Persimmon rises on quarterly update

The share price of FTSE 100 housebuilder Persimmon (LON:PSN) has increased 2.77% to 2,339p (as of 12:50 BST) after publishing a trading statement for the last quarter. The company said that it had seen the usual increase in customer activity as it moved into the autumn.

CEO Dave Jenkinson commented: “Persimmon’s top priority is the delivery of higher levels of quality and customer service through the implementation of its detailed customer care improvement plan. Central to this plan is putting customers before volume, with sales volumes in the first half of the year being 6% lower than last year, together with making significant additional investments in both our annual customer care resources, by c. £15m each year, and in the level of the Group’s work in progress, which amounted to c. £140m at 30 June 2019.

“The Group has continued to make good progress with these plans through the second half. On 1 July Persimmon became the first UK house builder to introduce a customer retention scheme, placing us at the forefront of strengthened consumer rights for homebuyers. I am pleased that our progress to date has resulted in Persimmon achieving the Four Star status level in the latest quarterly HBF customer satisfaction survey results and we are currently trending strongly ahead of the Four Star threshold. I am determined to ensure that the Group makes further headway by implementing our additional quality and customer care initiatives.

“I am confident that the continued successful implementation of our detailed customer care improvement plans together with our strengthened forward build position, healthy forward sales, robust balance sheet and industry-leading land holdings provide a sound platform for the successful future development of the Group“.