Steve Morgan, the founder and chairman of Redrow, took a decision when he returned to run the company five years ago: he would plough every spare penny back into the business, buying land at post-crash prices and expanding as quickly as possible.
This strategy is still in place. The company is expanding in the London market, despite some concerns elsewhere, having entered it relatively late. It means that Redrow can be distinguished from other housebuilders, such as Berkeley Group and Persimmon, which have chosen to hand back to investors billions of the bounty gained from the housing boom of the past two years.
Instead, yesterday’s final dividend, doubled to 2p, suggests a yield on the shares of little more than 1.1 per cent for