(Alliance News) - Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey PLC on Thursday said it plans to restart work on its building sites in early May.
In March, Taylor Wimpey had closed all show homes, sales centres, and construction sites except for any work needed to make sites secure.
"In the period while our sites have been closed, trading has inevitably been impacted. However, we are still seeing continued demand for our homes and our sales teams have been selling homes remotely, and digitally, week to week. Cancellations represent less than 1% of our current order book," Taylor Wimpey said.
Taylor Wimpey plans to restart work on its building sites the week beginning May 4 with its own staff following new safety guidelines, while subcontractors will resume the following week.
"Today we are setting out our strategy for a phased return to site construction and operating, with strict social distancing protocols. This is based on current government and medical guidelines and will allow us to operate a sensible and well managed, slow but steady return to activity," the company explained.
"We do not plan to reopen sales centres, show homes or regional offices at this time. It is likely that the decision to reopen sales centres will be closely linked to a general relaxation of conditions for non-essential retail, and will not happen until we feel able to assure the safety of our employees, subcontractors and customers."
The FTSE 100 firm said the value of its order book grew by 12% year-on-year to GBP2.68 billion from GBP2.40 billion.
Total completions were down 14% annually to 2,271 from 2,644 in the first 16 weeks of the year.
"Whilst at this stage it is too early to resume guidance, we are encouraged by the resilience and confidence in our order book. We have continued to sell remotely during the shutdown period which demonstrates the strong underlying demand for our homes," Taylor Wimpey said.
Shares in the company rose 6.4% to 143.70 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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Taylor Wimpey (TW.)