The chequered history of housebuilders regarding the standards of their work and the spectre of cladding reparation costs make Persimmon’s repeated emphasis that it focuses on quality unsurprising. It’s also one of the reasons that completion volumes for last year have disappointed some analysts.
Rising Omicron cases and staff shortages have meant fewer builders on site of late, as well as people deciding to delay moving home. While completions rose by 7 per cent on the previous year, that was behind a rate of about 10 per cent expected in November.
And the problems do not end there. Pandemic-related disruption has clogged up the planning system, which has delayed the opening of new sites. During the second half of last year, the builder was operating
