Job cuts at Persimmon

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Persimmon has said it will be making several hundred staff redundant because of the ongoing problems with the housing market.

The York-based house builder, which had sales of just over £3 billion last year, declined to say exactly how many people would go but the proposed cuts would represent around 3 per cent of its 5,500 workforce.

A spokesman for the company said a 30 day consultation process had begun at the end of last month but declined to comment on reports that all staff have been put on notice. The first losses are expected by the beginning of July.

He said: "The consultation is across all the different regions and the expectation is that there will be several hundred cuts as a result."

The company is divided into three divisions – northern, central and southern – and has just over 30 operating companies stretching from offices at Bathgate and Hamilton in Scotland down to Fleet in Hampshire.

The spokesman said the firm would not be getting rid of any regional offices but that the cuts would come from across all the regions.

He added: "The intention is to reduce the workforce in the light of the challenging market conditions and the reduced demand caused by people's inability to get access to mortgages."

At its AGM in April, the firm gave the first hint that mass redundancies were on the way when it said that it had postponed starting work on scheduled new sites until the mortgage market had improved.

The losses at Persimmon come on the heels of swingeing cuts at rival house builders in recent weeks which have seen 600 jobs go at Taylor Wimpey and close to 400 disappear at Bellway.