BELLWAY, one of Britain's largest housebuilders, has boasted a record annual housing revenue of £3.5bn, bosses announced yesterday.

The figure has grown by more than £1bn since 2020, and some £400m since last year.

Despite raw material and labour cost inflation, Bellway's housing completions jumped by 10.5 per cent in the year to 31 July, to another record of 11,198 homes.

The London-listed company is just one in a string of housebuilders which have reaped the scaling profits of the UK's house price crisis, with house prices jumping to fresh highs in recent months.

In a statement yesterday, chief executive Jason Honeyman praised the record results, achieved despite "a challenging operating environment and macroeconomic uncertainty".

"Looking ahead, our sizeable forward order book and continued strong investment in land puts the group in an excellent position to deliver another record year of volume output, notwithstanding the ongoing challenges in the planning system and upcoming end of the Help-to-Buy scheme," he said.

The news came on the same day the National House Building Council (NHBC) revealed housebuilding in the UK had made a return to pre-pandemic levels.

Across the UK, 40,289 new homes were completed in the second quarter - 4,329 of which were in London - the highest quarterly figure since 2019, the NHBC said. The private sector drove the growth, with completions up 23 per cent, while completions in the affordable and build-to-rent sectors remained level.

NHBC chief executive Steve Wood said: "At this stage we are not seeing evidence that the cost-of-living crisis or risks of recession are affecting consumer demand, whilst registration levels reinforce continued confidence within the sector."

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