The revelation last week that housebuilder Vistry is offering cash to its staff to leave the business will not have shocked close observers of the firm.

The £4.2bn turnover business, which briefly claimed to be outbuilding Barratt Redrow, has issued a string of profit warnings which have seen its value collapse by more than 80% in the past two years, and look to have prompted the departure of long-time chair and chief executive Greg Fitzgerald.

The most recent falls in the share price have come amid questions about the firm’s financial strength as the firm races to fill an estimated £800m hole in its balance sheet.

Just two years ago, Vistry was the poster-child of the then new Labour government’s housing programme, with Fitzgerald hinting at growth that would see it building an unprecedented 40,000 homes a year – more than double the scale of any UK builder in history. Now, it is seemingly assailed on all sides, selling homes cheap to bring in cash, as shadow ministers ask pointed questions in parliament and short-sellers drive the stock price down.

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