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(Alliance News) - Taylor Wimpey PLC on Friday said it has resumed majority of its UK operations, highlighting signs that its business has started to recover from the pandemic.
The FTSE 100 house builder said it has restarted construction on most of its sites across England and Wales, with its Scottish sites now preparing to resume construction activities in line with government advice. It added that it is on track to reach "meaningful" production capacity from the end of June.
Taylor Wimpey also said it has reopened the majority of its sales centres and show homes in England and plans to resume trading from its sales centres in Scotland and Wales by early July. It is currently operating 231 sales outlets, down from 255 last year.
Total group completions for the 22 weeks to May end was 2,255 homes, down from 4,052 the year prior due to site closures. UK net sales rate was 0.51 for the week ended May 31 compared to 0.85 the previous year. For the five months to May end, the UK net sales rate is 0.72, compared to 0.99 in 2019.
Hoover, the company said that while the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in significant disruption and hurt the completion of deals and land sales, the company is recently starting to see "increased opportunities on favourable terms" and is currently assessing a number of land opportunities.
For the week ended May 31, its UK order book stood at GBP2.78 billion, up from GBP2.51 billion for the comparative period the year prior. Since reopening its sales centres in England, appointment bookings for the week to May 31 increased three-fold and website traffic increased by 32% year-on-year.
Shares in Taylor Wimpey were trading 4.0% higher at 165.03 pence each early Friday in London.
By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com
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