Persimmon stutters as volumes fall

Home builder Persimmon said sales volumes fell 6% over the first half of the financial year.

But it said that in the summer the group had seen the usual pick-up in customer activity.

Dave Jenkinson, chief executive, said: “Persimmon’s top priority is the delivery of higher levels of quality and customer service through the implementation of its detailed customer care improvement plan.

“Central to this plan is putting customers before volume, with sales volumes in the first half of the year being 6% lower than last year, together with making significant additional investments in both our annual customer care resources, by around £15m each year, and in the level of the group’s work in progress, which amounted to around £140m at 30 June 2019.”