Taylor Wimpey’s profit in the first half of this year more than halved as the cost of fixing dangerous cladding on some of its older buildings swelled.
The housebuilder, one of Britain’s biggest, had already set aside £245 million to cover its share of fire safety remediation works. However, bosses have reassessed the costs in recent months and estimate that fixing affected buildings will probably cost closer to £333 million — an £88 million increase.
“This is a complex multi-year project and the increase in projected costs predominantly relates to cost inflation based on recent tenders received and increased administrative and legal costs, with the remainder due to a small number of additional buildings added in the first half,” Taylor Wimpey said.
The developer’s pre-tax