Earlier this week Redrow reported that the company is making “good progress” as a result of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme. Private reservations for the financial year to date are up 52% at 1,400 homes, with Help to Buy reservations representing 35% of total private sales over the period. The average selling price of private reservations is 11% up on the same period last year, at £271,000.
Redrow reported that they have increased their current land bank, (land with a planning permission) both owned and contracted, by 2,000 plots to just over 15,000 plots in total – well over five years supply, based on their 2012 total completions.
Despite this, Redrow used the interim management statement as yet another opportunity to lobby for a further relaxation in planning regulations and conditions. Whilst acknowledging that the growth in the company’s land bank over the last two years had been helped by the changes in the planning system, brought about by the NPPF, Redrow stated that over 5,000 plots are,
“in the planning system awaiting reserved matters approval or clearance of pre-start conditions. The regulatory burden involved in obtaining detailed permission and clearing conditions is the biggest constraint to the industry increasing production.”
