Page 134 - MJC submissions

f 'r.JJt p�, .,�.use Houses built
Barnitt'
2007 ----£24,918 17,168
2012 BIii £7,913 12,367
2018 -------■ £47,528 17,579
Taylor Wim e
p y
2007* 1111 1111 £29,407 20,690
2012 £16,931 10,944
2018 £54,709 14,842
Persimmon
2007 £36,787 15,905
2012 £22,114 9,903
2018 £60,219 16,043
Redrow
2007 £24,984 -4,823
2012 £17,493 Ill 2,458
2018 £64,265 - 5,913
Bellway
2007 £30,741 9,644
2012 £20,149 -5,226
2018 £58,139 -7,638

However, analysts believe that a large driver of profits is the
government's Help to Buy scheme, which supports about 40 per
cent of house builders' sales. Robin Hardy, an analyst at Shore
Capital, believes that housebuilders would be making £22,000
less in profit on each house built for first-time buyers if Help to

Buy was not in place. "We reckon that homes sold through Help
to Buy are 53 per cent higher than in June 2013, whereas house
price figures from Land Registry or Nationwide suggest that
across all first homes it's more like 19 per cent," he said. "That
suggests that someone is gaming the system."

Neal Hudson, a housing expert at Resi Analysts, said that
shareholders had become "the main priority" for housebuilders

since the financial crash. "The over-arching factor has been big
pressure from the City," he said. "The priority for them is profit
margin not the number of homes built."

Persimmon, Britain's second-largest housebuilder, made an
average profit of just over £60,000 on each house it built in
2017. In 2007 the figure was £36,787. It built only 138 more

homes.

The housebuilder made pre-tax profits of £966 million in 2017
and has a war chest in net cash of £1.3 billion. Jeff Fairburn, its
chief executive, was paid £75 million in a bonus scheme last
year, which was more than the highest paid banking executives
on Wall Street.

Lord Best, vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group
on housing, said: "These bumper profits come at a time of

growing recognition of the catalogue of failings of major
housebuilders: poor design, miserable space standards,