Defects discovered in past few months relate to cavity barriers behind brickwork and render

Taylor Wimpey has been forced to book a further £222m in cladding safety costs plunging the firm to a first half loss and a warning from the housebuilder that it will be going after those companies it thinks are responsible for “poor design and workmanship”.

The hit sent the firm sinking to a £92m pre-tax loss in the six months to 29 June from a £100m profit last time on turnover up 9% to £1.7bn.

The firm said the provision includes £145m of fresh costs to fix historic defects discovered in the past few months “relating to cavity barriers behind brickwork and render, [which] were not visible in earlier non-intrusive assessments”.

Taylor Wimpey-527236-new (1)

Taylor Wimpey chief executive Jennie Daly. The firm has said it will be looking to recover fire safety costs “where appropriate”

It said it was also having to shell out £39.5m for additional cladding remediation works while it was spending a further £38m on site specific cost increases such as professional fees and contingencies. The latest provision has brought the overall figure up to £435m, Taylor Wimpey said.

It added: “The [£222m] provision represents our current best estimate to remediate our buildings. While no recoveries are included in the provision values, we are actively assessing and, where appropriate, pursuing claims against those responsible for poor design, workmanship, or material failures.”

It is the latest housebuilder to publicly put firms on notice after Barratt Redrow earlier this month said it will continue to look to recover money from its supply chain after saying it has found a further £248m in costs for fire safety and concrete frame repairs.

Taylor Wimpey chief executive Jennie Daly added: “The safety of our customers remains our highest priority – this principle has consistently guided our approach, and we have increased our cladding fire safety provision to reflect findings from updated fire risk assessments and investigations in the first half.”

In a note, broker Investec said the latest cladding provision will “likely raise questions about the risks of further increases and how the dividend may be impacted”.

Separately, Taylor Wimpey said it was hit by an “unexpected” £20m charge to complete work on a job in London which was undergoing remediation work, having been built between 2012 and 2015.

It added: “These works were being carried out by the original principal contractor; however, it has recently ceased operations on site due to financial difficulties. Whilst we are actively pursuing recovery of costs from the contractor, we currently expect to incur additional expenditure.”

And the firm said it had also booked an £18m provision related to the Competition and Market Authority’s information-sharing probe.

It said that sales rates in the four weeks to 27 July had slowed. Anthony Codling from RBC Capital Markets said: ”The government may be nervously watching these sales rates and perhaps moving their fingers closer to the demand stimulus trigger. Housebuilders won’t build 1.5 million homes if their aren’t 1.5 million homebuyers.”

Operating profit, before provisions, was down 12% to £162m with an 11% increase in the number of completions to 5,264 homes. It said it was still on track to build between 10,400 and 10,800 homes during the year. Group operating profit is forecast to be £424m.

Topics