![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/09c8cffb261a804220c2e8122685ce4aa7be530e1e4919f1a918ed5b05bc12ff.webp\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPersimmon projected 12,500 completions in the full year, reaching the top end of guidance.<\/p>\n
But other companies are struggling, facing unique problems alongside the market pressures. Vistry Group said last month it expects to report a loss before tax of roughly \u00a330 million for the first half, after \u201ccash generation actions\u201d such as price discounts, accelerated asset sales and impairments on certain sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vistry has already issued a number of profit warnings linked to underestimating build costs, while its CEO and chief financial officer have recently departed. Investors are awaiting new CEO Adam Daniels\u2019 review at the end of September. In the meantime credit insurer Allianz Trade limited the cover it provides to Vistry\u2019s suppliers, according to the Financial Times.<\/p>\n
Cash crunch<\/p>\n
For many trying to get onto the property ladder, collecting together enough cash for a deposit remains an enormous barrier. Previously, the government offered help with part of their deposit under the Help to Buy programme, which ended in 2022.<\/p>\n
Bellway called for \u201can immediate reduction in stamp duty alongside a government-backed deposit support scheme for first-time buyers\u201d to ease affordability constraints and in turn help to deliver homes. This is \u201cperhaps a case of if you don\u2019t ask, you don\u2019t get\u201d, RBC Capital analyst Anthony Codling wrote in a note.<\/p>\n
A review is ongoing in Burnham\u2019s government to assess bringing back the scheme, although no decision has been made. The new prime minister spoke last month of the \u201chousing trap\u201d facing Britons, though focused mainly on the need for more council houses.<\/p>\n
War impact<\/p>\n
The US administration\u2019s decision to attack Iran has exacerbated the affordability crunch for consumers. There has been a \u201cmoderation in customer demand since April in response to the rise in mortgage rates\u201d, Bellway said in its trading update in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cost of building houses has also vastly increased in recent years. The associated costs per house have jumped by \u00a376,000 since 2020 as labour and material costs rose with inflation and regulatory pressures also rose, according to the Home Builders Federation.<\/p>\n
The majority of the listed housebuilders anticipate build cost inflation of between 3 and 4 per cent for the remainder of the financial year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, while the war is clearly driving inflation concerns, its long-term impact remains overshadowed by domestic factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe erratic course of the Middle East conflict will also have a bearing on demand as borrowing costs fluctuate but second-round inflationary pressures have so far appeared manageable,\u201d said Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Red tape<\/p>\n
For many trying to build at scale in the UK, planning has become an aggravating hurdle. Following a battle over a residential development in the South London neighborhood Peckham, Berkeley Group chairman Rob Perrins suggested that the capital was no longer a viable place to build.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why developers, including Berkeley, can no longer invest in new London sites and the housing crisis continues to deepen,\u201d he said, after the proposal had been rejected for the second time over the proportion of social housing within the development.<\/p>\n
That sentiment is echoed across the sector. \u201cThe planning system has become more complex in the last 10 years,\u201d said Anthony Vigor, group director of strategic partnerships at Persimmon. \u201cA lot of the planning reform has been very welcome \u2013 national planning reform \u2013 but there hasn\u2019t been enough change on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government is beginning to recognise the issue, Vigor said. Officials now need to work out \u201chow do they cut through and actually get stuff onto site, not just through a planning committee\u201d. BLOOMBERG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[LONDON] Andy Burnham is the latest UK leader to call for many more homes to be built \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7786,5962,43666,154,5,6],"class_list":["post-103980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-andy-burnham","tag-construction","tag-homebuilding-cost","tag-housing","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117098372716273224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}