Berkeley has warned that its full-year profit will be off by around £80m as the housebuilder said today it would begin shutting down most of its sites.

The scale of the havoc caused by the coronavirus outbreak has been laid bare in a trading update from the firm this morning which said the disruption expected in the remaining six weeks of its financial year, which ends on 30 April, would see profits come in at around £475m – compared to the £555m it had been forecasting just a few weeks ago.