Taylor Wimpey plc

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's Taylor Wimpey Trading Update call. My name is Seb, and I'll be the operator for your call today. If you'd like to ask a question during the Q&A session, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star 2. I will now hand the floor to Jenny Daly, Chief Executive, to begin the call. Please go ahead.

Many thanks. So good morning all and thanks for joining Chris and I this morning. I know you'll have all seen the statement, so as usual, I'll just take a few minutes to run through the key areas before opening up for your questions. So the high level story is that we're executing well on the priorities we set out in October, including a focus on efficiency, driving planning progress forwards and opening outlets. In terms of the market, given the uncertainty for customers as they await the budget and also the trajectory of further interest rate cuts from the Bank of England, sentiment continues to be cautious and affordability remains stretched for many, particularly first-time buyers. As a result, there's a lack of urgency with customers as they wait and see the outcome and gaining customer commitment is a key focus for our sales teams. As we've previously stated, incentives remain an important part in this, and while underlying pricing is broadly flat, pricing in the southern parts of the country is more challenged. This, together with the low single-digit bill cost inflation we've previously flagged, is creating a headwind. All of this is reflected in trading for the second half to date, with a net private sales rate of 0.63 compared to 0.71 last year and a cancellation rate of 17%, the same as the comparable period last year. Excluding the impact of bulk deals, the net private sales rate was 0.61 compared to 0.68 for the comparable period. For the year to date, we've achieved a net sales rate of 0.72, so very similar to the 0.73 at the same stage in 2024, with a cancellation rate of 16% compared to 15%. Excluding the impact of bulk deals, our net private sales rate for the year to date was 0.68 against 0.68 last year. The order book excluding joint ventures as of the 9th of November is lower at 7,253 homes compared to 7,771 at this point last year, with a value of around 2.1 billion compared to around 2.2 billion in 2024. As you know, we are focused on growing outlet numbers, so I'm pleased that, as you will see in the statement, we are on track with outlet openings for the year In the second half to date, we operated from an average of 210 sales outlets compared to 208 in 2024, having opened 51 this year to date compared to 34 at this stage last year. Turning to planning, as we told you in October, we are seeing positive signs and a shifting more positive sentiment in many local authorities responding to the changes introduced by the MPPF the MPPF has re-established the much-needed tension between house builder and decision maker by reintroducing housing delivery targets and the need for a five-year housing land supply. And as a result, we are seeing councillors respond more favourably to our applications, though timing and resourcing challenges remain. By way of an example, in the North West, we've had a site for 340 homes. Their first principal application was submitted in May 2023. We have progressed well with engagement but have been frustrated by delays in determination. Confirmation of the MPPF strengthened the principle of the site and we saw a marked improvement in the engagement with officers and achieved a determination for beneficial development in September this year. This is only possible because of the actions we have taken in the early submission of applications and the tension housing delivery requirements have placed on local planning authorities via the MPPF changes. We continue to closely monitor and track progress and local authority sentiment on all of our early applications and are continuing to see a shift from red to amber and green. Of course, this isn't universal, so we're not there yet, but the progress we are seeing is consistent with what we expected at this stage. As a result, we continue to believe that the NPPF and the upcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill will provide the basis for us to accelerate progress and outline openings, particularly given our proactive and assertive approach that we've been undertaking over the last couple of years. We've said today that we continue to expect to deliver full-year 2025 UK completions and group operating profit in line with our guidance. But current market sentiment is challenging and we are working hard to build the order book into the year end. We'll update you on the order book as usual in January and then confirm our guidance for 2026 with our prelims in March with the benefit of some early spring trading. And looking further ahead, we remain very confident in the underlying fundamentals of the UK housing market with its pressing need for new homes and our strategy for the business to deliver profitable growth and attractive shareholder returns in the medium term. So with that short overview, I'll open up for questions.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. And if you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star two. The first question is from Will Jones at Rothschild & Co. Redburn. Please go ahead.