Strong first quarter sales at Taylor Wimpey

- Strong first quarter- Improvement across all regions- Confident on margin improvement in 2014 and beyondResidential development group Taylor Wimpey enjoyed a strong first quarter, as it increased selling prices and its order book, and said it is confident of delivering at least 200 to 300 basis points of operating margin improvement in 2014, and further improvement in 2015."The UK housing market remains buoyant and our customers continue to benefit from a more accessible and affordable mortgage market. In this improving market, we continue our investment in delivering high-quality homes," said Chief Executive Pete Redfern.The FTSE-250 firm said it had made a particularly strong start to the year, converting around 4,800 plots from its strategic pipeline. The group achieved an average private net reservation rate of 0.75 sales per outlet per week for the year-to-date and increased its total order book volume by 13% to 8,139 homes from equivalent point last year.The average selling prices of homes in the total private order book rose by 22%."The positive momentum in the UK housing market has continued since our results in February and we have had a strong first quarter, with continuing improvement across all regions, Taylor Wimpey added.As it looks longer-term, the company says it is focused on delivering quality in every sense by growing the business in the right way to a sustainable level.CJ