Housebuilder Bellway has postponed its interim dividend and stopped new land purchases, as it warns the coronavirus and lockdown poses a “threat to liquidity” across the wider economy.
Bellway identified “a significant risk to production capability and customer demand in the weeks and months ahead”.
To preserve cash, the company paused new site acquisitions and will prioritise production expenditure on plots that are in the later stages of construction.
Reservations have fallen in the past two weeks, as the introduction of government measures to delay the spread of Covid-19 “inevitably affect demand”.
Pre-tax profit fell by 7% to £291.8m during the half-year period ending 31 January compared with the previous year. However, revenue rose by 3.6% to £1.5bn.
Jason Honeyman, group chief executive, said: “We are ever mindful that the government-imposed preventative measures to slow down the spread of the virus are likely to detrimentally affect both production and sales activity on our developments.”
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