Watkin Jones has said it will wait for more detail from the government before signing the building safety pledge.
In a trading update this morning, the housebuilder said: “The group continues to await the publication of the government’s detailed plans regarding additional initiatives relating to historic fire safety issues.”
Housing secretary Michael Gove has asked 53 housing developers to sign the pledge, which would commit them to put more money into fixing issues such as dangerous cladding.
Watkin Jones added: “We believe that residential leaseholders should not bear the cost of cladding and critical fire safety defect remediation and will update investors once government proposals have been published and fully evaluated.”
It has already set aside £15m for cladding remediation works.
The update for the half year to the end of March also warned that profit would be lower for the first half of the year, despite rising revenue.
Watkin Jones said the drop was due to it completing a higher proportion of land sales than developments. It said: “As usual, these generate a lower margin than the ensuing development activity,” and added that the dip in profit was “as expected”.
The group completed three land sales in the period with revenue of £55m, compared to none in the first half of 2021.
However, it said it expected the second half of the year to reverse that picture as it gets under way with its £1.8bn development pipeline. The portfolio sale of several PBSA assets, which is currently under offer, is also expected to close in H2, as is another PBSA sale.
Chief executive Richard Simpson said: “We have continued to build on the positive momentum from the second half of last year. We are experiencing very strong investor demand across the markets in which we operate and are well progressed with a number of significant forward sales. This, together with our current momentum, gives confidence in delivery of our full year expectations.”
The group’s interim results will be published on 17 May.
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