high quality products at a range of attractive prices and an improved brand reputation are crucial strengths in this market.

"We have maintained targeted investment in exceptional new land opportunities and enhanced key capabilities to deliver high quality homes for customers consistently."