The housebuilder increased its legal completion volumes by 6% to 7,238 new homes during the first half of the year, with group revenues growing 12% to £1.49bn.

Despite the increase in completions, Persimmon reported: “We continue to experience delays to the start of construction on new development sites due to local inefficiencies in the planning system and despite the welcome improvements that continue to be made to planning processes by the government. 

“However, the group has an excellent pipeline of [around] 100 new outlets on which construction is expected to commence in the second half.”

Persimmon revealed that since the launch of its long-term strategy in 2012, it had increased the number of new homes delivered to customers by over 60%, creating around 24,000 jobs.

Persimmon was one of four major housebuilders whose share price dropped following the Brexit vote, but the group eased fears by claiming it was too early to judge the effect on the UK new homes market just yet.

“We believe that market fundamentals remain strong, supported by long-term, unfulfilled demand, and that the UK housing market will continue to provide good opportunities for those companies with the right strategic focus and the balance sheet strength to navigate future changes in trading conditions. 

“We believe our focus on building traditional family housing in attractive locations for all purchasers, from first-time buyers to home movers, will continue to attract customers in good numbers. 

“We remain confident in the group's prospects based upon our long-term strategy, the hard work and dedication of all our team, the group's excellent forward orders, strong land bank and robust financial position.”