Bovis and Redrow announce job losses

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by Kay Murchie

Bovis Homes and Redrow have added further bad news to the UK housebuilding sector announcing that they are to shed 400 and 550 jobs respectively.

The news follows that from Persimmon yesterday who announced 2,000 job losses. It brings the sector’s job losses total to 5,500 so far this year.

The entire housebuilding sector has been suffering of late due to the housing slowdown and the mortgage freeze.

Bovis said the market for selling homes was the worst that the group had experienced for years while Redrow called the sharp decline unprecedented.

Bovis said sales completions for the first half of 2008 had fallen 32%. Of the homes that were completed, 27% was social housing and the company said it will look for opportunities in this area as it is expecting home sales to remain low for the remainder of the year.

As part of the cost-cutting measures, Bovis is to close its eastern regional office and is transferring a number of key operations to its central and south-east offices. It is also merging some of its northern region with its central region.

Redrow, which is one of the UK’s big four housebuilders, said it is to close 2 of its 10 offices. It said sales in the second half of the financial year were less than half the levels achieved last year.

Both companies said they were pessimistic about the short-term outlook for the housing market.

The housebuilding industry has seen it shares dive this year due to concerns of large write-downs on land purchased at the height of the housing boom.