Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey sees no dip in election year
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Version 0 of 1. Taylor Wimpey is seeing no sign of a slowing housing market in the run-up to the election as its chief executive, Peter Redfern, welcomed the political appetite to build houses. The chief of the UK’s second biggest housebuilder said: “You’d have expected in an election year to see some impact on consumer confidence, but there has been none. The underlying demand for housing is strong, based on wages going up, low real interest rates and people’s confidence in their employment.” Mr Redfern said that the major parties were positive about the sector and wanted to see it build more houses. “The parties may have slightly different approaches and priorities and we expect that there will be some changes in the balance of funding going towards affordable housing, whatever the outcome, but the underlying economic drivers of housebuilding remain strong,” he said. Taylor Wimpey has built around 2,500 affordable homes in the last 10 years, roughly 20 per cent of its total completions. The company released its confident first-quarter statement ahead of its annual meeting. It said the spring selling season had started strongly as the total order book climbed 12 per cent on last year to £1.9bn. |