Coronavirus set to cost Taylor Wimpey £39.2m in losses

The coronavirus pandemic is set to cost British housebuilding giant Taylor Wimpey £39.2m in losses.

The firm’s building sites and offices were shut down on 23rd March and did not start opening again until the end of May.

As a result, the business incurred £39.2m of costs directly relating to the impact of COVID-19. These include £29.9m of non-productive site costs; £4.7m due to reduced productivity levels; and £4.6m of costs to meet government guidelines on safe operating procedures.

Pre-tax losses for the six months to 30th June 2020 reached £39.8m – compared to a profit of £299.8m in the same time period last year. Revenue for the first half of the year was down 56% to £754.6m.

Despite all the wider economic uncertainty, Taylor Wimpey retains a degree of confidence.

Taylor Wimpey CEO Pete Redfern said: “I am pleased with Taylor Wimpey’s performance during a very challenging time and am proud of the resilience, principled approach and agility that our teams have shown.

“Our performance for the first half of 2020 has been impacted by the closing of our sites and sales centres but we have now reopened all sites successfully and safely and have returned to a sustainable level of sales and build.”