Persimmon Plc

Hello and welcome to the Persimmon 2020 half-year results presentation. Please note that for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions later on the call. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star 0 and you'll be connected to an operator. I'll now hand over to your host. Dave Jenkinson, Group Chief Executive of Persimmon PLC, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our half-year presentation Q&A. I hope you've had the opportunity to watch our presentation online and catch up with our trading update. I believe the presentation highlights the resilient financial performance of the business and how we have carefully managed the business through the cycle. I have numerous items I could pick out from the presentation, but in particular, I would like to draw your attention to, firstly, the weekly sales rate at almost 50% above the same time last year. This has given us a forward order book of 21% increase on last year. And we currently have over 13,600 plots sold for the end of the year, with 10 selling weeks remaining. for year-end completions based on current build programs and output. The WIPP position is 14% above the same time last year. We have almost 10,500 plots which we could potentially complete for the end of the year based on current build programs and on current output. Gross margins are proving very resilient And if we produce a number at least similar to half 2019, then we will regain our operational efficiencies in relation to overhead recovery that we've lost during half one of this year. In the short term, we are in a very strong position. But I am well aware of the medium term challenges associated with COVID-19, rising unemployment and Brexit. How we have managed the business over the last two years gives me every confidence we are ready to face into a number of future economic scenarios which may develop. Now, in the normal way, I will open it up to Q&A.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Ensure that your line remains unmuted locally. I will then prompt you when to ask your question. And I star 1. The first question comes from the line of Rajesh Patki from JPMorgan London. Please go ahead.