Taylor Woodrow first-half profit holds at 170m

Housebuilder Taylor Woodrow ran up an interim pre-tax profit of 170m, down 3% from 176m, in the first half of 2004.

Turnover was steady at 1.4bn. The group has housebuilding operations in the UK, North America and Spain.

Iain Napier, chief executive, said the UK housing market is sustained by a continuing under-supply of new housing, despite the fact the country already has the oldest housing stock in Europe.

"While demographic trends point to increases in numbers of households, the ability of our industry to meet demand is
hampered by a dysfunctional planning system that chronically fails to deliver enough land on which to build."

The average selling price in the UK was lower at 195,000, a dip from 199,000 in the previous year, as a result of more social and apartment completions.

The landbank has risen by 8% to 35,000 plots. It contains 20,000 acres representing 75,000 potential plots.

"Typically, land acquired this way is secured for prices 10% to 15% less than through the open market, and this has helped us to further reduce the average cost of plots in our landbank," said Napier. "Fifteen percent of completions in the first half came from plots originally sourced from our strategic landbank (12% in 2004)."