𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Housebuilder Crest Nicholson has warned over profits and revealed jobs are at risk as it plans to close a divisional office amid a group-wide overhaul.

The firm said it was consulting on proposals to shut one of its offices, impacting about 50 jobs in total, including staff at the site and other roles across “overhead functions”.

It comes as the firm alerted over profits, blaming a subdued housing market and wider uncertainty ahead of the November 26 Budget.

Shares in the firm slumped as much as 13% in morning trading on Tuesday following the firm’s warning that underlying pre-tax profits for the year to October 31 were now expected at the low end or “marginally below” previous guidance for between £28 million to £38 million.

Chief executive Martyn Clark said this reflected “a housing market that has remained subdued through the summer, and the continued uncertainty surrounding Government tax policy ahead of the forthcoming Budget”.

The group said housing completions were set to come in at 1,691 for the financial year, which is at the lower end of expectations for between 1,700 to 1,900 homes.

But Mr Clark said the firm was making “good progress” on its transformation plan, named Project Elevate.

He said: “Encouragingly, progress across a number of areas is already evident, reflecting the early benefits of actions taken.

“We believe these will convert to positive financial contributions as we progress further in our transformation plan.”

Crest said it was seeing some build cost inflation, but that it was taking action to drive savings to help offset these pressures.

The group added that open market sales had increased by 5% to 1,095 in the year to the end of October thanks to efforts to boost its sales strategy.

But its open market sales rate slipped in the last 13 weeks of the financial year, to 0.45, down from 0.51 for the full-year and 0.48 in 2023-24.